Having a terrible realization that I like EC/topre clone switches as I’m trying out a NiZ Plum x87. I suppose the good news is the clones seem very good.
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realism of control input vs gaminess
this whole debate gets really interesting with flight sims… what is “realistic” depends on what era of airplane you’re trying to simulate. e.g. look at the cockpit of a ww2 soviet fighter plane:
little wheels and doodads everywhere, impossible to simulate unless you have a fortune to build a simpit. hence you rely on fakeries like “use hat switch left to close oil radiator, and right to open it”
you to do a lot of thinking to figure out how to map this to a full stick+throttle+pedals setup, let alone just a stick
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i have a pal who strongly prefers the clones
did this, it’s grrrr8
come full circle from the industrial model m to one of these things
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yay! which model did you get?
leopold fc660c
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New 60% board
Tactile switches for esc, volume up/down, mute, and mute microphone.
AFAIK I might be the first person to write a TMK shell to use one with a DIY Teensy ADB adapter.
It sounds awful
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phenomenal
My impression of ALPS so far: “Why would you do it this way?”
So many paper thin plastic pieces that make mechanical contact with other paper thin plastic pieces.
The microphone mute toggle is very prescient, though.
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white alps are legit louder than buckling springs
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The folks over at Matias are some quixotic fools keeping this design alive
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OK perhaps I was too quick to judge Alps based on what is unanimously the worst switch they ever made.
If I were to get an Apple Extended Keyboard or AEK II does anyone have a particular recommendation? I’m inclined to get an AEK II for the dampers.
I’m also interested in other classic vintage keyboards - looking at an Apple IIgs with a Topre-esque mechanism. Already working on a vintage Model M.
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I have a Mac Plus keyboard and it’s a piece of shit, I only use it when I have to use my Mac Plus. I could take it apart and lubricate the whole thing but… no real incentive.
otherwise, the oldest thing I have is a model M, which is pleasing enough
tangentially:
just makes it all the harder to wait for that Keystone modern Beamspring keyboard to be eventually finished
Update on the switches: They are trying to find a place to source the metal for the switches but the company they want to use isnt responding to them
welp should be done any day now nbd
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I was watching some vidz on the Blackmagic Speed Editor mini-keeb, yesterday: I didn’t realize they had mechanical switches, or that the jog wheels are metal and spin totally free. Make a pretty sweet spinner game controller by the looks of it, if it wasn’t locked down to work only in Resolve; probably be a bunch of these floating around the used market for little money in a few years. A guy seemingly made some kind of prototype shim app to get it running with Premiere but doesn’t seem like he released anything publicly.
They like essentially give you one of these for free with the $300 ‘lifetime’ Resolve Studio license, now, too. That seems like a very good deal if one was in the market for paid video editing software.
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Look at this: this guy wired up his old Sony broadcast video switcher up to a Behringer Xtouch Mini’s pcb. Extremely slick.
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my wife got the 8bitdo mod kit for a Saturn pad, and installed it into the “This is COOL” black smoke coloured controller I got her and it seems really good, broad compatibility and OEM feel, with the one exception being the tactile switches on the shoulder buttons have a much more direct feel, where the originals had a bit of a “squish” to them - I suspect that’s just down to what’s available these days
the lone roadblock was that the case wouldn’t close initially, and this was due to the pins on the USB daughterboard not having been trimmed down after soldering, so I got out my snips and all was happy - I’m sort of surprised that got past QC in manufacture but what can you do, I suppose
unlike seemingly most of the other 8bitdo mod kits, the USB port actually fits through the cable slot, so there’s no weird proprietary charge cable (or instruction to disassemble the controller to update the firmware), it’s just USB Micro-B
it’s worked great so far on the PC and the Switch, I’m curious to see if it’ll pair with the Brook Wingman SD for full wireless Saturn action 
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damn, did not know this exists and now want to get one for the transparent pink retrobit controller i have.
I’d triple check if it works for that, I believe the RetroBit controller’s shell is different internally from the originals