Constellation I posted:

For massbuy sites/AliExpress sellers who started their own sites the ones I know of are:

https://en.zfrontier.com/
https://kbdfans.myshopify.com/
http://www.ymdkey.com/

I've ordered from all 3 and have had good experience with KBDfans. I have a group buy waiting on YMD and Zfrontier, so we'll see but those two have pretty good reputation on reddit. (YMD more on their AliExpress store, their website is still super new)

The Unlife Aquatic posted:

I would love to try Topre but they don't make 60% boards.

The Unlife Aquatic posted:

Thought about it, but those dye-sub keycaps and the difficulty of getting replacement Topre doubleshot PBT keycaps.

Dr. Fishopolis posted:

I wish there was a 75% novatouch. I love mine but TKL is a smidge too big and I'm not giving up my DSA caps for anything.

And before you tell me to swap the sliders, I am not far enough down the rabbit hole to consider my novatouch a "donor board".

Lawen posted:

I have a squeaky key that's driving me a little crazy. Not sure if it's the switch itself or the stabilizer but am assuming it's the switch since I can't really think of any part of the stabilizer that would squeak. Is there a hivemind consensus on the best lube for keyswitches?

OnceIWasAnOstrich posted:

My old cheap keyboard died recently so I went and bought an MK Disco Brown PBT. I would be happy with it except I ran into three issues. The biggest is that the left alt key does not seem to function at all, no keypress is detected by windows. Also the space bar appears to be attached at three points, the switch in the middle, and two smaller switch-like things on each side, but it doesn't actually stick to the one on the left, so it levers itself up anytime you hit it on the right side, which is unfortunately where I always hit space, so it slams into the base of the keyboard louder than all the other keys. Also I found random stickers with arrows on them inside the left control key because it felt kind sticky, I guess hidden stickers are a good reason for that to be the case...

Hopefully the mechanicalkeyboards.com people can get me a fully functional keyboard, because the combination of tenkeyless, brown switches, and the PBT caps for a reasonable price is great, and I love how if I leave all of the lights off it is very plain and subtle.

The Unlife Aquatic posted:

Topre switches make the most relaxing sound.

surebet posted:

reminder that sa ashen is live and has ~5 days left on it's timer. a legit good set i own and vouch for, pretty much the cheapest way you can get into sa caps:
https://en.zfrontier.com/collections/keysets/products/maxkey-ashen

you'll note that ashen is pretty drat close to oblivion's white alphas/numpad & monochrome mods for almost half the price; if money wasn't an issue i'd probably get the oblivion one if i wanted to redo the same colorway (slightly more needs suiting legends for me) but ashen will be at your door in 6 weeks.

internet celebrity posted:

It's the black/white maxkey set so nothing crazy. If anyone's interested shoot me a pm.

Avalanche posted:

So what's the deal with these $275-$300 boards that WASD sells? Do they gently caress or something?

http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/products/mechanical-keyboard/wasd-87-key-doubleshot-abs-hyperfuse-origins-mechanical-keyboard.html


Or is the price increase due to the double shot keycaps being made with 'original cherry machinery from Germany'. Does that really make a difference somehow or is that mostly just to suck in keyboard super nerds?



I mean..... I kinda really want one..... I'm not sure why exactly but... it's gotta be legit right?

mewse posted:

Is it plastic? You could just file the opening to be larger

GnarlyCharlie4u posted:

I brought my blues to work specifically to let someone borrow it to piss off their office mate.
I left the QMX sound dampening clips on and it still drove them absolutely nuts.

They had to give it back because it also pissed off 3 other offices.
Don't bring blues to work.

LionArcher posted:

Thank you and yes i do know that. I have a key tester and I love them the most easily.

Edit. Thanks for the link, that looks perfect but it looks like I have to solder? I like the drop board since I just have to pop in the clears

mewse posted:

GMMK TKL is the one that immediately springs to mind. It's nice but a bit flimsy feeling. Once she's hooked there's stuff like the massdrop CTRL high profile which is expensive but should be built like a tank

AbsoluteLlama posted:

Get a hot-swap keyboard. I use a 47-key board for my tester, so it only costs maybe $12-20 to try a set of switches. If you don't care about clipping PCB legs off of switches a GMMK compact is readily available, but you'd need to buy 8 packs of switches instead of 5 to fill it out.

A switch tester isn't all that useful, as there is a huge difference between pressing one key and typing on a full set, but it can be useful to narrow down what switches to try if you have no idea whatsoever.

Looks like you missed the recent group-buy for the UT47.2 boards. They're probably the cheapest pcb-compatible hot-swap boards (~45USD for the sandwich case). You may want to keep an eye on the group buy at keyhive as there are usually additional units available after the boards are fabricated.

Nondescript Van posted:

Just add this https://kbdfans.com/blogs/interest-checks/case-compatible-with-hhkb-keyboard

teethgrinder posted:

I didn''t know there were v1/v2 variants, but they're my favourite switch for sure.

My personal preference, I'd say top-tier are Zilents, then the Halo
Clears, with Cherry Clears/Greens tied for third, and everything else after.

I haven't used a Model M-type bucking springs literally since the 80s.I personally just abhor linear switches.

