Alps SKCM Amber

Daniel Beardsmore · 08 Feb 2014, 19:35

I got my "(NYC) taxi yellow" Alps switches in the post today!

This has prompted me to rename them from Alps SKCM Yellow to Alps SKCM Amber. The colour varies between switches, but overall it's a dull amber colour, rather than the pure yellow of linear Alps switches:

: Alps orange-amber-cream-white colour comparison.jpg (152.4 KiB) Viewed 6765 times

Clockwise from top-left: [wiki]Alps SKCM Orange[/wiki], [wiki]Alps SKCM Amber[/wiki], [wiki]Alps SKCM White[/wiki], [wiki]Alps SKCM Cream Damped[/wiki].

The colour is very similar to amber [wiki]Omron B3G-S series[/wiki] switches:

: Amber Alps and Omron.jpg (211.02 KiB) Viewed 6765 times

Slider comparison:

: Amber and orange comparison.jpg (69.37 KiB) Viewed 6765 times

Two shades of amber Alps sliders; amber Omron B3G-S; orange Alps. My yellow Alps switches got shipped out today, so I'll have them to use as a colour comparison. (Note that there are also linear amber Alps switches — we don't know if they're the same as linear yellow Alps (i.e. change of pigment) or a different switch.)

What I did notice is that amber Alps is pretty stiff. It feels at least 20% stiffer than white Alps, so that's around 85 gf or more, compared to the nominal 70 gf of most tactile and clicky Alps switches. The springs are the same length, but not the same arrangement:

: Alps amber and white springs.jpg (133.7 KiB) Viewed 6765 times

(Slider is a bit washed out in that photo)

What I could do is buy couple more and have them shipped directly to HaaTa/jacobolus or matt3o for proper measuring, instead of trying to rig some absurd contraption to allow me to stack coins on them and read off actuation using a meter.

Also note the marks on the slider, which are present on both sides. Lubricant?

Muirium · 08 Feb 2014, 19:44

Little disappointed they're not as canary yellow as a taxi should be. But what do you make of their feel?

Daniel Beardsmore · 08 Feb 2014, 20:05

Yeah they're not quite the same colour as a NYC taxi.

They're smooth but the actuation force is significantly higher than white Alps. They feel more like how my amber Omron felt before I destroyed the actuator leaf. I can't imagine wanting to type on them.

Daniel Beardsmore · 09 Feb 2014, 00:59

Somewhere between 83 and 97.5 g.

Behold!
The most ghetto attempt to measure force the world has ever seen!

Required (not including "tools"):

Analogue multimeter with probes
Adjustable spanner
BT telephone cable
Dead notebook battery
Blu-Tack
Every last 20 pence coin I've got, and since most of them are at work, I had to raid my interesting coins box for all my Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man and Gibraltar 20 p coins, and that was still only just enough

Setup:

: Actuation with 10 £1 coins.jpg (934.55 KiB) Viewed 6724 times

"Vice":

: ¿When do I get my certificate of insanity!.jpg (652.36 KiB) Viewed 6724 times

Wired-up switch:

: Blu-tack stabilised vice 2.jpg (670.47 KiB) Viewed 6724 times

: Wire wrapped Alps SKCM Amber.jpg (494.33 KiB) Viewed 6724 times

I tried using Blu-Tack to attach the probes, which didn't work, but also doubly didn't work as one of the switches is dud. Something is wrong with the actuator: it registers if I press the actuator manually, but the slider doesn't press it hard enough.

Registered:

: Click!.jpg (708.7 KiB) Viewed 6724 times

Coins:

: Crown dependency and overseas territory coins make up the ranks.jpg (536.47 KiB) Viewed 6724 times

It works out as follows:

9 × £1 @ 9.5 g = 85.5 g
10 × £1 @ 9.5 g = 95 g
17 × 20 p @ 5 g = 85 g (this was 100% consistent between tests)
(5 × £1 + 10 × 20 p) = 97.5 g (higher than expected: one fewer 20 p would have been 92 g!)

I weighed the stack of 20 p coins, and the best I could come up with was: 2 oz + 0.25 oz + 20 g, which comes to 83.8 g. BUT, I don't know, as there are two 2 oz weights that don't weigh the same as each other (?!?!), and not enough other weights to figure out which is the bad one. It took ages just to find a combination that balanced out the pile of 20s.

So yeah, somewhere in the 80–100 g range.

