Round 5: The Cappening

[Muirium]

Yup. Hypersphere's made some very effective rings:


http://deskthority.net/post246406.html#p246406

[whitecitadel]

Thanks, do you need to disassemble the switch (looks like that in the pics) or is that just an arty shot Mu?

Tempted by Novatouch still, but also found some good prices on Ducky boards with Blues that would serve just as well.

[chzel]

Thanks, do you need to disassemble the switch (looks like that in the pics) or is that just an arty shot Mu?

Right down to the bone!
You can avoid messing with the domes and the springs if you are careful, but full disassembly is required!

[Muirium]

Ah, it's a deep operation but not a tricky one. Here's 002 stripping down a Realforce, the NovaTouch is very similar except for the case:

Hey guys. I made my first ever (talky) video demonstrating how to open a Realforce.

I made a few mistakes here and there:

- At the start, I suggest that the Realforce is not held together with any screws. I should have clarified there that I meant just the case is held shut without screws, which becomes obvious pretty soon in the video

- I mention that the black screws don't go into the mounting plate, but they do. The difference is that the silver screws have threaded standoffs that they go into, whereas the black ones don't.

Also, I am not sure why the video is in 360p, sorry about that. The raw file is in 1920 x 1080 resolution so don't know what happened there. Hope it's useful!

I much prefer working inside Topres than MX switch surgery. I can actually see what I'm doing because the components are all conveniently large!

Here's my own video showing how the modded NovaTouch shapes up against some genuine Topre keyboards:

[whitecitadel]

Cheers guys! I've got nothing on your spaceship lab and shiny 60% monos though, incredibly good and damn pretty pics.

edit: the black 'n' blue board is a Ducky Legend, with stock silver coloured top plate. I really like SA on it, imo all that doesn't work with them is the backlighting!

Thanks for posting the Legend in R5 and the comments. I use a Cherry G80-3000 in the office but due to Round5 being an infinite deadline was holding out on board for home. I wanted TKL, didn't want to go Novatouch without trying, could not find good price on a MX blue TKL, decided on Filco then keyboardstore in UK was out of stock of everything so in the end having seen a good price on a Legend I ordered one as the 1.5Kg weight and 5mm Alu top plate seem to indicate a solid board. Glad I added that numpad kit now to my Round5 order after the initial TKL order!

Only thing I need to do now is pick up a few single keys for the extra 4 keys above the numpad, I think I have a few as I got a red Esc, Panic and keyboard runner, but might need to get a few blanks or hit the trade thread.

Postman just arrived at home I was just messaged, so all I need now is 7bit to come back from 7holiday and get down the 7postoffice...

[argcargv]

Mine!

GH60 pcb
Gateron Blue, with 80g spring on space bar
Round 5 Keycaps
FMJ case
TMK software
Gon 60% Plate

[whitecitadel]

Tis a think of much beauty argcargv!

[RaleghDirat]

Only one of them is pure R5 but they look good to me

Spoiler:

[Prelim]

@RaleghDirat where did you got those blank SA sets?

[RaleghDirat]

These are all R5, of course...
(and a couple of modifiers from others)

[usopia]

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[janvkn]

Finally got my R5 caps. Yay!

I went for the classic honeywell theme:





They are surprisingly difficult to photograph because of the contrast between the deep black and the ultra bright white.

[zslane]

I never get tired of looking at pics of the R5 keycaps and the Honeywell colorway(s). Simply gorgeous. Keep 'em coming!

This thread is sustaining me while I wait for R5a to get under way!

[zslane]

Hey Muirium, are you still taking Round 5 colorways demo requests?

[Muirium]

Sure. What you want?

I've got some pics I need to upload here actually. Must remember.

[hypkx]

Round 5 Corsair K95

Spoiler:

[Halvar]

That probably does look extremely badass in real life. Definitely more original than what I and others did with their caps...

My Filco at work (somewhat understated for a Round 5 set, but great nevertheless, and my collegues think I'm crazy anyway):

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[Muirium]

Can't go wrong with black and white. That sheer contrast, on both alphas and mods, is doubleshot at its finest.

