Custom keyboards

[brittle jacinth]

Man after scrolling through I'm tempted to build a couple of keyboards.

[jolly coral]

what did you have in mind?

👀

[livid mason]

If you have a layout and a budget, I'm pretty sure we can make some recommendations

[brittle jacinth]

Not sure honestly.

I was mostly going to wing it lol.

[brittle jacinth]

What layout? My budget would be around 900 and maybe over 1k?

[jolly coral]

Then probably a good idea to start with a budget so you don't get into too much trouble

[jolly coral]

For one or two keyboards?

[brittle jacinth]

One

[jolly coral]

I don't think there are any that many keyboards that expensive

Of course crazy expensive boards do exist

[brittle jacinth]

Woah

[jolly coral]

But you're just buying almost an NFT

So basically, no budget limits

Probably surf through Keychron (www.keychron.com) and see what appeals to you

They have all the layouts and good standard keyboard features

[brittle jacinth]

Alrighty I will look through them

Thank you boss

Hopefully I find something if not that's alright as well

[livid mason]

There are, but they aren't worth

[jolly coral]

yeah, I've edited my statement

some of those group buys are bonkers

[livid mason]

Just check keychron for their layout

Keychron is amazing for easy value and accessibility, but they aren't the best in terms of looks or sound profile

Once you find a layout you like, we can then discuss sound profile, colorway, etc

That way we can narrow down the keyboard for you, especially since you basically don't have a budget

Some keyboards are also easier to build in than others, so thay could also be taken into consideration

[jolly coral]

such an accurate description of Keychron boards

[livid mason]

The Freya might be the only one worth imho rn, as it basically has a smart watch built into the knob

[jolly coral]

or so it promises

Hipyo's prototype Freya wasn't quite working as intented 😅

[livid mason]

While not my keyboards, my first 4 or so builds were all keychrons, helping my friend build his collection while I was learning how to build before I did my Wind x98

[livid mason]

Keybored's keeb seemed pretty nice

https://youtu.be/PManLoiGceo?si=wYrD4y-rFdOptAdU

[jolly coral]

yeah, same BS as Hipyo:

that's why the click bait question as the title for the video

[livid mason]

I never pay attention to the titles other than keyboard name lol

[jolly coral]

I have to say, I was quite disappointed with the RT100, that screen didn't work as advertised

[livid mason]

They are all clickbait in the keyboard side of yt

[livid mason]

F

I'm loving the simplicity of my QK100 screen

[jolly coral]

as many users eventually reported when the actual product was delivered

[jolly coral]

RT100 tried to get fancy, and it just completely didn't work

good thing I was just looking for green-ish keyboard in the tone that EPOMAKER made it

[livid mason]

Date/Time

Gifs

Current tri-mode setting (wired, Bluetooth, or 2.4)

That's all I need

[brittle jacinth]

Understood

[livid mason]

Cpu Temps would be nice, but that's it

[brittle jacinth]

Sorry for short reply I'm at work atm

[livid mason]

All g

[jolly coral]

we're just shooting the s*** here

come join us at the water cooler at your own time, no pressure

[livid mason]

^ this lol

[jolly coral]

anyways, pretty excited:

[livid mason]

Nice

[jolly coral]

"Griffin" is going to get done tonight

[livid mason]

I really am trying to hold back from buying a Zoom 98

[jolly coral]

those sexy side LEDs

[livid mason]

I need to save money, but like

Another themed keyboard would be so nice

I kinda wanna make a Silver Wolf (from Honkai Star Rail) keeb

[jolly coral]

https://tenor.com/view/chefs-kiss-french-chef-perfect-dish-excellent-food-perfection-gif-4293238202955520616

[livid mason]

And the side LEDs would be perfect for that

[jolly coral]

ooo, do it on the Lavender board:

[livid mason]

That was what I was thinkinf

But the problem

I'm broke a/f rn

And I need to finish buying parts for my Persona 3 PC build

[jolly coral]

get @brittle jacinth to spot you 🤪

you get the kick of building a fresh themed board

[livid mason]

@brittle jacinth commission me to build a keeb for you? XD

Jkjk

[jolly coral]

https://tenor.com/view/iu-gif-27617229

[brittle jacinth]

I would

[livid mason]

.> wait, srs?

[brittle jacinth]

I'll just like a matching keyboard with my build yknow?

[jolly coral]

what's your build?

[livid mason]

What's your PC build?

[brittle jacinth]

Yeah idk what is needed exactly but hopefully it's not too much

It's an eva theme pc

The case from asus

So far I have everything purple and green

[livid mason]

Eva 01 or 02?

Oh Eva 01

EASY

my first build was an Eva 01 build my friend was throwing together to teach me how to build

[jolly coral]

oh snap, EVA-01

I have the #1165911927252328468!

[brittle jacinth]

Siii

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the gpu

It sold out when I woke up

[brittle jacinth]

That's awesome

[livid mason]

Ok. Get this keycap set

https://drop.com/buy/drop-full-metal-gmk-mecha-01-r2?mode[0]=shop_open&mode[1]=shop_open&defaultSelectionIds=983024&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=20609710497&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_keyword=&utm_placement=&utm_network=x%3Am%3A%3A&utm_device=&gad_source=1

And this cable

https://drop.com/buy/drop-fu11-meta1-mecha-01-coiled-yc8-keyboard-cable

[brittle jacinth]

O

Alright

[jolly coral]

and you just need a black base

so time to figure out the size of the board that you want

[brittle jacinth]

The cable works with any?

[jolly coral]

figure out what all the % numbers mean

[brittle jacinth]

I am very clueless for these things lol

[jolly coral]

I think he meant to post this link for the cable: https://drop.com/buy/drop-fu11-meta1-mecha-01-coiled-yc8-keyboard-cable

and yes, most custom keyboards are now using USB-C

at least the ones that you should be buying

[livid mason]

If it doesn't use USB C nowadays, it isn't worth it

[jolly coral]

you should run away from the keyboard, as quickly as you can

[brittle jacinth]

Haha I'll be sure to do that

[livid mason]

Either a black board or a deep purple board would look great

I'm looking at keyboards rn

But you want to see what % keyboard you want

I personally run an 1800 style, also known as a 96%-98% (depending on board)

[brittle jacinth]

So from 65 and up I like

[livid mason]

Ok, how often do you use F row shortcuts?

[jolly coral]

https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q5-pro-qmk-via-wireless-custom-mechanical-keyboard?variant=40662103949401

[brittle jacinth]

Very often

[livid mason]

Then a TKL or 1800 might be yout best bet

[jolly coral]

Q5 Pro is available in Purple right now

$210

[livid mason]

Oh that is pretty

But would it match the keycap set?

