Hello good people.

I've just joined here - interesting place. I've found myself suddenly (and somewhat unexpectedly) captivated by the concept of keyboard modding and doing interesting, clever and weird things with them... and I found this place in a search so... here I am.

I've been building my own PCs for close on 20 years now, but I've never really gotten past clever interface devices like my Nostromo N52 and a Razer Mouse, but it struck me recently that a good kb and maybe a macro pad might give me more control.

I'm quite a gamer, even if only craply, but it's nice to become immersed in the tech too. I'm very much a novice at this but I'm looking forward to learning a great deal more.

Welcome! If you like customisation when building PCs, then you may like custom keyboards too. You can really go down the rabbit hole if you're not too careful.

Hiya! scottc said it pretty to the point - it's a fun hobby but careful or you'll end up with over 30 keyboards like me (though I did have over 100 at one point in time a few years ago). Like with any hobby, it does require a bit of financial input but you don't have to spend a lot to find what you really want to have.

Thanks guys, I've already got about 10 keyboards but none of them special - I have a special arriving tomorrow... more will be revealed.

thanks for the welcome and looking forward to learning something here.

I guess what I want to get out of this, is first and foremost knowledge but if I could make a control rig that really helps some of my games (maybe even custom build one?) that'd be really excellent.

Riff wrote:[…] it struck me recently that a good kb and maybe a macro pad might give me more control. […]

You start there and who knows where you end…
Welcome on your journey

kbdfr wrote:

Riff wrote:[…] it struck me recently that a good kb and maybe a macro pad might give me more control. […]

You start there and who knows where you end…
Welcome on your journey

haha that's brilliant! Thanks

Riff wrote:I have a special arriving tomorrow... more will be revealed.

So, it's "tomorrow"... where is it then?

__red__ wrote:

Riff wrote:I have a special arriving tomorrow... more will be revealed.

So, it's "tomorrow"... where is it then?

There's a reason I already feel at home here

What board is that?

It's a Cooler Master MasterKeys Pro L White LED with Cherry MX Brown.

Not a bad start! Welcome in this strange world...

Riff wrote:the burning question is

"where the hell do I start?"

To give some semblance of a reply: figuring out broadly what sort of switches you prefer would be a good place. I tried a few friends' keyboards (conveniently covering the three styles: linear, clicky and tactile) before buying my first one, a switch tester is another option.

Go watch some of Thoma's (chyrosran22) videos for reviews and explanations.

Be on the lookout for meetups, to get together with other hobbyists, plus its a great way to try lots of new things all at once.

On DT: avoid "unicorn vomit" keycap sets, go easy on RGB anything, as well as novelty and artisan caps; there's always r/MK and GeekHack for that

Cheers,

Darkshado

Oddly it was watching Thomas' videos that got me to consider it's something I could get into.

I have to say I'm very pleased with this keyboard. Not too flashy and showy but interesting and useful I think. Especially if I can get the lighting to work to be a functional tool, but yes I can already see this could become an interesting hobby.

Yes Cooler Master is one of the few mainstream companies that provides nice, consistent design without the flashiness that you typically see in “gamer” keyboards. Backlighting and RGB are okay of course, but since most on DT take a more vintage approach, you won’t see it quite as much.

one of the things I liked about this one is that it's backlit - I often game in a dimly lit room so I enjoy the immersion within the game - but on my other keyboards seeing the keys has often been... challenging. This works really well at that purpose.

Apparently you can programme profiles depending on what you wish to achieve so you could technically have keys off or with different levels of brightness depending... but I would need to learn their SDK to get that good I think.

Several of my favorite keyboards have backlighting and I even have an RGB board, but unfortunately my favorite switches (Alps SKCM Blue) don't have LED compatibility. I rarely ever use them in the dark anymore though, so no big deal in my situation.

One of my first mechanical keyboards was a CoolerMaster Pro L RGB and I really liked it, BUT ...

Removing the bezel/top of the case is far more difficult than it needs to be. I also had to file down the inside corners to keep DSA "Borealis" keycaps from getting stuck. And even with a decent desoldering gun, I destroyed a couple of pads while trying to install different switches.

Those are minor issues and probably typical of modern keyboards I guess.

Yes I was trying to do some modding on a Tt Poseidon ZX that I got for like $15, but I cracked the case trying to open it. I didn't realize that in addition to 4 screws on the back and approximately 20 plastic tabs that they also put screws underneath the rubber feet...