[MechSupply] UKKeycaps Q-Series Skidata Keyset (Produced by Devlin)

[UKKeycaps]

Will get the rest of them done today!

[UKKeycaps]

I'm experiencing a stress overload currently. Trying to not let my head explode, doing my best keep things moving! - Here's a representative pic of Skidata:

[Wodan]

Skidata looks really nice up close.

Get some rest, give them man a few days to sort this all ...

[Quaranta]

Skidata looks really nice up close.

Get some rest, give them man a few days to sort this all ...

True, it looks nice. Nice texture. These two group buys have been hard, and a first!
I took the stance to trust and wait. No need to get nervous. This is a GB after all!

[superdeluxe]

Nice. I know the sets might only be a few days away now, but I would not mind a quick picture of the underside of a few keycaps.

[Excelso]

I wonder how does the "@" looks "In Real Life" (TM).

[codemonkeymike]

Looking forward to more plank sets!

[rymnd6c28]

Regardless of the status of the GB, can I still order/join now? I'm really interested. Waiting for the ukkeycaps to come back open and if nothing there is better to my liking than skidata, I'll grab one of these.

[UKKeycaps]

Shipping of Skidata will start tomorrow or Thursday!

[oknytt]

Oohh, real pics of the "Mint-Away" caps. They look nice, I'm still in for a set

EDIT: When I joined the groupbuy I went with the blank option, partly because I use Colemak, and partly because I didn't really want modifier keys with text on them. Now however, I've become interested in the standard option due to the lack of homing bumps, but I would still want some extra blanks. Would it be possible to buy some blanks separately or would I have to buy a blank set as well?

[Wodan]

Oh wow - ignoring the color for a moment - they look beautiful!

[Shihatsu]

This is what I would call THICK Doubleshots

[hypkx]

I am also still in for one plank set, I like the mint colours even it is not what I expected .

[codemonkeymike]

She's thick


Edit: UUKeycaps your site is offline is this purposeful?

[duynguyenle]

Even though the colours are not RadAway, I think this set should be able to stand on its own... Any suggestions for a name? I'm starting with Minty Tangerine

[gogusrl]

I'd call it Fade Away but I'm just an asshole

[Raft]

kind of gross when you have Mint Toothpaste and then wash it down with Orange Juice

[pdc]

I like the suggestion of "MintAway". I'm not necessarily a natural Planck user but I like the look of it. Maybe if we could order up some random 1x2 keys I could assemble some kind of odd lop-sided keyboard from it.

[UKKeycaps]

Now shipping

[duynguyenle]

Now shipping

HYPE

[rymnd6c28]

Now shipping

Ordered one just now, can't wait!

[oknytt]

To those of you who weren't in any of the GBs, or just haven't read your mail, Retroist is now up on UKKeycaps http://www.ukkeycaps.co.uk/product/retr ... hot-keyset

[oknytt]

Someone on reddit has received their Q-Series SkiData.

[XGEOX]

Mine arrived today and I'm afraid to say they are pretty awful, as a number of others have stated...

Devlin Q-Series SkiData Keycaps

Skidata.jpg (365.69 KiB) Viewed 7712 times

I've taken part in group-buys before; but not for keycap sets (a relatively new interest), so I didn't really know what to expect in terms of quality; but for 65GBP this is disappointing.

I think the photo illustrates most of the issues; mismatching colours, brown-on-brown instead of orange-on-black, no obvious attempt at deflashing on many of the caps, non-centred blurry/wonky/inconsistent legends, bad kerning, other marks, etc.

Interestingly the 'Hold' and '\|' keys are much better than the rest (in colour, finish and legend clarity), but seem to have been made/labelled with a different process (not sure which). The 'big-ass' enter cap is completely different to the rest in every conceivable way.

The first few caps I've mounted (using a DREVO Calibur 71 for now) are sticking when pressed. I'm not sure if that's due to the thicker caps hitting the back-lit switches, or the stem diameter being too large. I'll try them on a different board with Cherry blacks later.

The Skidata set actually makes the standard Drevo keycaps (which I purchased these to replace) look rather good quality by comparison.

I have sympathy for UKKeycaps/MechSupply (Joe?), as this appears to be entirely down to Devlin having abysmal quality control, and leaving him to deal with the consequences.

I'd not hesitate to take part in a future MechSupply/UKKeyCaps group buy in the future; but I'm not going to consider anything from Devlin again.

[Quaranta]

I must agree with you, XGEOX. But I read the keycaps are really nice to type on, so anyway I'm excited on getting mines...

That said, like you, I still trust Joe and MechSupply/UKKeucaps, but not Devlin.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Interestingly the 'Hold' and '\|' keys are much better than the rest (in colour, finish and legend clarity), but seem to have been made/labelled with a different process (not sure which).

Take a picture showing the insides of the keycaps, and see if you can get a closer photo of the tops.

At least one of the ones with orange legends seems to have thick, gloss writing, suggesting old school thick ink pad printing, but I'd not want to pronounce judgement from that photo as it's not clear enough. The white balance is off, too — the "better" legends look cream where I thought they were meant to be deep orange.

[XGEOX]

...Take a picture showing the insides of the keycaps, and see if you can get a closer photo of the tops...

My apologies, I don't have access to a decent camera at this time; but I've endeavoured better show the difference between the lighter ('Hold' and '\|') legends and the rest. Note also the different underside and stem ('\|' and 'Shift' shown here):

Devlin Q-Series SkiData Keycaps

Skidata 2.jpg (150.17 KiB) Viewed 7680 times

Another owner has posted better photos showing some of the differences. They've pointed out a few other issues I'd not noticed (e.g. the '5' legend placement), but I'm pleased to hear they're generally happy with the set they received.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Oh dear.

My guess is that the Hold key is engraved and painted, as that's what I had (the only Q series photos presently on the wiki). I wonder if the first shot is shrinking too much as it cools, as there are numerous examples of sunken legends.

It's sad, as the QC for Tai-Hao is far superior. I do have one defective Tai-Hao keycap where the legend is squished, but at their prices, you can't expect the earth. Generally Tai-Hao seem to do a good job, which you'd expect from their decades of experience!

(Incidentally the other chap mentions QS profile, something I wasn't even aware of.)

JPEG's chroma subsampling really upsets red in images, which means that red legends tend to look dull, as the red is too close to a colour boundary. Consequently it's hard to be sure what colour those legends are, but the large areas of solid orange in the images looks much brighter. I leave chroma subsampling off (a setting in any decent image editor) but any software that rebuilds the image (e.g. MediaWiki's image resizing) will likely reintroduce it.

[taylorswiftttttt]

removed

[UKKeycaps]

Debating refunding all Skidata orders also and then offering at a much lower price.

Here's a list of things Devlin did not inform me until AFTER production was more than 50% complete:

- Some size keys would have to be QS profile
- The Hex colour code they gave me for the green colour was wildly incorrect (never told me this)
- The Hold and \| key would be engraved (never told me this)

I am still optimistic about Devlin keycaps, especially K-Series, and will be doing more deals with them in the future, but it seems I will have to describe what I want in a 20 page essay because if they are left to take any liberties they make the complete wrong decision and do not inform me of it.