A friend of mine and I are researching building our own keyboards.
He's an electronics tech, I'm a long-time keyboard (and computer)
geek. I'm a huge fan of the IBM Model M - the tactile feedback, not
the noise - but these days I mainly use a Kinesis Advantage because I
love the hand separation, the straight rows, and the heavy use of
thumbs. I've never been entirely sure if I was a fan of the dishing
on the Kinesis (also seen on the Maltron). Ergonomically correct, but
... well, it's a moot point as we're going to have to go with flat
boards for whatever we construct.

We've been talking about key switch selection: if anyone knows a
source for buckling key switches (not entire keyboards, just the
switches) I'd very much like to hear it. So far the likeliest
substitute is the Cherry MX Blue: the Blue is tactile and noisy. I'd
chose it over the Cherry MX Brown which is tactile and quiet because
the Brown has the lowest activation force and I actually like a high
activation force - again, the IBM Model M is the standard I'd go by.

So does anyone know of a company selling individual buckling key
switches? (I'm already looking at $1 each for the Cherry switches, so
if the price is brutal I think I'm ready for it ...) Thanks!

--
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr <at> gmail.com

haven't checked lately but Digi-key used to carry them. www.digikey.com

Bob

On Wed, 3 Feb 2010, Giles Orr wrote:

> Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 20:55:09 -0500
> From: Giles Orr <gilesorr <at> gmail.com>
> Reply-To: altkeyboards <at> yahoogroups.com
> To: altkeyboards <at> yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [altkeyboards] Key switches
>
> A friend of mine and I are researching building our own keyboards.
> He's an electronics tech, I'm a long-time keyboard (and computer)
> geek. I'm a huge fan of the IBM Model M - the tactile feedback, not
> the noise - but these days I mainly use a Kinesis Advantage because I
> love the hand separation, the straight rows, and the heavy use of
> thumbs. I've never been entirely sure if I was a fan of the dishing
> on the Kinesis (also seen on the Maltron). Ergonomically correct, but
> ... well, it's a moot point as we're going to have to go with flat
> boards for whatever we construct.
>
> We've been talking about key switch selection: if anyone knows a
> source for buckling key switches (not entire keyboards, just the
> switches) I'd very much like to hear it. So far the likeliest
> substitute is the Cherry MX Blue: the Blue is tactile and noisy. I'd
> chose it over the Cherry MX Brown which is tactile and quiet because
> the Brown has the lowest activation force and I actually like a high
> activation force - again, the IBM Model M is the standard I'd go by.
>
> So does anyone know of a company selling individual buckling key
> switches? (I'm already looking at $1 each for the Cherry switches, so
> if the price is brutal I think I'm ready for it ...) Thanks!
>
> --
> Giles
> http://www.gilesorr.com/
> gilesorr <at> gmail.com
>

On 3 February 2010 21:38, <accessys <at> smart.net> wrote:
> haven't checked lately but Digi-key used to carry them. www.digikey.com

That's where we're likely to be shopping, and they definitely have the
Cherry switches (in all three colours). But we couldn't find any key
switches under the name "buckling spring" so if you have any thoughts
on what they might be called other than that, it would be a great
help.

> On Wed, 3 Feb 2010, Giles Orr wrote:
> > A friend of mine and I are researching building our own keyboards.
> > He's an electronics tech, I'm a long-time keyboard (and computer)
> > geek. I'm a huge fan of the IBM Model M - the tactile feedback, not
> > the noise - but these days I mainly use a Kinesis Advantage because I
> > love the hand separation, the straight rows, and the heavy use of
> > thumbs. I've never been entirely sure if I was a fan of the dishing
> > on the Kinesis (also seen on the Maltron). Ergonomically correct, but
> > ... well, it's a moot point as we're going to have to go with flat
> > boards for whatever we construct.
> >
> > We've been talking about key switch selection: if anyone knows a
> > source for buckling key switches (not entire keyboards, just the
> > switches) I'd very much like to hear it. So far the likeliest
> > substitute is the Cherry MX Blue: the Blue is tactile and noisy. I'd
> > chose it over the Cherry MX Brown which is tactile and quiet because
> > the Brown has the lowest activation force and I actually like a high
> > activation force - again, the IBM Model M is the standard I'd go by.
> >
> > So does anyone know of a company selling individual buckling key
> > switches? (I'm already looking at $1 each for the Cherry switches, so
> > if the price is brutal I think I'm ready for it ...) Thanks!

--
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr <at> gmail.com

No, the abkey keyboard is far from similarity to the NEC pk-kb015,
Especially the "A" and "U" in left side of abkey, it's awkward, i need
the symmetry.
I'm using NEC pk-kb015, and i found "datadesk smartboard upc5000" is
better, but i unable buy one, and i prefer the keyboard designed like
this:
http://diyism.com/?action=hardware <http://diyism.com/?action=hardware>

the pic:
http://diyism.com/hardware/!keyboard/dreamboard2.png
<http://diyism.com/hardware/%21keyboard/dreamboard2.png>

--- In altkeyboards <at> yahoogroups.com, "alzagor" <alzagor <at> ...> wrote:
...
> The layout is surprisingly at lot like the NEC pk-kb015:
> http://diyism.com/hardware/!keyboard/pk-kb015.jpg
...

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

• New Members 2

For something called a "dreamboard" the letter arrangement is a nightmare.

--Keith

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 22:12, diyism <kexianbin <at> diyism.com> wrote:

>
>
> No, the abkey keyboard is far from similarity to the NEC pk-kb015,
> Especially the "A" and "U" in left side of abkey, it's awkward, i need
> the symmetry.
> I'm using NEC pk-kb015, and i found "datadesk smartboard upc5000" is
> better, but i unable buy one, and i prefer the keyboard designed like
> this:
> http://diyism.com/?action=hardware <http://diyism.com/?action=hardware>
>
> the pic:
> http://diyism.com/hardware/!keyboard/dreamboard2.png
> <http://diyism.com/hardware/%21keyboard/dreamboard2.png>
>
> --- In altkeyboards <at> yahoogroups.com <altkeyboards%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "alzagor" <alzagor <at> ...> wrote:
> ...
>
> > The layout is surprisingly at lot like the NEC pk-kb015:
> > http://diyism.com/hardware/!keyboard/pk-kb015.jpg
> ...
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

• New Members 2