deskthority

What are people's opinions of the two different families of stabs?

While building PJE's excellent little OneHand, I happen to have a few spare Cherry stabs. They're PCB mount. Matt3o tells me plate mount Cherry stabs are pretty rare and that for the kind of hand made metal plate based keyboards he and I like to make, Costar stabs are the way to go.

I'm wondering, though. Cherry stabs accept caps so easily, without the need for inserts. Could I use these PCB mount Cherry stabs on a plate mount keyboard without crazy modding effort? And even if PCB mount Cherries are no good, are plate mount Cherry stabs as easy to build into a laser cut design as I hope?

To me, Cherry stabs is better in every possible way. Only negative point is you are not able to change them out as easily as Costar (on a platemount keyboards).
I am building something which uses Cherry PCB mount stabs, even though it is all handwired. Just take an old PCB from a donor keyboard and cut out the one switch part with the stabilizer holes around it. Ideally you should cut so a few more switch holes are included on the cut out PCB, to add some stability. I hope it makes sense.

oh, and remember to mod the stabilizers

Once again my lack of spare parts (I'm still quite new to all this) becomes a problem.

My reading is that you're going to fix (glue?) a chunk of the donor PCB underneath your custom plate. Sounds like it would make the hand wiring job a bit tight once it's in place.

I found an older pic I could use As you can see, I have cut out the numpad part of an old PCB from a keyboard I got for it's switches (thanks mintberryminuscrunch!)
Just cut out the piece as shown on the pic, solder the switch on so it sticks. Handwiring over the PCB is easy and doesn't really take up much more space. Just remember to remove the traces on the piece of PCB if they short circuit anything.
To cut and remove the traces I used a Dremel.

I liked the Costar over the Cherry, they felt more precise and crisp to me. But I am comparing Cherry PBC stabilisers with plate mounted Costar onces. Also removing them is verry easy as already mentioned and you will not run out of spare parts because they are widely availabe.

But Costar stabilizers is a pain to attach keycaps to and are noisy. Modded Cherry stabs is not if you mod them, they feel like costar stabs but with the added benefits.

Broadmonkey wrote:Costar stabilizers is a pain to attach keycaps to and are noisy

this is the only real downside (and I would not define it "a pain", you just need to pay more attention), everything else, Costar FTW (easier to find, easier for custom creations)

I only had Problems with thick Cherry PBT Spacebar and Backspace on my CM Storm... that was really annoying because I had to sand down the innder side of the key where the stab hit the cap... but yeah. Upsides are there too!

Broadmonkey wrote:Oh, and remember to mod the stabilizers

That, sir, is one confusing thread! Took me a good while to get the point: Cherry (PCB mount) stabs have an impact reduction design than can feel mushy to those who like clack, but with a little trim it can be given the chop.

The potential for quieter stabs is one of the things making me consider these Cherries. Anyone know a good source for the plate mount version?