What's on your workbench today?

Learning and discussion
2832

Thanks!

That’s helpful, clarifying information.

It was evident that the storefronts were having trouble describing [in English] and differentiating between the two “whites.”

Looks like I got the ‘bright’ cool-white, instead of the slightly-beige “warm white.” Maybe you can pin it down.

The ‘bright white’ might have ended up being best for this project, overall.

Your Atari-like build is perfect, for the ‘beige’ variant.

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And thanks for letting me know about the PCB compatibility. If there hadn’t been an additional 1.2mm PCB available, I might have had to get creative.

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2833

Nice to know you can get the Transition TKL of AliExpress!

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2834

We’re at the tail end of it.

Before, there was a fairly wide selection. Around the time the SwagKeys and secondary vendors were selling those TKLs with lots of option-button selection choices on the websites.

I think that some of the AliExpress keyboards may even have shipped with carrying cases. But that was more of a feature of the $50 USD or higher + shipping keyboard kits from the more primary vendors. There were complaints on some of the AliExpress store pages that they didn’t ship with cases.

So back when several vendors were shipping kitted-out Transition Lite TKLs, AliExpress tended to offer a more limited subset: 1.2 or 1.6mm 6.25u or 7u PCBs, with the stock PC plate, and a selection of colours.

That was a pretty decent selection. But some of the more primary vendors offered more granular choices, concerning PCBs, plate-material, dampening, special case options, and the like. This overall situation may have persisted until last winter, or so. Then, stock started to run low.

Now that the primary vendors are low on stock, AliExpress today reflects that also. One store is all 7u, another is all 6.25u, some colours sold-out.

The advantage for people outside the U.S., with fast shipping from AliExpress, is that it could be cheaper. A Transition Lite into Canada might have been $50 USD minimum, plus shipping, probably around $75 USD total. Or around $106 CAD. From a primary vendor. But during AliExpress sales, you could get one for as low as $86-87 CAD.

A Transition Lite being as cheap / affordable as a non-discounted MK870 was a welcome development. Going with primary vendors, which I did at least once, is good for a bespoke TKL. You could specify exactly what you wanted, and pick up an aluminium top-case, if you wanted. They also came with a carrying case.

The AliExpress route had its own dangers: the conflicting case-colour descriptions, no carrying-case, and I had a PCB failure with one of them. Maybe that’s a consequence of the ultra-budget route there. I’m typing on the one with the PCB issue right now: all LEDs had to be removed, because it was not possible to control them. And it has trace issues, as well. So I have to keep it as it is. Changing the switches risks problems.

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