Peripherals Mechanical Keyboards

Disclaimer: I haven't had a look at the design files, so I'm not sure what sort of work is actually required. However... if this is a laser cutter job, then a friendly local hackspace might be a good shout.

 

Yesterday, the clumsy me dropped a bottle of water on my Corsair K70. 10 minutes later it started to behave abnormally while I was doing LOL Arams with friends. It was typing frenetically by itself and flashing as if possessed.
So I took it apart, put it in a large plastic container and poured about 1-2 pounds of rice over it. Less than 24 hours later, it was dry and behaving normally. * Thumbs up

 

Good call. I think there is one in Swindon.

 

I built a new keyboard

 

Holy sh!t, Gordon's alive!

 

Arguably one of the nicest sets of PBT Dyesub Alphas you can get - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electric-Typewriter/184700295438?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 going for a song. I would buy... but I have 3 sets already and not enough mods for them all.

and some royal alphas - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-...392286?hash=item3db74eaf5e:g:qgoAAOSwLlVgDzZl

and another set of royal alphas - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Royal-Al...968107?hash=item56f41164eb:g:vJ4AAOSwDYJgK02F (this has the green "code" keycap which is a fairly saught after keycap)

 

That is a lovely colour for a case!

I've spent much more on mech keyboard bits recently that PC hardware (admittedly that's mainly because PC hardware is non-existent!). My last build was the Tokyo60 from Drop, with lubed and filmed Glorious Pandas and some PBT Red and White caps...

T60 Build by BeauchN posted 15 Mar 2021 at 13:23

 

My whole life is spending more on mech keyboards.....than anything else!

What do you think of your Tokyo60? it's on my list, but I'm not sure if I will like the plastic bottom or not. I think if I bought it I would just sleeve it and put it in storage which seems silly. But I like the top of the case (but have 1x mx hhkb and 2x topre hhkb....)

Also what do you think to those PBT caps? I keep seeing those for 40ish quid a set and I keep nearly picking up the muted ones or the 9009 ones, but the CTRL really upsets me! If it said "control" I think i'd have bought by now.

My KBD8x has Boba U4T switches (which are amazing) and Cherry PBT caps.

 

I like it, I fancied trying something a bit different, and it's certainly that. It forces me to think because of the function placement and layer, and with the 'control' being in place of the 'caps lock', but it works and if I used it more often I'd probably pick it up really quickly. My daily driver is either my Tofu60 with a mix of 65 and 78g Zilents, or Drop Alt with Silent Alpacas.

My Tokyo case is all aluminium, the only plastic is the optional diffuser strip between the two halves of the case. I've got to say, it is pretty thocc-y with these switches in! The caps are the $45 Artifact Bloom set from Drop. for the price they are really good. Smooth but not slippy, legends are clearly and consistently printed, and no dodgy mouldings that I spotted. One benefit of the HHKB layout is that the 'control' button actually says control, not CTRL!

 

I have a few old old coolermaster boards which I have hard modded by cutting the traces and running jump wires to move the CTRL to the CAPS position. It really is the best way to type.

 

Also have you seen the new model F's are finally getting to people? model f keyboards - I've ordered and thrown a lot of money at them for a kishy. Who knows when it will arrive.

 

Which is the preferred material for keycaps, doubleshot ABS or PBT?

My Filco needs to have purple keycaps with yellow legends...

 

Literally the truth - about 10 years ago you would be hard pushed to find any doubleshot PBT caps - now on chinese sites, millions of PBT doubleshot keycaps.... surprisingly like Gareth says a lot of these are actually ABS.

I like Cherry ABS doubleshot caps, or Cherry PBT dyesubs. As a result I also like GMK doubleshot ABS caps. I don't really use anything else.

You're very unlikely to find any cherry pbt dyesubs set for less than £200, and I think 100% unlikely to find one that will fit a filco! As they're all 1.5x mods, I don't think they made any 1.25x sets which are pbt dyesubs, and I don't think any windows keys exist at all as pbt dyesubs.

I have a set of Purple + Black caps that would probably fit on your filco, but I imagine they're worth loads as they're an ancient SP set by todays standards.

The other problem with quite a lot of the modern chinese pbt sets is they ship with no texture - they are smooth PBT, this is weird to me. Some people like it, but not me.

 

What I found, that I like the look of, is a set of ABS doubleshot caps, in purple with yellow legends, on an American site. They have no stock but, I think I might email them, to see if they expect more stock and, if they deliver to the UK.

 

looks at these - readily available and nice caps, https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08BKSK..._dp_DQARMA5FXEPJRPXBBJXG?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 - they have a purple and yellow set

 

Aw, I'm going to spend money again.

Good job they don't have backlit doubleshot caps, or I'd be spending a lot more.

 

seriously? dammit.