I have a Deck Legend, I want to replace the black cherry switches with the clicky/tactile blue ones. Is this possible? If so, what would be the best way of going about doing it? Also I'd like to add some weight to the keyboard. What would be a good way of doing that?

Desolder and remove the LEDs and switches, install the new switches and reinstall the LEDs and then solder everything back up. This will take you a good chunk of time, trust me on that .

For weight you could add anything that can fit inside the housing. My gut would tell me the best things for this might be lead tape or a metal plate as it is very slim and would add weight uniformly. Just be sure to isolate any additional metal from touching anything electrical.

Thanks, that is pretty much what I had in mind. Yeah it will take a while I wish you could buy the keyboard with a choice of the blue or black cherry switches. The brown ones are supposed to be in between as far as tactility goes -- but I've never tried them, and I like the blues

The lead tape idea is great, I didn't think of that. I don't think the folks down at RoHS would like it though

You should also see this thread...we are still considering making some Deck models with tactile switches. This is still a way off though so for now modding is the only way to get tactile.

You are right about the lead tape, didn't really think about that, just the first thing that came to mind. Alternatively you could also just superglue a bunch of washers, pennies, or anything metal inside your Deck to give it some bulk and still keep it non-toxic.

Oh no, I'm not opposed to the lead tape, I think it's a great idea! After all, I don't open the keyboard and lick the inside of it very often you know.

I want to change it too from linear characteristic to ergonomic tactile MX switches, because I type with ten fingers in the classic manner .
In my opinion it is an odd thing, that it is written "tactile" on the homepage, but they are using linear switches.
I was very disappointed, when I received it.

As I saw in this forum, and with my ideas there are 3...4 ways:

+ change the mx switches itself, by unsoldering them replacing with other MX switches bought by a distributor of Cherry
+ change the spring (or not?) and the characteristic relavant part in the MX switch (from black to brown), by opening the switch (e. g. destroying the
upper half of the casing), taking another MX switch bought at a distributor, to open carefully the newly bouht switch and transfer the upper
half to the open switch and close it carefully.
+ Cut off the electronics of the board, make an own board with newly bought MX switches, change the keycaps and connect the new PCB with the
cut off parts and hoping everything is done well.
+ Existing old keyboard with scan logic on small print (rubber foil technology), buy keyswitches MX with desired tactile, make a new PCB and
wire it like the old keyboard, change the keycaps, mount the new PCB and the small PCB from the old keyboard to the DECK case.

Anybody experiences with above solutions?

Therefore I need to know, which MX keys are built in:
Deck Fire (red LED) MX1A-11RW - right?
for the Space key: MX1A-?1NW (no LED!) - what is ? - right?

So I have to buy which ones for ergonomic tactile?
MX1A-E1NW or MX1A-31NW?
for the Space bar which?

This forum entry helped me:

If you can post a URL where we claim that the switches are tactile please do so I and I will change it, I am not finding this anywhere on our site (but somedays I am blind so...).



All Deck Keyboards currently use Cherry switch P/N MX1A-11NW for all switches besides the spacebar which uses an MX1A-21NW (slightly higher force). If you want tactile C1NW or E1NW will work fine - the E's are just lower force than the C's. You can also use NN's instead of NW's (either is fine for the Legend, we recommend NW's for the 82).

Given the large interest in tactile switches we are considering releasing a model with MX1A-C1NW switches which are the equivalent to the MX1A-11NW but with a tactile response. No official date or plans on that yet, we will post updates to our site when more info is known.

Does anyone have a good source for the Cheery MX switches? Specifically the blue ones?

Thanks-

You may want to try DigiKey. Here is a link to the product page:

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=CH197-ND