That sucks, wonder if you got a bad batch? I know it’s still a super small sample size but @pixelpusher & I both really like the batches we got from Divinikey. Admitted I only have a few hrs. typing on the roller switches so far, since I just put them in my XO70 today. Although I didn’t cherry pick my batch at all, just threw whatever switches I pulled out of the bag in it & none of them sound noticeably different from the others, nor can I feel or hear anything scratchy or squeaky from the bearings. I will say they do have a slightly different feel on the downstroke compared to a regular MX switch because of the bearings, but it is consistent throughout the batch & doesn’t affect smoothness IMO.
1 Like
Let’s describe it in more detail then.
Uneven sound.
This means that usually in a pack of 70 or 90 there are several pieces that differ from the total.
That is, I have already bought so many different switches over the course of 4 years. What I am completely sure is that there has never been a time when the entire pack of 70 or 90 or even 140 pieces were all the same.
There will always be a few things that are weird, for some reason.
Most often it is 2-4 pieces. Sometimes 4-6 pieces.
There are about 4-6 pieces here.
That’s why I indicated that it is better to buy with a reserve.
Another point is the bearings themselves. Pressing.
They are an additional element in the operation of the switch. A regular switch has 3 elements.
1 stem
2 building
3 spring
And here we add another one - a bearing.
Since the keycap, when put on the stem, the thickness of the keycap, the material of the keycap, I noticed affects the stem. Its dimensions inside the TOP case change. Therefore, there is a problem with keycaps from Domikey.
The thickness of the abs keycap is usually thin and is 1.4 or 1.6 everywhere
But the thickness of PBT can be 1.7 or even 1.8
And pressing on roller switches is completely different.
You feel the balls inside more strongly when you press.
I also want to describe how I feel the balls. And in general the smoothness of any switches.
When typing text like now when I write this, this is not at all the smoothness that I always mean. When printing, almost all switches are smooth for me))
I feel the edge between the switches by its smoothness while playing or when editing or rewinding a video. I need to press one switch a lot and slowly, and not even a full press, but from the 2mm point to the full bottom at a 4mm depth.
And with this use, I feel very well which switches are completely smooth and which are not.
And the roller switch is not smooth with this.
2 Likes
Ok, yeah that clears up a lot of things & I completely understand why you are not impressed by the Roller switches as much as me & Pixel now. I just tried a bunch of key presses in the way you described on the Roller switches & a couple boards with traditional MX linears. I much prefer the traditional MX design to the Roller one for that 100%. The Roller switches do have a funky feel when already roughly half depressed the slowly pressed to the bottom. So thanks for clarifying! Also I agree you will definitely get at least 2 to 4 oddball switches that sound or feel funny compared to the rest in a batch of 108 or more. That’s a given so I consider a batch consistent if it stays say under 5 bad switches in a 100. Plus I didn’t have to reject any of the ones I pulled last night when putting them in my XO70 so that colors my opinion for sure.
That said for regular typing I find these switches fantastic myself. Yes you can feel the balls sliding along a little bit, but at speed that feeling is minimal to me. Plus I kinda think the tiny bit of added feedback from the balls when typing at speed is a nice & unique feel. They also sound great stock, which is a huge plus to me. As I have had plenty of super smooth linears that just don’t cut it in the sound department for me, necessitating modding to get better sound from them. Finally the fact you can just throw them in a board fully stock & still get a great sound + feel is impressive to me as well. I am pretty picky about how my switches sound & feel, so I will 9 times out 10 personally hand lube my switches. However as much as I love going all out on the switches for my builds, I’d be lying to you if I said I wouldn’t want at a least few options that could be used stock.
The keycap issue I have not ran into yet myself. Although I only have used GMK Yuri on them. Which sits fine & doesn’t interfere with the switch in any way, so I can’t speak on that. I’ll have to try some of my non GMK caps with them to see if any of them have issues. That would definitely knock some points off of these switches in my book too. Really the only complaint I have with the Roller switches so far is they are a bit heavy for my liking at 60g bottom out. Anyways, sorry for the wall of text. Figured I’d give you my thinking behind liking them so much since you gave me your thinking behind your disappointment with them!
3 Likes
I compared so many things)))
Although the old video is already being released at the moment. Since I already have new keycaps. Manufacturer or material.
3 Likes
Nice, I’ll definitely check the videos out!
1 Like
So I finally got to do a little testing with the new TypePlus stabs. I just mounted a stock 7u one to a HS PCB I have & compared it to a stock SwagKeys Knight stab. Overall the TP stabs performed just fine, but definitely had more noticable rattle vs the SW stabs. Lube will be needed to see actually how these TP stabs perform in a build. I expected them to be a little bit more noisy than the SW stabs just because the slider is all one material (most likely POM). Other than that though I like this design, the way the wire goes in to the housing/slider I doubt they will ever have issues with popping out. Even if they do these will be much easier to fix when installed as the wire clip is facing straight forward on the same plane the wire sits. Instead of being pushed in from the top like conventional stabs. The one big improvement I noticed these make is they have much less N/S wobble than a conventional stab design. While this never really bothered me I figured it was worth a mention as I have heard the N/S wobble as one of the bigger complaints about TX & SW stabs.
