deskthority

Back when i joined this site I asked plenty of questions about doing an ergo clear mod and here are the results from the first part. I have a filco TKL + numpad combo I want to mod and for an easy start i began with the numpad. As far as keycaps are concerned they'll eventually be white/grey Round 5 but for now I just use the stock ones.

I haven't seen a filco numpad dissected online before so here we go... The extra row of buttons are actually rather useful on occation, but just to make it real hard to find custom keycaps they are taller then normal dcs profile caps... While the regular filco boards come in many different switch versions I have only seen the numpad in brown. A rather simple single sided pcb compared to the full size boards and thankfully no SMD components except for the control chip. The same filco molex connector that you find in the full sized boards are used but just for fun the pin order is different from the larger boards. Also note the turned around switches in the lower left corner. Also the numpad uses cherry stabs instead of filcos normal costar variant. The plate seems just as thick as for the regular boards and is held is place by large solder connections. If you want to remove the plate desolder these and carefully bend a few components out of the way. The red wire brigde is of course my fault, messing up the desoldering of the LED resistor.

While I like the concept of brown switches (quite tactile), in reality I find them rather wanting and I think "dirty reds" is an excellent description. Enter the ergo clears!

Korean 65g springs from originative (and I magically got my order shipped before Sherryton went completly MIA). Knowing that SA profile caps can't be o-ring dampened I went with internal dampening instead. I couldn't find any silicone rubber without buying massive sheets of it so I went with 1mm thick neoprene rubber instead. Rather stiff compared to silicone but with good age resistance etc. Even developed my own patented dampening installation tool Switches were also stickered and lubed with a thick krytox mix.

I have always found the standard blue filco LEDs to be annoyingly bright so I changed it to a red instead (better fit for the red escape keycaps as well). For the numpad this was a rather simple job - just replace a normal resistor (in my case the stock 330Ω was replaced by a 470Ω) and the led it self. I also ordered a set of braided cables from Pexon. He was kind enough to make a special one for the numpad. Closeup: The LED was still a bit bright and in the end I decided to install a diffusing window. Made this from a smoke grey plastic ring binder and some translucent black paint. After I put some paint layers on the binder I just cut out the small window with the same "pliers" I used for the dampening pads and glued it in place. In my quest for reduced light output I also found out you can install some car window tint film between the LEDs and the case (have to open the case though but otherwise really simple) but in the end I went with the above solution. Window tint film worked pretty well though and certainly worth trying if you don't feel like soldering but want to dim the lights.

Now - How does the keyboard feel? Well. The switches are far more tactile and a little bit stiffer then before. Rather reminds me of logitechs "perfect stroke" switches but these are of course full stroke length. I like em' a lot. The action is rather smooth and the sound has changed a bit. Volume is reduced and clickety clack has been replaced with more of a thock (no idea how a topre switch sounds like so don't go too far in your imagination...) The ringing of the board is also reduced quite a bit and almost not noticable. The internal dampening seems to be working rather well, but a slight note on green switches: At least the ones I got have a longer internal stem then the clears so on the green switch the reduction in key travel from the rubber pad is rather noticable.

To finish up my longest post on DT so far here are some parting shots: mandatory switch art and final keyboard.



Part two will follow once the TKL is finished - don't expect it to be soon

Very nice post! I really do love Ergo-Clears. I have been using 62g Clears, almost exclusively for the past 6 months or so. I really do want to give 65g springs a try again. When I was first testing a bunch of different springs, I really settled on 62g, but I have heard many people really prefer 65g to 62g.

Nice pictures by the way. How do you like the internally dampened switches as opposed to o-rings? I have never been one to like dampened switches. I like them as loud and obnoxious as possible... By the way. I know a while ago, the Filco numpads that EK was selling, were actually mapped to the standard num row, and not the actual num keys. As in key "5" instead of key "num_5" or what ever its called. Have they fixed/changed that yet?

pyrelink wrote:Nice pictures by the way. How do you like the internally dampened switches as opposed to o-rings? I have never been one to like dampened switches. I like them as loud and obnoxious as possible...

The numpad is my first experience with the idea. Since you need to open the switch to insert em' it's not the easiest mod to do... I like the effect though. Less noise and very little reduction in key travel. First impressions are they feel less mushy then o-rings, but then i chose a rather stiff rubber as well. I do think o-rings might have a slight lead in dampening, but both ways works in reducing keyboard noise.

pyrelink wrote:By the way. I know a while ago, the Filco numpads that EK was selling, were actually mapped to the standard num row, and not the actual num keys. As in key "5" instead of key "num_5" or what ever its called. Have they fixed/changed that yet?

I haven't tested this that much but at least in EKs switch hitter it registers as the numpad and not the regular number row. It has an independant num-lock feature though to not mess with laptops with built in numpads. What it basically do is send each keypress as <num_lock on> <numpad_5> <num_lock off>.

It's been a while, but now the TKL is finished as well

The double sided pcb was a proper pain in the a*s to desolder so in the end I decided to go all in and notch the plate as well as change the switches.Tried using a dremel for this first, but it felt rather imprecise so in the end I used some diamond needle files.



The original plan to use linear switches for the mods turned to work out really well and here's the finished board before the stock caps go back on



The switches are the same as before. 65g springs for all except the spacebar which is a grey switch with a clear spring. Stickered,lubed and internally dampened, and I think I forgot to mention it in the first post - I also cut away the little barbs on the clear stems to make keycaps easier to change.

In order to change the red leds the easiest and not have to (de)solder some SMD components I had bphipany make a pegasus hoof with custom values to match the driving voltage of my leds (the resistors that determine the voltage across the leds are mounted on the controller). As a bonus I get the ability to program the board.

The board feel great to use and doesn't ring at all (no idea what mod took care of that). Now all I need are the round 5 caps to make this one complete...

How long did you take to file everything?

Sorry for the late reply but I've been away hiking in the mountains for a few days.

I think I did a key (4 notches) in about 12-15 minutes if I put my mind to it, but most of it I did in front of the TV during a couple of months so not really sure how long it took, but it sure was tedoius...

What about attaching the file to a drill? Would that work?

I tried a carbide router in a dremel, but I felt precision was lacking - hence the manual approach.

It's still the problem of filing a square hole with a round file, and you don't want to slip too much and enlarge the switch hole too much introducing wobble to the switch. If your going to try the drill+file approach I suggest you test it out on something other then the keyboard plate first. A CNC router would probably be the best way to do this, but I don't have cheap access to one.