I am fairly sure I could have found something better to do with my Saturday night …

I think I just took myself out of the running for the Deskthority Secret Valentine's …

But yes, these switches are distinctly heaver than normal Alps switches. Having a whole keyboard of Alps SKCL Cream is one thing, but a whole keyboard of these? Were Apple mad, or are my switches just completely out of wack? Were these supposed to be space bar switches for blue Alps keyboards?

002 · 09 Feb 2014, 01:13

Nice work

Did you measure the B3G-S switch too?

Daniel Beardsmore · 09 Feb 2014, 02:09

I broke mine, remember? The switchplate is destroyed, and the actuator leaf is gone, so it's lighter and much smoother now, and completely dead.

There's no sense in taking this approach too seriously, not unless I were to buy proper weights and scales, and meter probes with crocodile clips.

002 · 09 Feb 2014, 04:06

Ahh for some reason I thought you had a board with them...starting to get CRAFT disease

terrpn · 09 Feb 2014, 22:20

was trying to read everything............

did you comment any as far as how the yellow alps compare to the yellow omrons?

i am not sure if i have seen a board with yellow alps, which is why i jumped on one that had yellow omrons

great switch!

Daniel Beardsmore · 09 Feb 2014, 23:00

It just occurred to me that using a meter to measure actuation on a tactile mechanical switch is completely pointless … You only need that for a linear switch!

I got one amber Omron B3G-S with the Mr Interface sample kit. I tried to disassemble the switchplate and destroyed it. I discovered that the actuator leaf plays a considerable part in the switch feel, and that the switch feels significantly better without it. Normally I avoid acts of brutality when I only have one switch of a particular type; I only opened up a grey Cherry M7 because I was able to buy two more of the same type I got from Mr Interface (sadly, only two more, that's all the guy had) and of the three, only one is still working.

All I remember of my amber B3G-S from when it worked, is that it felt quite stiff, and very similar to how amber Alps feels; I cannot say for certain now. It's interesting how they're both well-regarded, when "XM" switches (KSB-C, AK-CN2 etc) are not. I cannot quantify the comparison with my MiniTouch AK-CN2 switches, as it's too subtle, but I would suggest that amber Alps is pretty similar to the yellow AK-CN2 reduced travel derivative used for the function keys in some MiniTouches. I need to test the MiniTouch switches at some stage as a comparison, but really you'd need to do a proper force graph.

Here's another colour comparison:

: Alps and Himake colour comparison.jpg (381.27 KiB) Viewed 6655 times

Clockwise from top left: amber Alps (with its really sharp slider moulding), AK-CN2 reduced travel variant (yellow), AK-CN2 (ivory, very similar shade to cream Alps), and white Alps. I have some actual yellow Alps switches on the way. I just need a loose salmon switch for a full six-way comparison between Alps red-orange-yellow colour range.

Amber Alps has only been found to date in some Apple IIc keyboards.

terrpn · 10 Feb 2014, 01:36

well if you destroyed it i would hate to admit what i might have done to it

my wang......

Daniel Beardsmore · 10 Feb 2014, 01:53

Geekhack has a higher percentage of people who want to see your wang …

Basically, the switch contact assembly (switchplate) in an Omron B3G-S series don't easily come apart. I had never seen anyone attempt to take one apart before, and I failed. 002 succeeded. The switch shell opens up fairly easily.

rzwv · 13 Feb 2014, 14:45

It is a page of an axis.
In practice, it is written in Japanese.
The list is carried for comparison.
Probably ALPS Taxi Yellow Linear is unidentified.

: クリップボード01.png (942.34 KiB) Viewed 6542 times

Details.

Spoiler:

Postscript.

Spoiler:

Muirium · 13 Feb 2014, 14:58

Thanks rzwv. Understanding the mysteries of ALPS requires the entire internet working together!

Daniel Beardsmore · 14 Feb 2014, 02:02

Thank you, rzwv.
That is very kind.
Image credits are written on the image pages, not in articles. Example: http://deskthority.net/wiki/File:Alps_i ... e_side.jpg
I hope that this is OK.

rzwv、ありがとうございます。
それはとても親切です。
画像クレジットはされないの記事では、画像のページに書かれています。例：http://deskthority.net/wiki/File:Alps_i ... e_side.jpg
私はこれがOKであることを願っています。

(Ironically, the more clearly I try to word that in English, the more confused Google seems to get by it.)

rzwv · 16 Feb 2014, 13:36

>Daniel Beardsmore
When using the picture of two or more sheets, it is OK only by sticking a link on the bottom.
Even if you write to the page of a picture, please be OK, and use freely.

複数枚の画像を使用する場合は一番下にリンクを貼るだけで大丈夫です。
画像のページに書いても大丈夫ですし、自由に使って下さい。