[little sequoia]

New Hololive keycap set :D
Still no 7u support D:

[livid mason]

The colorway is super cute

Ngl, I want a Dokibird set. The woman is a gremlin

[jolly coral]

kind of your own fault for getting a board with a 7u spacebar instead of the standard 6.25u, tbh 🤪

[little sequoia]

But hhkb symmetry looks so nice tho

[jolly coral]

can't deny the sexiness of symmetry

[little sequoia]

WS Stellar on Mode Tempo

[jolly coral]

oh yeah, absolutely

anything Drops carry will kill on nearly all boards

[little sequoia]

Kinda want one as well. Wallet doesn’t as that might mean an entire new keyboard kit

[jolly coral]

alright, I really need to get Griffin done tonight, thanks for the motivation talk guys

[livid mason]

I FORGOT THEY MADE EVA-01 SWITCHES

https://kono.store/products/ev-01-linear-switches

They also have Eva-00 and Eva-02

[little sequoia]

Totally didn’t have stellar keycaps sitting around for 5 months and tempo sitting around for 1 month before building

[jolly coral]

you're really planning this EVA-01 build for @brittle jacinth...

we're not even sure if he'll like linear switches 😅

[livid mason]

Again, my first build my friend ever had me help him with was an Eva-01 keeb on a Space65

This is fun for me

[brittle jacinth]

Okay I'm back for a few

Ah

Guess not I'll brb

[livid mason]

I DM'd you

I'm willing to work with you on this project

@jolly coral

Opinions on the Neo80 Ano Purple?

https://www.qwertykeys.com/products/neo80?variant=44175314977011

For the eva build

Nvm

I think the QK75N comes in a better purple, the problem is the silver knob

https://www.qwertykeys.com/products/qk75n?variant=43978822090995

F

It is a preorder

[jolly coral]

Just build on a Keychron Q5 special edition. I have the Q6 and it'll serve as a great base for an EVA-01 build.

[livid mason]

He doesn't use numpad, so I'm leaning into TKL range

[jolly coral]

Oh

[livid mason]

Yep

[jolly coral]

Q1 has the purple and US stock too: https://a.co/d/8j0UBvn

And it's currently got a 22% coupon on Amazon:

[livid mason]

Nice, DMing him now

I know you mentioned vinyls, but I suck at applying them, so I'm staying far away from that on a build that is not my own

Although I may bug you later for some Persona ones once my P3 Reload case comes in in May

@jolly coral hey, can you send me a.link to the Drop Eva keycaps?

It's not letting me.get a good link to share

[jolly coral]

https://drop.com/buy/drop-full-metal-gmk-mecha-01-r2

[jolly coral]

Yeah, I've just realized that even if I've sent you the vinyls, you will have trouble applying them 😅

Thus I've retracted the message

[livid mason]

Lol

[jolly coral]

And the switches are here!

[livid mason]

LETS GOOOO

[jolly coral]

Got hit with the new Hololive keycaps ad, and I got super curious about the keyboard:

Did some reverse image search and the closest image of the board that I can find is this:

Does anyone know what board this is? Maybe @idle rose can shine some light on this?

The keycaps are cute AF. Really love the good mix of pastel colors

[swift basalt]

Rama Works U80-A

[jolly coral]

Thank you! https://www.tomshardware.com/features/rama-works-u80-a-custom-keyboard

Guess it doesn't exist anymore 😭

[swift basalt]

Best bet would prob be mechmarket on reddit.

[jolly coral]

It's cool. I was just curious... HYTE curious 🤣

It's amazing to me how much the entire custom keyboard scene has been "democratized"

It's a much more approachable hobby compared to even a couple years ago

[livid mason]

Even when the x98 came.out, it is a lot easier now

[livid mason]

@jolly coral update on Gryphon?

[jolly coral]

almost done with a double session game stream

I'll get it later tonight

[jolly coral]

The Griffin has been built:

And it actually registered on the bathroom scale 😅

One last video on the rotator:

I'll eventually process the video with the typing sounds, but for now, my review of the Griffin. It's awful.

Don't do it

In fact, stay away from metal keycaps in general

When I picked up the board, a bunch of keycaps fell out:

The keycaps stem tolerances were awful

It looks great from far away, but up close, you get this:

And the typing experience was on par with my meme board

There are no notches on F and J

The keycaps are so wobbly

That space bar keeps popping up 💩

Essentially, there's no reason not to get the keycaps in shiny gold instead of matte; you're not going to use this board regularly

It's great to look at, but that about it

As Hipyo always titles his videos, I've built the Griffin so you don't have to

We'll see how my wife reacts to it

For now, I sleep 🥱

[livid mason]

Wow

It looks so bad up close lol

[hearty lily]

it looks so cool far away!! But up close its

its..

[jolly coral]

It's major 💩

But apparently my wife did play with the board this morning before work

Her comment: I really like the switches!

Let me go dig my own grave now

[hearty lily]

oh man

hope you got a ladder for the grave

[jolly coral]

https://tenor.com/view/artc-dig-your-own-grave-jump-in-and-die-death-dig-gif-21501060

Bless my wife's heart... Always trying to say nice things and overlook flaws 🥲

(marrying me being the case and point 💩)

[stone oracle]

@jolly coral i like that keychrpm purple keyboard looked nice tho would have to find some orange keycaps

[jolly coral]

I have a Q6 in the purple if you want to see what the color actually looks like: #1071070910989209661 message

And some more pictures when the switches were swapped: #1071070910989209661 message

[stone oracle]

Ill have to revist keychron when home i would still need to find some orange caps or something but it would work and be unique

[jolly coral]

It's pretty close to Don's color

[stone oracle]

Yea i saw that

Tho i played arpund with a beast g0han from dbz wallpaper lol

[jolly coral]

If you keep it simple, orange caps can be had for pretty cheaply: https://a.co/d/cnhnDOK

See above with Griffin about my recent lesson with expensive keycaps 😅

This one is pretty cool too, if you want a darker palette: https://a.co/d/f7koU6H

[stone oracle]

That orang matches better with my other pc coolant

[jolly coral]

Anyways, so disappointed with the Gold keycaps that I'm seriously considering ordering these:

And try to get a refund from Awekeys

Oh wait, WTF, Awekeys actually has an entire article on this: https://awekeys.com/blogs/news/quick-guide-to-adjust-tight-or-loose-metal-keycap

🤦‍♂️

They opened the article trying to blame the switches:

Lovely, guess I'll be tuning each 104 keys

And I got the Kailh's box switches, so it's definitely not the switches problem

Wow, hope people are not working on the keycaps bare, at least use a towel to prevent scratching:

Guess this is what I'll be doing tonight

😅

Contacting Awekeys will probably just land me this article 💩

[wide sparrow]

I wonder if there is any 100% or even 120% Alice keyboards

[jolly coral]

Q13: https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q13-pro-alice-layout-qmk-via-wireless-custom-mechanical-keyboard

[wide sparrow]

96%? What is the missing 4%?

Ah maybe it is that little segment with Scroll lock and home buttons

[livid mason]

Actually this is somewhat known

There are some switches that have been known for splitting keycaps, but that was a LONG time ago (and Cherry MX Purples). Awekey shouldn't have that with modern caps

[wide sparrow]

MX purples? How does a switch break a cap?

If anything I'd imagine switches being the most likely to break thing

[jolly coral]

Yes, but you have the extra button above the numpad and the 5 macros keys to the left

[jolly coral]

It's clearly a production problem of getting inconsistent gaps between the keycap stems, regardless, I'll tune the caps tonight

[jolly coral]

PBT is very brittle, so if the stem is too thick and you end up putting outward pressure on the keycap stems, and they might just break off

Precision tooling is the name of the game

But with metallic keycap stems, I guess there is more plasticity (malleable), so I can see why Awekeys is telling users to fine tune each cap

First time using full metal keycaps here, so I definitely didn't know about this

Just trying to use a ladder to get myself out of my grave 💩

My wife is NOT happy working on the Griffin tonight

So I better fix this fast

[wide sparrow]

So the stems aren't metal?

