Experience with GH60 from FalbaTech?

[jigg4]

Not sure whether I understood you. So just to be clear: the diodes and resistors of this board are pre soldered and all I have to do is solder the switches?

[czarek]

That's right. Everything is presoldered on the PCB. You only need to put the switches on and put it inside the case. Easy.

[jigg4]

That's awesome! Guess I will get this one for my custom build. Do you know when the plate for the gh60 will be back in Stock?

[czarek]

I'll put it back now. Basically for now we're making plates with our CNC machines. 1.5mm brushed aluminium. But we're talking to external company that will provide us with powder coated steel plates for both GH60 and ErgoDox. They will be available in July. We will still be making aluminium plates for those who prefer them though. Also, as we are making them ourselves, we can cut any plate for any keyboard - from 40% up to 200%, just provide us with either DXF/SVG drawing or raw output from http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/.

[face]

Wow, great! I was just about to ask whether one could get a black plate.

I am really hungry to order the GH60... just waiting for the Cherry browns and now the plate, otherwise I would have ordered already.

[jigg4]

Me too. Too bad you guys do not have an aluminum case. Would be the dream set up from Europe. I will order in the next 1-2 weeks. Really happy that I found a retailer in Europe.

[face]

mechsupply.co.uk is offering aluminium cases in the form of a groupbuy soon.

For me, I like the wood and also the plastic cases. Lighter to carry and not that expensive. One can expect to pay a 100€ just for an alu case... that said, it's probably a good idea to buy a Pok3r, keep the alu case and sell the rest. Should be less expensive

[czarek]

I already said this El cheapo custom programmable keyboard = Pok3r + GH60 PCB for 30€ extra + labour.

[face]

Though desoldering isn't funny

[Wodan]

Pok3r has plate mounted switches

[czarek]

That's part of a joy of building and having custom keyboard!

[face]

That's correct. Don't tempt me

Thank you Wodan, I just realized I had seen a picture of it without keycaps, so I changed my post.

[face]

So, can you use the plate of the Poker 3 for this? Since the cancelling of my order seems to be veeery difficult for the company (they are not responding), I'm tempted to say the can just send me the ANSI version.

I'm guessing the case should work with the GH60, but I'm not sure about the plate.

[czarek]

Pok3r plate is compatible. Remember Poker keyboards are so popular they're de facto standard and all 60% components are made to be interchangable with them. Really, I used V60 keyboard in a aluminium case made for Pok3r for a while. I built my GON Nerd60 bluetooth using a plate and case from Poker 2 (it required a bit of simple modding done with pair of pliers, no power tools were needed).

[face]

Thank you! Your help is great.

[Khers]

I received my GH60 from FalbaTech yesterday, and while I haven't had the time to put it to use just yet (I have a few projects lined up, but little time to devote to them) it oozes quality and the PCB is thick and sturdy enough to be used without a plate. I was originally thinking about picking up a GON, but, as I dislike light shows and these were somewhere around half the price, it was an easy choice.

[czarek]

Well guess why is that. My preferred GH60 setup is with PCB mounted vintage MX blacks, modded with 62G springs (lubed).
I use thick PBT cherry profile blank black keycaps and clipped stabs with it and this way it's really comparable in feel and quality to HHKB Pro and in some ways (smoothness, lightness, quietness, consistency) it's even better.
I tried to like zealio switch but it felt really plasticky with those somehow. I guess it's best to stick to original Cherry MX switch design, only with some minor mods.

[face]

That sounds really good... I really would like to try out the vintage MX blacks in the future, the sound interesting.

[Falbatech]

[jigg4]

Damn, I just ordered last week.

[scottc]

Has anyone had success trying to contact Falbatech support? I've sent several requests over the past few weeks and they've all been ignored.

My PCB came with a diode missing and has other problems (more on this later), the opening of the felt case is too small to fit most of my 60% keyboards without forcing them in (hopefully this will loosen in time?), and my wooden case has the USB connector hole off to the side meaning that my USB cable constantly falls out. I'm trying to make the PCB workable but I just want to return the wooden case because it's really not what I expected for the money. I appreciate that this is just a side-project for Falbatech but I really thought my experience would be a lot smoother...

[chzel]

Have you tried contacting czarek directly?
Also can you elaborate on the issues? I'm about to solder mine.

[Khers]

I'm also about to solder mine, so I'd like to hear about the issues as well. I was quite impressed with the PCB when I received it, but this report is a little discouraging...

[scottc]

I've contacting Czarek about this order before, but haven't gotten a response to my last message so didn't try again. There was a screw-up and it seems like PayPal changed my shipping address to my billing address when I paid so it went to the wrong country (not sure about specifics here, still haven't figured out what happened). Thankfully a friend picked it up and brought it to me in person a week later.

These problems might just be with my board, so YMMV. I don't want this to sound like I'm publicly complaining about Czarek or Falbatech in general, it's just frustrating that I can't get word from them about this.

- Issues with screw-in Cherry stabilisers. If I screwed them in all the way, it spammed some keypresses (I think this was only on enter, don't recall the others). I avoided this by just not screwing the stab in all the way, but obviously that's not ideal...
- Shorting on my aluminium case when I screwed it all the way in. I've managed to avoid this (I think) by only putting screws in two places, but I only did this earlier this morning so can comment on it later. This could be a problem with the case, but no other boards (FaceW, Alps64 for example) had this problem.
- Missing SMD diode on left control. I soldered a through-hole diode on to fix this temporarily, but it's an inelegant fix and I don't think it will last long if I change cases often.

As an aside, I can't find docs anywhere about how to get LEDs working. I just want a caps lock LED...

[face]

Maybe sick or even worse, in hospital, you never know.

[scottc]

Yeah, hopefully not! I filed a support request long before my order (ordering the wooden case without a GH60 is actually broken too) and got no response to that either, so it seems unlikely.

[czarek]

Hey sorry I just found those messages. I have very hardcore times at my normal work (alpha release of my project in 3 weeks) and I didn't have much time dealing with FalbaTech. It's all on my brother's head right now. Let's get those issues sorted.

[czarek]

Also we have identified an issue with the SMD diodes that might fall off in extreme situations. Our supplier has used wrong type and with the next batch this will be fixed.

[chzel]

How does this diode issue affect earlier batches from about a month ago? Anything we should pay extra attention to?

[czarek]

Month ago it was the same batch so it's also affected but as I said it's only in very edgy situation that those diodes might fall off. Basically they're 1/4mm too high and when you put them under high pressure, either in transport or during a build they might fall off. It's only maybe 1% chance and all PCBs are checked before shipping so if you've got a working unit, it's almost certain it will remain so for the years to come.
The new batch is already on a way and we should have it at some point next week. So if you experience any issues with your current PCB, or just want an extra peace of mind, feel free to send them back for replacement.