My Zenith ZKB-2

snacksthecat · 18 Dec 2018, 05:11

Typing demo

//gainsborough · 18 Dec 2018, 09:27

Undampened creams? Very nice, my dude!

idlethock · 19 Dec 2018, 04:35

Just listen to how wonderfully loud it is, brilliant!

Hypersphere · 19 Dec 2018, 12:35

Are the black keycaps from a NeXT board?

snacksthecat · 19 Dec 2018, 23:40

idlethock wrote: Just listen to how wonderfully loud it is, brilliant!

Yes! These keycaps (the ones on the alphas) are from a Zenith supersport laptop, if I remember correctly. They're my favorite part of the board.

Hypersphere wrote: Are the black keycaps from a NeXT board?

Yep, you're exactly right.

//gainsborough wrote: Undampened creams? Very nice, my dude!

These are actually dampened creams with the dampeners removed. Ironically enough, they came from the same NeXT board as the caps. The previous owner of that board harvested the meme creams and replaced them with dampened creams. But the keyboard was in such bad shape after harvesting, that several pads and traces on the PCB were ruined. I tried to revive it but could never get it working consistently. So now it lives on in this wacky thing.

Hypersphere · 20 Dec 2018, 18:53

@snacksthecat: Those de-damped switches are certainly unsilent! You wouldn't be able to tell if the built-in buzzer were emitting its little chirps.

I've taken a liking to Zenith boards. Recently, I discovered something about the AT/XT switchable ones such as the 163-73 that I hadn't known about before. The ones that have a 3-way switch on the back marked AT/RD, AT/RG, and XT enable you to change the color of the lock-light LEDs from green (RG) to red (RD). I prefer red, although I sometimes replace the keycaps with windowless ones, rendering the LEDs invisible.

Which other types of Alps switches have you tried? I was wondering how your modified switches compare in sound and feel to other Alps tactile switches, such as Orange Alps.

//gainsborough · 20 Dec 2018, 19:41

snacksthecat wrote:
These are actually dampened creams with the dampeners removed. Ironically enough, they came from the same NeXT board as the caps. The previous owner of that board harvested the meme creams and replaced them with dampened creams. But the keyboard was in such bad shape after harvesting, that several pads and traces on the PCB were ruined. I tried to revive it but could never get it working consistently. So now it lives on in this wacky thing.

I actually did almost that same thing! I half took out half the dampeners on mine. Basically, my process was this: take the dampeners out, cut them in half, then put them back in. Seems incredibly stupid when you read it.... and, in fact, is confirmed incredibly stupid in practice... but I didn't want to take away too much weight from the slider so I thought it would yield a nicer sound. Thought with mine I also took out the tactile leaf to make them linear, which made them SUPER light. Sounds like I should have left the tactile leaf in because your board sounds quite nice.

Hypersphere · 20 Dec 2018, 20:07

@//gainsborough: I've seen a similar mod somewhere. The idea was to dampen the return-stroke clack while enabling the down-stroke click. The method was to remove only the bottom portion of the damper and leave the upper part intact. However, I tried this and didn't like the effect.

snacksthecat · 20 Dec 2018, 20:11

That exact mod was actually done to the switches when I received the NeXT board but I found it to feel really inconsistent since not all of the dampeners were snipped the same. That's why I ended up removing them. The super thock I ended up with is just a happy accident (bob_ross.png).