Yes, MT3 white-on-black in ABS.
TTC Flaming Purples
that’s it, that’s the only name
Just some basic first impressions from the print station this evening;
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What are they? – Nothing new at this point, but something I’ve been meaning to add to my collection. I think they may have stood out a little more when they were new - IIRC these alongside the Flame Whites (same but with a dome-style integrated diffuser) were the first MX compatible switch on the market featuring a POK stem. These are the second edition with the revised, shaved-down solid diffuser, which does a great job at transmitting SMD light and no longer interferes with some keycaps.
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How are they? – Material aside, these are pretty standard fare for a premium TTC linear - which is to say very solid in a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none sort of way, at least when stock. They have decent factory lube that’s closer to skate than butter and isn’t overdone, but may also leave a little to be desired for discerning users who prefer a complete lack of noise in the sound and feel. They remind me of Aces, or the lighter Wilds, for example.
What I'm trying them in today
- KBD67 Lite wired in Vivid Violet
- DCX Cyber
- TTC Flaming Purples
- Polycarb plate in yellow
- TX stabs lightly modified to accommodate spacing washers
7 Likes
Been using the Dolphin since I built it. Got NKxKKB WoB with the RGB mods on it right now, just to complete the classic feel. This keyboard honestly surprised me. I wasn’t expecting it to feel as good as it does due to the kinda sandwich mount it has. I did use Geon force break pads on both sides of the plate where the screws run through, but I’m not sure that made a huge difference. I’m thinking the having the top piece minimized so much & almost all of the mass of the board in the bottom is what lets it overcome the usual drawbacks of sandwich mount. It also sounds pretty decent too with new Nixies on alum, so it has a nice balance of good feel & good sound. Got it for the looks, kept it for the feels!
12 Likes
Just a quick snap of my latest creation.
A built-on-purpose oddball.
How many keys do you want on your 60%? YES!
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XD64 pcb, modified with a rerouted trace to be able to use eight 1u keys to the right of the very off-center 3u spacebar.
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kbdfans 2u-shift brass plate, also modified to accommodate the twelve keys in the bottom row.
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Tofu60 redux case, orange e-coated.
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Outemu low profile snap spring clicky switches.
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Tecsee low profile stabilizers.
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A self-bent 3u wire for the spacebar.
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A generous dash of hot glue to hold the switch under the iso-enter in place, since all switches had to be soldered with about 1mm distance from the pcb to allow enough room for the stabilizers under the plate.
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Alphas and AltGr are XMI with “irish” layout (meaning us-intl). The keys with sublegends which I don’t need are substituted with XMI without sublegends.
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Red mods and spacebar are from Wuque Studio basic red.
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Orange iso enter and arrows are from Ghost Judges Salmon.
13 Likes
This is so weird, but hey if it floats your boat, sail it man!
5 Likes
That Yunzii AL71 I got yesterday;
Still very much in the realm of first impression, but this might be the best sounding and feeling pre-built keyboard I’ve ever used.
It’s hardly perfect or anything, but geez - I feel like I’ve got whiplash from how fast and far the bar just got raised for “entry” keyboards.
On the one hand this particular version has painted keycaps with inconsistent color and lacks software control for the lighting, which are decidedly “cheap keyboard” qualities. [Edit: there is software on the company’s website, it just isn’t mentioned in the included materials.]
On the other, it’s a solid cnc’d gasket keyboard that costs about a hundred bucks even and sounds like this straight from the box:
What?
4 Likes
Almost everything ist fine so far.
Since I usually use my left thumb for the spacebar, the extremely left leaning spacebar is fine.
At work I have to use a Norwegian keyboard, so I’m used to iso enter and it works well for me.
What I’m struggling with, is the 1u right shift.
I’ll see if I can get used to it.
If not, I’ll change to 2u right shift, move the minus-key back up to the top row, and remove the del-key up there.
In any case, this thing was built as an oddball, knowing that I might not like it 
1 Like
See, it was a simple keyboard like this that got me into this damn hobby…
1 Like
Huano RAW liner switches
Raw?
These are part of Geon’s RAW series, the intention of which is to give manufacturers an opportunity to showcase what that means to them. What’s a “raw” version of BSUN? KeyGeek? Huano? etc.
