Round 5: The Cappening

[mtl]

Round 5 IBM style

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[XMIT]

What is this board with a trackpoint? It looks delightful.

[mtl]

Thank you. It's a custom board built a while back as part of a group buy run by matt3o.

[Muirium]

Yeah, I recognise it. Looks glorious in Round 5! You were the instigator of the GHB kit, as I recall. So you could mod some for your TrackPoint without sacrificing the heart of a full alpha set. How much work was that TrackPoint with SA?

I has serious round 5 envy

That was 7bit's plan all along! Don't worry, he's got you covered with Round 5a…

[mtl]

How much work was that TrackPoint with SA?

It's pretty easy.. just a few minutes with the dremel. The G and H key skirts need the corners shaved down, which is the most destructive part. So it's good to have the GHB kit in case I want a set for use on a non-TrackPoint board or resell them. All of the G/H/V/B/N keys need some notches made to the bottom of the skirts to clear the TrackPoint screws. These are less invasive changes.

I'll try to post pics when I do the white alphas, which should be easier to see than it is on the blacks.

So far I've only used SA caps on it. Using lower profile caps may not work so well, since the TP was mounted with the height of SA caps in mind.

[mtl]

Another pic of the IBM theme:

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Honey theme:

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[mtl]

How much work was that TrackPoint with SA?

The TrackPoint has screws that interfere with the key skirts on the downstroke..

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The G, H, V, B, and N keys all need notches cut in them to clear the screws. Here's the B key in the up position:

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And down:

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The G and H keys also need the corners chopped off to clear the TrackPoint itself. Here's the H key:

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As you can see, the 1st shot color shows through. It's not bad with the black keys, since it's easy to use a black sharpie to hide the white legend color. On the white keys, you can see a little black:

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The final result:

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[facetsesame]

Had enough left over to do my son's.

What a treat! I even like the 1 unit mods, adds some quirk to the class (but then I would say that). I'm sure you've flipped the \| key around by now

Cheers! Opened a bottle of beer, and took out the camera, but could not use the flash because of the little boy!

That could be the most arty Any Key ever. I love it! If it wasn't for the even more unlikely haze of the keyboard runner, that pic could languish unloved in a photo library because "it's too serious and intense, we just wanted something fun".

The G and H keys also need the corners chopped off to clear the TrackPoint itself. Here's the H key:

Looks brutal, but so worth it. Thanks for sharing the process, I like how Round 5 has got you posting more pics of your extraordinary custom. You must be very proud. (Thanks to Mu too for asking about it.)

[facetsesame]

The notorious FUNCTION2.

[Muirium]

The notorious FUNCTION2.

An eternally spinning loader for a picture that doesn't exist of Round 5's most exotic kit of all. I see what you did there!

[facetsesame]

The notorious FUNCTION2.

An eternally spinning loader for a picture that doesn't exist of Round 5's most exotic kit of all. I see what you did there!

And yet I can see it, even in your post.

On a strange level, it does seem right that the image should exist only in my own local cache imagination.

Still on a weird level, it seems plausible that my sub-concious would see that the attachment deleted, never to return.

Forget it, I'll just re-upload it, hopefully properly this time. What's the worst that could happen?

Spoiler:

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[Muirium]

Ah, now I see it. ABORT ANY ALPS indeed!

(Dullard technical note: Guess it was just local caching in your browser. I see the new attachment 22789 just fine now, in all the places it appears. The original 22788, quoted by my earlier post, is still missing.)

What are those MX mounts you have these displayed on? They look vaguely like delayed click Futabas! Click.

[facetsesame]

Ah, now I see it. ABORT ANY ALPS indeed!

(Dullard technical note: Guess it was just local caching in your browser. I see the new attachment 22789 just fine now, in all the places it appears. The original 22788, quoted by my earlier post, is still missing.)

What are those MX mounts you have these displayed on? They look vaguely like delayed click Futabas! Click.

Having just tried Matias "Alps", I definitely don't feel that way!

The mounts are SP's modular display kits.



