/mkg/ - Chinese New Year Edition

What is babby's first mechanical keyboard? Serious question, I've never used one before.

your dad's old model M

your best safe bet is something with browns, normies love them as first switch so you can´t go wrong with them

only if they're gateron browns - the best switch made

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just bought a Leopold fc980c white. what am I in for?

The feeling of oneness with cup rubber.

I bought mine recently too. Been kind of disappointed with my last few keyboard purchases, so hopefully this is ok.

>sticky
at some point i tried to update it but realized that no one gives a shit

idk, maybe some cheap chinese board like a redragon or magicforce
try out some switches in a store or get a switch tester, don't get trolled into blindly buying browns

I'm so annoyed at the absolute FUCKING state of Kailh Choc keyboard availability right now. Incoming TL;DR, but whatever, I'm gonna rant. The options are even slimmer pickings than I thought before. See, I thought there were around a dozen or so options, plus a few more if you count size variants of the same board. Then I bought a DareU EK820 68-key, the only 65% low-profile option I'm aware of, and now the situation has come into sharp focus.

First there's keyboards that only seemed like they were Choc at first glance, but actually aren't. Anidees and Keychron both use shitty Fraly switches, and Tesoro's Gram XS uses custom TTC switches. But then there's the keyboards that use a variant of Chocs. This includes Havit, Gamdias, and my DareU. The only difference I noticed at first was the different keycap socket, which means the set on Novelkeys isn't an option. Keycap options don't exist beyond that right now anyway though so whatever.

Then I took the board apart and noticed further complications. After de-soldering one of the little fuckers, it became clear that location of the pins is just ever-so-slightly off, so the standard switch won't fit in the PCB. The PCB pegs are differently shaped too, oval-shaped pads instead of small circles; they're bigger, but they're closer together, so the standard ones don't fit. And while boards with the standard Choc switches use a Costar-ish stabilizer setup, with plate-mounted clips on either side of the switch, these variants have grooves cut in the top housing so the wires are clipped to the switches, so that would probably raise a compatibility issue as well.

So then I tried to frankenstein the switches a little and use the bottom housing for PCB compatibility, while gaining the use of the standard keycap mount. No-go unfortunately. The standard top housing is incompatible with the variant bottom housing, and the standard sliders are incompatible with the variant top housing, so that whole idea is out.

>cont

The good news is that the springs and clickbars are cross-compatible, and since the sliders are linear and all the tactility comes from a bump on the other side of the slider interacting with the clickbar, simply removing the clickbar produces linear switches, meaning that if you've got the patience and the donor switches, these White equivalents can be turned into Choc Red, Dark Yellow, Pale Blue, Jade, and Navy switches as well, albeit with the wrong slider colour. Hell, even the Box Pink/China Noble Yellow medium clickbars work if you cut the lower "leg" of the clickbar a little shorter (the bit that inserts downward into the bottom of the housing, not the actual clicker part)

Unfortunately can't do tactile switches though. Seems like all the Choc variant boards use the blue ones, and Brown and Burnt Orange Chocs use notched sliders for tactility. Since removing the click removes the tactility, and since the notched standard sliders don't fit in the variant housings, right now you have to look for a board that uses the original Choc switch if you want tactile switches, and even then you might have to buy switches and do some soldering, as boards with them seem pretty nonexistent right now as well.

Which brings me back to my original point. I thought the number of options for Choc boards was weak before, but with all this unnecessary added headache, it's just enraging. It seems like the only boards using the standard Chocs are Drevo and Hexgears. Having potentially good boards ruined with shitty clone switches is bad enough, but then the Choc line itself is splitting in two, and the variant is the more prevalent of the two, but seemingly only available in a single flavor. This sucks because I really like Chocs. The variety already available in the lineup, and the excellence of the clickbar, made me excited that slim mechanical keyboards could finally become great. I hope Kailh gets all this shit sorted out.

>TL;DR
slim keyboard market is poopy rn

What fun stuff can I do with the layers/macros of my Ducky One 2 Mini?

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Is there any chink seller selling 1.25U and 1.5U XDA caps? Do they even exist?

Magicforce 68 with Gaterons. A known quantity at this point and generally accepted as a decent budget board. The Gaterons will introduce you to switch smoothness and Cherry MX alternatives and it's got linear, tactile, and clicky variants. The form factor gets your foot in the door with space-saving layouts while still keeping a few useful keys like the arrow cluster and Delete around so it's not as jarring as 60%. The completely standard key sizes mean you can pick just about any cap set and not have to worry about compatibility issues. Almost all of them are backlit so you can see if that's to your liking (though most of them are white backlight only) And if you really get into the hobby after a while and want to go nice and deep, it'll be good to keep around for practicing soldering and desoldering and testing new switches on.