[jolly coral]

Standard keycaps are made from a single material, ABS or PBT

[livid mason]

The cross part of the switch stem is slightly too large and outside of expected tolerances

MX purples are a key switch a YouTuber made in partnership with Cherry for hitting a million subscribers

Ended up being a limited release thing that was a strict upgrade over MX Browns, but they are sold out and no longer in production

[jolly coral]

got the kitchen scale out this morning and got an exact weight for the Griffin:

the bathroom scale was reasonably accurate!

passed out last night before getting to tuning the keycaps

hoping to get to it later this morning

[jolly coral]

yeah

I'm going to have to return these caps

I don't think there's any way to "tune" these caps

first of all, using Awekeys' instructions, this happened on my 3rd cap:

then I tried to work on the most offensive key, the space bar and realized what the problem actually is:

not sure if the pictures are clear, but here is a standard cap:

due to the keycap stem design, there's no way to ever stop the side-to-side motion on the larger keys

even with stabilizers

because the keycap stems are OPEN on these Awekeys caps

there's NO WAY to prevent the wide keys from popping up:

because the keycap stems can never fully "grab" onto the switch stems

guess I'll be contacting Awekeys to figure out how to return these back to them

I'll keep the periodic table ones because standard keys are less of an issue

but the wider keys just don't work

I'm surprised that there aren't more negative reviews about these aweful keycaps

[hearty lily]

Aw man that actually sucks!

The fact the stems cant grip the section is really sad

[jolly coral]

right, and you can't blame the stabs either

these are screw in stabs from Keychron

and ZERO wobbles from any other "normal" keycaps

I can't even begin to communicate how frustrated I am at this situation right now

and more importantly, these "keeb" reviewers on YouTube

there's plenty of videos on these Awekeys caps

[hearty lily]

The gap is so wide my god

[jolly coral]

I haven't seen one that has any metions of this obvious problem with the keycap stem design

I'm beginning to wonder if this is why Hipyo hasn't made any videos with these caps yet

[hearty lily]

Is it possible that the keycap would have been built wrong..?

[hearty lily]

Also yeah good point

[jolly coral]

he clearly got them

he's mentioned about these gold caps in several of his videos

[hearty lily]

I dont remember ever seeing a video about the keycaps though

[jolly coral]

they're around: https://youtu.be/P8Y0HH6dvyc

I'm rewatching the video and noticing some very unpleasant points about the video

the keycap stems are never shown

and the keycaps are actually not straight, just like mine:

the reviewer never actually bounced on the spacebar

instead did the demo on the backspace key instead where the stabs and the switch are closely spaced

[hearty lily]

I can see him hit the space bar

but I cant see how it reacts

But why is it tilted and not straight

[jolly coral]

the actual sound check was done on the backspace key

this is just so BS

I feel like I've been tricked by infomercial

anyways

I'll continue to update here on my interaction with Awekeys

but hopefully they'll take these caps back

[hearty lily]

Yeah keep me updates, this honestly was very sad

As a learning UX researcher

I would have taken note instnatly of the tilted keyboard keys

Personally I dont like them being not lined up

[jolly coral]

the tolerance on these keycaps are awful

I've shared a close-up picture of how the keys actually look above

[hearty lily]

Im looking back at the pictures

The fact the stem broke on one of them and the other stems are so big

This is rather poor structure design :/

[jolly coral]

yeah, so far only small YouTube channels have really reviewed these:
https://youtu.be/_IVP1d4avDE
https://youtu.be/TojAWjn1QbE

found it:

those are NOT the keycaps I've got

[hearty lily]

Wait why are your keycaps so wide??

They look nothing like the videos

Somethign smells off

[jolly coral]

"sample" vs. actual

[hearty lily]

Yeah actually, this isnt right 😠

Arent though keycaps pricey?

[jolly coral]

you mean like $400 expensive?

[hearty lily]

....

is it too late to get a refund

[jolly coral]

Awekeys' fix pictures are actual: #1071070910989209661 message

[jolly coral]

guess I'll find out

but there's no fixing a bad keycap stem design!

[hearty lily]

Yeah, that is pretty bad keycap design

Also I get cherry caps are different but having keeping to one set minimizes the issues

the fact you have to adjust them automatically will cause some issues

[jolly coral]

it's not even adjustment

there's no adjustment here

these just simply don't work

at least not for typing

found another shot from the "sample" review:

[hearty lily]

YEAH that doesnt look anywhere the same

[jolly coral]

Awekeys did a bait and switch

[hearty lily]

actually, holy

I hope you can email them for a refund cause this is not what the product was advertise

[jolly coral]

let's keep this quiet until I get my refund 🤫

don't want Awekeys to just disappear

[hearty lily]

[jolly coral]

Okay, just pulled out the periodic table set:

clearly they're selling caps with 2 different stem designs

(one works, and one is pure BS)

[hearty lily]

Why would they design 2 different steam styles

[jolly coral]

obviously the one on the right is easier to manufacture... 🤪

[hearty lily]

sad

[jolly coral]

done

finished pulling all the caps off

as I was pulling caps, I think I've figured out why

the "correct" stems are much more difficult to manufacturer

there's no way to "tune" or adjust if the tolerances were off

I bet Awekeys got a bunch of complaints about keycaps being too tight/loose to fit onto the various switches

unlike plastic, there's no flex to the metal stems

worse yet, the "tight" keycaps ended up damaging the stems on the switch

since metal is much harder than plastic

so some genius at Awekeys came up with the idea to just make all the stems "open"

that way the customer can adjust the tightness

and Awekeys can just point the customer to their "helpful" adjustment article

but in the process created the non-working wide keys

what a great concept of making metal keycaps, but so sad that it was poorly executed

[livid mason]

That's awful

I'm sorry you have to deal with that

[jolly coral]

Now I have a decision to make. Do I just scrap the entire Griffin project or order those gold plated plastic keycaps from Redragon

[livid mason]

Gold plated is better than nothing

[jolly coral]

I mean, the Awekeys are plated too, just on metal instead

Correction: recycled metal

😅💩

[livid mason]

Sure

But like

If it is plated on plastic, it'll have a better sound profile, and likely have a good stem

[jolly coral]

A plastic sound profile, ABS to be exact.

My wife was rather enjoying the metallic ping from the wobbly space bar hitting the brass plate 🤪

[livid mason]

Abs isn't bad

Especially because it is plated

So you'll hear the metal, but it'll be a bit more muted

[jolly coral]

And then she proceeded to tell me to fix the wobble

[livid mason]

Is... is your wife a cat?

Lol

[jolly coral]

She's... Special

I guess it won't hurt to ask her this time before ordering

Or I can just come up with a completely different theme

Like something with these Ceramic Keycaps 🤔 https://www.cerakey.com/products/full-set-v2

Ack, just read up on Awekeys return policy:

I've made the 7 days, but will be out quite a bit of money with their 35% restocking fee along with international shipping

These caps are heavy too

[livid mason]

Do they not have a US address that you can send to?

