The name was an obvious choice, because after this mod, they will never be Royals. eyyy
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Anyway. The idea for these came from two different places. More generally, I’ve seen conversations musing about dampened clicky switches, and more specifically a friend of mine totally new to mechanicals has been trying switches and mentioned how much he loved the crisp kind of tactility that clicky switches had, but that the noise would drive him nuts.
While I’ve seen plenty of lamentation about the Box tactiles’ propensity for producing clicking sounds depending on their age / use / other factors, this switch brings it out as much as possible and relies on it as a less loud but still plenty audible alternative to discrete, purposeful noise-making mechanisms. Since the click itself is caused by overcoming the negative-style tactile bump of the slider, it’s naturally synced with both tactility and actuation.
The sound isn’t too different from that of a normal Box Royal, except there’s only the click of the leaf / pusher / slider-cam interaction - no bottom-out clack or top-out rattle. The click itself is a bit more sharp with the SBB stem vs the original Royal, as well.
These are some weird bois, but if you’ve been curious about dampened clickies, Lordes are an easy to reproduce take on the theme.
A side note - I’d originally intended to use Crystal Royal bottoms for this switch because they look great and have 5 pins, but found that those are closer to the more subtle Hako Royals than the bombastic Box Royals. While the combination was still a pleasant one, it was pretty unremarkable - basically a slightly heavier and more tactile Silent Box Brown.
Poppy, negative tactility with a “D-shaped” bump starting right at the top and a soft, bouncy cushion right at the end.
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I’ve approached frankenswitching with Boba / U4 bits a few times, and while most of the combinations have been interesting or entertaining, they were just as much vexing to me. All of them had bumps that were just too big and wide for my comfort - including the “stock” Boba U4s. The 62g versions in particular emphasize the down-stroke while having a comparatively weak return force, which I’m still getting used to.
I liked how Ink housings retained most of the U4’s strong bump while letting the stem pop back up more easily, but none of the springs really felt quite right - including the TT MP’s, at least at first. Great smooth, poppy balance to the tactile bump - but so crunchy!
Remembering Gazzew’s suggestion, “donut dipping” either end of the spring in [ grease of choice ] was the finishing touch that tied this one together.
Donuts are magic, and so is polytetrafluoroethylene. …say that five times fast…
It seems like it was a fad for a minute there for shorter travel switches to bottom-out on the center post, and I like that these don’t. As a stock switch it’s a fantastic no-fuss linear.
I’m also generally curious about Gateron’s shrouded stems in general; from what I can tell, those are the short travel ones. Here in the West the only one I know of is the Ink Yellow, but in other markets they’ve got some tactile ones, too. (y u no sell tactile Inks, Gateron??)
It would probably be dis-advantageous for them to do this, but I’d love it if I could just order individual components in bulk by part number.
Yellow Ink stem in a Black Ink housing makes for the same switch, just a little heavier. *Nope - totally wrong about that; they actuate when you breathe on them. Closer to being accurate with Ink Blues, though.
Here’s a comparison between some stems; Ink Yellow, Ink Black, Halo True:
Each is lined-up by the top so you can compare the other dimensions relative to that. The Ink Black stem in the middle is the most typical; with the contact legs extending slightly past the “feet” where the switch bottoms-out. (There’s more space for the contact legs; they don’t touch anything besides the leaf.)
The Ink Yellow stem has the “feet” extend down to the same depth as the legs, so it bottoms-out sooner than but in the same way as a typical stem.
The Halo stem has an extra-long center post, similar to Kailh Pros or Creams. In most housings, that center post is what hits the housing, making the distinctive “tak tak” sound.
The down-side of this for me, though, is that the stem teeters on that single contact-point when the switch is at the bottom. For me, this lends a slightly unstable feeling to the switch - not so with the Ink Yellow (and presumably Gateron’s other shrouded-style) stems.
No, I don’t think they would be useless*. I’ll be doing more testing today and in the coming days to see if it actually holds true, but so far they seem a viable alternative to Kailh Pro and Cream stems for putting together linears with a shorter overall travel.
Right!? I was like WTF when the announced Ink red, yellows & blues. What about browns? I know browns get some hate, but Gateron’s brown stem is a bit more tactile than MX browns. Add that to a stiff leafed ink housing & I guarantee it will blow up like crazy. There hasn’t been a super smooth mid tactility switch since V1 Zealios, it’s beyond me why nobody is trying to make something similar?
