What did you learn today?

To add to the responses already given: sometimes long pole switches exhibit more wobble than their standard counterparts. This is more traditionally true, but I’m not sure if it’s always the case on newer switches as I quite hate reduced travel and haven’t tried the new offerings.

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Thanks for the detailed explanation, really helpful (also @fatalruin and all!)

I don’t think my fingers are quite sensitive enough to notice the shorter travel, but I might try a direct comparison with a normal pole length.

I’ll have to go back to Theremingoat’s page to look at pictures of the stem poles of the switches you mention, it’ll be interesting to see.

So, today I started learning about long pole switches! :nerd_face:

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Greatly appreciate the detail here mate! As you astutely pointed out, the Marshmallows were actually my first review and its got to be nearly 3 years old here in a handful of days.

While I was aware of there being differences between the US and Chinese releases regarding spring weight, I was not aware of these tiny based mold details. Thanks for the enlightening content and the ping!

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I learned that filling up keyboards to eliminate echo will not necessarily make them sound cleaner.

Sounds silly I know, but I was under the impression that eliminating echo will lead to cleaner sound, so I filled my top-mount-modded NK65EE with silicone (plate+case).

Well, as it turns out, it wasn’t really the case, first of all it makes the sound feel like it vibrates upwards rather than through the case, and it really highlights every flaw in the sound profile.

I was really enjoying the sound profile before adding any dampening materials, and suddenly I’m hearing every spring crunch, or small kink, the spacebar has some “swish” sound that wasn’t noticeable before.

As well as muting the switches while leaving the spacebar loud.

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I have a stock batch of 70 from this exact preorder and for sure they’re C. Those large circles in all 4 corners is totally easy to spot now that you mention it. Nice work.

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Totally. I really appreciate how blah echo can morph into really great pitch and tone.

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I wouldn’t say it sounds silly. It’s not like most people have reason to ponder acoustics on a regular basis - but keebs are a great avenue to play and learn with it.

Silicone fills-up the space and stops sound from bouncing-around inside the case - but as you’ve discovered, it acts as its own sound-reflective surface. No more echo or reverb, but all the little crisp details bounce right up at you - for better or worse.

There are all kinds of things one can fill a keyboard case with (just ask the hippo guy), and there is some variation in how they affect sound.

Perhaps at the other end of things from silicone might be something like pillow / plush filling. It’s flexible in that you can use a little for a subtle effect, or fill it more densely for greater sound-deadening. There’s also foam specifically sold as sound-deadening and it’s great - but I don’t think you have to spend that much to get results.

Ha - this makes me want to see how quiet I can get the BBOX60. It’s basically a plastic loudening chamber attached to the rest of a keyboard.

A topical comparison; this is a recording of TTC Frozen Silent switches in a Portico, which has most of its interior space filled with silicone that has a pattern on the surface:

Here are those same switches in the BBOX60, which is filled with air:

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Definitely had the same experience before. A little space for reverberation keeps the pitch low and can hide those nasty higher pitched sounds like you mentioned. Makes me think of Chyrosran/Thomas’ amber alps board mounted in that deep, hollow, wooden case.

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Chyrosran22 knows his stuff, he might be old fashioned but he does have a point about the newer keyboard and their over-the-top foams and heavy cases.

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I was able to significantly lighten or near erase a few brass plate scratches I picked up while clumsily reseating switches using a few drops of lemon juice on a scotch-brite scrubbing pad. You want to rub a snippet of the pad from side to side and never circular, keeping your back and forth motion tight and centered over the scratch you’re working on. Gradually expand your scrubbing motion to include not only the scratch but a couple of centimeters on either side. Keep this up for about 10 minutes then wipe the area with a dry cloth and repeat. After about 30 minutes, I could only make out the faintest apparition of a scratch even in direct sunlight. I’m thinking time and tarnish will take care of the rest.

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Nice to know. Also, lemon juice is great for removing oxidization on the brass down the road if needed. Every now and then I take 1/2 a lemon and just rub it all over my Unikorn weight. Completely removes the patina. Rinse with water and dry off really well.

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Nice to know too. That makes total sense now.

The scratch is visually noticeable because it’s lighter than the surrounding brass, but by softly scrubbing lemon juice on and around the scratch, it must be faintly and uniformly lightening the scuffed area so the scratch and surrounding brass become close enough in shade and color so what was once fairly noticeable is honestly now undetectable by me and for sure someone who didn’t know it was there to begin with. Hooray!

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TIL that there is no audible difference between films made out of PC and thos made with poron. There was a slight insignificant difference in feel where poron film felt a bit cushiony.

Given that poron films are not as easy to handle nor as durable as films made of PC, I’m going to stick with TX films.

UPDATE: That was with Cherry MX and a frankenswitch using POM housing. With North Pole and Oil King, poron seems to add a slight squeaking noise.

North Pole by itself is already unusable to me bc of its squeaking noise that reminds me of how cheap plastic soap case sounds like in the bathroom. Poron film made the sound even more pronounced on North Pole. With Oil King, I suspect it’s the bottom housing made out of Ink material. Made me wonder if the noise is coming from top and bottom housings rubbing against each other.

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The kbdfans switch foam have a non-slip surface that makes assembly much more comfortable compared to the Deskeys ones and I will not use anything else. :yum:

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Tried a new method for lubing switches this weekend.

At a recent meetup, I met Grace from Grace’s Switch Lubing Service. After chatting with her, I decided to try her V2 lubing method.

Overall, I love that it took less time! I don’t think I can go back to lubing BOTH the stem and the bottom housing. I think doing one gets me close enough. I will say that I think I may have been a little too light with my lube in this method. It probably didn’t help that I was also using 3203 as well, which is already on the light side. Some switches still have a touch of scratch to me. I think this method would really shine with 205g0 or 3204.

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I learned that I tested positive for Covid today. Took it 3 years to get to me, but I think I’ll make it out alive. Just not looking forward to sleeping at night. That’s when it sucks.

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That’s pretty interesting. I really appreciate her illustration, that helped a bunch. After what feels like forever, I’ve settled on just lubing the bottom housing’s left, right, and center rails as well as the left, center, and right metal contacts. I do them in that order with a single dip of lube (half the length of the brush’s bristles) so by the time I get to the metal contacts, only the thinnest bit of lube gets applied. That’s just enough to quite any weird scratch I usually hear with burry stem legs.

Feel better soon!

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Dude. Feel better soon. We’ll be here. :rofl:

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She absolutely knows better than me but I’ll affirm I also only lube only the stem at this point, not the bottom.

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