Portable thing, I hoped for a Dolch

Kurk · 05 Mar 2013, 21:19

Mislead by some blurry pictures I've bought this portable computer hoping to get a Dolch. It wasn't, instead I got some no-name, brandless thing. Well, at least it was cheap (15 EUR).

First of all, the caps are thin and the legends are pad-printed. Still, the color scheme is nice.
The switches are Alps-like, I've never seen them before but that doesn't count for much. With the exception of the space bar, every switch housing I checked bears the letters "GA" in a handwriting style font. These switches are clicky and tactile, and unfortunately, they do not feel very nice. Even the 1 U keys have to be hit dead center for a proper operation. There are hardly any stabilized keys (only space and enter) so using this board to do some actual typing is a horrible experience.
Anything good about it other than the color scheme? Mmmh, no.

BTW, the portable computer was nearly completely stripped.

: The whole thing.; portablething-01.jpg (405.02 KiB) Viewed 3118 times

More pics behind the spoiler.

Spoiler:

gmjhowe · 05 Mar 2013, 21:35

Hey, I would have it for the Alps keycaps.

Or if you want to keep them you could buy some of the Matias switches and swap them out, looking at the PCB they should be compatible.

rindorbrot · 05 Mar 2013, 21:52

wow, that really looks like Costar stabilizers...

Kurk · 05 Mar 2013, 22:59

gmjhowe wrote:Hey, I would have it for the Alps keycaps.

Or if you want to keep them you could buy some of the Matias switches and swap them out, looking at the PCB they should be compatible.

I'll keep it for now but might sell it later. I do like the colors.

gmjhowe · 05 Mar 2013, 23:14

Kurrk wrote:
gmjhowe wrote:Hey, I would have it for the Alps keycaps.

Or if you want to keep them you could buy some of the Matias switches and swap them out, looking at the PCB they should be compatible.
I'll keep it for now but might sell it later. I do like the colors.

Go order some of the Matias Alps! It would make an excellent keyboard with some decent switches in.

Daniel Beardsmore · 06 Mar 2013, 00:08

Most clone switches appear to be Himake/Hua-Jie. This is one of the others. It's a real motley switch — the click leaf is based more on an SMK switch, while the shell is based on real Alps, instead of being a copy of another clone.

I gather that the computer has no make or model on it anywhere — any FCC ID or any other clues as to what it is?

I don't imagine that we will ever know who made the switch.

RC-1140 · 09 Mar 2013, 10:41

Put Matias switches in there!

By the way, does the computer part work?

Now I imagine replacing the innards if they don't work with some new gaming gear, and having a cute LAN-Party box.

gmjhowe · 09 Mar 2013, 11:09

Matias! Matias! Matias!