[jolly coral]

Guess I will find out

[jolly coral]

Oh gawd, just hopped onto Awekeys Discord, it's pretty ugly. Seems like a bunch of people got their keycaps and are all having the same problems. Someone shared Hipyo's short: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/M_P7_8tBTV0

[livid mason]

Omg

The shift key just popped off

Wtf

How did this make it past basic QA?

[wide sparrow]

I am now beginning to feel glad I didn't buy the periodic table of key caps

[jolly coral]

QC, but yeah, lots of angry customers, like much worse than the #🤌-y-series pre-order complaints

Apparently the user "support" has arrived at this tool: https://a.co/d/6Rt0Cbv

But Awekeys is not equipped to handle this volume of complaints

I'll just have to wait and see, tool vs support

Which arrives first 🤪

[livid mason]

nah, if its widespread, it shows their initial protype was faulty, so the first level of Quality Assurance failed here, rather than the Quality Control of later manufacturing

[livid mason]

omfg

[jolly coral]

Good point 👍

[jolly coral]

And people are asking to be comped

[livid mason]

they should be

they should be refunded in full

screw the restocking fee

[jolly coral]

And that's where things got heated because the lone support guy copy and pasted the wrong response

🤣

[livid mason]

oh no

[jolly coral]

Pasting company policies during these exchanges is a BAD idea 💩

Poor guy

[livid mason]

i feel bad for the dude, but holy shit

[jolly coral]

The latest from Awekeys:

Guess I'll be working with support and figure this out

It's not the switches problem when you can't machine all your stems the same size

Reading through the prior conversations, apparently Cerakey had the same problem and thus switched to plastic stems for their "V2"

Guess I've just entered the crazy world of "high-end" keycaps

🥲

I've had a much better time with my <$20 caps from Amazon 💩

[livid mason]

what about your damaged keycap

are they gonna do anything about that?

because this is obviously something they scuffed

and expecting consumers to use a screwdriver and pry the stems in various directions in order to tune their keycaps is not the way

[stone oracle]

So wait

They know of a issue offer a solution but want u to pay shippin

Umm no they should cover the shipping charge othereise its not free

[jolly coral]

I'll find out. Apparently they're sending replacement caps left and right to everyone

[livid mason]

This

[jolly coral]

Get this, shipping will be "around $10-15", I bought the tool off Amazon for $12

So much for the tool for being "free"

[livid mason]

Screw that noise

[jolly coral]

Feel like an ad for a "free" watch from the car magazine ads

You just have to pay for S&H

🤪

Or the free coin

[stone oracle]

Now in my case where my dumb butt broke the displayport cable on my first y70 and they sent me a rrplacement i could understand me paying for that because it was my messup not a faulty cable

I learned tho from it lol

[jolly coral]

Yeah, dealing with the Awekeys reps is making me appreciate the awesome team here at HYTE so much more

Anyways, hoping I can actually fix these caps

[stone oracle]

I been bouncing back and forth between drop and keychron

[jolly coral]

My wife is getting annoyed that I took away her "Griffin"

Especially when I accidentally mentioned how much the keycaps were

[stone oracle]

Lol

[jolly coral]

"You paid how much for that junk?!?"

"That's actually the price of a purse 🧐"

"I didn't really need another keyboard"

Once again,

https://tenor.com/view/artc-dig-your-own-grave-jump-in-and-die-death-dig-gif-21501060

[stone oracle]

https://drop.com/buy/drop-cstm80-mechanical-keyboard?defaultSelectionIds=981345 this was one i was lookin at

Since its got topplates

I could get a purple top covrr or orange

[livid mason]

This is why I don't talk about the cost of my MTG collection

Little does my mom know, at the time that I bought my first car, my main deck was worth more than the car I bought

[stone oracle]

Heck theres things i dont tell my mom how much i spend lol

Just like my 1700 buck video card

[swift basalt]

Carbon Fiber

[stone oracle]

@swift basalt i thought of that 2 lol

[swift basalt]

I wish they made a CF base. I'd prob buy.

[stone oracle]

I just dont know if i wanna spend another 130 just for a top plate covet

[brittle pawn]

Hello, I was directed here from tech:
I recently preordered the gamers keycaps https://hyte.com/store/hololive-gamers-capture-the-moment-keycaps?v=313 and now need to shop for a keyboard to use them on.
I'm looking for preferably a 75% but 80% is fine too. I liked mx reds when I was testing out a few switches at a friend's place. I've gotten some recommendations but also confusing comments about the compatibility of the keycaps?

[jolly coral]

Pick a layout first, or else it will be difficult to recommend

Keychron's website is a good place to start

[brittle pawn]

looking that up now

Okay so it'd just be a US qwerty one then? Unless I'm misunderstanding what a layout means. Have a few keychron tabs open 👍

[jolly coral]

Keychron has the percentages for each model

Which keys are you willing to do without?

[brittle pawn]

Yeah I've already done that too. 75% is what I'd like but 80% is fine too

[jolly coral]

Next, what is your budget? Keychron has everything from plastic to full metal

[brittle pawn]

All of Keychron seems to be within my budget far as I saw

Seems that https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-k2-pro-qmk-via-wireless-mechanical-keyboard?variant=40533886107737 would fit fine

[jolly coral]

And that's related to the price range you're going to be shopping at

[jolly coral]

The closest metal version is the Q1 with the plastic counterpart being the V1

But the K-series have the really tight frames without much of a edge/rim

[brittle pawn]

Thank you

[jolly coral]

Before you order from Keychron, be sure to see if you want to pick up switches from them

Keychron (if they have in stock) have switches at really good prices

If you're paying for shipping already

Here's a linear switch summary testing video: https://youtu.be/Z01pisakHDQ

[brittle pawn]

oof that'll be a vid to watch later today

[jolly coral]

Definitely not comprehensive of everything out there, but helps with knowing some of differences of the various linear switches

[livid mason]

If you have a larger budget for the keeb, another good brand is qwertykeys

The QK75N looks to be a promising board

https://www.qwertykeys.com/products/qk75n?variant=43978821959923

But it does cost a lot more

So keep that in mind

[jolly coral]

This is just straight click bait... And I clicked 🤪 https://youtu.be/Gta8sOgmR2E

Love how Keychron has just become the de facto board to compare against 😅

But didn't miss the huge disclaimer at the start of the video:

[hearty lily]

pfft

[wide sparrow]

Well... I realized now that I was sent the wrong stabilizers but so far otherwise all is well on the build so far. I just wonder if VIA is needed to program rgb

[jolly coral]

Yes, VIA is used for the RGB

Much easier than to find the secret keys

🤪

[wide sparrow]

Secret keys?

[jolly coral]

Usually the boards are programmed by default to have RGB adjustments keys in one of the layers

[wide sparrow]

oh

[jolly coral]

And it's different for every manufacturer... 😅

[hearty lily]

@jolly coral Question

actually Ill probably ask this in the off topic

[jolly coral]

K. Answered in #off-topic

[wide sparrow]

Having to assemble the stabilizers and pry them into the holes made me so stressed if I was putting too much pressure

Finally getting to the point of putting this project together.

[livid mason]

omg, these keycaps are cute

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806029570373.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt

[jolly coral]

Which switches did you end up going with?

