Odd Switch Short IV: AEBoards Raed HE/Naevy EC
In case you’re wondering why there’s this article this weekend and not a full length review, you can thank one bad case of atypical bacterial pneumonia for this one!
For those of you stumbling into this article and just now hearing about the AEBoards Raed Hall Effect (HE) and Naevy Electrocapacitive (EC) switches for the very first time, these MX-compatible switch prototypes are actually something that I’m not covering for the very first time. While I am the only content creator out there that I am aware of who has these switches, previously SwitchOddities and I debuted these at the tail end of our panel presentation titled ‘The Untold Tales of Unsold Switches’ at 2024’s ‘That Windy City Keeb Meet’ in Chicago. Now while I would normally go ahead and highly encourage everyone to go watch that portion of the presentation on YouTube to get the full vibe and ambiance of these switches being debuted to the world for the very first time before continuing on, this is the one and only time I may actually recommend against that. This isn’t being pushed out of some weird embarrassment thing I have from being on camera, rather it’s because both SwitchOddities and I kind of missed out on some super obvious details about these switches that make them even more impressive than they were to the audience that got to all see and interact with them live there that day. While this could easily have been chalked up to us just simply trying to remember all of the information about the almost four dozen other switches we talked about in that presentation, mixed up with the stresses of running a booth with almost a thousand different switch samples for sale, it is quite possible we missed these details because of just how slick, seamless, and well thought out the design of these switches are. Let me show you why the future of MX-compatible HE/EC hybrid keyboards are going to get really interesting really quickly if AEBoards keeps making their progress on these…
Figure 1: AEBoards' Raed HE and Naevy EC switch prototypes.
At the surface level, the AEBoards Raed HE and Naevy EC switches look identically like maroon-red colored Topre-esque EC switch “units” that contain a keycap mount and slider, a rubber dome, and a plastic housing to contain all of these parts together. Identically red to that of previous AEBoards Raed switch offerings, these switches were made in collaboration with Tecsee and came pre-installed with matching red 55g tactile Topre-style domes and swappable pairs of 45g (Orange) and 35g (Yellow) tactile domes. Immediately after having opened my package from AEBoards and being greeted with the sight of these switches, I was reminded of the early Niz EC Plum domes and sliders that were sold many years ago and something that I recall having picked up quite early on in my switch collecting journey. Unlike those Niz Plum switches, as can be seen in Figure 2 below, though, the AEBoard switch units are noticeably smaller in size and so much so that they fit perfectly within a traditional MX plate cutout. Having tested this fit in plates across many different board kits and even some acrylic testers I have lying around my workspace, I can say pretty confidently that the Raed HE/Naevy EC switches fit in MX footprints effectively identically to that of any regular old MX switches. As they had informed me, the ultimate goal of these switches is to provide a set of offerings that would allow users to seamlessly convert all of their AEBoards keyboard kits from MX to either HE or EC mechanisms with a Topre-style feeling by only needing to swap out the PCBs and switches – no need for special types of plates, cases, or hard thinking during the groupbuy phase to decide on what you may want years in the future. At the current moment, I am unaware of any keyboards or keyboard kits which will allow you to do something even remotely similar to this, save with the slowly growing, yet still slim Geonworks boards which have both HE and MX compatible PCBs.
Figure 2: Size comparison between AEBoards Raed HE switch (Left) and Niz's Plum EC switch module (Right).
Figure 3: Color comparison between stock Red 55g domes (Left), Orange 45g domes (Middle), and Yellow 35g domes (Right).
Figure 4: AEBoards Raed HE and Naevy EC switches firmly fitting in an MX switch cutout tester both with and without rubber domes installed.
Figure 5: Loose stock 55g domes for the Raed HE and Naevy EC switches. Note that they affix to the slider housings by two points on opposite ends of the housing.
The point where I think that SwitchOddities and I lost out on some of the finer details of the Raed HE and Naevy EC switches that I’m showing off here in this article is in the pretty simple fact that they are both colored exactly the same as each other. Taking in the full weight of new, hybrid style switches that had never been seen before by anyone else in the world up to that point, it was pretty easy for us to gloss over the fact that these two very similar looking switches actually have just the tiniest bit of a difference going on behind their mechanisms. (In fact I think we had just assumed there was only one prototype present with the other ones being worked on as we debuted them!) Flipping over the slider housings themselves and removing the domes, you’ll see that the Naevy EC variant of these switches have a ‘flat’ base to them whereas the Raed HE ones have a small circular outcropping with a shiny magnet attached in the center for actuating a Hall Effect sensor. The extra level of genius required in designing these two different styles of switches so similarly that they can actually use the same style of rubber domes in between them seamlessly and looking virtually identical at a quick glance is, quite frankly, hard to describe. Consider how interesting this is from a pure modularity standpoint for enthusiasts who may want to buy these some day for their own builds. Not only are these switches offering your full keyboard builds two different typing experiences (Topre vs. MX) with three potential different mechanisms (MX vs. EC vs. HE), but they are doing so with cross compatible parts that allows you to only have to buy one set of domes and two sets of sliders to be able to access such – and you can even keep your fancy GMK keycaps too! Even the EC springs included with these switches easily and cleanly pop into the little tops of the rubber domes which would otherwise squeeze around the magnet in the HE style switch sliders. If only spring swapping or frankenswitching between MX-style HE and MX switches were possible, let alone as simple as what is capable here.
Figure 6: Raed HE (Left) and Naevy EC (Right) housing sliders with domes and springs removed showing subtle differences in construction for the different mechanisms employed.
Figure 7: Raed HE (Left) and Naevy EC (Right) housings sliders with domes and springs reinstalled to show how they look when in use. Note a thin rubber wire has been added inside of the EC spring coil for ping reduction purposes.
As well, I couldn’t round off such an interesting short switch article without throwing in some force curves for each combination of these switches and domes. While I truly can’t comment much on how these switches’ curves look relative to other topre-style switches out there as these are the only ones I’ve literally ever collected before, overall they paint quite a captivating picture of their feeling. Wide, full stroke arching tactile bumps are simply something that isn’t captured in the MX footprint at the minute and when displayed in such a fashion, I can completely understand why people feel a compulsion to want to type on these styles of rubber domes. Do note that everything recorded here, though, is comprised of production prototypes and could very well change or be tweaked prior to being fully released. In addition to any potential changes that may come with these tactile domes, Aeryxz, who is one of the owners of AEBoards, had stated that they are also working on some form of a ‘linear’ dome in addition to the ones shown off here as well.
Figure 8: Comparative force curve diagram of the Stock Red 55g, Orange 45g, and Yellow 35g dome prototypes of the Raed Hall Effect switches.
Figure 9: Comparative force curve diagram of the Stock Red 55g, Orange 45g, and Yellow 35g dome prototypes of the Naevy Electrocapacitive switches.
That’s about all I have for this short article. If you’re interested in seeing these switches continue development and hit the market one day, seriously consider reaching out to AEBoards and share your support with them. While I already feel lucky enough to have been gifted these for testing and for the collection, I feel even more so lucky to have them as it feels like I’m physically getting to hold the start of something that could be quite big... The Raed HE and Naevy EC switches really do seem to have a possibility to provide Topre like typing experiences and never before seen mechanism interconvertibility within the MX footprint for the custom mechanical keyboard scene.
Figure 10: I do also wonder what they would look like in OG Naevy switch blue too...