Ducky Zero Zone issue

fish99 · 30 Jul 2015 at 03:01

Hi,

Just bought a Ducky DK2108S Zero Zone. Lovely keyboard, but look at the photo below - the LEDs on the number keys* only light up the shift function and not the main function.

So on the 5 key, you can't see the 5 but just the %. The LED light can't reach around the stem of the switch to where the 5 is etched.

Obviously it's not a great piece of design, but is there anything I can do about this? I was thinking about some different key caps. It's Cherry switches so can I put any Cherry key caps on here, like the Corsair vengeance FPS keys? Also wondering if anyone with the same keyboard could share their solution.

Thanks in advance.

(* also affects the 8 punctuation keys next to return, and the tilde, \, + and - keys)

pilch · 30 Jul 2015 at 03:22

Turn on some lights, looking at monitors in the dark is super bad for your eyes

I have a shine 3 and it's the same, but I don't notice it. In fact, around 30 of my LEDs have stopped working entirely after less than a year of use (and no I haven't spilled anything on them or bashed them hard). Not that impressed tbh, which is a shame since the keys themselves feel great.

fish99 · 30 Jul 2015 at 04:16

TBH the problem is just as bad in a well lit room, you still need the backlighting to identify the keys.

Temujin · 30 Jul 2015 at 10:06

I also have a Ducky S3 and it's the same, never even really noticed until you pointed it out to be honest. The number row is pretty much the same on all MX switch boards iirc so you can replace that row, but if you're swapping a complete set make sure the enter and the ctrl, shift, alt etc row are the same size as the set you're buying!

fish99 · 31 Jul 2015 at 00:09

Thanks guys.

Shame to hear the LEDs aren't more reliable, was hoping at £90 this thing would last 10 years. Seems to be a common problem with all keyboards that have a separate LED for each key.

Temujin · 1 Aug 2015 at 11:10

fish99 said:
Thanks guys.

Shame to hear the LEDs aren't more reliable, was hoping at £90 this thing would last 10 years. Seems to be a common problem with all keyboards that have a separate LED for each key.

As you said before, it is more a design fault due to the placement of the LED on the switch than the product breaking so it has nothing to do with reliability. Ducky products are extremely well built so it is likely it will last that long!

fish99 · 1 Aug 2015 at 18:35

Sorry, I was referring to the post by pilch about his LEDs failing, I realize my issue is just about where they're placed.

gjc10212 · 1 Aug 2015 at 20:42

pilch said:
Turn on some lights, looking at monitors in the dark is super bad for your eyes

I have a shine 3 and it's the same, but I don't notice it. In fact, around 30 of my LEDs have stopped working entirely after less than a year of use (and no I haven't spilled anything on them or bashed them hard). Not that impressed tbh, which is a shame since the keys themselves feel great.

return it.

Temujin · 1 Aug 2015 at 20:45

fish99 said:
Sorry, I was referring to the post by pilch about his LEDs failing, I realize my issue is just about where they're placed.

Ah yes, my mistake! I apologise! Yeah, it seems he had a bit of a bad egg i guess, all the LEDs on my S3 are still working as well as they ever did. Although, i did have the T key replaced under warranty as it was intermittently not triggering/triggering more than once!

smilertoo · 2 Aug 2015 at 03:03

Just bad design but Ducky aren't alone, Corsair did the same dumb thing with their RGB keyboards.

fish99 · 6 Aug 2015 at 20:26

Surprisingly hard to find any keycaps to fix this problem.

There's almost no sets of just the number keys (or people selling individual keys), and there's also just very few laser etched keycaps out there period. There's the ducky shine set, but they're not identical and they're expensive since you have to buy a full set.

( edit: Btw I've just realized the keyboard isn't called the Ducky Zero Zone (that's what the box says). I feel dumb now. The proper name is Ducky Zero DK2108S I think, or I guess just the Ducky Zero )

new numa hey · 7 Aug 2015 at 14:31

Thats really surprising, mine have been flawless for the past 2 years.
LEDs in general are quite shabby, you can't expect them to last forever. They don't really manufactur "high" quality LEDs unless you charge a fortune for them. You could solder some new ones on but that shouldn't be the case when you've spent £80+ on the keyboard.

smilertoo · 7 Aug 2015 at 22:31

The problem isn't that his LEDs have died, it's that ducky chose to keep the normal layout for the number keys, this puts the numbers below the LED and they don't get lit...the symbols get lit instead.