[wide sparrow]

Drop x Kalih "Elf Purples"

facedesk one of the artisan keycaps is having friction with the frame and won't bounce back freely

Okay... flipping the order of the two... helped

It now can bounce back but it's still rubbing against the frame

[wide sparrow]

I got the keys all in place... had to file the edges slightly on the Lord of the Rings key to remove friction with the frame unfortunately but... now no resistance

Now I just have to program this thing

I feel like I can finally relax on this keyboard thing

@jolly coral I need help on VIA...

[jolly coral]

Nice. It's Idobao x Kailh, but nice mid-point light spring linear. Should sound great with the foam you've installed.

[jolly coral]

Keeping things simple with white pudding caps, should be great for the RGB lighting

[jolly coral]

You might have to download the .json file if VIA can't handle the key mapping automatically

I recently had to do that with the Q6 Max

CannonKeys has a short tutorial on how to load custom .json keyboard maps for VIA: https://docs.cannonkeys.com/via-json-loading/

[hearty lily]

thats a unqiue lookign keybaord

[jolly coral]

Can't wait to see the board lit up

[hearty lily]

same here

[stone oracle]

@jolly coral may have fpund my keybaord love urban camo lol

[jolly coral]

those are definitely really cool. I don't see a whole lot of camouflage keycaps on the market. hopefully they'll actually sell the board soon.

[stone oracle]

Yea only issue im reading is fhere newer keyboards seem to have a bad rep of quality

[livid mason]

See if they sell just the leycaps

Keycaps

[hearty lily]

Those keycaps are so clean

[livid mason]

I love them

[jolly coral]

Look at that beautiful setup

[livid mason]

Can't wait until I get my PC case

[jolly coral]

Looking forward to your post in #1068286502653677658

Those nendoroids from #1217473726598221925 need a home 😅

[livid mason]

they arent going in the case, and my curio cabinet holds the family collection of Disney statues

if i can get a new large shelf, I might put them in the Kokomi case once i transfer my PC to the new case, and then put the Kokocase on display on said shelf

[livid mason]

These keycaps have a subtle matte texture to them that I really like

I just hope they don't wear out too easoly

[jolly coral]

I guess this $15 tool is going to save my $400 keycaps 💩

[jolly coral]

Spent the last 3 hours tightening every single keycap

It's better than before:

However, the keycaps are still wobbly

I'm very tempted to just glue the keycaps to the switches at this point

[livid mason]

Careful, you risk getting.glue stuck to the switch housing, making the switch useless

The fact that this is still the case, at this point, i.wouldnt be surprised if there is a class action against them

[jolly coral]

Okay, I was using the tool wrong last night. Here's the official video from Awekeys:

Maybe I should have marked the video with spoiler tags, but I was very disturbed by the content

[livid mason]

wait

WHAT

THEY EXPECT YOU TO HAMMER YOUR $400 KEYCAPS?

[jolly coral]

Okay, glad I'm not the only one that found the video to be disturbing

But I guess you can get pretty violent when you have a full metal construction

Definitely not for the faint of heart to own these keycaps

[wide sparrow]

Maybe one should just buy from a manufacturer that pays for better manufacturing tolerances?

[jolly coral]

okay, I was posting on Awekeys Discord while I was adjusting the keycaps this morning

"adjustment"

it turns out, I didn't even need to seat the tool onto the stem before smashing

I really picked up the pace after figuring that out

but here's before and after hitting with a hammer:

and what the difference between an adjusted keycap vs. loose keycap:

"S" was adjusted, zero wobble, "D" was what came out of the box, absolute junk

and finally, here's the type test: https://youtu.be/VRxWFbexxZA

still slight height differences, but at least the keycaps aren't jumping out from the keyboard:

[merry valley]

i think you got keycraps instead of keycaps

[jolly coral]

after hanging out at the Awekeys Discord for a bit, I found out why they had to switch the stem design

the "closed" MX stem was having issues not fitting when the stem is made too tight

and there was no way to adjust/fix besides replacing the key

Awkeys make the "open" MX stem, but made every key too loose

they've discovered their mistake, and have now been sending the adjustment tool with every V2 keycaps

unfortunately for those that purchased early before Awekeys made the changes to their packaging, we had to figure this one out ourselves as Awekeys was silencing their chats

[jolly coral]

Yeah, fortunately, I was able to figure a way out to salvage these keycraps. It's working as intented now. Very unique set of keycaps.

[merry valley]

lol i thought my black acoustic bass was a fingerprint magnet till i saw these

[jolly coral]

it's pretty bad, especially since my wife has sweaty hands

I was cleaning the keycaps during the adjustment process

fortunately, it cleans pretty easily

but I just thought it was so appropriate that the solution to these keycraps was to smash them with a hammer

I don't think the Chinese mods on Awekeys Discord got all my "smashing" jokes

💩

[livid mason]

@jolly coral

[jolly coral]

People have suggested that as well, but it's actually pretty easy to pull out the hammer

[livid mason]

But that hurts me to think about

[jolly coral]

I think this was before it was revealed that these adjustment tools exist and people should NOT be using pliers and screwdrivers

[jolly coral]

These are not normal keycaps, so it's definitely breaking some of the conventional wisdom that we have learned to accept about what is okay to do to keycaps

Imagine cutting into a PC case for the first time with a Dremel, it felt like that

[jolly coral]

looks like I've found US stock for the "official" adjustment tool:

Thock King had it for $6 and I got it in 4 days with $4 shipping: https://www.thockking.com/collections/keycap-puller/products/aluminum-keycap-puller-for-mechanical-keyboards

Awekeys was giving these out for "free" but was charging for $10-$15 shipping from China

so when I came across this listing, I took a chance and ordered one

my wife has been hacking away on the Griffin and things are going well

looks like whacking the keycaps with a hammer was the fix these metal keycaps with the Open MX stems needed

[livid mason]

How does it sound now with everything fixed?

[jolly coral]

The same as the previous video, sans the keys popping off

It's very "thock", even with clicky switches

Here's the sound video: #1071070910989209661 message

[livid mason]

Damn, the density of those caps really to help deepen the sound

[jolly coral]

And that super distinctive metallic ping from the space bar, my wife loves that sound

[livid mason]

damn. I dont have the money, but i wanna build a new custom keeb

I wanna build a Silver Wolf keeb

[jolly coral]

I thought you just did the P3R?

And how's that EVA-01 assist coming along?

[livid mason]

we got a parts list together, then nothing after that

never heard back after

[jolly coral]

Bummer

[livid mason]

yeah, but its fun, I wanna build one just because its fun

[jolly coral]

Do a cheap one

💩

[livid mason]

nah, just hitting up some people i know who are interested in building

I might be able to convince them to commission me

[little girder]

eventually ill have proper keycaps for this but i dont atm so i had to use some extras from another keeb

Keeb is also full of holes

[jolly coral]

"proper keycaps" 🤣

[little girder]

well i stole some from my other keeb

[jolly coral]

Those look like caps to me 🤪

[little girder]

matching keycaps

i think imma get something like gmk tako extras or something

[jolly coral]

That's a "holy" keyboard 🤣

[little girder]

well its a holy60

[little girder]

https://kbdfans.com/products/holy60

[jolly coral]

I know

Guess it solves the chonky problems with full aluminum cases

[little girder]

the carbon fiber plate and the case foam with the new gatteron orange 2.0s sounds good

i like these over the jades on my wooting and my ks37b on my polar 65

[jolly coral]

Wait, the magnetic ones?