I did some more testing today, and I was pretty surprised - the Ink Yellow stem is indeed nigh unusable in the majority of housings I’ve tried it in so far. Not all of them, though.
I’m really glad you asked about it and that you pushed me to test more thoroughly - I’ve learned just enough today to realize there’s a whole dimension of part interactions I hadn’t yet considered. So! Here’s what I found so far with the Ink Yellow stems.
Unusable: Actuates way too early / with just a light touch
Ink Black
Cream
Kailh Pro
Halo
Marginal: Potentially usable but mostly a curiosity - still actuates very early
Gazzew Boba
Nominal: More or less normal linear function
Ink Blue
Outemu Ice Teal
This just makes me all the more curious (and reinforces my desire to have a supply-side parts catalog I could pick through).
So - it seems that the Ink Yellow stems do work in a few other housings, but indeed won’t be usable with the majority of them.
At the moment, I only have the two click-jacket switches - but the small sample size does point in the direction of the stem being viable in housings meant for clickies. It’s quite nice in the Ice Teal housing; smooth and stable.
The marginal case with the Boba is pretty interesting, but I don’t think itself would be a great idea to use. It actuates very early, but not quite as early as most of the other cases - so it could theoretically be a good “speed” switch, but I don’t think typing with them would work for most people.
One more trivial but interesting thing about the Ink Yellow stem / Boba housing combo that’s pretty neat and also contributes to why it wouldn’t really work: It’s insanely stable. Without lube, it borders on bind-y; and the surfaces you’d have to lube to make it buttery would be exposed to potential dust and other keeb seasonings - the shrouds would end up accomplishing that contrary to their normal ostensible function.
I tried a few different springs including the stock Ink Yellow one, and they didn’t change anything aside from the weighting. The stock springs in the yellows are definitely not the same ones in the blues or blacks. For most of the combinations I tried, I used whatever spring would normally be paired with the housing.
In that frankenswitch above with the Ink Yellow housings, I used the 68g “Magically Progressive” springs from Thic Thock. Of all the springs I have, those were the only ones that gave me the “poppy” experience I was looking for, being light enough at first not to outshine the bump, and heavy enough at the bottom to have a nice, bouncy return. Donut-dipping is a must, though.
Ok, I was thinking more about the famous Gateron Yellow /Milky yellow springs and if it’s the same in ink yellow.
I put in 63.5g Complex SPRiT springs tonight in mine. Feels nice and I’m probably going to keep them like that cuz I don’t think my Quefrency pcb can handle another desoldering.
Ah I gotcha. I’m not certain but I don’t think so. It’s a black, loose-coil spring of standard height. I don’t have any classic yellows to compare that to.
Oh, this one’s mostly a gag - but I genuinely do love the color combination between the Red Panda’s burgundy housing and the Polia’s periwinkle stem. A stem more than just a little similar to that of a Halo…
Panda re-colors, JWK re-colors, Halo re-colors… it might make things less simple with all those around, but it does provide more opportunities to coordinate with a theme.
A tight, smooth, speedy linear with a distinctive look and sound.
Credit goes to to u/slowshi on reddit for this recipe; you can see their original post with notes and typing test here.
A note about this switch and some others; Gazzew tops on Gateron bottoms leave the leaf without proper retention, so using on a hot swap board is not recommended. For solder builds, just make sure the pins are in proper position before soldering - they can be pulled down if they get out of whack.
I’ll also note this recipe is very similar to @donpark’s Red Tap Dancer, trading the already great Mauve top for the softer, lighter, and tighter Gazzew Boba top.
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Note: Slowshi’s original recipe calls for a 55g Durock spring or something lighter, but that was a little too light for me, so I decided to go for the Gateron Yellow spring I had leftover from harvesting the KS-3 bottom housing.
Using a black-housing Gateron Yellow as a baseline for comparison, the Deadpool obviously has a shorter travel, but is also notably more smooth, stable, and aurally distinct.
For me, this one’s all about the sound, and I really like it.
Compared to some other switches that bottom-out on a long center post, this one has a much less harsh impact and no associated rattle that I could hear. I think they sound a lot better than my Red Burgundys, for example.
The KS-3 and Boba housings are both a lot softer than, say, any part of a Panda housing - and I think this does a lot to mitigate those high-frequency vibrations while allowing the rest of the unique sound-profile through.
