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Every bit you lot may know, the archetype 1982 sci-fi movie Tron turned 35 years old in 2017, and information technology happens to exist a movie that I quite like. And so, I'thousand celebrating in the near fitting way I know, with a Tron-themed keyboard. It wouldn't do just to get some Tron keycaps and call information technology a twenty-four hour period, though. I decided to build a keyboard straight out of the 1980s by restoring some parts that are more than 30 years old. Here's how I did it.

Keycap Inspiration

I hatched this programme some months ago when a group buy started for a keyset called DSA Lightcycle. The set was run by The Van Keyboards, which has become known among keyboard enthusiasts for producing the popular 40-percent "Minivan" keyboard. A express version of Lightcycle was made for that board previously, but most people utilise much larger keyboards. Thus, a full set was designed.

A group purchase is a bit like a pre-guild, except the buyers are taking on the risk instead of a retailer. You pay your coin, and that goes straight toward funding the product of the keyset. A few months later, you'll become your keycaps (or whatsoever yous ordered) in the mail. Once the group buy is over, at that place's no style to get the keyset without paying a premium to someone willing to sell theirs.

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I was intrigued by Lightcycle for two reasons. First, it's a Tron-themed ready with really absurd novelties like an identity disc, a recognizer, and (of grade) lightcycles. Information technology'southward besides one of the few nice keysets you can get with support for Alps switches. They don't have the standard cross-shaped stem you see on MX switches, so you have to become special keycaps.

Lightcycle is made in double-shot ABS by a company called Signature Plastics, which makes many of the nicer custom keysets. The wait was a few months longer than expected, which I actually should have expected. That always happens with Signature Plastics. All the same, with the set finally delivered, I was ready to start building. Or at least to brainstorm refurbishing some switches.

Retro Switches

Most of the mechanical keyboards y'all can get correct now employ Cherry switches or switches that are based on Cherry's designs. You tin practise a lot of interesting things by irresolute up those components a niggling, only Cherry had not completely cornered the market place in the 80s. Many keyboards came with Alps switches back and then, and they take an entirely different pattern.

Alps are a type of mechanical keyboard switch manufactured past Alps Electronics. The company still exists, merely it stopped making keyboard switches many years agone. In that location are a number of shortcomings in the Alps blueprint that (in my opinion) eventually led to Cherry's say-so, only they're very interesting switches anyhow. The Alps switches anybody thinks of as the existent Alps are from the SKCL/SKCM series, sometimes known as "complicated Alps." It'southward a well-deserved proper name, too. Alps switches have around 10 parts, depending on the model. A Red switch usually has five, if you count the height and bottom housings as separate parts. Disassembling and reassembling a Ruddy switch is a breeze, whereas an Alps switch tin can be hard to put back together the right way. The stalk blueprint also makes these switches decumbent to picking upward dust and debris.

Some (dusty) Orangish Alps.

For all the issues with Alps, they have a unique experience. Those who accept experimented with a variety of Alps switches oftentimes contend the switches have much amend tactility and a more than consequent click (in those versions that make noise) compared with MX switches. The bottom-out on Alps is different as well — at that place's less resistance after you lot hit the bump or click.

Since there are no production versions of the classic Alps switches (merely some clones), the only way to get the genuine article is to find an former keyboard and harvest its switches. In my instance, the donor was an Apple M0116, likewise known as the Apple Standard Keyboard. These were produced from the mid-belatedly 80s until the early 90s, and came with a few different Alps switches. The lath for this projection had Orange Alps, which are moderately heavy tactile switches. There was also an Alps lock switch, which the Apple keyboard used for caps lock. That means that when pressed, it stays downwardly to indicate that it'south on. When yous printing it again, it springs support. I was happy to find this was still in total working lodge, equally it'due south not something you lot run into on keyboards much anymore.

A disassembled Alps switch (left) compared with an MX-style Gateron switch (right).

I wasn't done later the switches were desoldered — they were xxx years quondam, later on all. Every bit I mentioned earlier, Alps tend to pick up a lot of dust, and then every switch had to be opened and cleaned. I used compressed air and rubbing booze to get them dorsum into shape. While Alps switches are complicated inside, yous get a skillful understanding of the inner working after you've taken 80 of them apart and reassembled them.

