Let me get a pic on your wrist…
This photo is the cousin of mechanicalheadpens. I think all three are interesting variations of more common layouts/items but that Watchy watch project is really neat!
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I cant bring in my personal keyboard at work so i have to use a work provided one ;-;
Ngl though its not the worst membrane ive used
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I even went into the yard to take a purty picture. My wrist are biggish I think and I’m pretty sure this was the longest NATO strap I could find.
It’s still a pretty considerable lump of watch.
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Yee, I’m working with the guy that I got into keebs earlier this year and I was like hey let’s build a watch this time and he is down.
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My Z13 setup.
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What’s the battery life like in hours?
I’ve received mine yesterday and I guess it was fully charged in the afternoon. It now (it’s evening in my time zone) has 2 of 3 “bars” on the initial indicator so it runs at least 30 hrs with using between 25% and 75% battery power. I used it with the “light” face watch and had it connected to WiFi for half an hour yesterday. So I think at least 3 days is a good estimation on how long it will stay powered. Can check this out much more since I wanna play around now the software on the arduino board it uses. It is really quite easy to use I guess. But it is no high end consumer product.
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Still using the Hubris daily, but I added some PMK blockers to the keys that never saw any use. Lookin kinda vintage if I do say so.
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“Keys that never saw any use”
I’m amazeballs right now.
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On my desk today is TKC’s Portico68 Black Label - a 67-key board with a white label.
If the plan for the name was to get me to mention it more, well, maybe that worked. I can’t think of any other reason to give it an almost-accurate one. 
Head-scratching nomenclature aside, first impressions of this board are very positive for me.
I also think GMK Noire looks fantastic on it:
A few bullet points to get started:
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Material quality seems excellent and I think it looks amazing
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Anodizing is also very good; only a small circular area around the tapped screw-holes on the inside shows silver
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It has a daughter board this time!
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RGB instability appears to be a thing of the past
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Comes with what are currently my favorite stabs & a good modding kit for them
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Comes with two plates; one FR4 and one flex-cut polycarbonate
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Sandwich foam upgraded from felt to Poron, PCB foam composite sheet included
TTC Heart / Honey / Love switches also seemed appropriate.
And gosh, I think they sound pretty awesome. This is my first time using them in a build so I don’t have a frame of reference just yet, but this one is sounding deliciously poppy. I’m thinking the included foam/plastic composite sheet contributes at least a little to that character but I’m only guessing.
Top-out noise a bit louder than bottom-out. The switches feel fantastic, and the case mounting does its job of absorbing high-frequency vibrations. It’s not super flexy, but I don’t think it’s trying to be - it’s just delightfully dampened.
Of course I’ll need more than 12 hours with it to say for sure, but this is quickly becoming my favorite keyboard.
While I’d say the classic Portico and KBD67L are pretty comparable in terms of quality and execution of design, I’d also say this P68BL absolutely leaves the KBD67v3 in the dust. At least for me, that downward-facing seam goes a long way.
It does help that I’m a big fan of the typing feel and sound - which I think might be the first time I’ve really gotten to say that about an aluminum keeb.
Just some quick phone photos for the moment; color is hard to capture but I think it looks great. I’m also really loving Noire with this anodized pink.
And a quick side-by-side before building:
Here you can see the flex-cuts in the plate. In order to get all the switches fully clipped-in, I sometimes had to hook some tweezers under the plate and pull it up to meet the clips, which was pretty easy thanks to the flex cuts.
I hadn’t originally planned on it, but I’m already loving this keeb so much that I will be doing a full review of it as soon as I have the time.
This product is a little curious to me - IIRC the first announcement of this keeb at all was, “Hey these are in stock now, check it out” - and even that was with pretty modest fanfare. The name is of course a little strange, and this round comes in a pistol case. (Apparently the intended cases didn’t happen because of a production and/or communication mix-up; props for including something that works even if it’s not ideal.)
Some cool traces:
What I find curious here is the resounding lack of hype. Like, “oh hey btw this is around” - IDK, if I had made this I’d have all the influencers talking about it for the launch. Maybe this represents a confidence in the product to speak for itself, and for its name to spread through organic word of mouth (of course with the help of the internet). Not totally infeasible… again If I made this, I’d probably be feeling pretty darn confident & proud about it.
USB port:
I was super stoked to hear an aluminum Portico now exists, and darn if it’s not significantly better than I was expecting. It also really is a very close adaptation of the original design - the parts aren’t interchangeable, but the design is very clearly an iteration upon the previous one with notable improvements like the daughter board and being able to mount the pads in the case instead of on the plate.
*Side note: if you push the caps all the way onto them, the C3 Equalz V3 stabs appear to hold stabilized keys down lower at the top of travel compared to other stabs - one more reason to keep those shim washers around. So far that’s the only minor negative I’ve found with those stabs.
I expected this keeb to be sexy and it is - I didn’t really expect it to be great to type on or listen to - but it is! Very solid. This keeb is making an excellent first impression so far.
Anyway I’ll cut this ramble short here, but let me know if you have any questions about it and I’ll do my best to answer.
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Something about that USB port looks really cool to me. I love the design of this board overall. Is the label/badge on the bottom removable? (Never tried a Portico before)
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Yep; this version is essentially a thick plastic sticker. Might have to patiently clean the adhesive but it will come off.
Some more quick phone photos, this time comparing with a classic Portico - if you don’t look too close you won’t notice how dusty my house is:
Aside from the material, this is the biggest physical difference between the two; this new model has a daughter board for the USBC port, and has it lower on the chassis.
Bonus pic in case you’re curious about that big painting in the background; it’s paranoid Ren as Sherlock Holmes, reproduced from a small comic book cell:
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I completed my FC660C and it turned out pretty good. While there’s a good list of mods the keyboard itself is principally the same where it matters. So stock domes, sliders, and still using most of the Leopold keycaps.
- Norbauer Heavy-6: Urbi et Orbi Edition case.
- Lightly lubed.
- @Dave’s excellent HASU board with RGB control.
- RGB lighting.
- CAPS Lock LED swap (to blue).
- MX sliders at Escape, Arrows, and Insert/Delete.
- Wooden Topre Escape key from https://www.keysculptnerd.com/.
- Ceramic Arrow Keys from https://www.cerakey.com/ .
One unexpected development is how much I prefer the home row Control key. That’s a change my brain made really quickly and I’m now remapping keyboards when I swap them in .
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love it. That control on caps is addictive for sure. After 30+ years of reaching down to the bottom row, it takes some getting used to. But man, it’s great after you get used to it.
Yeah, I’ve struggled to change literally anything about my typing (ortho, ergo, etc), but this one little change has been really nice. I can absolutely see why this would be preferred as you’re not contorting your pinky to reach the control key anymore.
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I’m still a little sad I did not join the GMK Noire GB.
I’m a MT(MOD_LCTL, KC_CAPS) kind of guy. My pinkie has never been happier.
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this is a good one. I use it on almost all of my keyboards
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Same here.
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