Space bar likely to use a neon green slider, which will be linear - tactile keyboards appear to all use linear space bar switches. Grey slider (two eyes), beige slider (one eye), and black slider (two eyes). Two-eye white sliders have the click track from a click switch, but the click arm is simply omitted in linear keyboards. White slider, with one or two eyes, beige slider (two eyes), or grey slider (one eye).
#CLICKY VS LINEAR WINDOWS#
The NMB RT8255+ with Windows keys indicates that they were produced until 1995.
#CLICKY VS LINEAR SERIES#
Series 725 switches were introduced at least as early as 1985. Reinsertion of a stabiliser wire can require de-soldering a switch. There are at least two shapes of switch shell depending on whether a stabiliser is required, but the stabiliser version is used indiscriminately, probably to ease stock management. Series 725 switches also use custom stabilisers where the custom-shaped stabiliser wire clips directly under the switch shell. The only difference is that the spring is longer, resulting in a stiffer switch. Keyboards with Series 725 switches typically use a different switch for the space bar.
The "eyes" in the slider help to visually determine the switch variation where the same colour has been used for more than one switch type.Īs with the earlier Hi-Tek switches, the return spring has a tight cluster of turns in the centre as well as at each end. Within a couple of years of their introduction, the more familiar "space invader" design was introduced, that was maintained for the rest of the switch family's production lifetime the opening in the slider was reduced in size and made rectangular. The age of the keyboard can be estimated by the lack of dedicated LED switches. The Series 725 keyboards featuring these switches lack the NMB branding on the PCB, and do not appear to have a manufacturing date on the PCB either. The early switches had a rounded slider with a large opening at the top this "soap dispenser" or "Gundam" design is the one featured in Hi-Tek's patent. Each contact has two legs, for a total of four arranged in a square. Like the previous Hi-Tek High Profile switches, the slider contains a horizontal plastic bar that holds apart a pair of vertical electrical contacts, which close together when the slider is depressed or removed from the switch. As a result, there is no upper shell, as the slider also serves this purpose.
#CLICKY VS LINEAR FULL#
The return spring reaches to the top of the slider, meaning that the keycap sits over and around the slider, reducing the height requirement of the keyboard significantly while retaining full travel (the switches are specifically patented as "low profile"). Series 725 switches are notable for having a particularly unusual keycap mount - the slider is large and flat-topped and the keycap clips over the top. The series was also referred to as NMB Hi-Tek when the relationship between Hi-Tek and NMB was not known.
The Chinese name for them is "怒熊", translating to Fury Bear or Angry Bear. Series 725 switches are commonly known as space invader switches, due to their resemblance to the enemy characters in Taito Corporation's Space Invaders game from the late 1970s. These switches are used primarily, if not solely, in keyboards manufactured by Hi-Tek and NMB. Series 725 is a family of metal contact switches designed by Hi-Tek Corporation in the early 1980s, and patented post-introduction in 1984. A space invader that the switches are named for