Each manufacturer has taken their own approach, and it looks like the only real rule is leaving dye out of the housing plastic. Some of them are clear, some of them are bleached-white like these Huanos - most are a creamy off-white of some variety. Some are factory-dry, some get minimal treatment, some get the works. Some are traditional varieties with classic specs, while others are more adventurous, or at least follow more recent trends like long poles, preloaded springs, or novel plastics. No clickies yet, but plenty of both linears and tactiles represented - and prices just about run the gamut, without venturing into either extreme.
Description
Huano’s entry is on the lower-priced end of the RAW series, and features a mild long-pole configuration at 3.8mm linear travel. It has light but competently-applied factory lube, and is an all-round solid performer. The housings are polyamide (PA66; Nylon-adjacent), and the stems are POM with a dust shroud - and of course, they bottom-out on that aforementioned long pole.
One other notable physical feature is the small port-hole at the bottom of the central tube; I understand that this combats sluggishness by preventing an air seal in the tube. I imagine it also affects sound, but who knows.
Thoughts
They’re plenty smooth, being somewhere in the middle of the skate-butter spectrum. They’re pretty medium-weight, too, at around 52 grams. The feel is great, while IMO the sound is just OK - with most points being taken-off by the thin, almost rattly sounding top-out alongside some kind of random-seeming metallic noise I call “spring chatter”, because I’m assuming it’s the spring wiggling around in there bumping into things. 
It’s not loud and it’s also not scratchy at all, it’s just not clean-sounding. Like a bag of legos when typing or something.
Again - they feel great, and the bottom-out clack itself actually is pretty clean.
At 38 cents apiece, I think these are very solid prelubed longpole linears, and IMO a great pick for Huano’s “RAW” switch.
6 Likes
Is that good ol GMK Hyperfuse?
1 Like
Hyperfuse yes, but the DCX version
2 Likes
DARN, I was so close lol. I kept going back and forth between DCX and GMK. I can differentiate the two cuz DCX has a thinner font compared to GMK but was hoping I could tell the difference between the two from your picture.
Ha, hard mode - only one alpha visible
2 Likes
I completely missed that you got those snap-springs into a board! How do you like them?
I really like them a lot.
It was a bit of a hassle using them together with a plate, since their bottom housing is so much shallower, that the stabilizers don’t fit under the plate anymore.
That’s why I had to solder all the switches about 1mm “floating” above the PCB, with the stabilizers as some kind of “spacer” to define the distance.
But it worked out well in the end.
I think that Outemu should build standard size switches with that mechanism, keeping all the good properties their original low profile switches already have.
Because the so-called “improved” version, named GTMX (thought out by MKUltra, and built by Outemu as far as I know), is far inferior. It adresses the shallow bottom-housing challenge, but the sound and feel is really worse.
Another thing I realise while typing on them right now:
Well-made clicky switches are damn amazing and satisfying to type on!
I’m happy that I ordered 150 of them, so I have another 60% or 65% with them in the pipeline.
This time plateless.
4 Likes
~Another~ KBD67L configuration
Most of the times I post one of these, it’s actually the same PCB & stabs with the case, switches, caps, and sometimes plate switched out. Today’s clothes:
- BredWorks FR4 plate
- Gateron Melodics
- NK_ Cherry Stone
- Orange case from R3
This photo really can’t do justice how loud this orange is. You might be able to see a very slight dye-sub goof around the Enter key legend; it’s subtle but it looks a bit like stencil bleed-over. That minor nitpick is the only not-nice thing I have to say about this keyset - among the best $15 I’ve spent. (I live for those NK_ clearance sales, baby)
The switches are Gateron’s new leaf-clickies. They’re a touch heavy for me, but when I can get into a grove with them they’re so satisfying.
Recording of and thoughts on the switches as they appear in this build here
6 Likes
What’s that? Another KBD67L configuration?
You bet it is!
Today I’m giving Durock Sea Glass and NK’s PBT Cherry Sand keyset a try, along with my trusty POM plate and R1 black case.
Too soon to have any developed thoughts - but they’re smooth, and have a medium weighting and mellow sound that I like. It really is all about the aesthetics with these, but being legitimately good linears makes for a nice bonus, I think.
9 Likes