deskthority

I got my Xiang Min and Taiwan Tai-Hao samples today. Most photos of the Taiwan Tai-Hao APC internals were left as NULLs after Windows 8 bluescreened before they were committed to HDD (crashing bug in the USB subsystem).
Came home to these — Xiang Min samples. Note that each packet is labelled with both the Xiang Min (KSB-*) and Hua-Jie (AK-*) part numbers. I shall ask about that — that's something I was not expecting. Most of the switches are the Xiang Min style (same as the Filco Zero and Ducky DK1008/1087) but the KSB-LE is the Hua-Jie design (SIIG MiniTouch, Monterey K108).

Better photos when I have more time.

I guess you will now install a real system.


Will you also get Alps Matias, so you can compare?

I have a handful of Matias switches coming from you. PayPal said they're shipped, but they lie.

Plus I should have some genuine Alps coming, and I've got Taiwan Tai-Hao APC switches here as well. (And Cherry MX, vintage SMK and vintage Futaba, with vintage Cherry and more vintage SMK and Futaba coming.)

As for Windows — trust me, I can bring down any program, and any system.

I hope the Matias will win, so I don't need to source other Alps variants ...

edit: The advantage of Linux over Windows is that I can change the color of the death screen background!

You could change the Windows BSOD colours at one stage. The Windows 8 BSOD has a huge sad emoticon ":(" at the top of the screen .....

No switch will win. It's personal preference. What's more interesting to me is the complicated white Alps board I'm getting from Ascaii, which I can compare with blue Alps and Type IV simplified. White is stiffer, but is it going to be bad?

How did you know about these taiwanese doubleshots ?

As time goes by we are going from one to many double shot makers. wow !

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: As for Windows — trust me, I can bring down any program, and any system.

Ever tried with HaikuOS ?

ruhtraeel beat me to getting a response from AZiO as to who made the APC BSW switches. I was then able to confirm the theory that they made the Aruz switch, and learn more about what they did.

Haiku looks interesting, but the wiki already takes up more than 100% of my time, so learning an OS that cannot substitute a mainstream system is a little tricky, although I've heard a lot of good things about it. I find RISC OS more fascinating as the GUI is so completely different. Not very good for keyboard use, though.

Photos are up:

[wiki]Xiang Min KSB series[/wiki]

Kind of crappy, but they should provide all the details necessary.

What's fascinating is that the KSB-LE (LED recess) internals are identical to some [wiki]Focus FK-2001[/wiki] switches, the kind with Hua-Jie shell numbering (as pictured on the FK-2001 page). That ties in with the existing Hua-Jie connections (part numbers on the sample bags, and the very similar spec sheets Himake used to use).