deskthority

The Silverly Kingfisher has a black body with blue and orange highlights as reflected in this AEK I. The case is plastidip matte black and does a nice job of sound containment and makes this keyboard nicknamed after an aircraft carrier, even more solid. The caps are dyed with Dylon multi-purpose dye...

LastPass and 1Password are excellent. LastPass offers a very high functionality product for free.

of course we can pay to use the patent, but with batches so small it's not ideal (or even feasible) Maybe I'm the only one, but AAA batteries significantly dilutes the value of not having a cable. The Matias Laptop Pro goes eight months between charges. It should be achievable to get one that can l...

Nice @XMIT. In a better world, tying each keyboard colorway to some specific bird plumage would be a requirement—and in that better world, seagulls and pelicans would be extinct. White turns however would be welcome.

bueno

@bocahgundul I have a few boards with orange Alps as well. They are VERY similar in feel and sound (some say indistinguishable). The orange Alps are more aesthetically pleasing to look at (by far), but I like the feel of Salmon just slightly better--feel a bit more crunch to me.

fohat wrote: ↑

seaworthy wrote: ↑ hobby is birding, and this somewhat reflects the kingfisher.

My son worked at a bird show yesterday. The kestrel has that, maybe less the green.

@fohat...That's funny...my sons wanted to have a pet kestrel. They (and their school) actually got me into birding.

bocahgundul wrote: ↑that is amazing work bro! what switches does it use?

Salmon Alps

Wow amazing custom job. :shock: How do you decide on what colors you're going to use? I think he just cuts off one leg of his golf pants and the sewing practically happens itself ;) Yes, the color inspiration is a hybrid of pro golfers John Daly’s and Ian Poulter’s haberdashers. Not really. Other d...

I’d love to share a custom Alps board I just made…only I didn’t make it. I merely harvested the switches and had the good sense to let a maestro do the rest. I did choose the color way, but that’s about as significant as a fifth grader finally coloring within the lines for the first time. As some of...

@scottc & @hypersphere Thanks for sharing your experience. It’s challenging scrapping together Alps cap sets in quality and color way variety—especially in 60% layouts. I wonder if Matias realizes the potential they have to dominate and grow their niche if they’d just invest in the quality cap sets....

There are some Alps compatible Tai Hao cap sets available on MD. Who has tried them? How do they feel and sound: compared to AEK caps; compared to DSA PBT caps; compared to the crappy ABS caps on stock Matias boards? I’m considering them for the Infinity 60% board because I like having legends (don’...

I want to experiment with white/cream damped sliders from an AEK II in an Orange switch body with the Orange tactile plate and spring. I'm hoping that it feels just like Orange Alps but quieter and perhaps with a slight travel reduction. In other words, I'm expecting it to be amazing. You’re making...

@ XMIT Feel your pain. I desoldered two boards today. Even with a desoldering station (and I’ve done it with just an iron as well), it’s such a marathon. But as you say, there’s nothing like the crispness of orange Alps…and all the better in a 60% footprint. Enjoy it.

@Chyros Just a note to say thank you for all your reviews. In general, I find them fairly useful when they’re released, but when I’m trying to research something the value the body of work goes parabolic—a great reference resource. I’m going to get in on the Infinity Massdrop to get a clicky Matias ...

Great story and motivation. Congratulations on all your hard work and the nice surprise. “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential mean...

Chyros wrote: ↑

Redmaus wrote: ↑So there is no way to dye the space bar?

Probably ABS innit?

Yes...ubiquitous, annoying ABS. I've dyed some ABS spacebars, but they always warp...can't take the heat needed to get the dye to penetrate.

Though the size is still a little larger than my preferred 60% layout, my favorite “stock” keyboard outside the HHKB is the Apple M0116 that shipped with the Macintosh SE 30. The power button at the top still works in the current OS, and it’s got the Control key in the right place and wonderful tact...

Guy in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wlgvgu3Jnc says he's putting o-rings on his Matias clicky switches...

Anyone done this? Sure, I've seen dampeners on the side of the sliders but never an o-ring--where would an o-ring go on an Alps-style slider?

Nice board @ mastermachetier. The M0116 is one of my favorite boards as well. Tough to beat salmon and orange in a small format. I'm working on turning a M0116 into a 60% board.

Wow. Very cool and ambitious project; It would be very interesting to see a video of you typing on it once completed. Good luck buttoning it up.

Are there better tactile and quiet Alps out there? Do these exist? My only experience has been Matias, Acer clones and salmon Alps, experience that I guess is not wide enough for sure on these switches. White damped Alps (occasionally found in the AEK II) have a great feel if you like a tactile, da...

That is an interesting and novel idea as 60% and ergonomic don't often go together. It could be cool.

Matt3o, since you mentioned you want this project to be more different, in order to be interesting to you, how about the following idea (this works well with the split spacebar): create a slight angle between the left and the right hand corresponding keys, to make the keyboard layout more "ergonomi...

I haven’t tried, but you might be able to use the keycaps from an M0116 on one of these boards, and vice versa, if you don’t have one of the Made in Japan IIGS boards lying around. Yes, I tried a dozen or so M0116 caps on the IIgs and they work great...excepting the M0116 Enter and Delete touch...a...

@ jacoboulus Thanks again. You are a deep pool of keyboard knowledge. It’s interesting these caps have a “fat” stem as they seem looser fitting than Alps caps (so do the caps on the Chicony where my Monetary blues currently reside). This board came with three bad switches: delete and + and - from th...

If you want something in the shape of the M0116, buy one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/301862008680 The “made in Taiwan” type have tactile white SMK (“monterey”) switches. The only downside is that the double-shot keycaps they used have stems which are too fat, causing SMK switches to bind. If ...

ok. personally I'm not interested in "poker like" layouts. Not because I don't like it, but because this project would bring nothing new to the market. That doesn't mean that we can't design a PCB that also supports a poker layout, but the core project needs to be something else to tickle my appeti...

60% with some symmetry

Cool stuff. I love the smell of homogenisation in the morning.

What are your conclusions about the various cap qualities?