Caps?
Gmk godspeed w/ 40s and two white spacebars (1u and 3u).
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Are they better or worse than usual Gateron Yellows?
If they’re the same or better smoothness (without lube) as say, Gateron Yellows KS8 with an overlubing then they have amazing value, as Gateron switches are the gold standard IMO, sitting right on the threshold of acceptable quality.
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Congrats on the new job!
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I’m going to go with better.
My main peev is with stem wobble and the crunch you get when the stem legs exert too much force on the metal contacts during actuation. The latter is best represented when you fully actuate the switch, then wiggle your finger. If you hear a metal crunch, I wager the stem legs are strumming against the metal contacts either by having super small nicks and burrs on them or simply being a nano too long.
Outside of that distinctive Gateron scratch, these switches have next to no stem wobble, and that metal crunch issue is loads less than most “top shelf” switches I’ve tried.
I’ve had a ton of luck using @ThereminGoat’s switch spreadsheet and sorting by descending wobble to find some very notable contenders. Here’s a Top 10 that I use as a sort of shopping list. Lol.
| Rank | Switch Name | Manufacturer | Push Feel | Wobble | Sound | Context | Other | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Everglide V3 ‘Water King’ (60g) | Durock/JWK | 32 | 24 | 7 | 15 | 8 | 86 |
| 1 | Alpaca V2 | Durock/JWK | 32 | 22 | 9 | 16 | 8 | 87 |
| 10 | Durock POM Linear (Sample) | Durock/JWK | 29 | 22 | 6 | 13 | 7 | 77 |
| 52 | Taiwan Jet Axis Yellow | Unknown | 20 | 22 | 6 | 10 | 5 | 63 |
| 3 | Gateron Speed Silver Pro | Gateron | 31 | 21 | 9 | 15 | 8 | 84 |
| 4 | Nixie Black | Cherry | 29 | 21 | 8 | 14 | 9 | 81 |
| 7 | Gateron Pro Yellow | Gateron | 27 | 21 | 7 | 15 | 8 | 78 |
| 17 | Quartz | Durock/JWK | 30 | 21 | 5 | 13 | 6 | 75 |
| 25 | Meow Claw V2 | Huano | 27 | 21 | 6 | 12 | 6 | 72 |
| 5 | Invokeys Matcha Latte | Aflion | 29 | 20 | 8 | 17 | 6 | 80 |
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I’m going to have to try those Alpacas one of these days…
I think I’ve experienced another source of bottom-crunch as well; specifically that kind you feel when the switch is all the way down and some wiggle is applied.
Sometimes it’s an over-compressed long spring, much of the time I think it’s the leaf-stem interaction, but sometimes I think it’s actually the bottom of the pole against the bottom of the stem-well / tube. Most poles are either flat or rounded at the end, but sometimes the bottom of the stem-well has a bit of ejection-flash or some other injection-molding artifact for the stem bottom to crunch against.
IIRC this is a thing with Tecsee’s long-pole switches - if I remember I’ll feel around when I get home and see if I can identify some switches that seem to have this flavor of crunch.
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Good one! Definitely a culprit of crunch for some Giant springs I was testing last week.
I have some extras if you’re interested. Being his #1 ranked linear, I built a few boards with them and TBH, I’m a little Alpaca’ed out.
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When you think about it, the spring has to fit in the tiny space between bottom of switch stem to bottom of switch housing. That’s what, 5~6mm? So all springs are pre-loaded. With some 20mm spring, coils could be touching each other when a switch is full pressed. If coils are rubbing against each others…and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s ‘on spring’ stem is bottoming out on with some super long springs.
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I definitely experienced this with something I was trying the other day - I think I’d swapped some long spring from a Tecsee into a JWK housing (which has a higher “floor” inside / compresses the spring more), and the spring would actually compress fully just before bottom-out - making for a strange, almost dampened, kinda mushy feeling (totally aside from the crunch factor).
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Swapped the keycaps on my frog recently.
DCS Red Alert R3
DSA Spacebar
DSA 2x2 key
DCS PANIC
Cherry topped jwicks on alpha area and stock jwicks on nav&frow.
Alu plate
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that’s the dealbreaker for me.
First post here. Built this dark grey Parallel 65% Sequence with an FR4 plate, Techno Violet switches (long pole mmm), TX clip in Stabilizers, tape mod, and a thin layer of foam in the bottom of the case. Keycaps are EnjoyPBT G81-SAV.
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Actually, this has been on my desk for a while. I kept to myself until now, because
Project URSA was still under wraps.
This is a prototype of a case for 40% Ortho’s. I’ve been switching my Planck and BM40 PCB’s at times.
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This is looking great !!!
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Thank you. It draws inspiration from the Dasher Keyboard. Currently, it’s only an FDM proto.
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Preview of coming attractions…
Edit: realised I’d put this in the wrong place. Pics of the new Vortex boards are in the Mail thread…
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I scored a castoff, nearly pristine Model M from the Harvard physics department. Didn’t get the UK ISO one I wanted, but this is almost as good. I’ll give the caps a nice soak tonight. I’ve been using it all morning to test it.
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Nice build. How are you liking the gummy o-ring mount and the board in general? Is it your first board with this type of mounting style?
Although being some of the most budget switches I’ve tried, undoing Gateron’s poor attempt at machine lubing made these absolute work to keep them stock smooth without being drenched in cheapo leftover lube.
With stubby 78g springs, the short pretravel makes the typing feel stiff and snappy.
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