[little girder]

yep

this is a hall effect keeb atm with a rakka60 pcb

its also 8k hz

[jolly coral]

No wonder they sounded different

[little girder]

hall effect is love

[jolly coral]

How's the software side of things?

[little girder]

what software

[little girder]

we on the web browser

[jolly coral]

Like being able to program the keys

[little girder]

i got tap on my shift and etc as my arrow keys to make life ez

[jolly coral]

Oh geez

It's really there

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of turning 60-100ish keys into a full blown programmable gaming controller

The possibilities are just mind boggling

[little girder]

what in the discord compression

[little girder]

hall effect is the future

the only failure point is the he sensor itself and those will last almost forever

[wide sparrow]

https://tenor.com/view/over-thousands-or-millions-of-years-nate-calli-the-king-of-random-thousands-of-years-gif-17970312

[little girder]

hall effect is love

[little girder]

this is what i see

[livid mason]

Damn, I wanted to pick this up, but the pre-order closed

I wanted a hall-effect keeb for gaming

[little girder]

just get the new wooting 80he

[little girder]

https://kbdfans.com/collections/holy60/products/holy60-case

u can buy the case btw

https://wooting.io/wooting-60he-module/about

then order the wooting 60he+ module

[livid mason]

My friend and I have been messing with the wooting 60 he module for his build, and we can't seem to make it sound good

Even in a tofu60 case, a Baka60

Idk fam

Also, I was personally eyeballing the Rakka 60HE PCB

[little girder]

get ks-20 gatteron jades

the issue is mostly the lekker switches

[little girder]

https://www.gateron.com/products/gateron-ks-20-dual-rail-magnetic-orange-switch-sat?VariantsId=10779

id look into these

https://www.gateron.com/products/gateron-magic-jade-switch?VariantsId=10767

or these to make the wooting sound better

[jolly coral]

latest keyboard for my daughter arrived:

custom keycaps with all 5 Tokidoki Cherry Blossom Unicornos (Series 1):

accessories:

really annoying that Akko went proprietary with the USB connector

linear switches with hot swappable north-facing LEDs:

keyboard with all 5 of the Cherry Blossom Unicornos:

More pictures of the Unicornos in #1217473726598221925

[livid mason]

Good to know

I'll check em out with my friends

[jolly coral]

@idle rose, these, I've been hit hard by ads for these: https://drop.com/buy/drop-dcx-garnet-keycap-set

Otherwise, if you're looking for a slightly more affordable option, these Red Samurai knockoffs are good: https://a.co/d/6d0ndsl

Comes with plenty of optional keycaps if you don't want the EVA-02 look

However, seeing that you may be a March 7th fan from #off-topic, these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/385592425779

[idle rose]

oooo i these much better

[jolly coral]

Or in the March 7th classic colors: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806213324622.html

[jolly coral]

Black pudding keycaps on what looks like a Keychron 100% board

[low scarab]

well done! 100% correct it’s a keychron k10 pro with pudding keycaps from china!

[jolly coral]

I thought the keyboard looked familiar. I used a K10 Pro for the #1218493879066558565 keyboard: #1071070910989209661 message

[low scarab]

that build is amazing wow!

[low scarab]

yeah it’s a great keyboard. i’m not sure if it’s the keycaps but i find that i press the wrong keys a lot it’s a bit annoying

[jolly coral]

Probably the switches. That's why I don't like using linear switches. Too many accidental inputs, especially the linear switches with hair trigger 🥲

[low scarab]

yeah it’s super annoying 😦 is there another switch i can do to fix it?

[jolly coral]

Tactile or clicky switches. Clicky are the "typist" switches because of the huge tactile bump, but tend to be very loud and obnoxious for everyone else around you. Tactile is the in-between. Tactile bump but can come in silencers.

[low scarab]

oh ok cool. does linear have like an advancement or something competitively in games as the response time is so quick? also where should i get the switches from because a lot of places only sell like 20 at a time

[jolly coral]

Correct, for FPS games, you want that hair trigger

[jolly coral]

Wherever you can find them the cheapest

A lot of times you end up ordering from Ali Express

[low scarab]

oh so like fortnite would be good for linear? would tactile be a large difference ?

[low scarab]

perfect thanks

[low scarab]

oh ok cool

the difference colour of switched matter, right?

switches*

[jolly coral]

I personally have several boards and swap for what I'm doing, but my boards with tactile switches gets the most action

[jolly coral]

Colors are different from brand to brand, but you need to first figure out the type of switches that you want

[low scarab]

ohhh ok thanks - i don’t have the money for multiple lmao but i could try get keychron to sponsor me or sum

[low scarab]

thanks!

i guess like i could have the keybinds i use for gaming linear right ? then the others tactile? would that work

or would that be bad

[jolly coral]

You can do whatever you want with a custom keyboard 😅

I personally prefer having all the same switches

[low scarab]

thanks!

[low scarab]

ok! is it like wrong in the keyboard community to have different ones?

[jolly coral]

There's no right or wrong

But in terms of price to performance, it's hard to beat the Keychron Banana switches:

They're sold out right now

110 switches, you just have to pay for shipping

Mint is also a tactile, just slightly heavier

Both have a "top" bump

[low scarab]

oh wow i didn’t even know keychron sold switches, thanks!

[low scarab]

is that like in sound? or feel

[jolly coral]

Otherwise, Brown is the classic tactile switch with a "mid" bump

[jolly coral]

Both

[low scarab]

oh ok

i think i got red switches rn

they are in stock here

[jolly coral]

Great

[low scarab]

is there a good place to get keycaps? mine are cool right now but they don’t match my aesthetic yk?

[jolly coral]

Yeah, red is linear

[low scarab]

i’ll order!

[low scarab]

ok thanks!

yeah it’s annoying as when i’m typing and i hit another button

[jolly coral]

Amazon will have the cheapest

Then there are like a million group buy sites

[low scarab]

do you think tactile is good for gaming?

[low scarab]

thanks!

[low scarab]

what’s that?

[jolly coral]

Just don't bother

If you see any cool caps, just share them here

[idle rose]

i really really like these ones hmmmm

maroon is a pretty hard color to match because it's going to be so dark

my space 80 will be my light colored board

[jolly coral]

The only issue is that these aren't shine through caps, so RGB will only be underglow

But you can brighten up the look with the yellow accents

[idle rose]

oh i dont have rgb haha

i try not to have RGB in my keyboards because my eyes are very sensitive to light

and it kills them :(

[jolly coral]

Haha, guess that's actually a plus then that these are not shine throughs

[low scarab]

ok ty

[low scarab]

yep

[little girder]

thats the way

[jolly coral]

Really unique caps on the Alice board! Which reminds me, @wide sparrow you never posted the finished Alice keeb that you were working on 👀

[wide sparrow]

facepalm sorry I forgot

[idle rose]

these are all so cute omg

[little girder]

Suisei 65

[jolly coral]

Oh geez: https://www.thegamer.com/ducky-x-fallout-one-3-rgb-mechanical-keyboard/

[mint olive]

What keyboard did you use for the keycaps. I'm trying to make an all Persona 3 themed setup

[livid mason]