[zslane]

Round 5s on a Filco FTW! Well done!

[nsz962]

Finally got a spare moment to get everything working! Ordered an Adafruit programmer and put that together, built the toolchain and the tools to compile and flash the TMK firmware onto my Nerd60. It has lubed Clear switches with 62g springs.

Thanks to xauser for the keymap and helpful pointers, hasu for TMK, and to GON for the awesome board and case! And, of course, 7bit for the keycaps

Still got a few things to figure out with the firmware but very happy...

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(Adafruit ISP programmer pic)

Spoiler:

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[Muirium]

ISO MX HHKB layout cocks my brow, if you know what I mean…

Here's some more nice shots that caught my eye on the Round 5 thread:

I'm expecting some good ones from Snoopy, as he works his way through this lot…

Mhh, why did I buy so many keycaps?

[nsz962]

ISO MX HHKB layout cocks my brow, if you know what I mean…

as 7bit would say?

Mhh, why did I buy so many keycaps?

Already regretting buying only ~2 sets... really want a 40% board and should have bought that in addition to the TKL and HHKB.

[BrewingHeavyWeather]

Low quality, phone white balance off, plus multiple generations of JPEG. All leftovers. Ducky DK9087 G2 Pro.

Also, I had to kind of mangle the spacebar to get it working, then use some heatshrink tubing and glue to get the stabilizers to stick, after destroying half of the mount on each side in the cap. That spacebar is a Ducky-only key, now.

F, B, J, M, and the runner actually are a bit darker than the others. I wish I could have used the offset caps lock, but no joy. Now that I have it, I kind of wish I'd gotten mono legend cream/violett, instead of the standard kit...

[Muirium]

Time for the most confusing Round 4 SPH / Round 5 mashup of them all. I present, "The Facetsesame!"

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Yes, that's GD "SPH" alphas with Round 5's GPA mods. Can you spot the difference?

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It is not easy…

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In fact, they really are so close to the eye in real life I had to be careful when installing them.

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The real difference between these caps is the shine I've given my Round 4 SPH set from a year or two's use!

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Round 5 will look like that with time as well. Shine doesn't look bad at all on spherical caps, which naturally cup your finger, and so their wear, into the same place. Not quite so true for ABS spacebars however. My blue SPH special is a bit asymmetrical now, aw. Need more spacebars. Especially PBT ones, like my Granite set.

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Still looking perfect after a lot of use.

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So, between these two NovaTouches, I've gotta admit I prefer the shape of SA caps but the material of these PBT DSAs.

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Righ now, the ANSI board is by far and away the better to type on. Mostly a matter of Hyper's silencing rings. Which bring out the best in thick (ish) PBT caps on Topre.

Man, how we could all use some PBT SA caps…

[dyger]

Low quality, phone white balance off, plus multiple generations of JPEG. All leftovers. Ducky DK9087 G2 Pro.

Also, I had to kind of mangle the spacebar to get it working, then use some heatshrink tubing and glue to get the stabilizers to stick, after destroying half of the mount on each side in the cap. That spacebar is a Ducky-only key, now.

...

Yeah on my Ducky G2 Pro the spacebar is really sticky if I push it down too much. So I just put it on the switch gently and it is a little higher now but it works. What exactly did you do to the spacebar?

[Muirium]

Yikes! Glad I don't have one of those boards. Ducky's usually quite competent too, but that's miserable.

[facetsesame]

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[Muirium]

There is no No. Only YES!!!

[zslane]

I don't understand that layout. At all.

[Muirium]

That's how you know it's Facet's.

As for my own fullsize beige ISO, it's currently in what's becoming my favourite Round 5 look:

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Not quite so flamboyant. But more than visible even in Scottish light.

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As for the 60% you might have peeked over its shoulder, here it is:

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All right, so *this* is probably my favourite Round 5 look of all. Love, love, love that red.

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Note the monolegends. I'm always a sucker for those.For whatever reason I can't remember, 7bit ran them as row 3 only in Round 5, instead of the row 1 they need to be really. This actually works okay on my little 60%.

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But it doesn't look right on larger boards.