My first love is no more. But 75% of her lives on.

Hey guys, I'm a newbie to the mech kb hobby and am looking to get a tecware phantom elite tkl with gateron yellows (I heard they are a good budget linear switch). Mainly looking at this kb because of it having universal hotswap sockets which will make it easier for when I try to lube the switches and stabs for the first time and possibly try out different switches later on. Wondering if there are any better recommendations and looking forward to joining the hobby

uh? what happened?

yes 75% is a good option with direct access to most common keys.

you can just start with it. a tkl is a good start before you go venture to other form factors.

My faulty IKBC? Almost managed to fix it. The last bridge I had to make was to the MCU. Couldn't get the wire to stick properly to the tiny pin. Eventually let the magic smoke out.

Bought the cheap plastic case+PCB+plate 75% kit plus a set of Cherry screw in stabs from KPRepublic. Reused the switches and keycaps.

Coming from a full size, I really miss my numpad at times. Will eventually make myself a Cospad, but I think I've spent enough for now...need time to recover.

oh ok that sucks.

yes, reuse everything when possible is also a good thing. that's actually a good practice if parts are in good condition.

Need advice from the sifus, 1 of my stabilizers making noise and is driving me mad. The stab wire is hitting the plate.

This is a picture of one of my good stabs. Notice that you can see the stab wire (red circle)


This is the picture of the 'bad' stab. The stab wire is fully hidden beneath the plate. So when the switch pushes the keycap (and stab) up, the wire hits the plate.


Short of desoldering everything and taking a dremel/file to the plate, is there anything I can do to fix this? Any suggestions/ideas appreciated.

Was staring at the photos I posted and had an epiphany. The wire is not fully clipped in!

Anyway, I desoldered the switches just below it and pushed it in using a plastic scribe. Fixed!

I'm sure I did clip it in properly before I screwed it in to the PCB. Did I get a bad stab? Does this happen often? Or did it somehow pop out without me realizing before I screwed it in?

Oh and my sincere apologies to the submarines that have this thread watched. I'll try not to post here like it's my blog.

This post has been edited by niakulah: Jan 29 2020, 09:59 PM

oh ok haha the main and obvious disadvantage of pcb-mount stabilizers is that for plated builds, you need desolder everything in order to fix or replace them.

yes you should always make sure all wires are secured properly first before soldering. well, i have a build with these stabilizers too. the wires of these cherry screw-ins are relatively easier to pop off, compared to gmk screw-ins. however, it's not really common for this to happen.

imo the better option is equalz c3 stabilizers. however currently they are only released in limited quantities.

https://ilumkb.com/collections/stabs-lubes/...s-in-stabilizer

These? Wow, the comparison pic is really convincing.

Limited quantities huh? I have an itch to buy a set or 3 while they're still in stock. Not that I have the plans or the budget to build anything any time soon...

yes. for now it's a limited run. however i guess they should be available from time to time.

i have tested those from gmk, cherry, epbt, kbdfans (i believe this one is a variant from epbt). they all have their shares in terms of 'issues'. (e.g. good-quality stabs have very little or no wire rattles; they are smooth during key travels; their stems secure and hold key caps firmly) compared to these pcb-mount screw-ins, c3 stabs solve the obvious issue: securing wires relatively better.

edit: there are other options, including those from durock and zeal. not sure about their performance.

This post has been edited by horns: Jan 30 2020, 02:00 PM

MiTo himself has spoken!
https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboard...ad_bad_molding/
”What you are seeing are not cracks, but are flow lines, where the material flows onto the key. This is unfortunately an unavoidable process of insert molding and magnified by both color and the top texture of the SA keycaps. It has zero to do with pressure or cool down time. While we do what we can to limit the existence of flow lines, in most cases they cannot be removed completely.”

Melissa, Signature Plastics when I pointed this out on Pulse SA R1 back in 2014.


Well it popped out again, and back in by itself again...
I ordered a set of C3. See if I dare to desolder the whole board again and risk damage again.

Kinda curious, which set is this from KPRepublic? Can link me?

This one.
#Aliexpress US $14.70 | xd84pro XD84 pro Custom Mechanical Keyboard Kit 75% Supports TKG-TOOLS Support Underglow RGB PCB programmed gh84 kle type c
https://a.aliexpress.com/_sacbak

oh thanks a lot for this update. i guess there are ways to minimize this side effect. manufacturers like gmk and jtk know something about it.

I just bought my first mechanical keyboard and while I'm liking it so far, the problem right now is that the keyboard appears to be too tall and feels quite uncomfortable to type on. Any recommended ways to make it a bit more comfortable?

Get a wrist rest

This post has been edited by hairy9802: Feb 5 2020, 12:11 PM

The only problem is that I tend to put my keyboard quite close to the edge of the table so a wrist rest may not work here

Also my desk has quite sharp edges so it makes things quite uncomfortable to type on

This post has been edited by chocobo7779: Feb 5 2020, 01:13 PM

I felt the same when I first got mine. I corrected my typing posture and now I'm used to it.
http://ergonomictrends.com/proper-ergonomi...re-at-computer/

good read

hello peeps! I'm looking for some o rings dampeners but i have no idea where to start looking for or what store sells them. any ideas on where i can get them for cheap? have an old corsair k70 mx speed at home and wanted to bring it to work but its too damn loud for office use hehehe