I’m always interested in seeing what people can do with low-profile MX designs, whether it be keycaps or switches.
At the same time, it’s too bad that the MX housing does not allow for complicated-ALPS designs, which require more space. It is almost as if MX sits in a space between “efficient, convenient low-profile” and “giant, roomy luxury designs.”
Time to bring back SKCM ALPS?
My Siemens TG3 arrived yesterday. I will need to convert it, and with such a roomy case and (per some very old GH stuff) a very weird set of keycodes, I don’t see any reason not to do so internally. To that end, I took it apart almost immediately, though not before my wife grabbed a pic of the “meth” keycap 
.
This is an interesting board. I know TG3 has made some police boards, horse-racing boards, and other niche industrial stuff, but I’m not deeply familiar with their output. This one seems to hit an exact middle point of industrial build quality and value engineering. It’s from 2010, a top-mount with an aluminum (or at least non-magnetic) plate, Cherry MX Black (with Gray on stabilized keys), and dye-sub PBT in SP DCS; you can even see the signature (forgive the pun) “pucker” mounting stems.
The bottom plate is also the same aluminum (for lack of a more certain term… if only I had the rest of the chemical analyzer!), and attaches to completely different posts than the keyboard assembly. The case is possibly not ABS? It feels like it might be more PVC-ish like a Model M. The PCB is, unfortunately, not NKRO, definitely lacking per-key diodes, but we’ll (eventually) see if the matrix is problematic in any way for typing or gaming; I do presume neither company ever expected anyone to be sitting down for a long session of composing text on one of them. The whole thing is fairly light, especially given the old-school looks, so I will almost certainly throw some self-adhesive wheel weights onto the bottom plate before I close it up for good.
One interesting thing is there is a five-pin edge connector on the PCB, and it’s wired to something, but I can’t visually tell what and the case has no cut out for it or even mold markers indicating earlier models might have. I wonder if it was a way to do factory testing before final assembly? My particular board is a bit dirty, but is generally in very good shape, no doubt helped by the fact that the thing is 10-20 years newer than its design might imply. The plate mount stabs are pretty rattly, but it’s only a very noticeable issue on the spacebar, and some lube should help.
Speaking of the 7u spacebar, yeah, it’s on 55mm centers instead of the usual 57, which is just far enough to make any stab-side mods impractical. I understand these spacebars pop up in SP grab bags from time-to time or on some older Taiwanese boards with Cherry sliders, and I’d love to give somebody a coffee money and shipping if they have one lying around. It needs a removable PS/2 cable, which I don’t have, but since I’ll be converting anyway, I don’t intend to get one now. Besides, with the entire board coming in at $33 after shipping and sales tax, that would be a non-trivial percentage of the entire purchase, LOL!
Overall, it would be a decently fair deal just for the switches and caps, which could kit out an HHKB or Q1/Rainy 75 style board with very few compromises (apart from sourcing a suitable spacebar), as the page-up and page down caps occupy the same rows as the numpad + key. If all else fails, there’s also value in the plate and case, since (for me at least) there’s always the possibility of a full lobotomy and conversion to hand-wired.
Oh these have PBT DCS! I’m so glad I picked one up now! That Amtelco board I got has double shot ABS & I was figuring these boards had the same since they are both TG3 boards.
Buying a pre-built after building (or tearing down and rebuilding) all of my boards for years now is strange. (Not counting the low profile side-quest).
Qwertykeys x ATKGear Hex80
Anodized Purple (more like blurple from certain angles and lighting conditions)
OwLab Ti HE Magnetic Switches
CF Plate, polycarb keycaps w/ some sort of matte coating that feels pretty nice.
Cablemod Pro Straight Viper Green cable.
Is that a U80?
Also ergotron arm, artisan mousepad … what a comfortable workspace!!
yep, nailed it
Just left the workbench, Daertwing by apfel/Kilipan, case by Bubbleology.
To be able to really print it, I at least tried to recreate the “swoosh” in InkScape based of the original design. Not an exact copy, but it turned out good enough
This is awesome. Did you do the knob design yourself, and if so what was basic idea of the CAD workflow and physical assembly?
I don’t know anymore where I got the knob sadly. There is a project file in my Fusion cloud, but that’s 2 years old and based on a STEP file. I added a screw fixture back then as it was designed for round shaft encoders only and now also kind of fits D-Shaft.
