15 Dec 2015

60% Acrylic Case

Early render of case Early Render

I thought this was quite a nice project as the custom cases are becoming harder to come by than the PCB’s. Especially one as competitively priced as this one. The current estimation is £35 for this acrylic 60% case. Other options are being explored and aluminium could be a possibility but at a higher price.

This project was started by xondat on geekhack.

HKP Christmas Sale on the 16th

The sale is not yet live so no link to the form. Looks to include some very nice colours.

WhiteFox Probably a Success

I say probably, but there is really no question about it. The first batch of 1000 sold in no time, now the maximum number has been extended to 2000. If you missed out on the first 1000, then you are in luck.

For those not in the know, the WhiteFox is a 65% keyboard created by matt3o.

Matt3o Topre Keyset

skull squadron topre keyset Although this was a very interesting idea, it seems that it is not too popular. Currently the Skull Squadron colour way is on Massdrop but is shy of the 200 $139 price point. With 1 day to go, it does not look like this will be a huge success.
Although this is a real shame it seems that the strict constraints of the project, the price and the MOQ have just put people off. Hopefully this is not the end of the Topre keyset resurgence. A lot of work went into this set so it’s a shame to see it flounder like it is.

XC Cable Debut

_MG_7977

A new cable has been put up on the tgr.my store. These seem a little different to the traditional braided cable as the individual wires are wrapped and braided.
This debut colour comes in a number of patterns.

New KeyboardCo Website

keyboardco website december 2015 For those in the UK the KeyboardCo is a fairly good source of mechanical keyboards. For a long time the website had a very distinctive design, that might not have been the most aesthetically pleasing. It now looks quite nice, but if you are feeling nostalgic for the old look it is still available at the click of a button.

QMX Clip Giveaway

For those interested I am giving away a set of QMX clips (-1). The only requirement is to have a board you can use them on. So a photo of your board is required.

A little more info

Typed on SSK

11 Dec 2015

The QMX Switch Dampeners or noise reducers are an effort by GMK to silence switches. I believe this is a product that is supposed to be the launching of their new Uniqey branch of custom keyboards. However, these were announced a long time ago and nothing has come of it yet. So what we currently have is the QMX clips.

What they are, are small plastic covers that go over the top of your switches and the sound is dampened by the keycap falling onto a foam pad that is on top.

I am very 50/50 on these. It is first worth pointing out the fundamental flaw which renders these semi useless. The fact they will not work on plate mounted keyboards. This is because they will simply not fit on keyboards with a plate. This is an incredible shame as I can confirm that they do work and do not completely destroy the feel of switches.

These are such a hit and a miss its incredible. To come so close and to completely miss what you are aiming for was perfectly done by GMK on this one. I can only hope the Uniqey keyboard is an incredible board that brings back PCB mounted keyboards and converts everyone. If that doesn’t happen, then these have such a small use case.

To test these I had to borrow my friends ErgoDox which did not have a plate. I’m no webwit but I own a couple of keyboards, but none of them at the time were PCB mount only.

What’s in the box?

I got two boxes. The first contained the GMK switch tester the second, the clips. GMX clip boxes I do very much like the switch tester. It is a clear demonstration of the QMX clips ability and is also nice to have a GMK product. It includes 10 switches Red, Black, Brown, Clear and Blue. Both with and without the QMX clips. It comes with 5 very nice GMK doubleshots which justify this product already. GMK Switch Tester

clips in box The clips come in their own box in stacks of 5 and you get a total of 110 so you are covered for pretty much all the plate mounted keyboards you have. You also get a plastic keypuller that doubles as a tool to put the clips on.

Using the Clips

Putting on the clips is time consuming but not as much as dental banding a Topre board. The tool is actually helpful although you might not think it. They are surprisingly fiddly and can appear almost on but just not quite. For putting most of them on I did use the tool.

Sound comparison on a PCB mounted ErgoDox.

Bonus typing on zealio planck (no dampening).

Listening back to these recordings I couldn’t tell much of a difference. But I will say they do sound better with your ears. In terms of sound these are better than o-rings.

