Prepare your Alps!

[ambalek]

The set looks absolutely lovely on my new Clueboard, but the stabilized keys feel like crap. For a while, the backspace key wouldn't even return after being depressed, and now after some heat and flattening, it returns, but very slowly. All the stabilized keys feel like I'm pushing them through warm molasses. This is because I'm using cherry pcb mount stabilizers, and the warped stabilized keys keep the cherry stabs at an angle, which drags them against the edges of the plastic housings and causes that sticky delay. If the stabs weren't lubed I doubt they'd return at all. The only way to avoid this would be to use Costar stabs, which I really don't want to do. They make switching keysets a pain.

Have you tried using boiled water and weights to straighten the longer keys? I've seen people recommending this for Signature Plastics' warped space bars, but I haven't tried it myself.

[waldorf120]

I did try the boiling water and weights and it helped a little, but I feel the heat from the water dissipates too quickly and is mostly gone by the time you get the cap out and under the weight. I want to try putting the cap in a vice and hitting it with a heat gun, so that the heat and pressure are applied simultaneously. I will update when I get time to do that.

[Scarpia]

Mine arrived today! Hooray! (although I had to pony up €100 in import duties, argh...)

I am now performing the tedious task of shaving a quarter-millimeter off the edges/corners of all the stems, and I found something very very odd with the stepped Caps Lock key....



Wait, what the....???

If anyone else has ordered and received the Text Modifiers kit, could you check the stepped CapsLock key and see if you got an Alps stemmed one or a Cherry one like mine?

[ambalek]

Mine arrived today! Hooray! (although I had to pony up €100 in import duties, argh...)

I am now performing the tedious task of shaving a quarter-millimeter off the edges/corners of all the stems, and I found something very very odd with the stepped Caps Lock key....



Wait, what the....???

If anyone else has ordered and received the Text Modifiers kit, could you check the stepped CapsLock key and see if you got an Alps stemmed one or a Cherry one like mine?

I have icon modifiers and the stepped caps lock is Alps.

[Zombimuncha]

Mine arrived this week too. I've only tried them on Matias switches so far, but they don't seem ridiculously tight. I don't think shaving the stems will be necessary. One thing I'll say is that it much more obvious with DSA profile how bad a job I did of bending my stab wires, compared to DCS. Some of my stabilized keys are way up in the air!
I have the text mods but don't need stepped capslock so didn't pay too much attention. Will check it tonight for that MX stem.

UPDATE: my stepped capslock has a normal Alps stem.

[Scarpia]

I wrote to PMK and Melissa will send a replacement out today. Full marks for customer service. (here's hoping I won't be charged a bunch for customs for the single keycap though)

[matt3o]

just got this. lovely!

[andrewjoy]

Noooooooooo I missed it , the base kit is out of stock .

[infodroid]

Signature Plastics just announced in an email that they "won't be restocking" the Granite Alps... Looks like this is the last call.

At least they could have produced a few more of the Common Kit to help sell the addons.

[Elrick]

Signature Plastics just announced in an email that they "won't be restocking" the Granite Alps... Looks like this is the last call.

At least they could have produced a few more of the Common Kit to help sell the addons.

AGREED.

So much for supporting the ALPs community, so instead they go back to felching the Cherry Crowd, how dismal .

Signature Plastics isn't in the market to really provide support for any other switch besides the MX .

[zslane]

That's primarily because there is virtually no money to be made from the "ALPS market". Not enough to warrant continued production, anyway. SP is a business after all, not a community outreach program.

[matt3o]

you guys are impossible to please

[depletedvespene]

And... how exactly is that a surprise?

[Techno Trousers]

That's primarily because there is virtually no money to be made from the "ALPS market". Not enough to warrant continued production, anyway. SP is a business after all, not a community outreach program.

The odd thing is that if they've already created all of the necessary molds, why wouldn't they keep producing caps and keep them in stock? The molds are far and away the most expensive part of the process. By shelving the molds they are only going to lose money over the long term.

Maybe they'll sell the molds to someone else?

[zslane]

Presumably because the labor cost, the single largest cost involved, isn't worth it.

[Elrick]

That's primarily because there is virtually no money to be made from the "ALPS market". Not enough to warrant continued production, anyway. SP is a business after all, not a community outreach program.

The odd thing is that if they've already created all of the necessary molds, why wouldn't they keep producing caps and keep them in stock? The molds are far and away the most expensive part of the process. By shelving the molds they are only going to lose money over the long term.

Maybe they'll sell the molds to someone else?

Deeply disturbed with their idiot managerial decision here because it really smells like some moronic choice made by the Chairman to shelf this investment due to the MX crowd wanting their type of key-caps - NOW.

Nothing unusual here we have seen real stupid decisions made at our place that lost us millions in lost revenue, all down to a bad decision to store away part of a newly designed production line. It basically crippled our throughput and now several years later the accountants have recommended the re-installation of that production line because it would increase profits.

Signature Plastics need to re-look at their production assessments again and get another accountant to re-do the costings.

[zslane]

I would guess that for every hour of labor spent manufacturing an ALPS set, the ROI is less than 1/10th the ROI on the same hour of labor spent manufacturing an MX set. It is simple economics. It isn't stupid or moronic. It is responsible business practices that keep their employees employed and their machines running. Don't let your affection for a marginally popular switch cloud your ability to see the economic realities of the marketplace.

[Elrick]

Don't let your affection for a marginally popular switch cloud your ability to see the economic realities of the marketplace.

Can't disagree with that logic at all. Just hate being marginalized just because I like using any Alps based keyboard .

[zslane]

Hey, there's always Tai Hao...

[Elrick]

Hey, there's always Tai Hao...

It's the ONLY one that offers brand new key-caps for this most despised keyboard switch.

Why I say 'despised' because the CherryMX craze has made it that way. Anyone wanting to buy or use an ALPs based keyboard would have to buy expensive, used garbage in some cases that do not work or you let Matias felch your wallet for his keyboard, using those foul, cheapo engraved key-caps .

In the end it may eventually force me to go back to the dreaded Cherry, simply due to the current reality that ALPs is indeed forgotten and buried in time, where no one wants to bother in making any key-caps for it except Tai Hao .

[reececonrad]

Hey, there's always Tai Hao...

Yes, but no off-center caps lock for my sweet, sweet AT-101W

[andrewjoy]

Hey, there's always Tai Hao...

Yes, but no off-center caps lock for my sweet, sweet AT-101W

dremmle hot glue jumper wires .

problem solved