I spent this weekend with cleaning this 40-year-old Kontron PSI 80 keyboard. I know this is considered Deskthority stuff but it’s simply too cool to not post it: wooden case(?), generous bevel, foam & foil switches, pink springs (?!), and killer arrow arrangement.
How you liking your Portal? I recently went back forth between that & the Babylon, but ended up going with the Babylon cause the float mount it uses just seems so unique.
I love my Portal, the bottom is so unique. It also adds a kind of airy bassiness that’s hard to capture on camera. It’s almost like the airy space in a subwoofer, it helps make it sound premium and heavy even though it’s actually lighter than it’s “cheaper” brother, the sequence. Also love the “cherry lip”, special design feature that I don’t have on any other keyboard yet. I have not heard of the Babylon! Float mount sounds interesting.
I really like how I can swap the two PCB/Plate combos in and out of the sequence and portal. Makes for more variety, which, I hear, is the spice of life.
Sweet sounds like it’s a really nice board! The Babylon is this guy, not quite the looker the Portal is (that Cherry lip is just chef’s kiss!) but very unique mounting. Anyways glad to hear you’re enjoying the Portal & it’s sibling the Sequence!
Recently, I bought an ASUS Rog Flow Z13. It was something I thought was silly when it launched, but as I thought about it, it made more and more sense. My problem with laptops has always been subpar keyboards. This is a difficult area because there are so many important specs when it comes to laptops, that you don’t always get to pick one with a good keyboard.
I took a chance on the Z13, figuring if it was a bad idea, I would return it. That’s where keyboards come in. I initially built an LK67. I wanted something wireless and inexpensive since it would be traveling around with me and could potentially be damaged or stolen. The LK67 fit the task for a while. It was a great size and I couldn’t really ask it for much more… but the mode switch was getting on my nerves. It took almost no force for it to turn on in my bag and kill itself. It may have just been a dud or an easy fix, but I bought the Feker IK75 kit after seeing that the mode switch was on the bottom.
The Feker IK75 stock stabs did not play well with my keycaps, so I purchased a set of snap-in stabs on Amazon. I ordered two different types since I didn’t want to delay the build too long. I’ve never heard of New Fashion Kingdom, but it seemed like the many things that end up on Amazon that are just re-brands. They turned out very nice after some clipping and lubing.
While I was in there, I swapped out the aluminum plate for PC (it comes with the kit). That ended up being a great decision. The PC plate really brings out the tactility of the Anubis switches. I’ll record a sound test a bit later.
It’s a bit taller than the LK67 since it has an F row, but it ended up being flatter since the feet are collapsible. It fits very nice in my bag. The only other thing I would do is replace the knob. Not because it isn’t good… simply just because. I have no seen any compatible replacements yet. Knob suggestions welcome.
Red anodized aluminum keycap on my Leopold FC660C. I only wish the profile matched the OEM keys better, because it’s otherwise extremely good looking and well done.
So, I recieved my shipment of two KBt:RE’s. I got two so I could send one to a relative as a gag-gift. (Quite literally gag inducing with you think about the IBM PCjr keyboard it’s based on.)
I do have a few first impressions. First, there is some kind of rattling in the keyboard when shaken lightly. Don’t know what it is. I thought it was one of the stabs at first, but I’ve checked all of them and there isn’t any rattling in use.
Second while this is an homage to the PCjr keyboard, and not an attempt to recreate it, there are some things that I think were misses in terms of aesthetics. I won’t go into them here, but there are definitely some things that could have been done better, IMO.
Finally, I gave it a bit of a test run last night for a couple of hours. All I can say is: it really brought back memories of using the original PCjr keyboard for me. Not in the same way: it doesn’t have the issues with keys not actuating properly / sticking. But, just the layout is something that I couldn’t get used to… But that’s at standard thing for me.
I ordered these with Gateron Brown switches, thinking that they might have the tactility that IBM had envisioned (or at least what I believe the envisioned) for the original keyboard. Alas, while the Gat Brown’s are an improvement over MX Browns, they are still too low in the tactility the department for me – even in the use case of a re-imagined PCjr keyboard.
I’ll save the rest of my thoughts for a more thorough write-up to come on No Thoccs Aloud.
