Kei fam! great taste @WayToBlue
just rebuilt my Kei with Striker, which some might say is way too blue 
have been waiting to pick this set up since it shipped out not long ago (or was it?) such a nice blue IRL!
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Never!!! 
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Giving DCX Solarized a test drive on my Halo - at very least a good example of what the cream color looks like next to bleached white.
Ha, it’s been so long since I’ve run into the North-facing interference issue I almost forgot it existed - but yeah, this keeb is North facing and has normal-travel, normal-housing switches in it - which means middle row mush! My preference for long-poles had spoiled me in this arena. 
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color pops on those mods really nicely! much better than GMK version. I’ll need to pick this set up I think.
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I’m a fan of the set, and I love the colors. The photo above does a decent job of showing that the cream alphas aren’t white and that the legends pop, but isn’t terribly accurate in general - it makes the mod keys look a fair bit darker than they really are.
My only small complaint is there isn’t a color-matching Home key like the Delete one I have mounted; if I wanted a Home key there, it would have to be the one with green legends - so if I wanted it to be consistent, I’d have to have the green End key just below it instead of my preferred Home, PgUp, PgDn, End arrangement. (That would end up with one green key and three yellows below.)
I prefer the yellow to the green - though the presence of both confuses me - I’m pretty sure a normal full-sized keeb wouldn’t even have the yellow on it at all, only the green - only something with a nav cluster more like this gets some or all yellow nav keys. Were I picking the kitting here, I might have just had all the nav options in both colors. Nit-pick aside, I’ve loved every DCX set I’ve picked up and this one is no exception. I think that cream color is just right.
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On the theme of blue…
Quick and dirty recording aside, I think I like the sound of Blue Lotus in a board a lot more than I did in a tester - this board, at very least:
KBD67 Lite
- POM plate
- standoffs omitted
- foam / plastic composite sheet on PCB
- TX V3 stabs
- MT3 Dusk seemed appropriate
I do still get a hint of chaotic spring wiggle after top-out, especially in the top row, but it’s a much smaller component of the overall sound than I had expected. I can’t even hear the leaf from here. I’m not blue at all - I’m pleasantly surprised.
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ah. so that’s what KBD67 Lite’s plastic with thick MT3 sounds like. I like it. It’s more rounded than typical tape mod sound.
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I didn’t have any hopes for a blue lotus. as he is a medium tactile. but I don’t have such a clear sound. there is no call. but there is noise. if you give an analogy, it looks like a hard hair inside, like a metal hair that scrapes. like in horror movies only very quiet))
I also noticed that very often someone does a sound test on KBD67 Lite. there is always very good. especially on pom. and if the same switch pom and keycap but another keyboard is worse.
Does this happen to you during tests?
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That’s a good description of the sound!
It does, yes.
It’s true, an ABS KBD67 Lite with a POM plate (and foam) is “easy mode” for clean sound, with lots of things working together to hide high-frequency vibrations - I bet those same switches would sound very different in an aluminum KBD67 v3 with a brass plate and shorter caps. I’ll be trying that eventually and sharing the recording, but it might be a minute because I’m loving this plastic version so much
I can definitely confirm that some of my favorite switches in one keyboard are off-putting to me in another. I love TTC Bluish Whites in a polycarb plate, but really wasn’t a fan of them at all with a brass one.
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I just read here that I want to have two fillings on one keyboard. So that if you get a very good assembly, then do not disassemble, but assemble it on the second sandwich. That’s what I call them. “Sandwich”. Like bread plus jam and nuts. And here the board is a plate of switches and keycaps in one piece.
I have so. I was faced with the fact that a good assembly is obtained, and new switches or keycaps or stabilizers arrived to me. I need to break it down, but I don’t want to take it apart. I began to buy additional plates and PCB boards, plus foam. Now I have three keyboards with two “sandwiches” each. Now I will buy for two more.
This explains my photo where I have a bunch of stabilizers on the table. Since I have 7 keyboards, but in fact with all the “sandwiches” there are 10 of them. And all these keyboards need stabilizers.