Getting the clips off is a much harder affair. The tool is a one way deal. I’m not sure if you are just meant to keep them on forever, but I could not get the tool to aid at all in the removal process. Instead, I used my own DIY switch opener which is a bent fork. Removing the clips was not a fun experience.

How do they feel?

They feel really good. This is something I was surprised by but I do think these could be nice to type on fulltime. They do feel slightly different, It is hard to describe these as with any switch mod or variation. But you are typing on a small layer of foam. If you are bottoming out, which is a little easier to do with the reduced travel, it feels like a softer landing. At first I really was confused by the feel. It was a noticeable difference. Once I had adjusted, I found I had no problems. Despite the reasonable feel, it is not a feeling that I am left craving after using it.

If you are looking for a dampening solution I do think these are worth looking into. But they do themselves the biggest disfavour by not being compatible with a huge amount of keyboards.
It is hard to put into words, but this is this was a misfire so close to the mark but ultimately a little bit useless.

Giveaway

I will giveaway my QMX clips. I think I have 109 as I dropped the box and had a hard time finding them all again.

  • International
  • Free

Requirement

  • You must however send me a time stamped photo of your pcb mounted board. Please tweet it to me.

I will pick someone next Friday. You may also subscribe to my youtube channel if you please.

Typed on SSK

08 Dec 2015

UHK Meets Goal

UHK Press Image The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard has been successfully funded on crowdsupply with around a week left. This is a very nice keyboard and I am quite happy to see it succeed. It is a bit different from a lot of other offerings at the moment and is executed really quite well.

At the time of writing there are 8 early bird UHK’s left. This gives you a discount of $50 so if you are looking to pick one up, do so fast.

Leandren HHKB Plates

HHKB JD designed plate This has been around a little more than a week but it has been slowly picking up steam. The idea behind this GB is simple, simple HHKB layout plates in both MX and Alps variations.

This plate is also designed by jdcarpe so you can expect a nice level of thought in the design. Although it is not running yet it will be running after Leandren’s last GB, these are very swift so it’s not too far off.

Deskthority Community Calendar

A nice little idea if you like keyboards. There is a wealth of beautiful photographs that come from DT members so I can foresee this as being a very nice looking calendar.

Currently it is in the thinking about creating a calendar stage. But if you are interested I suggest you put in a vote.

Ducky Realforce Edition

Ducky Realforce edition with red wasd This fairly interesting but not really for what it is. What it really is, is a full size Topre board in 30 and 45 gram variants. With Topre silencing. The facebook post suggests silencing but neither the mk.com or inpad listings mention the silencing.

The reasons I think this is interesting is the fact there is some collaboration with Ducky, although I’m really not sure of the nature of this relationship. But also the fact that it is showing up at a few more retailers. Notably mechanicalkeyboards.com. This combined with the fact they have been showing up on massdrop a bit more and the matt3o keyset. Topre does seem to be doing a little bit more in the area of their keyboards.

If you are looking to purchase this I think, mk.com is quite a good option.

Zeal who is on top of Topre things also posted that there will be a black on white version in the future.

The WhiteFox 65%

The WhiteFox Keyboard I forgot to mention this last week but this is with all current indication a very nice looking keyboard. Designed over a long duration by matt3o this is a well thought out highly refined design.

Read the thread for the whole story. But shortly summarised it is a complete package of a 65% with a custom keyset with custom dyesubs as well as some very nice packaging.

Sentraq/SentrantPC Keyboard Updates

In summary both keyboards are very close to completion. The keyboards in question are the affordable 60% and the 60% with a numpad.

Dactyl Source Released

The Dactyl keyboard is a “parameterized, split-hand, concave, columnar, ergonomic keyboard.” you are now able to make yourself. Created by Adereth this has been in development for quite some time.

If you are looking to build one now, you will be a bit on your own as this is a new release. Don’t let this stop you if this seems like your dream keyboard.

RoastPotatoes Posters

Topre Poster

A good couple of Topre posters are still available and I will try to get some HHKB posters for this week.

I am fairly on top of these orders, currently one still needs to be shipped and a few still need to be invoiced.

I completely forgot Friday existed last week. This week I would like to do a giveaway of the QMX clips after I post my review.

Typed on SSK