[UK] Kaihua BOX switch test, borrow or buy

[Muirium]

So I had a play with the testers myself, meeting up with Anachronism. We'd been poking Topres and fancy IBMs for a while first—I brought "a few" keyboards* in the car—so these little fellas had a harsh comparison. At least one of the Box switches felt sufficiently characterful to stand out to me—not Jade as I was expecting, or Navy, but Yellow I think?—and I also apparently found Holy Pandas (but lubed?) to be notable. Anachronism didn't spoil it for me, I wanted to try all these blind, and yet I came to the same conclusion: Zealios aren't for either of us. They're… this is fighting talk I know… too much like jaggy MX clears to me.

My favourite tester switch remains the Topre tester Mr. Interface made way back in his Switch Sample Box days. That single switch is what really got me interested in the Topre lore, which sounded like bollocks to me until I touched one. So you can definitely learn something from switch testers. In my case: don't get any ideas about MX custom builds again, okay!

*

Spoiler:

• HHKB Type-S with Bluetooth mod
• Realforce 55g
• Novatouch with Cherry dyesubs
• Model F XT
• Kishsaver
• NeXT
• AEK I
• AEK II (and another one NIB)
• Space Invader
• Alps 64 in thick alu case and blue Alps
• 3276 Beamspring

You know, a µTester. Nothing too fancy.

[Go-Kart]

So I had a play with the testers myself, meeting up with Anachronism. We'd been poking Topres and fancy IBMs for a while first—I brought "a few" keyboards* in the car—so these little fellas had a harsh comparison. At least one of the Box switches felt sufficiently characterful to stand out to me—not Jade as I was expecting, or Navy, but Yellow I think?—and I also apparently found Holy Pandas (but lubed?) to be notable. Anachronism didn't spoil it for me, I wanted to try all these blind, and yet I came to the same conclusion: Zealios aren't for either of us. They're… this is fighting talk I know… too much like jaggy MX clears to me.

Liking Clears probably would be a good start so it doesn't surprise me. Though, putting all those switches up against such competition, definitely not a fair fight Though yes, those lubed fake HPs are decent. I've been resisting soldering them into a chassis for a while until I'm sure which chassis (I have quite a few boards in pieces)...

[...] don't get any ideas about MX custom builds again, okay!

I still enjoy certain MX style switches enough to go there but I can't even remember when I last used a board with MX styles switches in...

[...] meeting up with Anachronism. We'd been poking Topres and fancy IBMs for a while first—I brought "a few" keyboards* in the car—so these little fellas had a harsh comparison.
*

Spoiler:

• HHKB Type-S with Bluetooth mod
• Realforce 55g
• Novatouch with Cherry dyesubs
• Model F XT
• Kishsaver
• NeXT
• AEK I
• AEK II (and another one NIB)
• Space Invader
• Alps 64 in thick alu case and blue Alps
• 3276 Beamspring

You know, a µTester. Nothing too fancy.

Mr. Anachronism is a lucky man!

[an_achronism]

Mr. Anachronism is a lucky man!

Also: poor

[Muirium]

I do what I can to help! An XT and AEK in this case.

[an_achronism]

Right, finally revisiting this. Just ordered a 3x3 switch tester with the following on it:

3 BOX Navy
3 BOX Pink
3 BOX Noble Yellow

Plan is to swap springs around as follows:

Code: Select all

BOX N, stock   |  BOX N w. NY spring  |  BOX N w. P spring
BOX P, stock   |  BOX P w. NY spring  |  BOX P w. N spring
BOX NY, stock  |  BOX NY w. P spring  |  BOX NY w. N spring

The idea here is that the Navy has a very heavy spring and thick click bar, which I find excessive for an entire board, the Pink has a medium spring and medium click bar but with a wide angle on the bar such that the upstroke click is reduced and less consistent, and the Noble Yellow has the same thickness of click bar from the Pink but (I think) with the more typical angle of the bar from the Navy/Jade/White etc., using the light spring also seen in the White. In theory, a Noble Yellow with a Pink spring should basically be the same as a Pink but with the down- and upstroke clicks being about the same instead of the upstroke being lessened, and a Navy with a Pink spring should just be a slightly lighter Navy, both of which sound interesting to me. I don't expect a Navy with a very light spring to work at all really, and the heavy Navy spring in the two other switches will mechanically work but the tactility will be reduced and the actuation force excessively high for no good reason, but I may as well do all combinations for the hell of it. Depending on the results of this, I'll figure out if I'm just ordering a full set and using them as stock, or ordering two and swapping springs about.

[Bjerrk]

Right, finally revisiting this. Just ordered a 3x3 switch tester with the following on it:

3 BOX Navy
3 BOX Pink
3 BOX Noble Yellow

Plan is to swap springs around as follows:

Did this stuff happen? I'm considering trying out some box clickies in a keyboard, but only ever tried whites before.

[an_achronism]

Did this stuff happen? I'm considering trying out some box clickies in a keyboard, but only ever tried whites before.

It actually did, and I shot a video, but it's way too much footage for the topic and my entire methodology was based upon some misinformation: I'd read that Pink and Noble Yellow springs differed, but it turns out that they don't. And I found this out by spring swapping them, comparing as planned, and going "... Wait a minute..."

So yeah I'll finish editing at some point soon, sorry it's taking an absurdly long time to cut down hahaha.