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KBD67 Lite
- DSS Carpinteria
- CIY Asura tactiles (pow pow!)
- POM plate
- TX V3 stabs
- Foam sheet over PCB
Accidental Navy theme
First impressions, thoughts on Asuras & Voyagers
After moving the Blue Lotus switches to a less forgiving chassis for testing, I decided to give the CIY Asura switches a try. @Neprawda put them on my radar after mentioning they were similar to Voyagers, which I’m already a fan of. While they aren’t identical, they are very similar - and considering the Asuras cost something like 1/3 what the Voyagers do, they have my attention.
Comparing side-by-side, the Voyagers have a lighter tactile peak and bottom-out, but feel more abrupt thanks to what seems like a more sharp peak and less spring cushion at the bottom. So they’re lighter, but feel a bit more snappy - or harsh, depending on how you look at it. (Before trying them side-by-side, this had me thinking the Voyagers were heavier.)
Both switches are kind of intense when it comes to the realm of MX-compatible tactiles; very snappy top-bump, and all but bound to bottom-out hard. I’m a big fan of this style and these Asuras are new favorites within it - but they definitely aren’t for everyone.
The Voyagers might feel a hair more clean and smooth - but just a little - not 3x the price worth. The Asuras feel plenty smooth and clean to me - especially considering they’re heckin’ cheap, and still stock. And oh yeah! They even have POK stems. Mixed feelings about some of the plastic trends in switches, but so far I’ve experienced this one as wholly positive. 
This is also my first time trying DSS. I didn’t really expect to enjoy it after not getting along with DSA, but wow, I really do. This makes me even more excited for MTNU.
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I’ve been loving this combo lately.
- Dropbear 60 from mtnkbd.
- Lubed Akko Matcha Greens
- Random stabs I had laying around.
- GMK Serika 2 Latin Base
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That looks fantastic!
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Looking clean and classy! What keycaps, KAT Alpha or SA Snow? Can’t tell for sure
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Thank you! They are KAT BOW. I may have gotten the very last one in stock (from KBDfans).
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Ikki68 Aurora R2
- Frosty clear polycarb case
- “05 Boro” 1.2mm flex-cut PCB
- Flex-cut polycarb plate & silicone gaskets
- E-white badge
- DCX BoW
- TX stabs for 1.2mm PCBs
- UPKB stem spacers
- Moyu.studio EMT v2s (Nylon Haimu long-pole linears)
More photos, commentary
Finally built this thing. I’ve got more to say about it than I do here, but that’s mostly about the build experience and some considerations about it. For now, let’s take a quick look at this as a keyboard:
I grabbed a bunch of badges, but ended up liking this one the most with this case.
Once I put stabs and switches I preferred on it, I started to really like this keyboard. After typing on the brick-solid CTRL for a few days, this pillow-y, bouncy feel is a nice change of pace.
I have the space bar mounted normally because, alas, the case tolerances are so tight around the caps that my preferred orientation strikes the case. It works, but I don’t dig the sound. That wrinkle aside, I’m enjoying the typing experience here.
My friend said this looked a bit like a jellyfish to them. I see it.
Ah, much better. This is actually the second iteration of this build - I used the recommended WS Aurora stabs for 1.2mm PCBs at first, but… well. I replaced, them, and it’s much better now.
Here it’s pretty easy to see the thin silicone mounting strips.
I do appreciate the chance to use a stepped caps lock.
In the first build I used Aurora Clears, which are also Haimu linears - but they have UHMWPE bottoms and polycarb tops - they’re a bit more harsh than these Nylon EMT v2s, and they have more metallic noise. They’re not bad by any means, but I do prefer these.
The much easier-to-deal-wth TX stabs, topped with UPKB stem spacers to prevent teetering with the long-pole switches.
See also weird sideways switches to accommodate lots of layout options. Just to be safe, I ran those two switches through the Geon Trimmer before mounting any caps on them that way.
Between a TKL and a traditional 65% (CTRL hi-pro, KBD67L)
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