Cannon Keys CXA Profile Keycaps

It does seem like the goal with this design. I don’t love the look, but may be more comfortable to type on long-term.

For those interested in a comparison:

We hope to have these in stock soon at CannonKeys - certainly before Chinese New Year.

I’ve been using a sample set as a daily driver for about a week now, and have quite liked it, but as with most things in keyboards, it all comes down to personal preference.

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I can also confirm that the keycaps are indeed doubleshot.

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I had a pre-built a while back that came with a spacebar not too unlike this - the smoothing was less obvious but same theory, with the middle having the most rounding, slowly sharpening into a rounded corner at the ends. It’s not a good looking set (first round of caps that came on the Anne Pro 2), but man did I enjoy using that spacebar - only one I never felt the need to flip, and it’s because that harsh corner just isn’t there.

I’ll have to keep my eye on this one… since HSA apparently never actually happened and OSA is… iffy… well, maybe these folks will nail it!

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Yeah I was thinking that too. Space bar might be the secret sauce of this set. You wouldn’t need to flip it, it might help with sound too.:+1:

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Thanks for posting this! Really helpful to see it in context.

Would you be able to provide any information on how you expect the mixed ABS/PBT keycaps to wear? Is there still the expected shine you expect from ABS keycaps or does it skew more to PBT’s durability/texture?

Throwing DSS in the mix, since it’s a lower profile sculpted spherical set.

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Thanks for the heads-up, @NeroAE - welcome! Definitely keen to check these out.


Heh, the “I” key is upside-down in this one:

Lends to it being a real photo, I’d say. :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit: Homing dots… hm. Well at least they aren’t in the center of the cap, but dots as the only option does make these a lot less attractive to me. Gotta give props to that spacebar design, though.

alexotos VOD feat. the CXA caps

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I picked up a set when they went on sale. I’m really enjoying them. They remind me of DSS in a good way. The texture is great as well. The only thing that worries me is that the stem has no bracing nor is it surrounded in plastic like most stems (its a cross shape not a cylinder).

@Upas have you had any issues in testing with the stem cracking or easily stretching with extended use? If the stem has no issues in time, I think you have a banger of a profile on your hands, and I look forward to seeing some sweet colorways. PS: icon mods when :wink:

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Be careful with fat stabs like OA - broke one of the cross type stems right up.

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Rip, did you message cannonkeys or anything?

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Something like this is exactly what I was worried about. Not sure is the stem is a cost saving implementation or is engineered for some other purpose.

It was on another set with the same kind of stems. I haven’t put the CXA caps on anything until I get new stabs that aren’t OA.

The stem was engineered to ensure the keycaps would align straight - i.e. help eliminate stem warp.

I haven’t personally tested them on stabs outside of Cherry Clip-ins. I believe some of the content creators we sent CXA samples sets out to used other stabs, and didn’t report any issues, but that also wasn’t during extended use.

This issue hasn’t really been on my radar yet, and I haven’t personally tried various stabilizer configurations out in extended use, but it’s definitely something we can test. We have C3 stabs, OA stabs, 1.2mm WS Stabs, Cherry Clip ins, Lavender Stabilizers, and Durock V2s lying around somewhere that we can test with.

Anecdotally, we haven’t received any support tickets talking about cracked stems, but it’s also quite early. Again - if extended use is the fear, it might take some time to find out. CXA is a relatively new profile, and if it is an issue, we’ll do our best to fix it.

Changing topics entirely - some explanations about some the OA Stabs and other stabs that Wuque Studio has worked on:

The OA stabs initially shipped with stems that were a bit loose for older GMK sets, and then revised stems that were thicker. If you purchased OA stabs from CannonKeys, you should have received both versions of the stems.

For the lavender stabs that we partnered with Wuque on, the stems landed in the middle. Not as tight as the revised stems from the OA stabs, not as loose as the original stems. I think they’ve hit the Goldilocks zone.

For the new WS stabs - the ones that released with the Ikki68 Aurora R2 - they also use the “goldilocks” stem.

Hopefully this helps assuage some fears as well.

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Thanks for the info! With limited time and testing, I’ve had no issues with the CXA stems on cherry clip-in’s, gmk screw-in’s, and c3 (V2).

I had to chuck out the stabs that came with the mizu ikki68 aurora – those were stem busters.

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I just received a couple of AliExpress CSA profile keycap sets.
Meh.
But they do have these style of spacebars, which are sooooo comfortable.

Has anyone seen this sort of scooped-out spacebar for sale separately? I’d like to buy more (in different colours).

The $20 CSA sets I bought came with 2 (1 black, 1 orange), which makes the spacebars not too expensive, but I’d like different colours if possible.

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Being a tinkerer, I’d get a heat gun instead and sacrifice a few spacebars. :kissing_smiling_eyes:

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These are Domikey style spacebars, I suppose if you get one of their spacebar kits you’ll get one of these.