Well I fell down the custom keyboard world.

Jay85 · 16 Feb 2023 at 09:23

davetherave2 said:
I used a company called LaserBoost.

It took just over a month to get them sorted and that was over the Christmas period. I could have had them earlier if I had paid a bit more but was happy to wait as I had to wait for the switches to arrive anyway.

Really pleased with the results from them and would recommend based on my sole experience so far.

Laserboost is highly recommended! Did you get a CF plate from the PT GB recently as well?

davetherave2 · 16 Feb 2023 at 09:54

Jay85 said:
Laserboost is highly recommended! Did you get a CF plate from the PT GB recently as well?

I was tempted to get a few plates done for my boards that are either here or coming but didn't manage to sort out the files in time to make sure they would work. That and the fact that December/January had been a fairly expensive couple of months keyboard related wise.

Which included a couple of artisan wins, a new cabinet to actually display my keyboards, the cloudline purchase with extras, almost 900 switches, CF plates for my Matrix 3.0's and then finally a set of MW Demon Girl for a friend as a present.

pacegod · 16 Feb 2023 at 09:54

Jay85 said:
Zaku's if you can find them, probably one of the smoothest and nicest sounding long pole linears i've tried so far.

Thanks, sadly as you say cant find them. Apparently sell out fast. I just watched a vid that suggest Geon Blacks are similar.
Might get some of those and some Green Jackets.

Jay85 · 16 Feb 2023 at 10:38

pacegod said:
Thanks, sadly as you say cant find them. Apparently sell out fast. I just watched a vid that suggest Geon Blacks are similar.
Might get some of those and some Green Jackets.

I have a few spare if you wanna try them out, can't send you a lot maybe 2 but should be enough to give you a rough idea. I'm using them in my Space65 right now.

DM me your address and i'll post them tomorrow if you're interested. No Charge.

Jay85 · 16 Feb 2023 at 10:40

davetherave2 said:
I was tempted to get a few plates done for my boards that are either here or coming but didn't manage to sort out the files in time to make sure they would work. That and the fact that December/January had been a fairly expensive couple of months keyboard related wise.

Which included a couple of artisan wins, a new cabinet to actually display my keyboards, the cloudline purchase with extras, almost 900 switches, CF plates for my Matrix 3.0's and then finally a set of MW Demon Girl for a friend as a present.

Oo which artisan wins did you get? My Last was a Jankycap and a Gothcap! Both shipped but still waiting on the Gothcap to come through.

davetherave2 · 16 Feb 2023 at 14:24

Jay85 said:
Oo which artisan wins did you get? My Last was a Jankycap and a Gothcap! Both shipped but still waiting on the Gothcap to come through.

So I am waiting for these ones currently:

But then these ones have arrived recently

This is Group Buy arrived (although having to sort out a replacement as was sent a double accidentally)

I have also been adding to my switch collection with the following:

DesignStudio Barista (collab with MW Barista)

Prevail Nebulas (one of the prettiest switches I have)

More Horizorza switches as love these and one of the best spring feels in a switch for me.

Jay85 · 16 Feb 2023 at 14:26

Ohh you got the Maestro themed one! Was so tempted cos i have the Maestro keycaps.

davetherave2 · 16 Feb 2023 at 14:43

danlightbulb said:
I have been considering the Keychron Q1 which including delivery costs is about £200. But I had then slightly reluctantly compromised on the V1 for half that price. So for a good quality, nice looking keyboard with the right features I could go to £200 max, this is a once in a decade purchase for me to go alongside my newly decorated home office/gaming room.

I don't mind building myself but don't want to be lubing switches or filling plastic cases with liquid silicone.

Ok thanks that's helpful. Wasn't sure it being a china import.

Either 75% or TKL. Don't really want to go smaller than that as it doesn't need to be portable and I don't want to lose too much functionality.

The Ducky keyboard you posted looks nice but I think 65% is too small. Ocuk has lots of Ducky styles but most are out of stock.

