Persian mod was pleasant but started to feel bland compared to Bowie. So I started tinkering with tactile leaf.
When I made the Persian modded switch, I didn’t really remove the tactile leaf. Instead, I just installed it backward, for storage. So I took it back out and applied some pressure near the fold to bend inward then tried how that felt.
At some point, two bumps merged into one, with tactile leaf providing the steeper slope up then the contact leaf arm providing the gradual curved slope down. I marked the angle with a toothpick, by measuring the distance of the hanging tip and folded base. What’s important is not just feel but consistent feel so I started bending more tactile leaves to see if the mod can be repeated reliably.
End result is a range of feel like this (mock force graph). I didn’t bother drawing the upstroke side this time.
Range of variation is only around +/- 200μm but I found that ~100μm variations were reproducible with some experience so number of variations is 5 instead of just 3 showing in the mock force graph.
Another change to the mod: leave the silencing rubber in but trim one end, short enough to prevent the rubber from touching the a small pedestal on the bottom housing but long enough to hold the rubber in-place.
This keeps the downstroke thock but silences the upstroke clack. It’s very tedious to do but manageable with a nail clipper and a heap of patience. Given that simplified ALPS like Matias cannot be easily modified after soldering, doing as much as possible beforehand is important.
After testing modified switches with clipped silencing rubber, I went back to my original plan. Lack of audible upstroke feedback made the switch less fun.
Mod itself feels really nice to me. Far superior than any tactie MX switches I’ve used before.
Downstroke is satisfyingly mechanical in feel w/tactility that starts at the top then turns into a pleasant gradual curve.
Bottom-out sound reminds me of beating on a small wooden drum.
Upstroke is quick and clean which, unlike SKCM Orange the force curve, is almost linear. With Holy Panda OTOH, large bump can be felt on the upstroke that I’ve come to dislike.
On the Persian mod, one that does not use the tactile leaf, it reminded me of Topre after dome starts to collapse where is low varying resistance that’d look like curvilinear on force graph. Even though resistance is low, it feels like an extended bump when pressed fast.
Have you also considered trying the Matias Quiet Linear switches? I am asking because unlike most of the linear switches that have only a coil spring, the MQLs have a leaf spring the purpose of which is to compensate the increased ‘Hooke law’-based resistence—this is in my opinion very interesting idea. Maybe bending that leaf can produce other interesting tactile switches.
No, I haven’t tried Quiet Linear switches bc I thought it’d be just QC w/Click’s stem and w/o tactile leaf. Yes, do try bending the protruding arm on the contact leaf. It’s easy to do and fun to play with. That said, I can’t say how long the mod will last given how thin in its. I want to make a version with two arms and made with thicker sheet of metal but that’d need more tools.
After banging on the macropad to see how the switches would feel for normal keyboard use, I came to the conclusion that it’d have to be less tactile. This means all thoughts of getting some SKCM Oranges evaporated. What I need is tactility that is far more gradual, rolling hills without ledges nor cliffs.
I also looked Matias Quiet Linear design (thanks @lispnick) and watched Chyrosran’s review video. Having a linear leaf instead of tactile leaf made sense.
Question is how would a tactile leaf without sharp bends feel? So I tried making the changes to a couple of switches and noticed that curved tactile leaf improved on the Persian mod, making the rounded feel stand out more. Eureka!
Simplest QC tactile leaf mod that delivered Scimitar feel was this:
In short, use a flat plier to straighten out the first bend, leaving the other which doesn’t do anything as is. One can optionally adjust the second bend toward the end so its surface can slide along the stem at the cost of some consistency.
Protruding arm on the contact leaf remains the same curved shape in all the mod variations above. Stock shape just didn’t feel good. You can tweak the curve somewhat to adjust switch weight. I was able to match my favorite linear MX switch: Cherry black w/62g long spring.
I haven’t tried Matias Quiet Linear but I think the feel may be nearly the same as this mod with three differences, heavier spring, shorter ‘tactile’ leaf, and curved contact leaf arm.