I thought about getting some a long time ago, and unintentionally waited until SP stopped listed them, panicked, enquired, and purchased. They probably still have them if you ask.

The plungers click in to the frames and then slide freely as you'd expect a switch plunger to. So if mounted vertically, they might benefit from having a conical spring mounted behind them! They even have little holes that panel pins fit.

And now back to topic.

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[Muirium]

Back off topic:

Ah, now I see it. ABORT ANY ALPS indeed!

Having just tried Matias "Alps", I definitely don't feel that way!

You liked those Matias simplified Alps? I expected more from them. They've got a solid reputation around here, and the loose switches feel pretty good. But the Ergo Pro was my first shot at a Matias board and I was underwhelmed indeed. As I put it in my review: "too much trapdoor, not enough flow"…

This ain't no Topre.

The part that disappoints me about these switches is their tactility. They don't feel as nuanced as classic "complicated" Alps, like the [wiki]SKCM cream damped[/wiki] switches in my [wiki]Apple Extended Keyboard II[/wiki]; ironically the very board Matias measures its own against in their marketing. I doubt this would trouble many people, but the switches in the Ergo Pro are a bit rough in comparison. (They descend from the later "simplified" branch of the Alps family tree.) Too much trapdoor, so to speak, and not enough flow. The tactile bump is there, all right, just too pronounced for my liking. I suspect I'd like the new damped linear Matias switches better. They seem a natural fit for this keyboard.

Probably still better than MX browns or clears, though. So there's that…

Of course, I've been thoroughly spoiled by Topre keyboards lately, which for me are the tactiles to rule them all. Topre switches flow like nothing else, with a smoothness I miss whenever I'm without it. As much as I like my AEK, the HHKB and Realforce outclass it and this Matias completely for pure feel. As you'd hope, for their price! Let alone the direct comparison in the ergo realm: the super expensive µTRON.

All that said, these Matias switches aren't at all unpleasant to type on. They're a good bit wobblier than I'd like, but nothing that actually gets in the way. Consider them middle of the pack. Could be better, but could be a lot worse; like all those flimsy mainstream keyboards out there without switches at all.

Then bear in mind the dearth of Alps caps in total, compared to just this one group buy! Advantage MX.

[Supergeek]

This is what I have now:



I have on order the rest of the blue to replace all the gray, and a set of red alphas, which will give me two complete sets. I use three workstations on a regular basis, and I love the SA so much I realize I must have them on my other boards. I think the red and gray will look amazing together. Sort of like this, but with gray instead of black:

[Muirium]

The inverse of this:


http://deskthority.net/post242148.html#p242148

As far as I can tell, literally every combination in Round 5 looks good.

[Supergeek]

The inverse of this:


http://deskthority.net/post242148.html#p242148

Yes, exactly.

Most of the photographs don't do the red justice. It's more like blood red than fire engine red.

As far as I can tell, literally every combination in Round 5 looks good.

Yeah, I wish I could justify spending the money to get every combination...

[mtl]

Most of the photographs don't do the red justice. It's more like blood red than fire engine red.

Yes, it's really a nice shade and comes across much better in person. Muirium, great job with the color selection! I like the monochrome HyperMicro a couple pages back, too.

[SL89]

Dat graphite tho

[SL89]

lol no worries, i just like the grey / black colorway.

[Muirium]

Aye, I'm a touch partial to a little Graphite myself…

[facetsesame]

You liked those Matias simplified Alps? I expected more from them. They've got a solid reputation around here, and the loose switches feel pretty good. But the Ergo Pro was my first shot at a Matias board and I was underwhelmed indeed. As I put it in my review: "too much trapdoor, not enough flow"…

Your review highlights the distinction between our views well - you're comparing with fond memories of the old royalty of Alps, while my Alps experience is limited and hazy at best. My main comparison was with MX and yeah, they compare favourably enough for me. As for everything else, I wasn't expecting (imagined) hall effect smoothness or buckling spring tactility, and Topre has still eluded me (and right now a paradigm shift like that would be too much!).

