I’m not surprised since you have 314.15 keyboards in your possession. haha.
But…in all seriousness, that’s a great idea.
Not necessarily today but a couple weeks ago, I learned how to bridge two lifted kailh hotswap sockets. Which in turn also taught me a bit more as to how PCBs work.
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Today I learned that putting adhesive foam on my case without knowing if I would like the sound is a pretty bad idea.
But I’m trying caseless. Maybe it can be better.
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Today I’ve learned that, in order to switch between keyboard languages on Windows 10 via alt + shift you actually need both layouts installed. It is no use to switch between german and english layout for example if you’ve got only one instead of two or more installed.
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I know exactly what you mean, man.
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That I probably shouldn’t have gotten into the switch collection side hobby lol. I think I’ve only done it for a year and I already have 891 switches on my spreadsheet. There’s probably 120 of them I’m waiting from either buying or trading with others, plus some GB switches (but shhhhh)
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Differences in slippery tape. I’m neck-deep down this rabbit hole after reading thockpop’s guide for their Dry H.U.M.P stab mod. As the title suggests, it’s a mod aimed at silencing stabs without lube.
The trick here is they leverage PTFE Teflon tape. It’s coated with the stuff they make frying pans out of. Neat.
After some very nerdy articles about plastic surface viscosity, I stumbled across something called UHMV (Ultra-High Molecular Viscosity) tape … sound familiar? Lol.
Apparently, it’s more durable and has improved sound dampening characteristics over PTFE. I found some reasonably priced on Amazon, so I picked up a few rolls for testing.
This was hands down the best part of my research!
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I have some UHMW tape I got out of curiosity. The stuff I have is pretty thick and not very conformal. However, I’m now curious if it’s thick enough to cradle the bar just enough to reduce rattles. I suppose I ought to try it out.
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Ooo, I’m super interested in how your testing goes. If you think about it, kindly share.
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Hmm this makes me want to try some things…
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Today I learned that burning myself with a soldering iron HURTS. More ironically I’m building a Pain27…
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So after a few hours fiddling with the UHMW tape, I’d say it’s for sure a solid option for the Holee or Epsi mods. The only issue is the tape’s thickness.
The one I initially found is rated at 5 mils (~0.127 mm) which is a tad thick. I was only able to add it to the top part of the stem slider, basically half the mod, which instantly eliminated any and all ticking. But with this tape’s sound dampening characteristics plus girth, the upstroke is a bit muted and soft. This might be a turnoff to some.
I wager the one @Extra_Fox’s shared would be perfect at 2 mils, allowing both top and bottom tape to be applied with some room to spare.
I also noticed the cheaper the stab, the better this mod sounds/feels. Weird.
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My recent motivation for stab hacking is aimed at breaking my dependency on ZealPC. I mean they’re great, but the price they charge for their stabs is sort of obscene.
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Thats applicable to most of zeals products lol
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Possibly due to lower tolerances on the lower priced stabs? Interesting findings. I’ll have to figure out which board I want to try this out on. I still have a couple I haven’t finished yet.
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Today I learned that Kailh Speed Golds are not click-bar switches like Speed Navies are.
lol oops
Well, maybe I’ll experiment with jail-housing these - the jacket releases high in the travel so these have extra rattle potential…
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How did I not know that Speed Navy are click-bar switches? I didn’t realize any of the Kailh Speed switches were click-bars. Are there any downsides to the Speed Navy vs Box Navy? I know travel and force are different, but are there issues with wobble or anything like that for the Speed Navy?
@Deadeye Thank you again for your insights on clickys. I’ve been considering trying the Speed Golds (or Bronzes) for a not as heavy alternative to Speed Navy but I deff don’t want more click jacket switches.
@ListlessLlama At the time when I purchased my Speed Navy switches they still had ‘Thick Click’ in the name which refers to a thicker click bar, though they don’t seem to mention that on the novelkeys listing for them anymore.
To hopefully help others avoid my confusion, here is part of the spec sheet for Speed Gold:
The table at the bottom with the parts list is for the cutaway on the top left, part number 8 being the click jacket.
Compare that to the spec sheet for Speed Navy:
Where number 8 is ‘spring’ which is the click bar.
Pro Light Greens seem to be lacking the ‘Keystroke 2’ (click-jacket) part in the diagram, but other than that the other switches spec sheets seem consistent. Sherbets, Speed Navys and Speed Bronze all have click-bars while the Speed Gold and Pro Light Greens are click-jacket switches. AFAIK all BOX style clickys are click-bar switches.
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Thank you for the spec sheets and extra info on this. Much appreciated!
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