16 Likes
As a bonafide member of the Anti-Stabilizer Squad (LOL), this could eventually be a game changer. At first, even ten bucks a key would probably find a market. Very excited to see how the Seneca turns out, and maybe one day I’ll be in the same zip code as one. 
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You know I’m really into something when I watch an hour long video about it. To save folks time, there isn’t much new information if you’ve read his blog post already – you can skip to the Q&A in the last 20 minutes or so.
Though I definitely didn’t need the sales pitch – non-ticking stabs is automatic
territory for me.
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Don’t want to be the bummer here, but tbh that looks so extremely over engineered and I never had an issue with stabilizers that a bit of superlube wouldn’t fix. I don’t even think I even want to know what only a single stabilizer is going to cost.
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In reading the reddit thread, and shopping around, it seems I was naive thinking 10-bucks per key was pricy. I assume they’ll be rolled into the price of his Seneca, but now I’m thinking more like twice that, maybe $100 per board absolute minimum, if they ever go on sale as a part. Probably more.
Diminishing returns, indeed.
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Each stab has so many small parts and takes 30 minutes to assemble. I won’t be surprised if a set was well over $100.
The penultimate design, which still seems to be superior to existing stabs, deserves to be manufactured as well. Unfortunately, in the Q&A, he said that he will not. However, he did say that he was open to letting someone license his patented design. I really hope that someone does, since it could really serve a big part of the market.
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The solution to stabilizers is to build a keyboard without them.
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Hope a company like Omnitype will invest in this design as they did with the HHKB plate. That’s a win-win for both consumers and Norbauer.
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still utopian for this community 
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Just build splits and stuff in the right size, problem solved 
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Can’t have stab rattle if ya ain’t got no stabs!
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This wouldn’t work as a drop-in for other keyboards, but, for a spacebar in a bespoke design, what about using dummy switches as stabilizers instead? They could be standard switches (or dome assemblies, I guess), just without traces hooked up.
I understand some vintage designs did this in some form, though I’m hazy on specifics.
It seems to me if you have the actual working switch in the center and two identical switches (same spring weight) on the sides but only acting as an equivalent force on each end, not sending any inputs, that could provide even feedback without designing a new mechanism.
Am I missing something about why this wouldn’t work well?
It would be better than nothing, but the critical part of a stabilizer is the linkage. When you push down on one side, the rod applies the same force to the other side. You don’t get that with dual switches, though the friction of the cap on the post would help. It would likely be scratchy and bind just a little. The exact same thing that happened with no stabilizer at all would still happen, just a good bit less of it. You’d probably have fewer issues with the narrower 2u to 2.75u keys.
4 Likes