Warbird posted:

Fair enough, I’ll strip it down and take another swing at things. Can anyone recommend a decent guide/video for soldering basics or techniques? I could use a refresher.

interrodactyl posted:

Infinikey makes the keycaps, it's just being sold through TKC.

I don't think infinikey has really been around long enough for people to have a good sense of quality, but it seems pretty decent from the random discussion I've seen on reddit.

.Z. posted:

An option that hasn't been mentioned yet would be the Idobao 75. You'd get more case color options that the others: https://www.idobao.net/products/idobao-id80-75-hot-swappable-mechanical-keyboard-kit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdx0DeQf6c8
Cons: No RGB or any backlighting at all for keys. It has less keys than standard 75% layouts I've seen (like the KBD 75%). Plate mount version is currently sold out, though the PCB version is in stock. I'm unfamiliar with the pros and cons of PCB mount vs Plate mount when it comes to hotswap to comment about which to go.
https://www.idobao.net/products/idobao-id80-75-hot-swappable-mechanical-keyboard-kit?variant=33586934907011

Still from what you've said you want, I'd go for the Drop Ctrl if you can afford the extra cost. It's the nicest, has backlighting, and has QMK for customization (GMMK and Keychron K8 are currently not reprogrammable as far as I know).

Ringo Star Get posted:

Also, is there a way to create custom keycaps with custom symbols on it? I'd like to do both front-facing and top-faced keys so I can know which keys do what on my numpad.

ijyt posted:

Oooh, putting something more substantial on Enter/Escape/etc sounds like a good shout. I'm now getting super torn up over which board I want to actually get. The GMMK Pro looks real neat (I put in a deposit), and it'd be nice to try an ANSI layout, but I just came across the CU80 and I love the price and simple design. Compare that to the price of the Mode Eighty and yeah, I'm struggling to see what the Eighty brings to the table for that price versus the CU80.

If I'm gonna be dropping close to $500 on a keyboard it's gonna be on something like the Cloudline with all that nice brass and poo poo.

Gearman posted:

- Infinikey Cafè Base and Extras (been pining over the GMK Cafe set but didn't want to pay the $400+ for an aftermarket set. The fact that they're also PBT is the cherry on top. Wish I had bought a couple!)

Apsyrtes posted:

Every year my wife and I add to our Christmas display, and this year more than any other it is apparent that our inflatable Santa and snowman are woefully under powered in the LED department. Anybody looking at our display is not marvelling at the lights, they are likely questioning "why are those inflatables so dim?"

I attempted today to change their bulbs out for brighter ones, only to find they don't use bulbs - a google taught me that what I saw was in fact "LED Injection Modules" and further googling led me to find that I can juice the output of my Christmas inflatables by adding LED Injection Modules.

This involves some soldering.

As luck would have it, hours prior, I had read the solder talk on this thread including the advice "As for soldering, don't be intimidated."

I ran out immediately to Canadian Tire and bought a soldering station (that happened to be half price), some solder that claimed to be the right one for electronics, and a truck bed LED kit that I could tell was just a series of 8 LED Injection Modules.

30 minutes of snipping, stripping, and soldering later and my inflatable Santa and snowman have never looked more glorious. My kids are ecstatic.

Thanks Keyboard Thread!

space marine todd posted:

I hooked up my computer to my bedroom TV to game on and I'm looking for a wireless keyboard and a lapdesk/lap board that works well for gaming while sitting up in bed. I would love USB-C recharging and Topre switches (or something similar).

Budget is 400 or less. What would folks recommend?

Gunder posted:

What is the extra PCB option on this thing's store page for? I've seen that with a few custom kits, and I've never seen it explained. Also, it's a pretty cool looking macro pad!

hooah posted:

That sounds pretty nice. I'm skimming the GitHub readme and it links to something called via. Unfortunately, the site, caniusevia.com, doesn't actually say what the hell via [i]is[/]. Can someone please explain it for me, the person who doesn't know poo poo about homemade keyboards?

Edit: oh wait, it involves a bunch of soldering. Something I haven't done in like 15 years and for which I am not equipped. Never mind.

Gwaihir posted:

Gearman posted:

Auto routing software can produce bad traces and cause issues, and the traces don't look clean and directed like most manual traces. That said, modern routing software is pretty good. It doesn't have A E S T H E T I C but it works just fine. I've never heard of anyone having issues with the Drop PCBs. Given how popular the Drop boards are, I think it would be pretty well known if there were issues with them.

GnarlyCharlie4u posted:

Bliss TKL didn't immediately sell out.
https://moeso.de/collections/bliss-gb/products/gb-bliss-tkl

not really my thing but I figured I'd pass it along since inquiries were recently made.

Epsilon Plus posted:

Just to make sure before I waste any money - the Kailh hot-swap sockets can only go on PCBs designed for them, and you can tell if they're designed for them because they'll have little extra contact pads to the sides of the switch socket, right?

Queer Salutations posted:

A lot of people have been unhappy with the customer service and with colour matching on group buys. I've ordered Tangerines from them and had no problems but I'm reserving judgement until Magic Girl R2 arrives.