I made a castling, transplanted switches acco pom brown and stabilizers gateron v2 to kechron 40.
I also made a break force mod, I also glued a patch under the stabilizers.
And on QK65 I decided to put airboards Naevies V2.
Their body is very dense, the film is not needed.
Stem’s legs were already oiled. Relubricated to 205g0.
Then I thought for a long time what kind of stabilizers I should install.
Also, instead of gatherons of stabilizers (they were transplanted to kechron 40), I installed Staebies V2 - Black Nylon. For 55 minutes I was tormented with a wire-eye staple at 6.25. Just a banana curve completely.
After the first keyboard races, the whole difference between Akko and naevis, is just that naevis has a smaller move. Feels almost the same.
I spent way too much time trying to find out what was causing this very noticeable and extremely annoying key binding on the spacebar. The stems on the keycap are actually a bit too girthy for the box switches I’m using which is preventing the top housing from clearing the stem per usual. Luckily, the kit came with an accent spacebar that had way better tolerances. Nice.
At first, I decided to simply improve the stabilizer on the qk65 assembly, which is for linear switches on a pom plate. There is a gap keycap stabilizer, TX version 2. I disassembled it, leveled the bracket again. Re-greased everything and put it back together.
More in this assembly simply can not be improved. Ideal for me.
Then I decided to put the Epsilon switches on the KBD Tiger 80. Lubricate them again (they were stock).
As a result, there are also stabilizers changed to others.
And keycaps to put for the test new “Maple” purchase from TaoBao. This set has a keycap space from pure abs. But he is 7u, just for tiger80.
Here it took me the most time for kechron 40 Q9.
All because of the stabilizer on the keycap gap. Not how it was impossible to make an ideal option for me. Either the sound down is bad, then the sound of the impact is up. That’s ratling.
Painted a couple plates with a new finish I was curious to try. I think it turned out great! It is a red sparkle finish applied to black base, I think it will work on other colored bases, might try yellow next.
Probably the biggest waste of time of my last month.
Had the KBD67 Lite bottom silcone pad, but found the PCB to be resting against it, probably due to slight case warp or just bad design (had prints of the hotswap sockets), adding unnecessary stress to the case needing a bit more force to close.
So I tried to remove enough for it to get under the support walls, still added a nice heft, not sure I’m a fan of the new sound signature.
I did a silicone pour on a GK64x with aluminum case and at least in my experience, some compression was necessary to get good sound dampening results. The hotswap sockets left permanent dents in the silicone in my case too. I haven’t had any issues with the PCB or the case, but I could see it being a concern on a plastic case, particularly if there aren’t threaded metal inserts for the attachment points.
Replaced caps with mixmatch combo from 2 other boards plus some pink pudding caps and a toe-beans “artisan”
Replaced Jixian Blues with some less-loud dampened frankens
Sanded and painted the steel plate satin white for maximum argeebeez (specifically chose a North-facing PCB for optimal legend backlighting
Sprayed the optional top shell pink to match the new owner’s desired theme; cap exploded but managed to paint it anyway somehow
Added some foam and 2oz of iron weights in the bottom tray
This is replacing another budget keeb this user had, which appears to have been ESD’d to death - so their replacement budget board is one with ESD protection.
Good man. I can tell you this, if you’ve managed to build up enough static electricity to spark your keyboard to death, it will most likely happen again. I finally found out that a huge problem for me was the couch in my office. I guess it’s made of all synthetic material, but it’s a giant static magnet. If I even go near it I make sure to discharge myself on my iPhone charger before I sit down at my desk.
One of these day’s I’ll rebuild my M65-a (or my second one that I’ve never built, lol) and see if moving my couch helps it from getting killed. But I think it’s just a lousy PCB design. And that nylon bottom is probably a big misstep. My blue one has an aluminum bottom. I need to get that built, but I hate the swiss cheese plate with a passion. Anyone wanna modify a plate file for me?
I too killed an M65-A back in the day. I think you’re right about it being a poor pcb design. I think it was a Winkeyless.kr pcb so I’m surprised it died so easily.
I actually talked to Hiney about designing a replacement PCB, and even sent him my extra. However, he’s gotten too busy and no longer seems interested in making it. I talked to him just this week, and we agreed he would send it back. RIP
There have to be more than a handful of people out there willing to buy a replacement for it. I don’t want to Dremel the case to fit a USB-C board.
If I had dimensions I could design a replacement PCB and open source it.
And maybe find components available at JLCPCB so that anyone could order one assembled.
Here’s the original open source project. The J65 PCB was known to have lots of static deaths. Don’t know if it was the nylon bottom of the case, poor design, or both.
I always disliked the Swiss cheese plate too. But someone could surely design one without the cheese. Heck, you could even do a 1/2
Plate and make the board feel different.
I’d personally just stick to a 7u bottom row full plate.
I wanted to improve the sound of the Keychron Q1, and out of the new selection, thanks liked the Black Sesame best, with the Jwick Semi Silent a close second. I might change it to the Gecko Silents though, as, regardless what I do, the board feels quite metallic loud. I guess that’s the steel plate - I’ll try to get a POM plate as PC is sold out almost everywhere.
But then I stuck a couple Black Sesame’s in the Ginkgo65 with the Gazzew Linear Thocks which I’ve been quite enjoying and was perfectly happy with. And hot damn, it sounds even better with the Black Sesames
So, on with the Geckos on the Keychron, and the Black Sesames onto the Ginkgo65 (if I have enough time today, as there’s a 1 1/2 year old about to descend onto the house )
Black Sesame and Jwick Semi-Silents mixed, plus a lone Silent Gecko to tame that space bar
Lastly, I got a few mystery switches extra, presumably as a switch tester set, but no idea what they are - does anyone know? The two orange ones are TTC…something…?
The body is very tight. Film is not needed.
The wobble stem is also weak. Stem keeps himself in the top. When disassembled.
If laziness, then you can not even re-lubricate, but straight out of the box.
But I love stock ONLY gateron oil king.
While other switches are out of the box to suit me, no.
Pressing is very light, smooth, fast.
At some rhythm of typing letters, you can get the effect of pebbles knocking.
)
