The only thing harder than getting render colors to match keysets in-hand is to do it with photography.
I hyperbolize, but between the over-enthusiastic auto white-balance of my phone and strongly-colored, dim light sources in my house… all my posts are looking like videogames from the early 2000’s - even after extensive adjustment.
Some curated switch testers for a friend:
Another still-too-yellow photo of some more prototype testers; I’m giving these out to friends, but once I have the laser settings dialed-in and some more ideal feet picked out, I intend to make them more broadly available.
Built my HMKB 80 today with a hotswap PCB. HMX Swift switches. I like these a bit better than the cloud switches. Although I think they would both benefit from a different spring. It’s just not snappy enough on the upstroke for me.
My beige space bar didn’t return so I was testing out a GMk oblivion one and it worked. Not sure what’s up with it. The space bar is flat and the inserts measure the same as the GMK cap. 
More pics on my Instagram
He got so much crap for the delays on these keyboards, but I absolutely love them. I love the rugged look. I love the finishes. They’re top mount, which totally rocks. I must confess, I just bought my 4th one.
Not a keyboard, but I feel like this jig is what I need it to be in order to laser dye-sub keycap legends. Still fighting with the laser and my workflow just a bit to get really consistent alignment, but “usable” is already in reach. If I can fine tune things a bit, I’ll make one that can handle more than one larger cap at a time.
So you like the swifts better than the clouds? I was thinking I’d like the swifts better too, but put the clouds in my Aaru since they were the louder, higher pitched sounding of the two. The Aaru definitely needs a loud switch to keep it from sounding hollow. Well if you build it without any silicone or foam dampeners like I did. How do the swifts sound in your HMKB 80?
They’re really loud. I don’t know why I prefer them. Maybe it’s because the clouds are in a foamy board (cstm80) and don’t have room to sing? I like them both a lot better if I use a heavier switch for the space bar. They’re definitely close to my limit for light spring weight.
Yeah they are some light bois, although I prefer that. My preferences keeping heading toward lighter & lighter switches recently. So the stock spring weighting in both clouds & swifts were fine for me. Also I was pretty surprised at how nice the stock springs were. The clouds were the first switch I did not spring swap in quite awhile. It might be that clouds in a foamy setup take away from their nice loud clack. Either way glad to hear you’re enjoying the swifts, that makes me think I’ll really like them too!
Got my milmax sockets in and found out they wouldn’t work in the pcb they were intended for (too tight 
). Spent a while going through my unbuilt boards until I found a PCB that they would fit in. The winning PCB was the Adelais for my Dodice with some SWK Yang switches in it. Very clacky build. Me likey
Have you tried Holtite sockets? They’re more expensive, a lot harder to find, and even harder to install - but they do sit completely flush, and IIRC their design is a bit more physically flexible. I can send you a few to try if you’d like to test the fit.
I have some in my R1 Unikorn build. I’ve had a few come out when removing switches, but they’re pretty easy to get back in. That might be a good consideration for the original board I had in mind though. I think I have some sitting around.
The Mechlovin pcb is great for mil max. It has nice big pads around the holes for good heat transfer. I did have a few I messed up and had to redo, but that’s par the course for when I milmax 
especially with the shorter sockets. Really easy to get solder over the top and down into the socket. It’s definitely more work than soldering switches in.
Ditto. Had tough time soldering them in as well as out. Also wasted time cleaning up PCB afterward.
It’s been too cold the last couple of days to play Laser-man in the garage, so I’ve been wrapping up the design and 3D printing a case for the last of my 3 plates for my bespoke TKL-like layout, which kinda looks like the bastard offspring of an HHKB and and NCR80. The case itself is nothing special, though I did figure out how to sneak some captive hexnuts in there to keep the top clean.
I overestimated the precision on one vertical measurement, so it delaminated a bit and I had to glue it back together, but a little sand and paint (“Bauhaus Yellow” Krylon was on sale) should cover that over. The bottom will be 6-degree (I think) wedges for feet.
I haven’t decided on switches yet. The only things I have lying around in sufficient numbers are commodity reds and knockoff 67g holy pandas. I’m leaning towards the latter simply because I’ve never had any heavy tactile before. For keycaps, probably going with some white-on-blue generic Cherry doubleshot, or some apple-legend’ed XDA. I think custom-lasered keycaps will have to wait for the next build.
Rebuilt my black HMKB because the space bar was having issues. Luckily it’s hotswap, so an easy fix to tackle. Well… I’m an idiot. I had used TX stabilizers and didn’t put the shims in and the stabilizers were starting to pull out. So that’s why some keycaps wouldn’t return after press. Duh… of course, right?
Anywhoo… because it’s one of those PCBs where the cutout for the stabilzers is very close to the edge (like a 3/4 moon), making it nearly impossible to use clip-ins on the space bar, I decided to try out my Knight Stabilzers from Swagkeys.
Knight stabilizers are screw in, so that fixes the main issue. This is the first time I’ve ever used a stabilizer without putting either NyoGel or dielectric grease on the wires. I used 205g0 on the sides of the stem body and a small amount on the ends of the wires (and the bend). Super nice stabilizers. No noise at all on this set.
The reason I might like them better than TX stabilizers is because the wires are fairly easy to clip into place, much like Zeal or Durock stabilizers. I don’t know about you guys, but 1/2 of the time, my TX stabilizer wires are very hard to clip in and I almost feel like they make the keystroke a bit slugish sometimes. It’s never been a big enough issue that I’ve rebuilt a board or anything, but it does feel like the tightness of the wire causes a bit of resistance that shouldn’t be there.
TLDR: Knight stabilizers good purchase
I decided to reassemble the sandwich.
I have three PCB boards.
Two to replace on this aluminum “spring” clone.
I’ll start complaining))))
There is a topic on reddit about this clone with a description of the software features. There are also links there.
Default board record Vika Alice has its own software, and you can also use a json file like Via support. But no. Via doesn’t work here. There is also a program for flashing the firmware to update it. I tried it too and there is a new json file on top. The result is that he only sees but doesn’t plow, there are always mistakes. The main problem is that the chip on this board does not understand layers. And not only does he not understand what a layer is, even change the button to which layer, it’s to the right of the right short space.
You can’t turn off the caps button yet. You turn it off wherever and however you like, but it still works there.
There is still a moment here.
They just stole the design. Maybe even project files.
But they don’t know how it works at all.
The original or even a TonySpring clone. There are these indentations on the body. And also the original and Tonyspring have rings. which need to be inserted.
But the Alice record wiki doesn’t have them.
And we get that the sandwich, or more correctly our plate, hits the top of the body, and sometimes it can hit so hard that it all rings like a bell.
You need to figure it out yourself.
I tried different options.
These thick black rings are fine. But only as thickness. But the diameter needs to be smaller, one and a half times, I don’t have it.
Since such a diameter does not allow the top to be closed and screwed.
I solved this problem temporarily by finding rings that are thinner in thickness, but have the same diameter. Then you can put the top on and tighten the bolts.
I also noticed that there is data on the PCB board.
The stabilizers out of the box are very good. You don’t need to do anything. They are lubricated and the action is easy to press.
First build of 2024. Disarray65 with Kailh silent (deep sea islet) switches. Very happy with the quality of the keycaps from @velocifire
Huge 80’s boombox vibes, sweet combo bud!
I ended up buying an official Spring PCB and daughter board for my Record and it’s MUCH better than the PCB that came with it.
The PCB that came with the record works fine but I use so special key codes (like Caps being CTRL when help and Esc when tapped) the just wouldn’t work with the stock Record PCB.
Thank you for sharing!
What a great pairing!
