I built my Corsa today. Hmm… I’m gonna say that I’m really happy that I’ve used many EC boards before trying this build. The build was tedious, as you may figure… looking at all of the pats. Assembly is trickier than a typical mod of a topre board because of the flexible FR4 plate. I did manage to get it all working on the first attempt.
My thoughts:
Pros:
It feels somewhat like a standard Topre board and sounds similar to a topre board. All of the pieces fit and work together. Cool to be able to put this in a board I already own.
Cons
Okay… so several of the housings are too loose in the plate and rattle when typing. It’s not a huge deal, but if you’re going for a silent build, this ain’t it.
The stabilizers suck ass. I’m not sure if they rattle, but I can tell you that it’s one of those situations where you have to very carefully press the keycap in place when mounting it or it’s going to get stuck down. I feel like it leads to a slightly shortened keypress too. This, of course, is a pretty big suck for the space bar. They actually included a topre space bar spring. I’m glad they did because it was the only way I could get it to feel decent. Unfortunately the spring is made to go over a round slider and these sliders are rectangular, so they dont really fit like they should (but it works, even though it does come at the expence of extra noise).
I opted to use the slightly thicker silencing pads. I think that was a poor choice. It feel like the keypress is too short. Also, silencing doesn’t mean a lot when you get rattle from the housings.
The mounting system for the Corsa is just a pain in the ass and took me way longer than I expected to swap out the assembly.
It needs gaskets for the plate (to keep housings from rattling) and better stabilizers. That would make it a better experience, for sure.
It was interesting to put together a completely custom topre build. I’ve modded my HHKBs and Leopolds with new sliders and silencing pads, but I’ve never had a completely custom kit. One thing that feels a bit off is the plate to PCB assembly. Because the plate is FR4, and you’re sandwiching in rubber domes, over tightening the screws can pull the plate down in spots. I tightened them all fairly tight the first run through and when I looked at the assembly it was all warped around the screws. Oops.
I’m defintely not a fan of the final result, but I think a few things here and there would improve it. I might try to redo this build without silencing pads and with some TX plate mount stabilizers.
So maybe some tweaks will make it bearable?