What's on your workbench today?

Where did you get the PCB? I kill the layout options of it more than the normal spring PCB.

https://goo.su/hR1nf

I have 3 keyboard PCB boards from that store)

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I picked up two grab bags from SP Keyboards last week. There weren’t many SA profile keys but I did get enough to populate a board.
May I present for your consideration, the Smorgasboard.

The board is a Keychron V6 with Cherry Blacks and Kailh Box Yellows on the mods and spacebar.

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That’s amazing, and a lot of dedication to sort through all those caps. One bag is overwhelming enough.

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Prototypes for a new version of the Lumberjack PCB arrived today.

Main change is the use of a 12 pin SMD USB-C connector instead of the through hole monster, hoping that I can see well enough to solder it by hand.

I’ve also removed the top copper fill layer so as to expose and visually emphasize the traces better.

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@peejeh The traces are lovely. You should have renamed the board Yggdrasil.

Put together something for my null design 60 case




I used a nki.merro60 PCB with leaf springs cut into the PCB. It was way too flexible without a plate so I used a plycarbonate plate someone gave me :man_shrugging: to stiffen it slightly.

These are Haimu Deep Ruby switches which feel and sound top notch. I’m told they are a recolor of Morandi switches. I guess I’ll buy some Morandi switches then. :smile:

Used a mix of stabilizers from extra parts.

lol. Look how many random TX stabilizer wires I have. Can you tell I don’t use 6.25u stabilizers much? :rofl:

It was a fun build and it feels quite nice. The sound is more uniform than you would expect from a tray mount.

Also, this was the first time I’ve mounted GMK Watermelon since buying it months ago.

Satisfying build. Low stress, used lots of parts laying around that I’ve had for ages.

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Had to crack open one of my trashboards to fix a cold handwired joint. It was easy enough to notice once I undid twelve nuts and backed out twelve screws a bit. I think I spent twice as long working with the screwdriver as the soldering iron. It was my LALT key, it was intermittent enough to make switching apps in Windows unreliable, and my work often has me flipping between two windows.

Hand-wires can be a challenge, but on the flip side they’re very forgiving for repair work.

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Nice, so the leaf spring does work well for tray mounts. Gonna have to grab myself one of those PCBs for my T60 since thats been sitting without a build for a hot min now. Also I too have bags full of 6.25u wires that I have zero ideal what I’ll ever do with! :rofl:

To get the most out of the design, you should use a case that doesn’t have any supports running along the interior edges. Otherwise, the PCB edges will sit on the supports and you won’t get anything out the side leaf cuts. Most tray mount cases have a lip that runs along the top and bottom edges to support the PCB. That’s why I had never used this pcb. But if all you have is a rectangle with posts, this does a nice job of evening out feel and sound. It’s not perfect, but it’s noticeably better

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Worn out. Rebuilt my Gentoo 3 times. The first step was removing all the foam. This sucker is stiff, and the included foams really make it sound dead.

Swapped out the Gateron Melodic switches. They sounded and felt so bad in that board. I tried HMX jammy linears. Just stiff and high pitched clacky. Yuck.

I seem to remember thinking I like tactile switches on stiff builds so I tried CIY Asura tactiles. Better but still not it. Those switches are brutally tactile and very long pole. Felt too abrupt.

I don’t own a lot of extra tactile switches but I did have some tactile lilac switches. These are like T1s but slightly different in sound. They need films to clean up the sound but it affects the overall feel too much. I left them stock.

This is a nice feeling and sounding board now. I’m happy with it.

Officially wore myself out changing caps and switches.

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That’s proof that the universe will end in full entropy.

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I know that you didn’t use them in this build but how do they compare to something like a Boba U4T or WS Heavy Tactile?

I see you can get them on Amazon in the US for really cheap ($22 for 110 switches) so I thought I’d give them a try either way but I wanted to see where you thought they landed in terms of feel.

I’d say they feel less round and more punchy than either of those - here’s my first impressions of them:

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Thanks, they seem right up my alley and at worst they’re cheap enough that I can pass them on without feeling too much pain (unlike the Clickiez I stupidly bought, lol).

Thanks again for the write-up! I like how reading about a switch that didn’t work in your particular build reveals a new thing for me. In an absolute ocean of switch options it’s impossible to try everything (though Newprada seems game).

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Built a Steller65 today. Took a while to peel off all the protective film on the acrylic :cold_sweat:




This one is hotswap and I tried out the Jammy linears again. They work better in this build but they sure are higher pitched than a lot of others I’ve tried. I didn’t think about the fact that you’d be able to see them through the case from the sides. The yellow green tint makes them look kinda peach color. Maybe I’ll swap these out for something clear next time.

The build was fairly straightforward. Unfortunately it doesn’t look as cool on the desktop. When it’s not in direct light it takes on more of a slime green look. Maybe I need to find a toxic set? :eyes:

Anyway. Happy Saturday, all. Now time for some beer.

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Oh man. Imagine UV LEDs in this thing

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It has backlighting and underglow. And when you set it to violet, it looks great! The violet shines through the switches and the underglow turns everything bright dayglow (slightly more green than the yellow on in Night Runner). It’s crazy because it looks like the underglow is a different color, but it’s not, just filtered through the reactive acrylic.

My phone won’t show the right color no matter what I do

The light behind the keycaps is more purple IRL. Also will look better without the pink tint from the switches.

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Hiya all,
I am still playing around with this Aliexpress Bluetooth PCB I bought that supports VIAL. I have a few Amazon / Adafruit batteries hanging around, but none of them seem to have the connector that will fit the slot in the below picture. Does anyone know what the connector is called? I’d like to see if I can either find a battery with the connector built in or buy the connector to attach to an existing battery. Apologies for the blurriness of the second photo.

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We were away in Greece last week so the package of parts for keybird42 that arrived on Saturday had to wait for my return. I have done a quick fit test. (I left the protective film on the top until I do the final build)

It is, TBH, a bugger to put together! The rear layers that are split to make a hole for the USB socket always want to jump off the screws and hinge into the case. I should have fastened the back before the front, I think… (And I should have put the plate the right way up!)

I erred on the side of too much clearance for the side accents and pen rest, because acrylic has fairly loose thickness tolerances. As I expected, they will need some hidden shims to stop them rattling.

As a whole it’s a lot more soft and flexy than my keybird69, since it uses POM instead of FR4 and has fewer fasteners. It’ll be interesting to see how it compares when complete.

Now to stop procrastinating and start soldering the PCB!

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