Force and Travel measurements

[XMIT]

Does anyone here have a keyboard force/travel testing setup? If so please share what you have! I'm hoping to figure out a setup that is: cheap, easy to assemble, accurate (enough) and auto-logs data.

Some background research reveals:
http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~silencium/k ... isoku.html
, which is the setup used to generate:
http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~silencium/k ... index.html

clickykeyboards has a setup as well:
http://www.clickeykeyboards.com/model-m ... d-and-ibm/

I saw on one of HaaTa's albums that he was working on one as well but don't have the image handy.

My goal is to work on a kit and to add some page to the Wiki. It would be nice to have part numbers and procurement links for: a stand, gauges (force and distance), digital logging equipment, anything of the sort. Or at least, a repeatable hack for anyone who wants to build their own.

Motivation: I've been coming across a bunch of odd switches lately and it would be nice to quantify them. For example I can't even find good data for 55g Topre switches.

[jacobolus]

HaaTa has a thing hacked together from a force gauge strapped to an arbor press, and connected by a metal dowel to a digital caliper type thing. It sorta works, but it’s not ideal. I’m hoping he (maybe with some help) can get a better one built sometime soon (like, within the next few months), and then we can hire an intern to work through his collection and measure basically every switch ever made.

I don’t think cheap is really a good goal though. Better is to build a few very nice ones, and people can make pilgrimages if they have specific stuff they want measured. If it costs $1000 to do it right, so be it.

[xrayos]

that's good that you're going to "quantify" a subjective feel from the keyboards. Takes the human factor out of the equation. I'm typing on my filco red right now and it initally seemed really soft, but I'm getting use to it now. We'll see what happens when my topre 55g gets delivered.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

The other chap who's got one is SPARC, who's a really friendly and helpful chap, though he doesn't speak English — we got by just using machine translation to/from Japanese. I have no idea what he used though, but he's produced lots of graphs including what we use as a reference graph for Alps switches.

[XMIT]

The other chap who's got one is SPARC

Yep. He's mentioned in the OP.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Not paying a lot of attention tonight — busy. Still, it's worth mentioning that he's still around if you wanted to pick his brains.