Give me some time user, here's hoping I can pull this shit off.

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What have you got there user?

Trying to shit out Kailh caps via injection molding. Never done it before but have access to this fucking unit.

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Should I fall for Zilents? I have mx silent blacks now and I like them a lot

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Do you want tactiles? If yes, they're like your only modern, accessible option.

Do you have the money for it? I got a switch tester with a couple different meme switches like zeals and arctos. After trying out zilents, Matias quiet clicks, gateron silent browns, I'd say they're the best silent tactile switch of the bunch. I however can't justify their costs, but they are indeed excellent switches

I've had my cheapo Eagletec KG010 for about a year. I love the tactile response and the stiffness of the keys but the noise is a bit much. Would I have a similar-feeling but quieter board in a Ducky One with MX Clears?

Also looking at WASD Code V3

You'd stll have the bottom-out and top-out clacks, but no more high-pitched click.
Be aware that clears are quite a bit stiffer than blues and blue clones though.

MT3 Serika is up. Are you getting it?

For $50, hell yes. All MT3 caps look amazing in my opinion. I'm pissed I didn't decide to pick up /dev/tty when it redropped.

Thanks much. What switch should I select to forgo the clicks and keep the same stiffness of my current keyboard (I think the switches are blues)?

$50 is just for the alphas, my friend. Modifiers are a separate kit, and you'd need both of them at minimum.

Still, better value than GMK.

Yep, just figured that out. Will still probably buy it, though

>Do you want tactiles?
Kind of... I have some kailh copper swtiches, I like the tactility, but they feel scratchy. I wonder if zilents are better
I have money, but I don't want to buy 60 of them just to realize that it's not for me

Browns are the "official" light non-clicky blue alternative, but they're mediocre at best.
There's ergo clears (clears with lighter springs swapped in) which are significantly more tactile and much closer in weighting than regular clears, but they require you to open every individual switch, which means desoldering everything unless you get a hotswap board.
And then there's Zealios along with all the other boutique meme tactiles, which are silly expensive and don't come in prebuilt boards at all.

Honestly I'd just get a board with clears if you want tactiles, stiffness be damned, just because they options are so limited. Or maybe give linears a try.

Ordered the alphas + ergo modifiers for serika. Looks like it'll probably meet the order numbers to decrease the price. $17 international shipping is pretty gay

I was going to just get the alphas, ergos, super homing, typist, and geometries, but then I decided to go ham and buy regular modifiers, numpad, and extra mods as well just in case because I have terminal autism.

Wew lad, how much does that come to

$277 at current price. It's fine, I'm not a poorfag.

Yep.

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What is your guys' opinion on the MT3 profile? I have only used gmk,cherry,dsa and xda. I don't like the dsa and xda.

It is very comfortable and looks nice.

This guy here. I want to but I just bought the laser SA caps and I have never used either profile. I really might even though the colors don't fit my set up at all.

It's my favorite profile now. The thick PBT, high profile & deep dishing are great.

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hmm. i have some alps xda blanks on the way. you best not be lying to me

Did you quote the wrong person or are you claiming to be me? 'cause both those posts were mine.

Yeah, I am the person above you. misquoted.

Just got Gateron Yellows with the same exact milky/black housings as my Gateron Blacks, but some of them feel a bit scratchier. Could I have already broken in the black switches, slightly, or am I just not accustomed to the different weighting?

Could just be slight inconsistency between switches. That or it's placebo.

Bless you

Where can i buy aftermarket domes for my BTC dome keyboard? they are too heavy for me.

Also r8 my keebs.

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Seriously? Aren't they only 45 or 55g? In any case, you can't. You could probably try to harvest domes from another BTC board, though. In particular I think the PS2 variant of the 5100 is supposed to come with lighter domes.

Mine is the 5100c, actually idk whats causing this, i cleaned the keyboard and they are smooth, but ironically i feel them heavier than damned matias click after a while.

Just tried them with the original Gateron blacks, on the same board at the same time. Not only are the yellows somewhat scratchy in the same housings, but they bind all the time. How the fuck is this even possible, with the MX design!?

