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As you may know, the classic 1982 sci-fi picture show Tron turned 35 years old in 2022, and it happens to exist a motion-picture show that I quite like. So, I'm celebrating in the most plumbing equipment mode I know, with a Tron-themed keyboard. It wouldn't do but to get some Tron keycaps and call it a day, 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 plan some months ago when a group buy started for a keyset called DSA Lightcycle. The gear up 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 use much larger keyboards. Thus, a full set was designed.

A group buy is a bit similar a pre-order, except the buyers are taking on the risk instead of a retailer. You pay your money, and that goes direct toward funding the production of the keyset. A few months later, you'll get your keycaps (or whatever you ordered) in the mail. One time the group buy is over, there's no style to become 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, information technology's a Tron-themed ready with really cool novelties like an identity disc, a recognizer, and (of course) lightcycles. It's besides 1 of the few nice keysets you can get with back up for Alps switches. They don't have the standard cantankerous-shaped stalk yous see on MX switches, so you have to get 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 e'er happens with Signature Plastics. Still, with the set finally delivered, I was gear up to start building. Or at least to brainstorm refurbishing some switches.

Retro Switches

Most of the mechanical keyboards you can get right now apply Blood-red switches or switches that are based on Cherry's designs. You can do a lot of interesting things by changing up those components a little, but Cherry had not completely cornered the market in the 80s. Many keyboards came with Alps switches back then, and they take an entirely dissimilar design.

Alps are a type of mechanical keyboard switch manufactured past Alps Electronics. The company still exists, but it stopped making keyboard switches many years ago. There are a number of shortcomings in the Alps design that (in my opinion) eventually led to Reddish's dominance, only they're very interesting switches anyhow. The Alps switches everyone thinks of equally the real Alps are from the SKCL/SKCM series, sometimes known equally "complicated Alps." It'south a well-deserved name, as well. Alps switches have around x parts, depending on the model. A Cherry switch usually has five, if you count the top and bottom housings as carve up parts. Disassembling and reassembling a Ruby switch is a breeze, whereas an Alps switch tin be difficult to put back together the right way. The stem pattern also makes these switches decumbent to picking up dust and debris.

Some (dusty) Orangish Alps.

For all the bug with Alps, they accept a unique experience. Those who take experimented with a variety of Alps switches often contend the switches take much better tactility and a more consequent click (in those versions that make noise) compared with MX switches. The bottom-out on Alps is different besides — there's less resistance afterward you striking the bump or click.

Since there are no production versions of the classic Alps switches (only some clones), the only way to get the genuine article is to find an onetime keyboard and harvest its switches. In my instance, the donor was an Apple M0116, also known equally the Apple tree Standard Keyboard. These were produced from the mid-belatedly 80s until the early on 90s, and came with a few different Alps switches. The board for this project 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 down to betoken that it'south on. When you press it again, information technology springs back up. I was happy to notice this was still in full working order, as information technology's not something you lot see on keyboards much anymore.

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

I wasn't done later on the switches were desoldered — they were thirty years erstwhile, after all. As I mentioned earlier, Alps tend to pick upward a lot of grit, then every switch had to be opened and cleaned. I used compressed air and rubbing alcohol to get them dorsum into shape. While Alps switches are complicated inside, y'all go a good understanding of the inner working subsequently you've taken fourscore of them apart and reassembled them.

The key to the distinctiveness of Alps switches is that the metal leaf gives it its grapheme. In MX switches, it'due south the plastic stalk. So, yous need to make sure the metallic leafage in each switch is in good condition and unbent to have a working tactile switch. Information technology'southward possible to warp the leaf, making a tactile switch into a linear one. That'due south not what I was after, manifestly.

Building a Keyboard

Finding keycaps for Alps switches is a challenge, but so too is finding a keyboard PCB for them. The location of the pins on the underside of an Alps switch is different, and so the PCB needs a slightly tweaked layout. I settled on the Sentraq S65-Ten, which is a 65-percent keyboard. That's my favorite grade cistron, which was a plus. It likewise has RGB underglow lighting, assuasive me to actually blast that Tron feel. While I like a lot of things about this board, the build procedure turned out to be more complicated than past ones.

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

While the PCB fits Alps switches just fine, the plate that switches plug into could have used a bit more refinement. Alps housing are a fleck more rectangular than MX, and then the cut-outs need to be unlike. The switches fit fine in the 1-unit spaces for the alpha keys and numbers, but the size of the opening for larger keys and the lesser row offered little to no support for the switches. Thus, parts of the keyboard are basically what you'd call "PCB mountain." That means the only thing 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 chip to brand sure they stay put.

Soldering. Note the elongated holes to adjust Alps switches in addition to MX.

Each switch has two solder points, and Alps don't support in-switch LEDs. So, that saved me two additional solder points for each switch even if I had wanted more than LEDs. That's a full of 136 solder points for the keyboard, some of which needed to be extremely precise to brand sure the unsupported switches ended upward straight (or at least close to information technology). Information technology was extra important to use the keycaps to check spacing on the bottom row, which supports several different layouts. Soldering a switch in the wrong spot could prevent the keycaps from plumbing equipment at all.

Adding caps.

The Sentraq board's instance is what'south known every bit a sandwich design. There's a top plate where the switches plug in, then a middle spacer, and a bottom comprehend. In this instance, the upper and lower parts are aluminum, and the eye is frosted acrylic to diffuse the RGB LED light. Unfortunately, the spacer in my kit seems to take a pocket-size defect. Some of the screw holes were drilled as well large, and so the screws but fall out. The board isn't coming apart, but I'm even so looking into ways to solidify it a bit.

Last-minute lubrication.

Afterwards assembling the board, I put on the keycaps and did a little typing. Unfortunately, the switches weren't as smooth as I had hoped — they were probably used heavily. One of the overnice things about Alps switches is they tin can be opened up later on existence soldered to a PCB regardless of plate blueprint; simply some MX plates support switch top removal. So, I was able to open each switch (yes, again) and add a tiny flake of PFPAE lubricant to the slider (the orange role) in each switch. That took an hour or ii, just the experience is much improved.

Finishing Touches

Like all custom boards, this i is fully programmable. That means y'all can decide which primal does what, and it'll work the same fashion no matter what device it'due south plugged into. There'due south no desktop software needed to do things similar alter the underlighting. The Sentraq S65-X runs a keyboard firmware chosen QMK, which has been getting a lot of attention over the last yr or so. QMK is an incredibly powerful firmware — you tin can do cool things like assign different functions to a long-press of a cardinal and command the mouse cursor. However, it's also a piffling complicated.

The firmware builder.

There'south an (unofficial) online visual editor for building a QMK layout, merely information technology doesn't accept all the supported functions. If y'all desire to practise annihilation advanced, you need to dig into the QMK documentation and brand transmission edits to the layout file. I was able to get mouse cursor control and the locking caps key configured, as well equally tweaking the primal layout to my preference.

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At the end of this project, I'grand thrilled with how the keyset turned out. It'south hit, and the legends are the same loftier quality I've come to wait from Signature Plastics. I'm reasonably pleased with the Orangish Alps switches. It's fun to utilize something that has different qualities subsequently trying so many MX-style switches over the years. The Sentraq board itself is alright. I think the plate could have been a scrap more Alps-friendly, and the sketchy spacer is disheartening. It's staying together, but it feels like it could exist more solid. I'm still chatting with the lath designer most the lacking part (Note: the designer somewhen provided a replacement spacer that solved the consequence). I suppose this is just the sort of matter y'all risk when buying bespoke electronics.