For the Multicolor (which was probably the only thing you wanted to know ), that’s the SVG again as modifier in the slicer and printed directly like that. I was able to cut down on waste a bit as the filament really needs not much purging, was about 20-30g in this case. Still horrendous amount but absolutely worth it for rare occasions.
My Honeywell homage is done, at least in its initial incarnation. I think there’s room to improve my print quality, and the beige shows off oopsies with much less mercy than black does. Still, after blowing through a lot of filament relative to the size of the final case, I am at a point where I am content with it. The design itself came out more less just how I wanted, an appropriate home for DSS Honeywell.
For the base plate, I did a slightly dumb thing and laser-cut it out of a thin ABS sheet. I wore my respirator and monitored it closely, and darned if it didn’t cut super nice. Something was about a mm off in the dimensions, but I was able to trim it and run a lighter over the new-cut edges to put them back to black (videos of people doing this to sun-faded stadium seats are oddly satisfying). Still, I don’t recommend this at all. At some point I probably just need a better laser.
I added about 6 ounces (170g) of weight, and the whole thing comes in at just under 2 pounds (900g). I had some fairly tall furniture pads to use as bumpons, and the classic “floating” effect of the hall effect terminal boards is there, if subdued.
Sound profile is pretty nice, a bit on the high pitched side, but not unpleasant at all and it’s not a world apart from other plastic boards with ABS keycaps. Bottom out is probably more on the firm side, but it’s not even close to my harshest, and the Kailh blacks are fine for my purposes here. Any scratch is minimal and consistent, and they’re a touch heavier than Gaterons, which is nice for me.
The result is fantastic!
I put together my discount GMMK Pro with Box Pale Blue and MT3 Dusk, as well as getting somebody’s precompiled VIA firmware onto it. Per-key RGB isn’t working, but while there are people whose forks have it, i don’t have a QMK environment set up right now and just didn’t have it in me to set one up this weekend. The Pale Blues are yet another pretender to the Box Navy throne. Quite nice, and the spring weight is pretty good for me, but the thinner click bar makes them feel more like what I would want from an MX tactile. I only have two boards with Box Navy, and I’m just not sure why that still is, LOL. They’re the best.
MT3 is something else. Make that same dramatic sculpt on a cylindrical profile and all the Model M homages wouldn’t miss the curved backplate at all. The keytops are indeed pretty small, but they’re not bad. I don’t think I type similarly enough to Matt3o to truly appreciate them, and I feel even more strongly now that people who complain about sculpted SA are letting the impossible be the enemy of the good. There is no perfect profile for everyone, or even just for the people who like tall sphericals. I may be that rare person who neither loves nor hates MT3. It sure is pretty though. Total build with all shipping and taxes came in at $105.
ooh clickies with ABS MT3 - how’s the sound? Is it pretty loud? And nice total build price - looks great! It kinda brings me back. I have a Drop CTRL somewhere that I might put back together. I can’t bring myself to sell it for some reason (if someone would even buy!)
You know, with the obvious caveat that it’s a clicky, not that loud. Glorious (rightly) takes a lot of heat for their pricing and resting on their laurels to ensconce themselves as best buy’s favorite “custom” board, but the GMMK Pro is a hefty chunk of aluminum, as the bottom is solid and thick and there’s no battery cutout (and think goodness no badge like later GMMKs), and I left the plate and case foams in, and the Pale Blues have the thinner, slightly less noisy click bar from the Box Whites, just with the same spring as (IIRC) the Jades. All together, it’s definitely a touch quieter than most of my clicky boards, even with those big ABS caps. Relatively deep for a clicky build as well.
I love me some MT3.
They sent me a GMMK Pro at one point for some reason or another along with the flex kit, and I built it with the entire thought process being that I would give it to a friend or family member…and I ended up actually really liking how it sounded and was a little annoyed about that.
Ended up keeping it, throwing the Glorious Pandas I had into it and topping it with MT3 Cyber. It sits as a decoration piece on my work desk these days, was never able to end up bringing myself to get rid of it. Has been a conversation a few times and I’ve managed to get at least one more co-worker into custom boards, even as I’ve exited the hobby (waiting for the Supermassive killed any interest I had left in this hobby with the wait time).