I found that adjusting the angle of tactile leaf’s tip is easier and feel is more consistent than messing with contact leaf’s protruding arm.
fully extended tactile leaf (like far right one in the diagram above) seems close to ~65g long spring to me with pronounced curve. It also made return very springy in a way I have never experienced with MX so, if you’re into bouncy keys, this may be the one to pursue.
left as is (like middle one in the diagram), switch seems close to ~62g long spring with less pronounced curve.
One lesson I learned w/ALPS tactility is how it feels stronger and how minor differences in tactility feels far more prominent in use. And ~62g is around my weight so I am going with the mild version, forgoing the more pronounced curvilinear feel.
Among the other interesting mods of Matias Clicks is putting a small piece of paper behind the clicker. This is known as the ‘paper mod’ in the Alps world and it is used to suppress clicks on upstrokes of tactile Alps. In case of MCs, it reduces the sound of the click and otherwise leaves the feel as it is. I have also tried to put a drop of lube (OKS 477) behind the clicker, again, in order to suppress the sound. This has changed the entire feel of the switch, though. The result is a non-clicky tactile switch.
Yup. This hack definitely works with Matias Clicks. Tried the same on QC tactile leaf but made very little difference regardless of material so applying a bit of 205g0 when a leaf is more loose than others. Same is done with contact leaves to reduce rattle although I’m starting to suspect thin keycap I’m using may have something to do with the rattle.
Just to be clear so no one makes the same mistake I did:
Kukri and Bowie mods feel like shit in use.
It’s the inconsistencies that felt acceptable when compared individually that rose up and bite you in the ass while in use. It’s simply unacceptable. This is happening despite the fact that I left tactile leaf pretty much on as-is and only modified the protruding arm. Somehow minor differences in stock tactile leaf and differences I’ve introduced to contact leaf resulted in a train wreck of a overall feel.
But then I’d not be in this hobby unless I’m hopelessly optimistic so I think the TKL build with mild curvilinear feel will turn out great.
This is more like a method of restoring the vintage Alps into their original condition. It is a bit tricky to do it but a lot of people report that it works. I have tried to wax-lube Matias sliders and it does not seem to make them any good.
Beat me to it LOL! Interesting stuff though I plan on trying with a few spare pine ALPS I have. It also gave me another ideal for possibly fully restoring SKCM/L ALPS switches. We’ve all seen people use acetone to vapor shine ABS which actually works very very well. I wonder what solvent would do the same to the plastic ALPS stems & tops housings are made from? I could see vapor smoothing giving really great results in a well controlled environment. Definitely something else I want to try if I can find out what plastics ALPS used back in the day. I know bamboo & simplified ALPS use a ABS blend, but have no ideal what plastics were used in pine ALPS.
That videos was certainly met with a fair share of criticisms in his implementation using candlewax.
I want to try the mod myself at some point and record the differences between pre and post wax mod using my force curve graph machine as hopefully we can grab some quantitative data to figure out what’s going on and how effective it might actually be.
Chyrosran should’ve went ahead and try experimenting with ingredients of the OG lube he showed in the video. I haven’t seen the OG lube but, based on my tests lubing w/205g0, it’ll have to thicker.
I think the issue with the ingredients for the OG lube, is I don’t know if we know the exact mixture amounts of each materials and how they were combined. It would be an interesting series of experimentation for sure though
With ALPS plate’s arrival, I had all the parts to build a TKL. Most of the build time was spent trying to get stabs to feel right which turned out to be an impossible task. They now sound alright OK-ish without any rattle but feels like there is a cotton ball under the keycap. Bottom out also felt squishy.
Regular keys feel and sound OK but the curvilinear feel is barely noticeable while in-use which sucks. Plastic box-like sound was also hard to notice. This would’ve made this build an OK daily driver except I don’t think I can stand pressing those terrible ALPS stabilizers regularly. They feel that bad to me.
Definitely disappointed. I’m going to let TKL sit on the shelf for awhile before deciding what to do with it.