Should I only buy regular MX Blacks? I don't have enough Gateron ones for the next build, and their lax QC is making me nervous.

Alright, be honest with me. If I want a keyboard with Zealio switches and I don't want to solder and lube and all that, do I just spend far too much money by commissioning somebody to do it for me, or do I buy a Massdrop Ctrl without switches/caps, buy the Zealios, and buy caps and just throw them together like Legos?

KBDfans sells prebuilt keyboards with zealios, or you can get a hotswap keyboard like a GMMK and at that point it's basically like Lego

You can get keyboard kits that are hotswappable just like the Massdrop boards, and then just push the switches into the plate/PCB and screw the whole thing into its case. Pick whichever one looks best or has your favorite layout, assuming you can find a keycap set to support it.

You don't necessarily have to buy the CTRL/ALT, any hotswap board will do, some that you might consider would be the Glorious GMMK TKL or Compact versions

Just checked by swapping every possible part around. The Gateron Yellow stems in this batch are fucked up.

I have embraced the chording. I am getting faster at Georgi every day. Soon I will have the unstoppable pace of... well just like as fast as I am on my Dox. But it's certainly interesting. Going to finally bring it to work tomorrow now that I'm competent at it.

In less optimistic news, 3D printer fussiness is slowing down Ergo Banana progress. But it's still happening.

Nice. You working with stock stems or the variants?

3d printers are so goddamn fussy :(

Standard choc stems, nothing too crazy :) I hope I can hack this out

Gonna make the choc caps out of PBT? Thought about making it a group buy or something so you can just make a shitload at once?

Best place to buy colored/white blank cherry profile keycaps?

Single keycaps, not sets

deskthority

That's the thing, once I manage to shit out the molds the cost of running off a ton more is minimal. All the equipment I have access to so once I have a mold milled and dialed in, I'm good.

Fun fact: a injection molds takes between 45-60seconds a cycle and uses a few cents in materials

Thread Theme: Reddit Edition

soundcloud.com/dixie-mech/new-keyboard-road

That's gonna be a big ol' yikes from me, pal.

>gateron.
I guess retards don't know about Khail.

meant for
nice gunz tho

>godspeedfag

but for real when is mito going to make more of these.

40% chads where you at? I recently tried a 60% and I think I can go even smaller. is it truly as comfy as it seems?

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Dunno about MT3, but he is doing another run of godspeed SA eventually.

Damn, looks cool tho!!

post your black dildo

>Non-split
>Comfy
No.

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this

I cant do the split version cause I dont like it.

What's not to like?
It's literally the only possible form factor where you're not forced to cramp your hands in-between your shoulders.

I have small hands anyway.

Georgi is comfy at 30%

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>split
>mt3
>latex
based

Mt3 is the best thing that happened to keyboards.

Fellow splitfags, what's on your thumb keys?
I'm using a regular ergodox and my main 2u thumb keys are as follows, from left to right:

>space, hold for numbers layer
>backspace, hold for symbols layer
>enter, hold for numbers layer
>tab, hold for symbols layer

It's nice, but I'm considering moving Enter and Tab to somewhere else and incorporating shift into the thumb keys somehow. Also, what do you do with the auxillary keys on your thumb cluster? With both my ergodox and gergo, I find myself not using them (with the gergo, the 1.5u key is excellent, but the 1u key about the main thumb keys, as well as the two keys on the inner edge of the board don't get much use). It just seems so much more convenient to put things on layers than to have a dedicated key.

What if I put WD40 in my switches?

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depends on what formula you use.

Are splitfags fat people? I always see them using them like way far apart. I cant imagine using a keyboard that far apart with normal BMI.

If you're using a split board, the halves should be roughly aligned with your shoulders. I don't think being fat makes your skeleton and shoulders any wider, so I'm not sure what BMI has to do with it. Are you sure you're not just a manlet with narrow shoulders?

If you want to destroy your switches, go right ahead.

>Are splitfags fat people?
Not really, why?
I'm 186/74.
>Far apart
Shoulder width.
Very comfortable.

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Left hand (from top-right to bottom-left): control, space, lower, mod4.
Right hand (from top-left to bottom- right): print screen, space, raise, alt.

I use all of them regularly.
Rest is similar to picrel.

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I bought this thing. The GX clicky version.
How bad did I screw up?

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Nah I mean I'm 6'1 190 lbs I just have small hands I dont have a problem with 40% keyboards tho. I type all day on a 60% and dont have any issues. Maybe I just sit correctly?