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Kinesis keyboards would be even more awesome with Cherry blue switches
1 points by hairyharry 5235 days ago
Kinesis contoured keyboards are great, but the brown switches just aren't as nice to type on as the blues. I happened to have a spare Kinesis so I figured I'd just replace the switches myself !

Kinesis kindly obliged in selling me the replacement logic boards, but for the life of me I can't find ANYONE who wants to sell me the blue switches (part # MX1AE1DW).

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get about 80 Cherry blue switches ?

2 comments

Have you tried digikey? They don't seem to have the exact part number you are seeking. But they do have MX1A-E1NW which is a similar part but without the internal diode. Not sure what impact this will have with the Kinesis keyboard however.

http://search.digikey.com/us/en/cat/switches/pushbutton/1114...

Yeah they don't stock the specific switch needed and won't be getting it in.
Interestingly enough, the part number is not listed in the MX series datasheet. What is the PCB layout like, would you be able to splice in SMD diodes where they are needed :)

[1] http://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Cherry%20PDFs/MX%...

I thought this would be a perfect chance to try http://octopart.com/ but no luck there. Sorry.