O-ring on Spacebar

[Skywalker]

I put o-rings on my cherry brown keyboard to make it quieter at work, and it seems like the spacebar is still making the same amount of noise with the ring on it as it does without it.

Is there something I can do to silence it more? Maybe put on two rings or put rings on the stabilizer stems?

[klennkellon]

Is it using a Costar/Wire stab or is it using Cherry Corp stabs?


If its using Costar lubing them with thicker lithium grease will keep it from rattling.

[codywanks]

I put o-rings on my cherry brown keyboard to make it quieter at work, and it seems like the spacebar is still making the same amount of noise with the ring on it as it does without it.

Is there something I can do to silence it more? Maybe put on two rings or put rings on the stabilizer stems?

Would be helpful if you told us which keyset/spacebar you are using, as well as the thickness/hardness of your o-rings

[Skywalker]

The keycaps are doubleshot PBT (I think): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826997063
The stabilizers are Costar.
and the rings are 40A-L

[Moistgun]

The keycaps are doubleshot PBT (I think): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826997063
The stabilizers are Costar.
and the rings are 40A-L

Obviously the o ring isnt going to dampen the upstroke, but you can silence the costar set up a tiny bit by lubing the stabilizer friction points.

[OfTheWild]

Is the sound more from the spacebar itself or the stabilizers? If adding some lube to the stabs' doesnt do the trick, what about stuffing something in the empty space of the underside to deaden the whole thing? I'm thinking like hot glue gun and chunks of styrofoam between the stems.

[Skywalker]

Is the sound more from the spacebar itself or the stabilizers? If adding some lube to the stabs' doesnt do the trick, what about stuffing something in the empty space of the underside to deaden the whole thing? I'm thinking like hot glue gun and chunks of styrofoam between the stems.

To me it seemed like it was more just the bottom-out "clack" that was making the most noise, but I'll try lubing up the stabs when I get home and see if that does it. If that doesn't help then I'll try filling up that space with something soft.

[Moistgun]

You should put rings on all three stems, btw.

[Skywalker]

You should put rings on all three stems, btw.

Oh wow, that would be the problem then. When I installed them I assumed the stabilizer stems didn't need them. Probably a bad assumption.

[Moistgun]

You should put rings on all three stems, btw.

Oh wow, that would be the problem then. When I installed them I assumed the stabilizer stems didn't need them. Probably a bad assumption.

I mean, it will never be totally silent, but try it out and see what happens.

[OfTheWild]

^^ that only works with the "cherry pcb mount" stabs. And even then, its questionable if the o-ring even comes in contact with the housing of the stabilizer. pic for reference: https://geekhack.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=41464.0;attach=17057;image

[Moistgun]

^^ that only works with the "cherry pcb mount" stabs. And even then, its questionable if the o-ring even comes in contact with the housing of the stabilizer. pic for reference: https://geekhack.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=41464.0;attach=17057;image

Oh ****, youre right, he said he was using costar stabs.

[Skywalker]

^^ that only works with the "cherry pcb mount" stabs. And even then, its questionable if the o-ring even comes in contact with the housing of the stabilizer. pic for reference: https://geekhack.org/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=41464.0;attach=17057;image

Ah crap. So with the costar stabs there's no way the o-ring on the stab stems would even make contact with anything?

[OfTheWild]

yeah so really the only thing I would do for lubing the costar style stabs would be to coat the white stem plunger things with a layer of grease... but i'll be honest, its not likely going to make a difference since  costars are really quiet compared to say PCB mount cherry stabs.
One other thing you may try if you're getting some rattle would be to wrap the wire with some scotch tape where it goes into the tiny white plunger and maybe that would silent any rattles.

I think your efforts are best spent stuffing that spacebar if you ask me but thats just my 2cents. I'm not even close to an expert, just a guy who breaks a lot of stuff trying to tweak it.

[Skywalker]

Alright so I fiddled with it, and the extra lube on the stabilizers didn't help with the sound as much. But I put two o-rings on the main stem and it seems to have lost the loud sound, so that's good. Although now I am just wondering if the spacebar is even attached to the switch fully... seems fine for now.

[OfTheWild]

It should be attached to the stem normally since you're putting the orings on the outside of the stem. And as long as you are ok with the spacebar only having a few mm of travel, and its actually activating the switch... you should be fine.

[Hypersphere]

You could also put little rectangles of self-adhesive foam on the keyboard plate directly underneath the stabilizer inserts on the spacebar. This should cushion the blow of the spacebar and might work better for you than O-rings on the stems. You could also deaden the spacebar by putting strips of adhesive foam inside the spacebar.

BTW, if you ever have a Matias-switch or Alps-switch keyboard, installing a Matias Quiet switch under the spacebar does wonders -- it silences both the downstroke and the return stroke. You can also mod a regular Matias or Alps switch by opening it up and swapping out the slider with a damped slider from a Matias Quiet switch.

[emdude]

I'll second what Hypersphere said, this is what Alps boards (vintage ones, at least) did.

I have an Alps board that uses a dampened slider for the space bar switch, but it is still plenty loud because I've yet to put in foam dampeners to cushion the space bar stabs.