Round 5: The Cappening

[photekq]

I'm starting to regret not joining R5 now.

When it comes to MX keycaps I'm convinced that nothing but Cherry profile can cut it when it comes to looks & feel.

After seeing these caps I'm not so convinced..

P.S Mu, you need to try some thick Cherry PBT. Give me a bell if you're ever making a visit to Wales

[bloo]

Cool, thanks. I'm sure that if I get a hold of a set I'll end up polishing them. Had to do that with my dolch dsa set to make them usable. These would be easier.

[Muirium]

Yeah, these are way less rough when new than DSA Dolch. All that texture (and the fear of wearing it unevenly) put me off typing much on my Dolch set. But SPH and now Round 5: no such problem.


@Photekq: Aye. I've never tried thick Cherry PBT. And I've never been to Wales! Don't drive and don't like trains. My holidays are all to California now.

[mtl]

Mu, can you post a pic of a full size kb w/ honey set, red escape and black numkey pad? That may be the closest homage to the Honeywell original.

[Muirium]

Oh, you mean like this?

Honey Portrait.JPG (172.28 KiB) Viewed 16509 times

The keyboard's a Cherry G80-3422LAMIT. Not bad for 15 Euros new in box. (There's a second round of them if anyone's interested, just follow the link to acolombo's thread.)

Honey Left.JPG (237.01 KiB) Viewed 16509 times

Good thing I bought that numpad kit. I didn't even have a fullsize keyboard when I did.

Honey Right.JPG (221.53 KiB) Viewed 16509 times

The red PAUSE key is in homage, of course, to TRANSMIT.

Honey Profile.JPG (271.76 KiB) Viewed 16509 times

This is the first board I've put a Signature Plastics space bar on with asymmetrical mount. The space bar's switch is a linear MX grey instead of a black, and it's displaced to the left. Fortunately, Round 5's spacebars are universal (they have a ton of mounts underneath) so it's not a problem. Just have to check it's on the right way when installing.

[rindorbrot]

I see your caps have finally arrived, Mu.
Very nice pictures already going on here, I think I will have to do a proper shooting of mine on the weekend, too.

[Muirium]

Thanks. They were easily the quickest delivery I've had from 7bit. I feared it would take way longer. But instead of all that, I can tease everyone with stuff like this…

Outerspace Cadet.JPG (519.04 KiB) Viewed 16498 times

Let's see who can spot the imperfections with that Round 4+5 combo. There are a few. I'll post the rest of the pics later.

Anyway, this is everyone's thread, not just mine. So post, post, post! Even with the order I made, there's plenty Round 5 can do that I just don't have the keyboards for. That's what makes GBs so exciting: seeing all the mad things you never even thought to do.

[SL89]

lol you seemed to be a lil bit crazed waiting for tracking numbers

That SPH + Honey looks like a Gundam colorway. All you need is a splash of yellow!

[hashbaz]

Oh, you mean like this?

Honey Portrait.JPG

The keyboard's a Cherry G80-3422LAMIT. Not bad for 15 Euros new in box. (There's a second round of them if anyone's interested, just follow the link to acolombo's thread.)

Honey Left.JPG

Good thing I bought that numpad kit. I didn't even have a fullsize keyboard when I did.

Honey Right.JPG

The red PAUSE key is in homage, of course, to TRANSMIT.

Honey Profile.JPG

This is the first board I've put a Signature Plastics space bar on with asymmetrical mount. The space bar's switch is a linear MX grey instead of a black, and it's displaced to the left. Fortunately, Round 5's spacebars are universal (they have a ton of mounts underneath) so it's not a problem. Just have to check it's on the right way when installing.

That black numpad is sexy as hell. So glad I stayed on the R5 train. The end is nigh, at long last, and we faithful have endured well the trials and tribulations that others despised!

[Madhias]

Keep it going, Muirium! Nice color combinations, especially on a grey case the caps are gorgeous! Amazing!

[fifted]

Fine looking caps, Mu! Nice and tall.

[janvkn]

MOAR

[Muirium]

What, like this?

Round 5 Trio.JPG (291.44 KiB) Viewed 16407 times

Note the different red ESCAPEs. Also, that's not quite all my Round 5 order on show there, by the way. More on that later…

Space Cadet 5 Oblique.JPG (238.49 KiB) Viewed 16407 times

I'm calling this colour scheme Space Cadet 5. (Well, I had to keep my files straight somehow.) You can see more clearly from these angles what's not quite perfect about it.

Space Cadet 5 Navblock.JPG (234.64 KiB) Viewed 16407 times

Changing rows between Rounds, even for the better, does leave some fallout.

Space Cadet 5 Elevation.JPG (190.72 KiB) Viewed 16407 times

I'm typing on it now and it's not bothering me. (I'm so used to all those row 3 blues in the couple of years I've been waiting on Round 5.) But I could use an extended REPAIR kit, or I suppose Round 5a to perfect this.

[janvkn]

Do you do requests?

Could you do something like this:


Inspired by this btw:

[Muirium]

Oooh, that does look awesome in a vintage setting! I'll add it to the list. The one problem will be blue function keys. I've got F5-F8 but I don't think I've got the rest of them. Red and black are no problem though.

[SL89]

Gundam SA

[mtl]

Oh, you mean like this?

Honey Portrait.JPG

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiceee B-) Loving the cappening....

