Here’s what KBDFans says on reddit to someone who has several broken stems on their neon set. I can’t find the thread that talks about the actual transparent part cracking, but you can see it referenced in their reply as well:
Hi，I found the chat logs.what you got may be the first batch of production, we found that part of keycaps stem was lost when it left the factory. We checked all the kits after the first shipment. But there may be something missing.
The reason for the rupture may be the large size of stem or problems with the raw materials of our key caps or a design flaw, but I don’t think it’s a design flaw, we’ve done PBT material too.
We found that some people’s neon transparent shell would crack, so we support free replacement. We are testing new materials. The next design will be made with new materials.
Stem failure is the first time, we can send you a new one free of charge
If others find this problem, they can contact our customer service to get a free replacement. If you have a new order, we can also send it to you together with your new order.
Dude, thank you. This is super helpful. Whew, no issues with my set (so far) but I’m not one to do a ton of cap pulling, but will for sure be extra careful when doing so.
For people that are into industrial design, that is making their keyboard case design for example, I found something very interesting in Matteo’s web blog:
Like @matt3o I am a Fusion360 user for solid modelling things, a very nice software but I do not like to pay yearly to continue using it and have access to my past designs.
Like @matt3o I tried very hard to use FreeCad, but with no great success.
So when he suggest an open source alternative I am more than interested.
This tool is CadQuery:
For short it looks like OpenSCAD, a programmatic tool at its core, but much more powerfull and that can export to STEP format (can also export STL files).
Saw that all white, pink, and purple Boba housings are being phased out due to discoloration (source) AND Gazzew is working on some new switches. I remember discoloration of some Bobas being discussed over in the GMK Bleached thread and it seems like off-gassing is the culprit for Bobas at least:
Edit: it seems like Ringer Keys still has U4T 68g Pearl Top switches in stock when you order at the “1” quantity. You can specify any number that you want, so long as it shows “1” in the switch pack size dropdown.
That makes total sense, and jives with my experience of switches discoloring much faster in small sealed spaces (being stuck with the gasses they are out-ing). Between this and POM-stank, I’ve taken to ventilating all my jars.
Speaking of POM-stank… If any of you folks ever wanted a tactile version of the Box Cream, that’s pretty much what this looks to be:
It’s an all-POM Box tactile, joining the small but growing number of non-silent Box switches to use the circular shroud and direction-agnostic tapered housing.
EDIT: The graph Chosfox has up is incorrect; these are definitely linear.
That is, thanks to the housing shape, the circle-shroud Box switches have zero interference with GMK or other low-profile caps regardless of mounting direction, and the most reliably-so of any switch line I know of. (Gateron has some that just barely clear GMK, but fail to clear some other versions of Cherry profile, for example. The trapezoid-shaped Box switches have cleared every cap I’ve tried them with.) Why they haven’t moved all of them over to this design I have no idea, but I’m always happy to see more.
I also learned that TTC has updated their Silent Brown switches to be more in-line with their other newer silents like the Bluish White and Frozen Silent;
They look to be a middle-ground between your typical silent brown and the somewhat bombastic Bluish White - which sounds exactly like my kind of switch - so yes, I totally ordered some and will have a review at some point.
If anyone has Linear Gazzews that they are afraid will discolor… I’d be happy to take them
Also, I heard the GMK Nuclear Data sets will discolor so you can include those as well. And I’m also remembering now that all of the silver Jubi keyboards are turning brownish. Just send them all my way.
Did you order a mystery box? The first boxes are showing up on Reddit. Someone got SA Oblivion.
Items in each + values:
HAGOROMO ASCII ALPHAS ($65)
OBLIVION MODIFIERS ($115)
HAMMER FIDGET SPINNER ARTISAN ($30)
ARTIFACT SERIES PURPLE ON BLACK ($59)
DROP SKYLIGHT SERIES WHITE SHINE THROUGH ($55)
Ooh, I saw this at the NorCal Meetup. Not sure if it was a coincidence, but the only way to pick the thing up was through a hole in the table. Extremely heavy and looks super cool!
