So, I’m interested to buy this keyboard.
It comes with Gateron hotswappable switches.
I’m thinking of adding Gateron Optical switches.
Do you think this will work? Anyone with the experience of using a K4 and an Optical switches?
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No the PCBs for regular MX switches & optical ones work differently. The switches are not interchangeable. With regular MX switches the switch activated by the stem pressing two metal pieces together to complete the circuit, that is what the two metal pins sticking out of the bottom of them are. With optical switches they are activated by light shining through a hole in part of the stem then turned off by that same part blocking the light when the switch is not depressed AFAIK.
I have the Keychron K3, and those switches are just mechanical parts, they have no electronics inside them what so ever. The LED and the photo-sensitive element are soldered on the PCB under the key.
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If I read you correctly, then the board must be an Optical enabled board before I can plug in the switches.
That is correct; optical and contact switch boards generally aren’t cross-compatible even if the keycaps are.
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