I think, this was the last piece. Now you can build a fully non-OEM EC board. Kind of wild.
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Still need a PCB though.
Personally I feel like OEM is still the best option for Topre, but good aftermarket stuff will still be welcome.
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Des sold PCBs for Matrix boards, and there are several working prototypes from other designers that will likely go into GB this year :).
But yea, I agree. OEM is still optimal right now. Just pretty cool to see Topre getting more options!
Bahahaha, perfect meme. And yes, super pricey, but reasonable given R&D and no competition.
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Wuque Studio is going to be selling JWK parts. Could be interesting if the price is right.
4 Stem Materials: UPE, P3, LY, Modified POM
3 Top Housing Material: Modified Nylon, UHMWPE, Modified POM
3 Bottom Housing Materials: Modified Nylon, UHMWPE, Modified POM
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I really dig this - and I also hope to see such an approach become more common. In a market where plenty of switches are distinguished only by color and perhaps spring, this is a nice and relatively straightforward way to shop for the experience you want - and also pleasantly less expensive for hobbyists who like to tinker with switches.
I love the picking-my-own-parts and experimentation aspects of frankenswitching - but if I could do that with components bought by themselves instead of parts harvested from other switches, I think I’d like it better.
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Pretty interesting. I was wondering how they were going to avoid the contact leaves getting bent. Unfortunately it introduces a lot of extra packaging waste.
Unrelated note, I still don’t see how people use switch lubing stations like in the video. Maybe it’s the joys of being young or something. There’s no way in hell I can lube anything without glasses and having the object like 6 inches from my eyes. Can people actually see to lube from that far away? Or do people just hunch over the lube stations?
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Yeah, I don’t really need things to come in fancy packaging. I only care about the product. Not sure how they are going to prevent bending leaves. Maybe telling us to buy extra? Ship in a sturdy cardboard box?
I hope more vendors do this in the future, if possible. I’ve always liked how you can just buy parts from Gazzew.
At least for me, it kinda depends on the part. For bottom housings, I’ll snap them into a good sized station and rely more on feel and muscle memory for that part of the process. I’ll closely inspect a few at the start of the process and as I’m going to make sure I’m getting the coat I want. Instead of visually inspecting each housing as I go, I visually check how much lube is on the brush before each one and then try to distribute that evenly on the rails by feel.
Springs I just bag / tub / or dip.
Stems are kinda the slow part for me I guess; once I have the housings done and springs in those, I’ll use one of those clutch pencils to hold an individual stem (while also covering the cross mount) - that I can hold close enough to see how my lube is brushing on - from there I place the stem on the spring with the clutch / stem-picker. It’s actually pretty rare that I lube the top housing, but if I do, I do them in-hand one at a time kind of like the stems; lube one, snap it on, repeat until batch is done.
I’ve been thinking about trying a smaller station; there are little ones you can hold in your hand - that might be more conducive to an assembly-line-like workflow while also making close inspection a little more spine-friendly.
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Keychron continues their relentless assault on the beginner market. This looks amazing for the price.
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I know right. Good for them. And Vortex went the modern vintage route. I’m itching to pickup their 1800. That form factor is usually way pricey, but they seem determined to still keep everything they sell under $200.
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I asked Keebmonkey to try and offer DOIO’s trays, as they seem nice and quite affordable compared to the rare GB you get on these. Oh well, he did. Use code “MACROPAD” for 10% off.
https://www.keebmonkey.com/products/megalodon-doio-screw-trays?variant=42975689867479
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Pretty cool, good for them. Bookmarked. I hope they take it low and slow when mining Reddit. They like to ban bots with extreme prejudice. It’s great seeing data miners putting their commercial skills to better use. Lol.
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Awesome new board from ai03
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Goddamnit I wasn’t the only one who thought of that 
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Switch Oddities just posted a switch identification guide. I’m still reading through it but it’s nice to see some documentation like this.
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A bunch of new larger XVX sets in “common clone” colorways have popped up now
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Interesting - those look a whole lot like “CXA” profile. Like… a lot
Speculation:* (Edit; speculation was incorrect, see after divider below)
I’m going to go out on a limb and say they’re made with the same tooling, and intended for sale in different markets so as not to directly compete / violate any agreements.
$15 is cheap by any measure, but certainly cheaper than the $80 that CXA costs. That does make me wonder if there are other differences besides intended market - say, plastic blend or quality thereof.
In terms of shape, these look identical to CXA right down to the legends and stem shape. Cannon Keys says CXA is a PBT/ABS blend, while Teclas says theirs is “PBT” - though lots of blends are sold that way.
Welp! I have a new video project for later.
Edit: Update responsive to @anaolivetree;
These are indeed not the same, similar as they appear. Here is a link to another thread where I go into detail about that:
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