My eyesight getting poor, sometimes I can’t tell from these dark on dark dyesub keys, so I lighten them up.
8 Likes
I finally got around to upgrading my server closet keyboard, it’s earned it!
- Royal Kludge M75
- KiiBOOM Topaz Linear
- Green Key Ink DS Translucent ABS
5 Likes
Another new keyboard- an Iskar I traded my NEO80 for.
MV Synth in the short term, open to suggestions.
4 Likes
Received a lot of four vintage boards, three of them Alps white. Tai-Hao TH-5539-3 looks to be very close to NOS, but I must have thrown out my last DIN-5 to PS/2 adapter years ago, so a new one is on the way to go with my PS/2 Soarers that simply converts RCtrl into a windows key. Fingers crossed.
The other Alps boards are from Focus. There’s a Focus FK-9000 (edit: FK-5001) with a cut cord, but the built in calculator just needed a new coin cell. I am sure it was part of a corporate write-off, but I like to imagine someone just really wanted their calculator to be more portable. 
The other one is an FK-6000P (also with cord cut) with a very crusty two-button trackball, and mouse microswitches for the arrow keys 
. All three boards have double-shot keycaps, and the 6000P is close enough to the 9000 that it could donate a couple of missing function row keys. The 9000 (edit: 5001) will be a cleanup and conversion project, while the 6000P is going to have to be a donor board for something unholy that has yet to make itself entirely clear to me.
The fourth board is not really one I think I can work with. Looks to be a Clare-Pendar Foam & Foil board for a VT100 clone, though quite a weird one (the sliders’ return springs are twinned torsion springs!), and I am not sure what I can really do other than document it for Deskthority and eventually send it to a nice keyboard-farm upstate. I’ll hold onto it for a while though, until I find out if anyone else has a use for it or its parts.
5 Likes
I really need to get me an ALPS board sometime in the near future.
2 Likes
PBT slaps on this board!
Edit: Also surprisingly using a half plate with this KB does not introduce a ton of inconsistency in the sound between the alphas & mods. If you really listen closely & nitpick you can say you can hear that I am using a half plate in this build, but the sound of the alphas & mods really complement each. Instead of conflicting with each other sound wise, which is not uncommon with half plates builds at all IME.
8 Likes
So I got my DIN-5 adapter, and no problems getting the Tai-Hao with its Alps clones working. For the most part, it’s nice. This particular one truly is in great shape, very clean and with no yellowing compared to my memory of this era of beige. It still has the packaging sleeve on the coiled cable. I like the typing experience on the 1u keys a good bit, and the spacebar is a bit floaty, but it’s generally fine, as are the mods. I also really like these double-shot ABS caps with their color-coded mods.
The only disappointment really is the BAE. I have often wondered how you stabilize a BAE, and for Tai Hao at least, the answer seems to be “poorly.” It tends to stick a little if pressed anywhere but right in the “middle,” if it were an ANSI 2.25u key. I am all for a tactile event and event a little crunch can be okay, but this is… meh. Anybody have any pointers on how to improve the experience? Both of the much more “loved” Focus boards have BAE’s that bind less. Is this a “breaking in” thing or something design/structural?
In the “interesting but not judging” category, these switches actuate well before the tactile/click event and with a very different force curve for actuation versus bottom-out. It actually took me a little bit to realize what was happening and that it wasn’t an issue with my converter or the board’s circuitry. Knowing about it is all I really need, since actual typing WILL involve bashing on the keys and and bottoming out. It is what it is. 
3 Likes
Brutal V2 65% snagged on the CannonKeys BFCM sale with DCX Skiidata keycaps. This is a great keyboard!
I’m waiting for a set of SP G20 Granite keycaps scored on SP’s sale, which I think will be the final set for this build. But I couldn’t wait to try it out.
I wanted to hang the board further out so it would look like a diving board. But I didn’t dare.
10 Likes
Finally finished up the FLX Virgo tonight! I went with MX2A Oranges, spring swapped with Geon 18mm 45g springs, TX AP screw in stabs with CK wires, a POM plate, topped off with GMK Phantom. Really digging it so far, it is a super hefty board. The typing experience is very nice, on the stiffer side but using a POM plate & full travel switches helps temper that a good bit. Gotta get used to the angle of the keys being a little wider than the Meridian since that what my muscle memory wants to default to. That would be the only complaint I got with it though. It’s a great board with superb quality, really impressed by first go with anything from Antipode!
6 Likes
Realforce 89u blue badge with variable domes, silenced, custom layout, copper plate, and a mix of interesting OEM keycaps (and artisans)
13 Likes
8 Likes
What do those buttons do?
2 Likes
Just cosmetic/decorative. They are plastic “nubbins” that have little magnets in them. You can swap them around and change out for other colors (although I haven’t seen them offered yet).
4 Likes
Finished retrofitting the TKL-like with a solenoid and a simple two-part 3D-printed skirt case. I had to ream the plate holes a bit to get it all to fit, and lining up bottom, spacers, switchplate, and case was still tedious even after doing so, but that’s the cost of revisiting an existing project I guess. Speaking of the screws, I overdid it on one dry fit, but didn’t completely break through, so I’m going to pretend I like that dimple under the spacebar. 
I am also going to try living with this one for a little while with no feet, as the R3 SA caps for Mitospeed seem to work fine with that. I like a 3-degree angle or so with sculpted caps, but flat usually works for me with uniform. And yeah, the Signature Plastic caps are definitely nice.
As expected, the small solenoid (with a direct-wired cutoff switch) is somewhat muted with the plates and plastic to try get through, but it’s still a nice effect. It’s also a bit weird to feel the medium tactiles (TTC Gold Brown Pro) but hear the solenoid.
Overall, I like that this board now has more of a reason to exist, and I suspect I’ll use it a lot more than I used to.
8 Likes
This build goes hard.
1 Like
Took me months to get around to it, but I finally found a good home form DSA Witch Girl keycaps on my oak Null65.
9 Likes
Aren’t they just called DSA Witch Girl? Looks killer on wood.
2 Likes
oops, yes they are. Will change that. I keep telling myself that I don’t need the matching June case for these caps. But man, I love that pale green.
1 Like
