I love my loud click Model01. I just bought a quiet click to try it out, but it’s unsatisfying. so I thought it might be fun to replace the switches. I think I read that Cherrys won’t fit in a Model01, right?
What can I swap in that’s loud and clicky and requires more force, like the Cherry Greens?
What companies make switches that I can swap in?
You can’t use Cherry as they are the wrong Keycap stork shape.
https://matias.ca/switches/click/ The Matias Click’s are the ones that were on the Loud Click board.
The other option is to wait will the Model100 is out, as that will be the same shape, but hot swappable switches and Keycaps molded for Cherry
So what works with Matias?
The current keycaps are molded for Alps, which is the same stork as the Matias.
If you want to convert your Model 01 over toe a loud click then any Alps key switches will do, such as the Matias Clicks
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I already have the Loud Model01, which uses Matias Clicks. I just bought a Quiet one to try it out, but it’s too quiet.
So I want to substitute a new kind of switch, so it’ll be even louder and clickier and firmer than the Loud one.
So I was wondering what switch to use.
The keycaps will only mount to Alps type switches. The only company making these now is Matias. They have three offerings, of which you have already two: clicky and tactile quiet. They also offer a much lighter, linear switch that is not going to cover your needs: they barely make any sound and have very little resistance to being depressed.
So you could turn your quiet click into another clicky version exactly like the one you have but not much more. You’d do that by buying a set of clicky Matias switches and replacing the ones you have with these. Then you’d basically have two clicky keyboardios that use the exact same switches.
The only alternative you have is to buy a used old keyboard that has the original Alps switches, of which there are several variants (90s Apple used them a lot for instance). You would then desolder them and transfer to the keyboardio. But before you do that do check that this is feasible because I’m no expert and maybe this is technically not doable. And that could be costly, mind you.
All of this is because of the shape of the stem where the keycaps are fit: Alps switches have a unique shape for this stem, so any other type of switch will be incompatible with the keycaps of the keyboardio. If you pull out a keycap you’ll see that the stem it’s mounted on is a horizontal rectangle. Most switches sold these days have cherry type stems, shaped like a cross. Your keycaps won’t fit this shape.
Alps were popular twenty years ago but now they are vintage stuff. Their reputation is very high so I guess that’s why we have them in our keyboardios, but unfortunately this makes it nearly impossible to buy different switches to customize key feel.
People have done this:
I thought there were other companies making Alps switches now though?
Well, AFAIK only Matias makes new Alps switches but again I’m no expert. Maybe something has come up lately, but at the time they were the only ones doing it.
The other option may be to sell your quiet click as-is to somebody and pick up the model 100 when it comes out and is available. It will have hot-swappable cherry-stem key switches, so you’ll be able to have a much larger selection.
Oh, I’ll be getting one of those regardless! Like I could avoid buying anything Keyboardio makes.
Nope. Outside of Matias, all the Alps action these days is in harvesting switches out of vintage boards. If you’re looking for heavy clicky, your best bet is probably SKCM Amber.
You could always replace the springs in the Matias switches with stiffer springs. It’s a lot of tedious work but theoretically possible.