QK100

It's just the right shade of navy blue to really tie it together

[mint olive]

Thank you so much

[livid mason]

Npnp

[jolly coral]

Now that I've actually seen the #⌨-keeb-tkl in person, I'm seriously wondering how the keyboard can be best customized

It comes with linear switches, so that's definitely going:

Otherwise, the top plate doesn't actually enclose the keycaps, so it's a float design

Maybe we need to wait until the actual drop to see what accessories are available to customize the keyboard further

As of now, the black on clear isn't allowing a whole lot of options

And it doesn't look like black can be avoided as the stem for the rollers are going to stay black even if the rollers themselves can be swapped:

Depending on the colors of the wood rollers, these fake Walnut keycaps could work well: https://a.co/d/1cuXFl4

[grizzled light]

Take the wood rollers with a pinch of salt. They were shown 2 years ago and basically everything about hyte's keyboard changed since then

[jolly coral]

Got the "wood" caps:

I was going to throw it on the white Gundam board that's currently not being used

But after doing the first few keys, I really don't think a white board will go well with these caps:

[jolly coral]

After some contemplation, I ended up putting the wood keycaps on my current workhorse black V6:

The V6 has the Box Royal switches, and they're getting swapped to the Box Pinks because my wife wants clicky switches:

First row done and already looking better than the white board:

Slowly worked my way through the 100% board:

No RGB, super stealth:

And RGB on, side print clearly visible:

Dropped it on my wife's desk in preparation for the refresh of her desk:

[livid mason]

Those caps.look real nice

[jolly coral]

Definitely looks better on a dark keyboard

[jolly coral]

Dang, was reading some random article and saw this keyboard in one of the sample photos: https://a.co/d/inxyZEO

Galaxy80, full metal case and it comes in the 3 of the best colors:

I think the pink will go well with this keycap set: https://a.co/d/4meosU8

And baby blue can be turned into a cinnamoroll keeb: https://a.co/d/hFYUaQU

Lastly, Kuromi keeb can be made with the purple and this keycap set: https://a.co/d/0aKspmS

[livid mason]

Does it have backlight RGB?

@jolly coral

If so, then I'd probs pick up a purple one to use with some Silver Wolf keycaps I've been eyeballing for a while

[jolly coral]

Yes:

[livid mason]

Good to know

[jolly coral]

Wait a minute... White #⌨-keeb-tkl?

[stone oracle]

https://tenor.com/view/that-is-blasphemy-satan-south-park-s4e11-probably-gif-21638722

[jolly coral]

Top coat in 24 hours

[stone oracle]

Lmao i had to be funny hopefully the all white looks good

[jolly coral]

It's not going to be white

[stone oracle]

Oh? What color

[jolly coral]

Tomorrow

Stay tuned

[stone oracle]

I may breakdown and reorder hytes keeb havent decided

[jolly coral]

It's... Different

[stone oracle]

Good or bad differnt

[jolly coral]

You have to love this much RGB

It is blinding

[stone oracle]

Hell youve seen my pcs

Lmao

Darn near lights up the section of my room alone

[jolly coral]

The #⌨-keeb-tkl was definitely designed with the CNVS mat in mind

The two pairs perfectly together

[stone oracle]

Yea i gave my sister the cnvs mat lol

[jolly coral]

And you will need sunglasses

[stone oracle]

https://tenor.com/view/its-dark-and-were-wearing-sunglasses-sunglasses-at-night-its-night-its-dark-out-the-suns-down-gif-17458384

[jolly coral]

The board is very well made

But that's kind of expected for a keyboard of this price range

[jolly coral]

finished the design for the vinyl for the clear plastic pieces:

14" of vinyl is needed:

[jolly coral]

go Cricut, go:

[jolly coral]

Split up the individual pieces:

And first piece weeded:

[stone oracle]

https://tenor.com/view/austin-powers-i-love-gold-goldmember-gif-19735343

[jolly coral]

You've got it!

Top coat:

And the two pieces, painted:

Just don't look closely because I didn't prep after the primer that much

[stone oracle]

That will be interesting to see be a cool egyptian idea

[jolly coral]

Mine is going to be a circuit board themed

Clearly HYTE prefers using gold on their PCB print:

Probably more of any orangish yellow

But there's definitely a color that HYTE uses

[stone oracle]

Will look interesting im sure

[jolly coral]

vinyls are weeded:

need to do some final fitting before putting onto transfer tape

[jolly coral]

transfer tape:

top layer:

middle layer, top side:

top and middle layer stacked:

Exactly how I imagined it to look! When I saw that there were multiple layers of clear plastic, there was an unique opportunity to stack the vinyls

middle layer, bottom side:

let the trimming begin:

middle layer, bottom side completed:

bottom layer, after trimming:

moment of truth, bottom and middle layers stacked:

[warm sonnet]

Damn, that is going to be one crazy good looking keyboard

[jolly coral]

top view of the full stack:

exactly the effect I was looking for: see through circuit

[jolly coral]

thanks, I hope it will look good still once all the actual keyboard parts go back in

waiting for paint to dry right now

(that and I really need to go to bed soon)

did one small wrap with the extra vinyl:

if and when HYTE decides to release clear rollers, I'll be ready

anyways, the vinyl installation was definitely tricky with this board

so many curves

glad that's done and over

putting the board back together tomorrow

hopefully the notes I've taken in #⌨-keeb-tkl during the deconstruction will be sufficient

and still missing the 6-pin ribbon

supposedly the ribbon cable will get here on Tuesday

[jolly coral]

Woke up to a nice email:

[jolly coral]

Paint cured nicely overnight:

[jolly coral]

sort of did a mock up of what the board will look like:

and the back:

now that the 6-pin ribbon cable is getting here tomorrow, I'll probably wait until tomorrow night to put the keeb back together

of course

and the switches too

I still can't stand typing on linears

yup

have a set of Box Royals that just came off a previous keyboard build

the V6 recently was taken by my wife: #1071070910989209661 message

since she uses Clicky, the keycaps and the switches came off

the current status of the V6: #1071070910989209661 message

yup

going to make the RGB even more intense

[warm sonnet]

This has to be one of the coolest keyboard mods I've seen so far.

[jolly coral]

started with a cool board... the #⌨-keeb-tkl has a lot of potential

[warm sonnet]

It's a board with a lot of potential for sure. I'm probably just gonna stick to switching the switches and keycaps because I'm not really creative or handy

[stone oracle]

I do like that gold section makes it pop but i dont feel i could be good at tearing apart and putting back together just to paint that part

[jolly coral]

I'll let you know what I think after attempting to put the whole thing back together, but I think it's mostly doable?

My biggest concern is the outer case that requires glueing

I really wish the tear down didn't require the use of force, but such as life for the sake of design

[livid mason]

Just caught up

Hot Damm @jolly coral that keeb looks sick

[jolly coral]

Glad you like it. Always a risk ripping apart a $200 keyboard

No choice, the clips on the outer casing are literally not strong enough by themselves:

The keyboard will not stay together

No, it's glued, like most cellphones now

Granted, nothing crazy like the IP rated glues that you have to melt with a heat gun

But still a crucial part of the structural integrity of the entire board

[jolly coral]

That's why the plastic pryers had to come out

I can imagine some people that don't have plastic pryers and go metal screwdriver

The damage to the clear plastic is unimaginable

[livid mason]

Yeah, huge risk to the case, needing to tear it up like that

Honestly at $200 I would have hoped for a little more ease of access to the internals.

