Unless it was somehow electrically conductive, I wouldn’t think so.
However, the chances are very high that left on long enough, the adhesive will make a complete mess of the board. Masking tape, for example, will leave a congealed, chalky residue behind when left on long enough.
It’s surprising that content creators recommend the tape mod, when it can lead to degradation of a PCB. Particularly when PCBs are expensive to replace, if you can even get one. It makes me even more grateful for this community where I feel I have received solid advice on a variety of issues.
One of the forum members here had an idea while back to make a version of the tape mod that doesn’t use crusty adhesive and turned it into an actual product:
VertrelXF is the product you want to use. It’s the only solvent I have found that actually removes Krytox, Tribosys, etc. That + an ultrasonic cleaner is basically the ultimate lube removal method IME.
What is the method you use? Do you apply it with a brush then rinse in the ultrasonic cleaner? And roughly how many switches would 15 ml clean?
Pretty much, I tried to remove as much as I could with undiluted XF & a brush then did the rinse in an ultrasonic cleaner with water & a little XF to help. Ideally you’d want to use XF by itself in an ultrasonic, but it is expensive & not available in under 5 gals from anywhere else.
Edit: XF evaporates pretty fast so I’d recommend using a container with a lid to dip your brush in or just use the dropper bottle it comes in from Ringerkeys to wet the brush.
How many switches can you clean with 15 ml, roughly?
Undiluted XF in a an ultrasonic would be more expensive than new switches.
A good bit if you’re careful to not let it evaporate. You just need to get the brush wet by dipping it in the XF so with 15ml you should be able to do a few batches. It’ll be more than enough to clean off one batch of switches. Yes using straight XF in a ultrasonic would be more expensive than new switches, I wasn’t suggesting you do that, just stating that would be the most effective way. Brushing it on the switches, then dumping a little in the water you use in the ultrasonic cleaner is the way I’ve always used it & has always produced good results for me. As for numbers the last time I used it I cleaned around 100 NK creams & still had over 2/3 the bottle left that I just dumped into the water in the ultrasonic cleaner. I’d imagine you could get around 300 brush cleaned with a 15ml vial. Also I forgot to mention have a bowl of water to throw the switches in after you have brushed them with the XF so they don’t get dried out before going in the ultrasonic bath.
Do all GMK ABS keycap sets have same specifications, so that if I had two different sets I could mix and match the keyscaps? If so, is this generally how it works within a keycap manufacturer?
Correct. We have a thread that shows off some mixing here:
Does anyone know what purple is used in GMK Purple Night? I was hoping to pick up a set of purple keycaps, but I’m most interested in something that uses the stock GMK (DY) color.
I asked about Royal Cadet in the NK discord and they told me it uses a custom color that is a bit lighter and more saturated than (DY). I can’t seem to find any mention of color used on Purple Night. I am not in any discord servers that have discussed it (at least that I can find)
Oblotzsky says it’s a rejected color from Monokei Material so I don’t think it’s stock.
What’s the latest “meta” (ok, I’m too old to use this word) on alternate bluetooth controllers for HHKB2’s?
the need?: BLE / USB-C compatible HHKB2 controller that supports QMK/VIAL or at least supports something close enough to QMK for me to be able to use it.
details: I have a mini-USB Hasu that has served me well for many years but I am thinking about getting a bluetooth controller and my (potentially outdated) understanding of the Hasu is that it doesn’t support BLE so needs regular charging.
I see a few different options on Aliexpress like one by YDKB that is USB-C and supports BLE. It also gives a few links to supporting VIA so it looks like a decent fit, I just wanted to see if there were any other suggestions or if anyone has experience with the YDKB controller.
YDKB or Yang controller is great, much better battery management than Hasu BLE, it can last you almost a month between charge. The default firmware will require keymap done via ydkb.io but go the help page and you can find VIA/VIAL support firmware and flash it very easily. There’s no other alternative AFAIK
Thanks! I ordered one. I’m in the US so I have to order the battery separately, do you know the proper connector for the board? JST, I couldn’t find anything for sure on the product listing.
you’re asking about the cable for OEM PCB - daughterboard? or battery - daughterboard? for the former you should reuse the original cable that connects the PCB to OEM controller, for the latter a cable should be soldered on the Lipo battery as detailed in this reddit post HHKB BLE MOD (Bluetooth 4.0 - YANG Module from KBDFAN)
I was asking for the Battery to Daughterboard connection on the Yang. I’ll check out the link. Appreciate it!
I have two keyboards, a Monsgeek M1W and a Keychron Q1 Pro. I love the way the M1W sounds and feels with Akko V3 Cream Blue Pro switches and Akko keycaps. Using the same keycaps and switches with the Q1 Pro, however, sounds higher pitched and slightly softer. I’m guessing because the overall space in the Q1 Pro case is smaller. For both keyboards, I used a force break mod (some thin foam shimmies on either sides of the screw holes on the case. I’m wondering if there is anything else I can do to the Q1 Pro to get it to sound lower pitched?
Foam can often lead to lower-pitched sound, depending on what’s already in the case. Scott K (aka Keybored) also has good posts on the science behind what makes keyboards sound the way they do.