So I bought a fresh pack of Cherry Clears…
North-facing PCB?
Oh no, this is just from me spamming the switch in my fingers after drawing sharpie on the curved part of the top housing, then quickly reassembling. Unfortunately the new top housing moulds have made it to Cherry Clears. Seems like black Gateron housings are going to be the most fitting replacement.
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Damn the Clears just keep getting worse and worse. Questionable news, since I’m using some as the basis for silenced tactiles.
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I have a serious question about the pre-hyperglide Clears.
I was building a lot of Ergo Clears from various batches, usually from MechanicalKeyboards.com and Novelkeys.
Now, I don’t want to sound like a Novelkeys stealth marketer here, but the Novelkeys MX Clears seemed consistently better than the MK.com ones.
Like, the Novelkeys ones were crisper, straighter, easier to smooth out with lube, bright shiny leaves that didn’t sound funny. This was over multiple orders. Meanwhile, the MK.com ones seemed a little less-tactile, almost ‘watery’ by comparison, with a less distinct tactile bump and a ‘crunchier’ aspect to them, instead of ‘cleaner’ NK Clears.
I understand that there is batch variance, but could it be that severe? These were all pre-Hyperglide pre-tooled standard MX Clears from 2018-2021. Does NK receive a giant crate full of nicer Clears from one production line, and MK gets half-assed Clears from another? Damn I wish I had bought more of those NK Clears, they were only .35 cents each!
(They got wasted in test builds for the most part, although some are going to end up as Progressive Ergo Clears on a hotswap, others are in a Leopold. I am using MK.com Clears for a light Ergo Clear NCR-80, and I really hope it works out.)
Sorry for necro-ing this thread, but I got some hyperglide blacks off NK and they seem to have binding issues that are unrelated to the type of keycap I use. If I just press down the switch by itself on the left or right side of the stem, I can notice some horrible binding- it’s almost like an extra bump at the end. Has anyone found out some kind of solution for this issue or are there any alternative switches you can suggest that are similar in sound to hyperglide blacks?
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I ran into this when trying out some different frankenswitch combinations and the conclusion I arrived at was that certain stem and housing material combinations didn’t play nicely with one another. That said, that’s unusual for a stock switch. Have you tried lubing one and repeating the test?
Yea, I’ve tried it stock, lubed, stem-swapped, top-swapped, spring-swapped, filmed, and combinations between them, and the issue persists. I think the issue is somewhere in the bottom housing, probably the leaf.
Never had binding issue with any of the retooled and hyperglide Cherry blacks I have (~500) so it could be some bad batch that got through their QC.
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Dang, unlucky for me I guess- I ordered 3 packs of 36 and all of them have the same issue. Do you guys think it’s worth buying some off another site, or is there a good chance that I’m going to get switches from the same batch?
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You’ll probably have better luck ordering some from a different site as it is highly unlikely you’ll run into switches from the same batch NK has. I would also contact NK about the issue if it is something that happens with all or a majority of the switches you got. Not only will they probably reimburse you in some way. If they truly do have a bad batch on thier hands I’m sure that is something they’d want to know about so no more gets out to the end users.
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Seconding @Rob27shred’s suggestion to reach out to NK; their customer service is quite good and they’re a friendly bunch of folks.
Last time I had an issue they asked me to take a photo / video of it so they could share it with the manufacturer, and they send me a replacement of the thing.
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Yea, I ended up contacting NK support a while ago but they said they couldn’t offer anything because I had already opened up and lubed a few switches. I asked if I could return two of the other boxes I hadn’t opened yet, but they gave no response even after 2 follow up emails.
Man, I’m sorry to hear that - in the Canadian sense of the word.
Haha yep, I’m over it now though. Do you know any switches that sound similar to hyperglide blacks though? I’m looking into some other switches at this point.
That’s disappointing - sorry to hear that. I’d hope that there’s a way to rectify the Blacks that you already have but I realize that you may not want to sink any more time into them. And to your question, matching the sound profile of Blacks is tough, IME. That said, what about something like Creams? They come to mind as something with a similar(ish) sound profile. You could also look at something like a TTC Wild or Jwick Black. The latter is similar from a material composition standpoint.
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Cherry black sound stands alone. Cream sound is very good and can be similar in certain plate/case/padding combo but not as solid nor clean. Cream has a sort of bell-like ringing that can be brought out in enjoyable form with right combo. Boba LT does too although more rounded. Cherry has none of that.
If I had to pick closest sounding switch, I’d point to Inks. Although they don’t sound as lively as Cherry blacks can be, Inks sound solid. If you need a cheaper switch, Gateron Cap V2 sounds similar to Inks yet cheaper. One issue is lack of spring modding options since Cap uses wider springs.
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If I’m using south-facing stock Hyperglides with no LED, will I still experience noticeable binding with GMK keycaps?