I know the keychron's a highly thought off when it comes to the start of a custom journey as they provide you all the things you need to get you started but give you that flexibility to upgrade and personalize a little more in the future.

I think now is a great time with more budget friendly "premium" feeling boards coming to the market.

The likes of Meletrix (zoom65 EE R2, ZoomTKL EE/AE), QwertyKeys (QK75/80), KBDFans (Tiger Lite), Monekei (Standard), EVO70 R2

Although many of these are/have been in group buy some are in stock right now Monekei Standard for example. (have a quick google for some of the items)
If you can wait a little bit then some of these should be coming into stock in the next couple of months, others won't be available until later in the year/early next year, and should provide a really nice feeling board and give you a lot of features for your money.

Although ocuk has a fairly well stocked collection of keyboards and some custom building it is very small compared to some of the more specialized keyboard vendors which will have a more versatile array of options for you at all budgets.

davetherave2 · 16 Feb 2023 at 14:45

Jay85 said:
Ohh you got the Maestro themed one! Was so tempted cos i have the Maestro keycaps.

It was the sole reason I wanted one. I was close to using my VIP code for the instant win but I am waiting for something a little more special to burn that one. I'm hoping it should be with me in the next couple of weeks.

danlightbulb · 16 Feb 2023 at 14:57

davetherave2 said:
I know the keychron's a highly thought off when it comes to the start of a custom journey as they provide you all the things you need to get you started but give you that flexibility to upgrade and personalize a little more in the future.

I think now is a great time with more budget friendly "premium" feeling boards coming to the market.

The likes of Meletrix (zoom65 EE R2, ZoomTKL EE/AE), QwertyKeys (QK75/80), KBDFans (Tiger Lite), Monekei (Standard), EVO70 R2

Although many of these are/have been in group buy some are in stock right now Monekei Standard for example. (have a quick google for some of the items)
If you can wait a little bit then some of these should be coming into stock in the next couple of months, others won't be available until later in the year/early next year, and should provide a really nice feeling board and give you a lot of features for your money.

Although ocuk has a fairly well stocked collection of keyboards and some custom building it is very small compared to some of the more specialized keyboard vendors which will have a more versatile array of options for you at all budgets.

Im noticing some of those suggestions are only ANSI style though, I want full UK ISO. They also ship from the US, I'd prefer a UK retailer for ease really.

I appreciate it is difficult to give suggestions because this is OCUK's forum and its not allowed to link to other retailers. Is there a discord group or something that you know of where I can go for wider recommendations?

Jay85 · 16 Feb 2023 at 15:03

danlightbulb said:
Im noticing some of those suggestions are only ANSI style though, I want full UK ISO. They also ship from the US, I'd prefer a UK retailer for ease really.

I appreciate it is difficult to give suggestions because this is OCUK's forum and its not allowed to link to other retailers. Is there a discord group or something that you know of where I can go for wider recommendations?

I think i can link this since its not a retailer, just a channel for discussions.

UK Mechmarket Discord group:

Discord - Group Chat That’s All Fun & Games

Discord is great for playing games and chilling with friends, or even building a worldwide community. Customize your own space to talk, play, and hang out.

discord.gg

I cant link you to the others as they're all part of different businesses some direct and indirect competition so i suggest you ask in there for other recommendations and people will guide you.

davetherave2 · 16 Feb 2023 at 15:30

danlightbulb said:
Im noticing some of those suggestions are only ANSI style though, I want full UK ISO. They also ship from the US, I'd prefer a UK retailer for ease really.

I appreciate it is difficult to give suggestions because this is OCUK's forum and its not allowed to link to other retailers. Is there a discord group or something that you know of where I can go for wider recommendations?

Although most images will show ANSI many do support an ISO version. The next version of the ZoomTKL will support ISO. They cut it out for the first round for some reason.

https://www.alexotos.com/ has some good resources for you and he is a great guy to watch for various keyboard builds. (also has some useful resources that should help you out)

Also searching for keyboard groups on discord (including the link that Jay85 provided will also help you find some friendly communities.)

pacegod · 16 Feb 2023 at 17:54

Jay85 said:
I have a few spare if you wanna try them out, can't send you a lot maybe 2 but should be enough to give you a rough idea. I'm using them in my Space65 right now.