The key to the distinctiveness of Alps switches is that the metallic leaf gives information technology its grapheme. In MX switches, it's the plastic stem. And then, y'all need to make certain the metal leaf in each switch is in expert condition and unbent to accept a working tactile switch. Information technology'due south possible to warp the leaf, making a tactile switch into a linear one. That's not what I was afterward, obviously.

Building a Keyboard

Finding keycaps for Alps switches is a challenge, only so too is finding a keyboard PCB for them. The location of the pins on the underside of an Alps switch is dissimilar, then the PCB needs a slightly tweaked layout. I settled on the Sentraq S65-10, which is a 65-pct keyboard. That's my favorite form cistron, which was a plus. It too has RGB underglow lighting, allowing me to really blast that Tron feel. While I like a lot of things well-nigh this board, the build process turned out to be more complicated than past ones.

Switches plugged into the plate and ready for soldering. Locking Alps visible on the left.

While the PCB fits Alps switches but fine, the plate that switches plug into could accept used a scrap more than refinement. Alps housing are a fleck more rectangular than MX, and so the cut-outs need to be different. The switches fit fine in the 1-unit spaces for the blastoff keys and numbers, simply the size of the opening for larger keys and the bottom row offered fiddling to no back up for the switches. Thus, parts of the keyboard are basically what you'd call "PCB mount." That means the only affair supporting the switches is the solder and mounting pins. Except… Alps switches don't have mounting pins on the underside. So, it truly is just the solder holding them in place. I ended up overdoing the solder a bit to make sure they stay put.

Soldering. Annotation the elongated holes to accommodate Alps switches in addition to MX.

Each switch has two solder points, and Alps don't back up in-switch LEDs. And so, that saved me two additional solder points for each switch even if I had wanted more LEDs. That's a total of 136 solder points for the keyboard, some of which needed to be extremely precise to make certain the unsupported switches concluded upward straight (or at least close to it). Information technology was extra of import to use the keycaps to cheque spacing on the bottom row, which supports several different layouts. Soldering a switch in the wrong spot could forbid the keycaps from fitting at all.

Adding caps.

The Sentraq board'due south case is what's known as a sandwich blueprint. There's a meridian plate where the switches plug in, then a middle spacer, and a bottom embrace. In this case, the upper and lower parts are aluminum, and the middle is frosted acrylic to diffuse the RGB LED light. Unfortunately, the spacer in my kit seems to have a minor defect. Some of the screw holes were drilled also large, so the screws just autumn out. The lath isn't coming apart, but I'grand still looking into ways to solidify it a bit.

Last-minute lubrication.

After assembling the board, I put on the keycaps and did a little typing. Unfortunately, the switches weren't every bit smooth every bit I had hoped — they were probably used heavily. One of the nice things about Alps switches is they can be opened upwardly after being soldered to a PCB regardless of plate design; only some MX plates support switch height removal. So, I was able to open up each switch (yes, over again) and add a tiny bit of PFPAE lubricant to the slider (the orangish function) in each switch. That took an 60 minutes or two, only the feel is much improved.

Finishing Touches

Similar all custom boards, this one is fully programmable. That means you tin can decide which fundamental does what, and it'll work the same way no matter what device it's plugged into. There'south no desktop software needed to exercise things like alter the underlighting. The Sentraq S65-Ten runs a keyboard firmware called QMK, which has been getting a lot of attention over the last year or so. QMK is an incredibly powerful firmware — you can do cool things like assign different functions to a long-press of a key and control the mouse cursor. However, it's likewise a little complicated.

The firmware builder.

In that location's an (unofficial) online visual editor for edifice a QMK layout, but it doesn't take all the supported functions. If you want to practise anything advanced, y'all need to dig into the QMK documentation and make manual edits to the layout file. I was able to get mouse cursor control and the locking caps key configured, as well as tweaking the key layout to my preference.

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At the cease of this project, I'k thrilled with how the keyset turned out. It's striking, and the legends are the same high quality I've come up to expect from Signature Plastics. I'm reasonably pleased with the Orange Alps switches. It'southward fun to use something that has different qualities after trying so many MX-style switches over the years. The Sentraq lath itself is alright. I think the plate could take been a chip more Alps-friendly, and the sketchy spacer is disheartening. It'due south staying together, merely it feels similar it could be more than solid. I'm still chatting with the board designer about the defective function (Note: the designer eventually provided a replacement spacer that solved the upshot). I suppose this is merely the sort of thing you chance when buying bespoke electronics.