Ha, if you look closely, those are scribbles from when I was working on the ADB to USB adapter using the tutorial you recommended: WHITE: VCC ; RED: DATA. I was REALLY worried I’d mix up the wires.
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LOL, how funny. Also, I’ve never been very good at telling, and the lighting isn’t helping, but I’m guessing… 4/4 White Oak? Does it have a keyboard-adjacent destiny?
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IIRC it’s a piece of cherry leftover from when I made my wrist rest at my friend’s wood shop. Its keyboard-adjacent destiny is to serve as a soldering tray so that I don’t burn my desk!
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so that’s where they went…
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there is a seller on aliexpress with a great deal at the moment. I just bought 100 more. Big discount and it includes import fees (supposedly, we shall see)
A few days ago I ordered a SINGLE Apple IIgs keycap (the letter S) off of eBay to replace my broken one and… I’m a little intimidated by what showed up in the mail:
First, the package. Covered in all kind of unnecessary handwriting and stickers, including package weight, price, and shipping method (already on the shipping label), a dinosaur stamp, and a sticker that says “Poor New Mexico! So far from Heaven, but so close to Texas.”
Inside the package:
- The S keycap I paid for
- Three extra Alps-mount S keycaps from various vintage keyboards, for free
- A DVD compilation of Apple II footage the seller put together
- The seller’s business card, where he titles himself “Uranium Prospector”
- Various flyers and articles for events and experiences in New Mexico and Kansas
The whole lot of it is covered in copious amounts of tape, handwriting, and stickers.
Wow.
EDIT: But wait, there’s more… 12 pages more:
Long story short, this guy is really into the Apple II, NASA, and sharing his phone numbers and biography with strangers (I don’t even know why I bother redacting it).
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I haven’t watched Breaking Bad, but this feels like a Breaking Bad operation LOL.
I’ve watched Breaking Bad, and you’re right ^^
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Wild. And fun!
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Iced Coffee Linear
Type: Linear
Actuation force: 42g
Bottom out force: 52g
Total travel: 3.5mm
Mount type: PCB (5-pin)
Stem material: L1
Top housing material: POK
Bottom housing material: Nylon
Factory lubed
CHOLAB x HMX Sands of Time
Type: Linear
Bottom out force: 48g
Total travel: 3.6mm
Mount type: PCB (5-pin)
Stem material: POK
Top housing material: PA12
Bottom housing material: PA12
Factory lubed
BSUN Maple Sugar
Switch Type: Linear
Stem: S3 (POM Blend)
Top Housing: Modified POM
Bottom Housing: Modified Nylon
Spring Length: 21mm
Operation Force: 45±5gf
Bottom-out Force: 52±5gf
Actuation Travel: 2.0±0.4mm
Total Travel: 3.6±0.4mm
Factory Lubed: Yes
Pins: 5-Pin
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Got some YMK Rama clones for cheap on Amazon. I haven’t mounted them yet, but comparing with some shots of people who finally got their Rama caps from ZFrontier, I do believe the YMK are clones and not a shadow-run through the same molds. RAMA do some different things with the mold ejection points and stems. The YMK strike me as roughly equivalent to Akko in the style of molding, though fit and durability will tell if they’re even that good. Topside, they’re quite close to Rama, with possibly some slight variations and extra slop in the legends, as is typical.
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Smurve80 arrived today:
Ordered the prebuilt with MX Honey tactiles, which I like more than I expected. They sound lovely in the plastic case though I’ve barely heard them because I’m enjoying the ridiculous solenoid so goddamned much. 
Board was well packaged, but oddly enough the case arrived with a slight gap between the top/bottom halves. Just needed a little pressure to snap the two halves together, so not sure what that was about?
Edit: ughhh. I think there’s some sort of PCB defect or something happening with my board. It keeps throwing an error that causes Win11 to not recognize it (tried different cables/ports, same issue) and if I press the home row with even a tiny bit of force (less than a home row flex test from every YouTube review), it causes wild issues. Backlight goes nuts, key presses get stuck so bad that they go even if I’m pressing other keys or not touching anything, the number 5 and ESC light up, etc. Resetting the board fixes the issue, which then returns if I press down again. Easily reproducible.
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I got my smurve as well! Can’t wait to try it out. I’m hoping the new clear ABS version will be available soon from Novelkeys.
Also received my Constellation from keyboard treehouse and my PC Hippo from Jacky.
