Got an NCR80 plastic kit today. I bought directly from YMDK instead of AliExpress. What’s crazy is how fast it shipped. I ordered it on a Thursday night and received it the next Monday morning.
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I’ve almost bought one of those like four times and likely will at some point. Did you get the R1 or R2?
Recieved JWICK samples today, so far from first impression this are really really good.
Samples were drenched in factory oil, very smooth, the switches almost ignore off center presses, almost no spring crunch/ping, housing doesn’t look like it needs films, and wobble is decent, not great though.
No big difference from the yellow and black switches aside for cosmetic difference, the spring might start heavier on the yellow JWICK but they’re quite similar.
Overall this looks to be fantastic stock switch, though I can see why they cost so low, while they perform great, they feel somewhat cheap, can’t really explain it, but I can definitly recommend this!
Worth their price which IIRC is around $15 for 70, if you’re looking for standard linear switches that don’t need much work, very smooth and nice sound signature definitly pick this.
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For some reason I could totally see a board like this out of a movie from the late 80s through mid 90s
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Despite actually having an Apple with their signature funky stepped keys in it, this keeb made me think of Explorers (1985):
Or, a healthy portion of posts in the keyboard spotting thread.
@pixelpusher This is looking pretty darn peak nostalgia for me… I was originally going to go for the weird grey color the R1 has, but this beige really is easy on the eyes. Hm…
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Yeah, I wasn’t sure about the color either. I wanted something like the “cool gray” that they originally were trying for, but I got tired of waiting for another round. Also, everything goes well with beige, so it wasn’t a bad choice.
For 3 day shipping (fedex, only choice) and the case foams I ended up paying $170, which was a few dollars cheaper than Alliexpress. It’s not a bad deal. I have only few nit-picks for that price. The case screws are good but really have the wrong head for such a chore. The plate foam needed to be trimmed around the stabilizers (to be fair, that was stated in the description and already accounted for in a small discount).
I went with the hotswap PCB. As you’ve probably seen before, there is the caps-lock hotswap issue to deal with. You’ll must either do as they recommend (trim the switch post hole bottom, which is odd) or simply remove the socket you don’t think you’ll use. I put some flux on the pads and use some tweezers to ply upwards and it came off easily. I kept the socket in case I ever change my mind 
When you use the case without the feet flipped out it sounds pretty nice. More hollow sounding when you flip the feet out. This is not really an issue for me since I never use the feet.
Works with VIA, but you’ll have to load the JSON file manually each time (there’s a link to the JSON file on the product page). It comes with the firmware preinstalled. I never have much need to reprogram my TKLs, so having to load up the JSON file every now and then is fine by me.
The YMDK listing only shows a carbon fiber plate, but the Aliexpress had an FR4 option. So when I checked out on the YMDK page, I added to the notes of my order that I wanted to get the FR4 if available, and it worked!
If I get bored one day I might try to figure out how to work with silicon and pour some into the case bottom, but the foams included sound good enough for me. It’s not nearly as muted as the silicon filled KBt re:66, for instance. But it’s also not as hollow sounding as my TKC-1800 boards, for which I did have to stuff every corner with foam.
If the kit with shipping was $120-$140, I would say it was a 5/5.
For $170, I’ll give it a 4.75/5
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That’s awesome! Solid idea dude that paid dividends. Big brain.
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Nice pick up! I am a little bummed out I didn’t see that FR4 plate when I picked up the foam recently 
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I got a Squid60 in the mail today - AND THE SENDER PACKED IT SO POORLY that when I pulled it out of the mailbox the box disintegrated and the keyboard fell out of the box and the packaging about 4 feet to the ground!
Somehow it landed flat on the grass and sustained no damage, but my heart jumped!
Goes to show the importance of using the better aluminum.
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I got those Blaeks today. They’re good, but W/E wobble is obvious. The sound signature is per usual for a fully nylon opaque switch.
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Yikes! Glad to hear your board came out OK though!
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Omnihaul
- Pono base + novelties
- Koozies
- Pad bags
- Bonus sticker
Any MoDo2 owners / fans interested in the sticker?
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Not keyboard related, but my turntable arrived like 4hrs ago, and it sounds amazing. Got it for an absolute bargain - £45 for a £200-220 turntable. Finally get to listen to all that vinyl i bought ages ago.
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Are those the totally silent version? I’ve heard there are two variants, one that is silent on both up and downstroke and the original one which is apparently only silent on downstroke. Do you know if there’s a way to tell the difference between them?
From the listings I’ve seen, the fully silenced ones will say “Silent Bluish Whites” whereas the half-silenced ones are just called Bluish Whites. Definitely a touch confusing.
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Today my Modern Model F77 arrived! (although minus some of the keys I ordered, so I’m going to have to talk to @Ellipse about that) It’s been two years since I ordered it, so not as long as some group buys but longer than others (hence the reason I’m drinking Blue Balls)
It has a delightfully crisp feel compared to my models M. At first it wasn’t recognized until I took apart the case and looked at the underside of the controller. The pins were apparently shorting against the case, which I’ve seen has been happening to a fair amount of these keyboards on delivery.
Two smaller issues are that the enter key is binding a bit and one of the arrow keys sounds wrong and sticks. I assume these are stem and spring issues, respectively, and I’m not that worried about it.
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…originally thinking of going with Nautilus on the polycarb H6 but I was one shift keyshort. Found this set on Mechmarket for a deal. Now I think MODO works a little bit better. So committed to the blue command 65 now. I like old school extra legends on the numpad.
Yes these are the silent ones.
Not a great recording but this is what they sound like:
Full silent version (stem has extra rubber part in the middle of the blue stem):
Old 1/2 silent version (stem is solid):
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You have it at last!
Hope you enjoy it 
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R1 is soo much better than R2 =/