Finally tried a jailhouse mod

How do jailhouse mod compare with zealios?

Quite different overall, a slightly similar bump. Jailhouse mod makes the stem longer, so that the tactile legs are already engaging the leaf when at the top. This means the bump is at the very top of the keypress. IMO, jailhouse feels like a cherry clear bump with a very short travel. In a clear, the spring (if stock) gets heavy after the bump. In jailhouse, the switch bottoms out at this point.

I just ordered Jspacers last night :thinking: Wonder what I’ll try these with

1 Like

They feel weird without light springs though. So if you don’t like the mod, make sure to try out lighter springs.

I prefer cherry red spring (45g I think?) I also like to lube the side rails

Relevant: Gatistotle MiniVan keyboard demo - YouTube

1 Like

Well, i have them in a board since yesterday with 55g catweewe springs on unlubed mx blues, because i want to break’em in first and the board supports switchtop removal.
I have problems on stabilized keys and even the normal keys feel not responsive/snappy enough, will probably change to 68g springs.
I have an jailhoused aristotle in a panda housing in the spacebar and it feels great but since the bumb is right at the top, when completely seat the spacebar down all the way i am post/bump and i just get the rounded downfall.

I know what you mean. That’s just the nature of the Cherry blue leaf. The nub on it catches harder on the way back up than the leaf on Gaterons. That’s why a went with Gaterons. They allow you to use a lighter spring.

3D Printed Jailhouse spacer I designed in CAD and printed by @MehAdviceGuy!

(Files coming soon, need to wait 24 hours on new thingiverse accounts :cry:)

2 Likes

Cool work. How much would a set for 60% cost to print?

https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?SC=Author&SA=Sailer%2C%20Evan%2C%201989-&PID=Z6LbCJL9_hvC3_NT8duZwdWIVA1G&BROWSE=1&HC=1&SID=8

Hey, @evangs. Do you plan to restock j-spacers at some point?

Also, while we’re at it, I don’t suppose you know of a secret stash of Retro60 cases that aren’t purple heart?? :slight_smile:

yes jspacers will restock soon now that cny is over. I might have a walnut retro60 if that interests you

Wondering what are the differences between j spacers and just a regular old o-ring? How does it affect keyfeel/sound?

I tried a couple of o rings (bootleg jailhouse as i call them). What i found is:

  1. You dont want soft rubber rings If you bottom out a lot.

  2. Sizeing is difficult. Too big and you jam your Switch, to small and its still clicky.

  3. If you use them and bottom out a lot also put o rings on the keycaps. I call it the bagel Mod. And it might be my favourite thing. (If you do get some heavier springs as the overall travel gets really short and you dont want it to feel vague)

I see, thanks for the input! I think I’ll probably just go with either the j-spacers or 3d printed ones.

I’ve been experimenting with jailhouse greens and various housings/springs/stems recently so I figured I’d share my findings. To start with, here’s everything I’ve tested so far (note: I have not tried every possible combination of these):

Springs:

  • Gateron green
  • SPRiT 65P
  • SPRiT 63.5S
  • SPRiT 63.5P
  • TX 65g
  • TX 60g
  • TX 55g
  • Zeal 67g (from zilent v2s)

Housings:

  • Gateron milky green
  • Cherry green
  • YOK trash panda

Stems:

  • Cherry green with J-spacers
  • Gateron green with J-spacers

Lube:

  • Tribosys 3204 for stems/housings
  • Lube included with TX springs for all springs (Krytox 10X?)

I’ll start with the stems. Unlike the earlier posted pic comparing stems from Cherry blue and Gateron green stems, the Cherry greens are pretty different. The bump on the legs is clearly less pronounced, and the guiding protrusions on the sides of the click jacket don’t have the friction-reducing dimple found on Gateron and Cherry blue switches. One thing I did just notice is that the clips that hold the click jacket to the rest of the stem are wider on the Cherry stems, which seems to reduce the amount of twisting possible in the stem. I suppose I’ll have to try some Cherry stems with Gateron click jackets at some point. In any case, the Gateron stems feel much more tactile than the Cherry stems.

For the springs, I did most of my comparisons with the Gateron stems and housings since I had those first. The default springs are way too heavy (105g bottom out!?) so I can’t really compare those to the others. Using the Sprit S springs as a “neutral” reference, sprit’s progressive springs reduce tactility massively and the TX springs increased tactility a good amount. Zeal’s springs felt the most similar to the Sprit S’s in terms of tactility; maybe slightly less tactile but I’ll chalk that up to the weight being heavier. The most tactile ones were the TX 55g, but they were a bit too light for me so I decided to go with the TX 60g springs (though I’m thinking of using 55g in the keys I use with my pinkies).

All housing comparisons were done with Gateron stems and TX 60g springs. I put films in the Gateron and Cherry housings; the YOKs wouldn’t close properly with films. Tactility and loudness both increase going from Gateron <<< Cherry < YOK. The Gaterons are nice and quiet, but lacks the amount of tactility present in the Cherry and YOK. The YOK housings are slightly more tactile than Cherry, and the sound they make seems slightly louder. One thing I will point out about the Gateron milky housings: There appear to be 2 different molds for these switches; some of them have a bit of extra plastic on the inside of the base. I got 120 from KBDFans and later 10 from mechanicalkeyboards.com, and both of them had a mixture of the 2 molds. I didn’t really notice a difference in feel or sound. Not sure what to make of that.

I’ll probably test a few things before really making a final decision on what to go with for my build. I think I’ll have plenty of time to experiment before my southpaw fullsize gets here. If anyone has suggestions for other things to try (different lubes maybe?) I’d love to hear them. :grinning:

2 Likes

Pixelpusher said that:

Cherry clears have a strong tactile bump and then get quite heavy. Heavy enough that it is fairly easy to type on them without bottoming out. To me, these jailhouse modded blues feel similar except the pre travel before the bump is gone, and instead of the heavy spring after there is a dampened bottoming out almost like a topre bottoming out.

Was wondering how do the greens compare?

greens are the exact same stem as blues, so they should feel the same once modded

Thanks so much for the write up with your opinion!

Oof I’m also on that wait train; hopefully soon! :smiley:

I’m curious to see what you’ll end up picking by the time the keyboard gets here.

How do you feel about the ‘roundness’ of the sounds between the three housings you tested with the jailhouse switches? Did you try them in a plate or just in your hand?