Lots of fun projects to tackle. I’ve been in Italy for two weeks and currently sick with a cold. But hopefully once I don’t have a box of tissues teathered to my side again I will feel like building one of them.
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The Smurve mystery continues, but maybe with less sad? Had planned to write to NovelKeys to inquire about getting a replacement since it seemed there was something wrong with my board. Decided to test out 2.4ghz and Bluetooth so I could file a comprehensive report/complaint… and it works fine in wireless mode. No issues whatsoever. I then left it in 2.4ghz mode and plugged in the USB to see if charging + wireless for data would trigger the issue… and it works fine.
Really debating if it’s worth filing a ticket and going through the replacement process or just keeping it as a wireless only board.
Has anyone else run into this issue on the Smurve or any other tri-mode boards?
It’s nice! Has a decent heft to it and feels solidly built. Case and keycaps colors are consistent, though I’d rate the dyesub keycaps labels as just “decent.” A number of the mods were not properly seated on the switches but seem to press on without issue.
The logo on the case is a choice. I can live with it at this price point. 
Very odd. Definitely sounds like it’s shorting. Perhaps there is a crack in the PCB that is being shorted when you flex it? It would make sense that putting it a mode that turns of the 5v power fixes the issue if there is a short in the 5v power line somewhere on the board.
Mine is a barebones kit so I’ll try to plug it in and push down to see if it has this issue as well
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I was afraid of that. Haven’t had it happen on any boards in years, so I was in a bit of denial.
Thank you! I’m very curious to see what you discover with it. Hopefully NK has a few extras available so I can get a replacement. It’s a lovely board otherwise especially at this price point!
no shorting or weird issues over USB on mine
I do have an idea what it might be after assembling mine and I will follow up in a bit. This thing is frustrating and I need to go for a swim real quick
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Thanks for checking that for me. Glad to hear you’re not seeing the same issue. I was curious to hear how your build went with this board.
I’m still worn out from my travels and being sick, but I thought I would give some input on what might be going on.
The final build is quite nice. I have it with some all R3 SA caps at the moment, but I think I’ll like it even more with cherry profile. I know this because I have the Model OLED board that is essentially the same setup.
But this DIY kit was challenging. I’m really hoping no one bought the DIY kit as their first mechanical keyboard project. It’s a lot to assemble, and it’s not exactly easy.
Instead of a normal board where you feel like you can tinker around and try different configurations, this feels more like a one and done. Of course, you can change out the switches pretty easily, but I’m not sure I would try to go back in to mess with foams and such. I ended up using everything in the kit.
Once you get it all snapped together it’s a mighty challenge to get it back apart. I ended up breaking off one of the tabs. The tolerances are just too tight for repeated assembly/disassembly.
I suspect that the shorting you have is from the ribbon cable that connects the 5 separate PCBs on the back.
You can see the cable in step 5 of the assembly guide.
The fatter part of the ribbon cable passes directly over two different stabilizer screws. I’m wondering if the compression of the case somehow pierced the ribbon cable and it’s hitting a screw on the 5v line. If that’s the case, an easy fix would be to lift the cable up and put some tape under it (or over the stabilizer screw)
That’s my best guess. The unfortunate thing is that this will require opening the case up. Damn, it’s not easy. I have an ifixit kit, and I used 3 different tools and still ended up breaking off a small tab on the back. It still closes fine, but it’s not ideal.
If you open it up , it’s easiest to open the front first. I used my fingernails and it separates fairly easily. The sides are the difficult part. I barely got a plastic wedge tool on one side and was able to push the two tabs downward to release, but I had no luck on the other side. I would have had to use a very thin razor to get at that clearance. Instead I went for the back. Once I got all the tabs in the back but one off, I was able to pull really hard to get the final side off.
Hopefully you have a better experience.
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I think your theory is likely correct. Pressing down on the right side of the home row (JKL;) sends my board into a fugue state every time, whereas it’s less likely to go haywire if I press somewhere on the left (ASDF) side. The fact that the ribbon runs under that side of the board definitely checks out.
I’m going to reach out to NovelKeys and see how they want to handle this first before I try to pry this thing apart, but I’m bookmarking your reply in case I ever need to open this board, so I thank you for the helpful tips! With the exception of my first mech in 2020, I’ve bought barebones, but I watched a couple reviews (namely, Keybored’s teardown) and went the easy route with a fully built board, specifically because it looked like a pain in the ass to open and mod. I really wish they went with case screws so opening the case wouldn’t be such a challenge.
Hope you have a chance to get some rest and feel better soon!
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