Especially since modders, such as yourself, would certainly do things like this to get that clean esthetic

[jolly coral]

I agree, but really, really excellent board overall for a first attempt from a case company

HYTE used really thick plastic, so a little bit more forgiving

I can already imagine the copycat board made with inferior materials that just cracks when you look at it funny

Good clear plastic is already expensive, add the complexity of flowing shapes and the diffusing middle layer

There are a ton of small touches that more than justified the price of this board

[livid mason]

Definitely, I can tell from your images with all the layers just how much consideration there was in the housing

When the only downside is "disassembly and modding could be a bit better" that isn't a big deal

[jolly coral]

Yeah, not happening tonight if the package hasn't made it onto a truck. Guess it will be Tuesday:

Did a few smaller vinyls today:

Nope, that's just how that top layer looks to accommodate the rollers

Lateral structural support actually comes from this piece:

Specifically, this one:

Which provides the screw points for the rest of the keyboard stack (foam, PCB, and top plate)

[jolly coral]

Literally WTF moment with USPS:

Definitely not getting here today if the cable is now in South Dakota

It literally arrived in Iowa and then left

Complete and utter incompetence

[hearty lily]

wtf

This is why I dislike usps

[stone oracle]

Thats usps for ya ive had stuff give me a delivery date and show up a day late or week later

[jolly coral]

Yup, I order a lot of #1217473726598221925

Used to USPS being like this, especially during any holidays

[stone oracle]

@jolly coral sent u a im with a link

[jolly coral]

Made it back to Iowa...

We'll see if the cables get here tomorrow

Looking forward to finishing this supposedly small project

That should be quick

Just cut some new vinyls and install

The rollers are seriously fun with the magnets

Not at all

[jolly coral]

The 200mm cable arrived today

Didn't work

The cable just got hot

Looking back at my photos

Pretty sure it's a reverse pitch

[warm sonnet]

Got a question about the keeb mod I want to do eventually. Would it be possible to use a foil that looks like wood on the parts you spray painted gold?

Trying to go for full wood rainbow puke mode

[jolly coral]

You mean doing a wood wrap?

Might be too thick with vinyl

[warm sonnet]

Yeah. The idea was to wrap it with a foil that looks like wood. Don't have ant experience doing something like that though so no idea how feasible it is

[jolly coral]

The tolerances are very very tight

Maybe the top plate can be done? But you'll have to fit the vinyl around a lot of holes

Paint in this case works much better

[warm sonnet]

Hmm, might try looking into paint then

Thanks for the advice

[warm sonnet]

Found those as well, no clue how well it'll work on the fairly round top case. Probably gonna order one of those sets and see how well it works on some random stuff I have lying around

[jolly coral]

Top plate is flat

[jolly coral]

Should have just ordered from Amazon to start with

Pretty sure the cable was getting hot because I grounded pin 1 due to the wrong orientation

The Amazon listing for the reverse pitch 6-pin ribbon: https://a.co/d/0LMlqXi

Guess the seller calls it "B Type"

[jolly coral]

ended up ordering the item 3 times, and the 3rd order is finally arriving today:

Amazon is really struggling to keep track of these ribbon cables in their giant warehouses

[jolly coral]

Finally, order #2 and #3 are getting here today, and #1 is still somewhere in Missouri

[jolly coral]

Finally!

It's happening tonight

[jolly coral]

Oh geez, 6 pieces per package, Amazon description is super unclear and incorrect

[jolly coral]

And my #⌨-keeb-tkl is back!

Type B 6-pin ribbon for the bottom LED module

I'll put the whole thing back together tonight

So excited to be finally done

Good thing I didn't damage the bottom LED module when I used the wrong cable and grounded a signal pin

[jolly coral]

that is pretty intense...

took a screen shot from the stream

rainbow version:

processing photos and videos right now

the camera wasn't too happy with the intensity of the light emitting from the subject

[warm sonnet]

Looks very gamer

[jolly coral]

so... after putting in the correct 6-pin ribbon cable, I put the keyboard back together

I ended up swapping for the higher angle feet:

the magnetic attachment for swapping the keyboard feet is greatly appreciated

threw on the box royal switches:

[warm sonnet]

Swapping the feet also requires opening the case?

[jolly coral]

nope, just pull and go

used the XVX Black Clear keycaps and snapped some quick photos:

updated typing test with the new switches and keycaps: https://youtu.be/53XET3HWipY

typed much better with the tactile switches

finally, pulled out the big camera and took more photos

Circuit Keeb TKL, unlit:

Circuit Keeb TKL, rainbow puke:

Circuit Keeb TKL, static white:

I really didn't like how the white from the keyboard PCB LEDs weren't "true whites"

the bottom LED modules were much more color accurate

unfortunately, the clear black keycaps made the colors more purple

I'll just blame the keycaps

and after messing with #🦑-nexus for much longer than I would have preferred, I was able to get the final static setting, HYTE gold:

lastly, did a fun little GIF with the rainbow puke:

[livid mason]

https://tenor.com/view/reaction-my-eyes-cant-unsee-burn-gif-7225082

[stone oracle]

Good god that white is still bright

[jolly coral]

Yeah, had to turn on some extra lighting for the photos. That bottom LED module is pretty intense. If CNVS has the same LEDs, I can see why the CNVS out performs the standard LED desk mats.

[jolly coral]

now that the #⌨-keeb-tkl project is out of the way, I can finally get to a couple of small keyboard tasks that I've been meaning to take care of for a while

first, I feel bad that I've been using the K10 with the crazy expensive Gundam keycaps as my work horse keyboard, so I've ordered some of the new XVX "light wood" keycaps:

https://a.co/d/f5s80fz

this will be a perfect match to the "dark wood" version that I used for my wife's work horse keyboard recently: #1071070910989209661 message

first, I had to pull all the Gundam keycaps off and store them back to their original box:

a closer look at these light wood keycaps:

and on they go:

so the "dark wood" version definitely look better on a black board and these "light wood" version looks great on a white board

K10 Light Wood, unlit:

K10 Light Wood, lit:

very satisfying set of keycaps from XVX, and very reasonably priced

really like the side print/shine through

and the second task is testing out the new Galaxy80 from Epomaker and doing a keycap swap:

unboxing:

nothing much going on with the packaging, as expected from a sub $100 full metal keyboard

came with some MDA profile PBT keycaps and "Marble White" linear switches:

stock board, rainbow puke:

probably the most nifty feature on the keyboard is the dongle holder:

the cover is magnetic and the dongle literally pops out when the cover is removed

got this set of Cinnamoroll PBT keycaps:

as I was doing the keycap swap, I did notice that the stab were lubed:

anyways, the Cinnamoroll Galaxy 80, unlit:

and the Cinnamoroll Galaxy 80, rainbow puke:

I really don't like how the little LED bar above the directional keys were not synced with the rest of the board:

and I've also discovered the worst material for top plate: PC

the Galaxy80 had a white PC top plate

It's the worst sound I've ever heard and the worst feel when the keys bottom out

the FR4 plates used by Keychron is so much superior (even though my favorites have to be the metal top plates)