I have only vague memories of clicky white Alps in an Ortek MCK-142, almost no meaningful memory of a blue Alps board, and the most memory of black Alps in Dell AT102Ws - which weren't too exciting IIRC. I don't have any of these boards any more. Gah, I also have worn out salmon Alps in a Wang 724 but I haven't used that for ages either.

Then bear in mind the dearth of Alps caps in total, compared to just this one group buy! Advantage MX.

I want to see Zhasha's dream realised - spherical Alps caps. If SP can't, perhaps someone else can...

This is what I have now:



I have on order the rest of the blue to replace all the gray, and a set of red alphas, which will give me two complete sets. I use three workstations on a regular basis, and I love the SA so much I realize I must have them on my other boards. I think the red and gray will look amazing together. Sort of like this, but with gray instead of black:

Blue and white! Very nice indeed, I hadn't put them together before somehow. Likewise the red and grey. Looking forward to seeing these!

Most of the photographs don't do the red justice. It's more like blood red than fire engine red.

Yes, it's really a nice shade and comes across much better in person. Muirium, great job with the color selection! I like the monochrome HyperMicro a couple pages back, too.

Indeed, thank you Mu! Did you foresee the limitless combinations when you first got hold of that Honeywell board?

Dat graphite tho

Eh?

Edit #1: I was referring to this post: http://deskthority.net/group-buys-f50/d ... ml#p138863

Edit #2: Sorry SL89: I'm not familiar with internet slang

Amazing, it seems matt3o specified and invented the GRAPHITE kit earlier that same day, 16th December 2013.
And on that same day, he said:

Guys, why don't you just go for GD grey instead? Then, just add a few more keys to the SPH/REPAIR kit...

This is an option. Round 5 isn't going on an actual Honeywell anytime soon (wrong mount) so the match doesn't have to be exact. But GPA is a slightly nicer grey to my eye than GD, which is a little blue when you put it next to shiny whites.

GPA is so much better than GD, imho. Especially in the GRAPHITE set! You get a very charcoal look.

Charcoal galore indeed! IMO it's quite a beamspring look too.

[Daniel]

Does anyone here uses the SA keycaps in combination with platemount Cherry stabilizers? My spacebar keeps getting stuck in the actuated positions

[facetsesame]

Does anyone here uses the SA keycaps in combination with platemount Cherry stabilizers? My spacebar keeps getting stuck in the actuated positions

Yes, I had this at first with the 6.2 space bar on my Ducky Legend. A combination of reseating and reversing the space bar seems to have solved the problem, unfortunately I didn't record the exact steps I took.

I'm not quite sure what the cause was, whether I didn't fit the space bar properly, or perhaps the shafts were catching on the stabilisers. Has anyone else experienced this?

[JanitorJoe]

Showed my friend this thread and he said these just look like regular keycaps. Told me to go out and buy a keyboard and just take the caps off.

The keyboard addict life isn't for everyone.

[Phill1]

Does anyone have white alphas and black mods they could take a picture of? Interested in what the combination looks like

[Daniel]

Does anyone here uses the SA keycaps in combination with platemount Cherry stabilizers? My spacebar keeps getting stuck in the actuated positions

Yes, I had this at first with the 6.2 space bar on my Ducky Legend. A combination of reseating and reversing the space bar seems to have solved the problem, unfortunately I didn't record the exact steps I took.

I'm not quite sure what the cause was, whether I didn't fit the space bar properly, or perhaps the shafts were catching on the stabilisers. Has anyone else experienced this?

Interesting, the problem occurs on my Ducky TKL. Maybe the is Ducky specific? Which other manufacturers use plate mount Cherry stabilizers besides of Ducky?

[Muirium]

Does anyone have white alphas and black mods they could take a picture of? Interested in what the combination looks like

Black and white looks pretty good, as you'd expect!

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This is my newly damped "Type-S" NovaTouch. Absolute stonker of a keyboard now. It finally sounds right too!

[Phill1]

Thanks Muirium, looks great.

[whitecitadel]

Any details of the damping you did? (did I miss another thread)