DM me your address and i'll post them tomorrow if you're interested. No Charge.

Thats very kind thanks.

Jay85 · 16 Feb 2023 at 19:22

pacegod said:
Thats very kind thanks.

You're very welcome mate. Will get them out to you tomorrow.

scotty38 · 17 Feb 2023 at 09:20

Might be a daft question but for boards that support ANSI and ISO, when you swap out the smaller enter key for the larger one that now spans the forward slash switch on the row above what happens to that switch? Does it just get ignored in the UK layout?

davetherave2 · 17 Feb 2023 at 12:57

scotty38 said:
Might be a daft question but for boards that support ANSI and ISO, when you swap out the smaller enter key for the larger one that now spans the forward slash switch on the row above what happens to that switch? Does it just get ignored in the UK layout?

No such thing as a daft question.
So when you swap between ANSI and ISO layouts typically there are a couple of switch positions that change as well as stabilizer positions change.

So for ISO the pipe/slash switch is removed and is placed by the left shift which is split to accommodate that smaller key cap.

Here is a great explanation of the difference.

ANSI vs ISO: Explained - Switch and Click

On some mechanical keyboard forums recently, I’ve noticed that some people are asking for ISO keyboards or ANSI keyboards. We did some research, and in this article, we’ll tell you

switchandclick.com

scotty38 · 17 Feb 2023 at 13:23

davetherave2 said:
No such thing as a daft question.
So when you swap between ANSI and ISO layouts typically there are a couple of switch positions that change as well as stabilizer positions change.

So for ISO the pipe/slash switch is removed and is placed by the left shift which is split to accommodate that smaller key cap.

Here is a great explanation of the difference.

ANSI vs ISO: Explained - Switch and Click

On some mechanical keyboard forums recently, I’ve noticed that some people are asking for ISO keyboards or ANSI keyboards. We did some research, and in this article, we’ll tell you

switchandclick.com

Thanks and that is the answer to my daft question :-)

I will have a look at the link but I have to admit my head was thinking about non hot-swap boards.....

davetherave2 · 17 Feb 2023 at 15:30

scotty38 said:
Thanks and that is the answer to my daft question I will have a look at the link but I have to admit my head was thinking about non hot-swap boards.....

The same principle applies to if it is a solder or hot swap.
Just the difference is that you will have hot swap sockets in the same place that you would solder.
Some boards are fixed layouts. i.e. if it is ANSI Only then that is all you get.
If it is multi layout support then you will have hot swap sockets that are empty depending on if you are using ANSI/ISO.
Think of it like having a different bottom row (simplest Winkey vs Winkeyless) where you would typically have switches for winkeys they are missing on the winkeyless version but the sockets still exist they are just empty.

I can happily share the back of a multi layout PCB and highlight where the differences would be.

scotty38 · 17 Feb 2023 at 16:00

Thanks I get it I think and fully understand how you'd remove not needed switches on a hot swap board but on a soldered device it would be more difficult so I was imagining them being left in place.

All good I think but happy to see any other stuff :-)

davetherave2 · 17 Feb 2023 at 16:38

scotty38 said:
Thanks I get it I think and fully understand how you'd remove not needed switches on a hot swap board but on a soldered device it would be more difficult so I was imagining them being left in place.

All good I think but happy to see any other stuff

For a soldered board assuming it supported ISO then you would have to desolder a couple of switches and then solder the switches in place to support ISO. But if you wanted to swap between the two layouts I would say for simplicity just go with one PCB set up for ISO and the other for ANSI. Then you also don't have to deal with swapping over stabs as well.

I think in general you either keep a PCB in one mode or the other when it comes to soldered boards. That is where the advantage of hotswap comes in and you can just take all the switches out, take the plate off and then alter the stabs and re-assemble.