These TP stabs have distinct right & left side housings + sliders because of the way the wire is shaped. So putting them together is a tiny bit trickery than conventional stabs. You have to insert the end of the wire, rotate it into position so it’s sitting properly in the slider’s pocket, then you push the wire straight back into the clip on the housing. I think because of this design we’ll have to careful when applying lube to the wire pocket on the slider. It seems like it could be easily over or under lubed. Gonna take a bit of trial & error to find out how much lube is the right amount for these. All in all I really like this new design. It doesn’t make any strides in being quieter stock than the conventional design, but it has advantages in the stem wobble it allows & also seems like wire popping should not be an issue with them. Will have to get them in a proper build to really form an opinion on them, but first impressions are strong!
Edit: I guess I should also mention they have no binding or dragging feels when pressing the space from all kinds of different weird angles too. So if that’s how they are stock I’m gonna say they’ll be just as good as, if not better than conventional designed stabs in that respect once lubed. Also they come with extra screws & washers. Which is a huge bonus for me as I’m always dropping them & losing them in my carpet till I vacuum & hear them being sucked into the vacuum. 
14 Likes
Just realized my switch pullers are 100% perfect for pulling out the clip in stab locker tab thingies!
Also, I’ve come to realize stab foam sucks. lol Several keyboards to rebuild to remove the foam T_T
4 Likes
If we’re talking about the little pads that sit below the stems, the first time I used it was on a silent build with some pretty mushy silent switches - and for that, it was pretty perfect.
…I have absolutely removed it from every other build I’ve tried it on. 
It’s like not clipping Cherry stabs, but with way more steps.
3 Likes
Haha yeah, I did a couple silent builds. Not my thing. Felt too mushy. I have have a work keeb that’s got lubed boba u4’s with stab foam though.
1 Like
Disassembled and rebuilt the Vortex M0110 that I got in the mail yesterday. Lubed up the stock stabilizers. Their design and performance is good. I decided to put BBN linears in it and hit them with the Geon stem tool. I love the sound of these switches because they have a deep clack on bottom out and a muted return. I found that they cracked GMK caps in the past, so they have just been sitting in a bin. Glad I fixed them up. Nice sounding switches, especially in a plastic case.
Also, I’ve owned the stem trimmer for a long time but I’ve never done a full board. At first I was wondering why people said their hands hurt after using it… and now I understand.
6 Likes
No pic, but I built my friend’s QK100 and tuned the 7 Owlstabs very nicely only too find they’re extremely tight in multiple sets of caps, KAT and OTC, to the point at which I needed to use my “switch puller” (silicone handled IC puller from 1998) with a cloth wrapped around it to pry them off after removing surrounding 1u caps. Now off to the side awaiting a new set of Cherry clip-ins.
First build I’m trying for him is CF full plate with soft silicone gaskets. Decent sounding, but could be better. Somehow both clacky and muted, and a bit uncontrolled noisy in places. Partly this is due KAT being large. Need to give the harder gasket position a shot and then maybe the alu plate. He liked an alu plate board of mine, but the QK100’s has a lot of cuts, so I didn’t go to it at first. I think he wants a crisper sound. His first mech.
3 Likes
I’ll toss you my stem trimmer!
2 Likes
I love geon triple stage springs.
Really hate how mushy the Boba LT feels with stock 55g springs, paired with the super short activation I’m really not liking these switches.
They feel much tighter and poppier with some 3stage 62.5g springs. Hoping I like them enough to keep them after this…
Update:
Well, I swapped out all the alphas and mods. I get much less accidental keypresses and they actually sound cleaner/less rattly (consequentially feels deeper without the rattle). Definitely lost the mushy shallow actuations. Wild what some springs can do. Makes me wonder if I would have liked the 65g variant. But I do like the poppiness of the 3stage springs over anything else.
5 Likes
Spent some time lubing and spring swapping Grain Gold Mint Bubblegum switches. These things are more oily than oil kings. It’s everywhere! What a mess. I relubed them with 205g0 and put in some TX 67g medium springs. I’ll have to get them in a board to know if I like them, but for now, I have a lot of oil to clean up and I’m tired.
7 Likes
How do they perform? Looks like they’re dirt cheap, but I would definitely need some heavier springs as well.
1 Like
pretty darn good for the price. They are certainly more stable and smoother than Gateron switches. The sound signature is pleasing to me as well. They take 205g0 well, too. I intentionally “overlubed” them to see how they sounded and I’m pleased to report that they all sound consistently clacky still on bottom out. No weird fart noises or leaf noises to be heard.
I lubed a batch of 70, and I found 2 out of those that had very slight scratch after lubing. Plus, the color is fun.
3 Likes
Actually finished this one up a few days ago. Mounted a Pro Micro and a PS/2 port on a bit of perfboard to make a Soarer converter, then designed and 3D printed a quick case for it. It works well.
8 Likes
I 3d printed some weights for the rejected Viktus Sinne top and bottom set that I got in smoked grey.
Black PLA on 0.16mm layer height and sanded with 180 grit random orbital sander and scuffed with some buffing pads.
Put in my Oblivion set with a laser cut PC plate and some HMX Canglan v2s. My GMK Oblivion set finally in their forever home (for now lol).
This build was ridiculously cheap without taking into account the 3d printer and laser cutter I already have lol. Just used the extra hardware included with the purple Sinne that I bought and some extra orings I had lying around for the burger mount, so no extra costs there either.
It was only $40
11 Likes
-
I like that bottom row a lot.
-
What PCB did you use?