[Muirium]

Another day, another shoot. Let me see… whatever shall it be? How about a bet on red.

Two Reds.JPG (220.99 KiB) Viewed 16292 times

Let's look at the little Access-IS matrix board first.

Red Access.JPG (137.97 KiB) Viewed 16292 times

Well, you knew those MUIRIUM kits had to be for something! The red blanks are just delicious. Touching crimson.

Crimson Stripes.JPG (184.65 KiB) Viewed 16292 times

As for the G80-3000, here's what a difference red mods makes.

Red Oblique.JPG (197.19 KiB) Viewed 16292 times

Striking, I'll say. A red ESCAPE key didn't seem quite right, so I pulled out a blue hashbang from my Honeywell Sphericals Extras for a splash of separate colour instead.

Leftie Red.JPG (174.72 KiB) Viewed 16292 times

Yeah, I said I had 1.5 numpads. I can do all black, or this GRAPHITE combo. Just no white! Or red.

Red Right.JPG (169.73 KiB) Viewed 16292 times

Obligatory shiny elevation.

Red Elevation.JPG (169.61 KiB) Viewed 16292 times

But check this island of red in the middle…

Red Island.JPG (177.49 KiB) Viewed 16292 times

Trust it to white to make every other colour truly shine.

I'll do janvkn's suggestion next.

[SL89]

HASHBANG!

Also, what was in the Muirium kit?

Also this makes me feel better about having as much red as i do.

Edit:

Can you take a picture of them with a backlit board and see if the shine goes through. Specifically the whites.

[Muirium]

I think the red caps will transmit more light from red LEDs than whites. Because Rindorbrot already found just that!


http://deskthority.net/post236322.html#p236322

Note that only red caps on red LEDs show transmission. I think that's the key. Match the colour to the LED and you get leak. Otherwise, thick caps will block it out.

My yellow Ducky Shine was yellow LEDs with quick thick stock yellow PBT caps. It shone right through those perfectly, but not so much with the greys and blues of Round 4 SPH.



Anyway, the one and only backlit board I have here now is red, so I can put this to the test for myself. Alas, it's another fullsize so I'm running up against that single numpad kit constraint quite a bit. I didn't even have anything MX bigger than a TKL when I ordered, I thought I was being cautious!

As for my namesake kit, it's a bunch of row 3 blanks in every colour. We did have plans for 1x2 and 2x2 unit keys but in the end only the 1x1s made it, for SP cost reasons. It's actually the most cost effective kit of all.

[SL89]

That works too, thanks for the comparison.

[Prelim]

wow that ISO novatouch is pornographic! I want that caps @@

[chanlol]

I'm in R5a and I'm still waiting my keycaps!

[mr_a500]

Well, you knew those MUIRIUM kits had to be for something! The red blanks are just delicious. Touching crimson.

Nice. With those blanks, it looks like you've got a bit of a Space 1999 going on:

[mr_a500]

That Control Data terminal is probably Cherry, by the way. The 1979 Cherry catalogue has an example of a similar Control Data terminal.

[Muirium]

If anyone around here has an original, I'd be very interested to see it in pictures!

The Access board is a promising candidate for a Teensy. I need to work out the matrix and put Soarer's controller on it. (My battles with Access-IS's own controller and software got real ugly so I was very pleased to find their controller is detached from the main PCB.) I might wind up using row profiled caps on it, but then again I've sneaky ideas for that little matrix board which could suit a suite of blanks.

Edinburgh's been stuck under a big surly cloud the last few days, but I hope to get some more shots in today. Better get my keypuller out…

[mr_a500]

Control Data terminals are incredibly rare. I've never seen one on eBay or in anybody's collection - just vintage photos.

[Muirium]

Don't tell me: vintage grinders.

[Muirium]

Do you do requests?

Could you do something like this:


Inspired by this btw:

Okay, buckle up…

Both Warm.jpg (330.5 KiB) Viewed 15999 times

The light's still not up to much, so these pictures have a different feel to them. All depends on where I set the white balance. Here's a cooler shade:

Both Cold.jpg (328.01 KiB) Viewed 15999 times

Without further ado, the Amtrak special:

Black Elevation.jpg (245.31 KiB) Viewed 15999 times

This is a difficult colour to photograph without the sun!

Black Lowside.jpg (226.37 KiB) Viewed 15999 times

As you can see, the Round 4 SPH row 3 function row strikes again. Those are the only blue function keys I've got, so it's reds for the rest.

Black Cold Close.jpg (267.87 KiB) Viewed 15999 times

Also: SPH's red isn't the same as Round 5's. RA vs. RAS, right?

Black and Reds.jpg (236.39 KiB) Viewed 15999 times

Yeah, don't do that.

Black Right.jpg (294.2 KiB) Viewed 15999 times

So dark. I wish these were the caps the NovaTouch shipped with in the first place. No comparison!

Meanwhile, as I had to pull the blue function keys from my ISO NovaTouch, I popped the rest of the reds on it instead.

Blue Warm Elevation.jpg (238.48 KiB) Viewed 15999 times

Not bad, I think.

Blue Left.jpg (243.43 KiB) Viewed 15999 times

Naturally…

[mr_a500]

Ha! That keyboard has the exact layout and number of keys as the Space 1999 keyboard: 6 rows of 15 keys. If you just arranged horizontally instead of diagonally...

What the hell kind of keyboard has that layout anyway? Where'd you get that thing?