I can no longer in good faith recommend a Keycool board

[Blaise170]

So a few months ago I purchased a Keycool Hero 104 RGB and intermittently the M switch would lose the blue color and only cycle between red and green (and colors in between). I decided to open it up finally and I was absolutely appalled by what I saw.

First of all, the blue LED lead had solder just piled on top of it and to the side covering up the trace. I reflowed it and it is now working. No big deal, mistakes happen. But then I kept looking.

There were not one, not two, not even three rogue solder spots. There were a total of 8(!) rogue spots - some of them covering traces, some of them on the PCB with no leads even nearby and the overall soldering job was just awful. I managed to clean the PCB up and it is now nice and clean - but the fact that I even had to do so is simply ridiculous.

tl;dr If you are going to hand solder a board, make sure you don't get random spots of solder splashed everywhere.

[Muirium]

Keycool are bargain bin, shameless ripoff merchants. It's cute you expected any better. I wonder how old the assembly line worker was who made all those mistakes…

I will grant Keycool some credit for having guts. They dive straight in where other keyboard makers fear to tread. They are cocky bastards though, and I bet they're as exploitative of their own workers as they are ruthless at stealing from the competition.

[zts]

^ this. ... and I have a particularly bad luck with their spacebars -- already warped in a sealed box. Replaced 2 on day 1. One works OK, the second one has a bad switch underneath that warped spacebar. There are cheapos out there with some really lousy quality control and then there is Keycool without any quality control. Stay away from it unless you are willing to put your own work and time into it.

[andrewjoy]

They are not a bad option in to the MX style world for new players.

You would want to move onto somthing better after a few moths imo.

They are better than the generic rubber dome crap 90% of the world use

[Muirium]

So apart from all the bollocks and misery, they're great?

I'm not taking recommendations from you on anything!

[andrewjoy]

Not saying i would tell somone to buy one , but if its your only option better than a crappy RD

[Muirium]

It's not the only option. That's the thing. But I bet Noppoo is run by evil megalomaniacs who wish to see that day!

A shite first mech is just the thing to put someone off for life. (This shit be bullshit! What are those morons on about? Fuck it!) Meanwhile, my first mech was an IBM Model F XT. See what it did!

[seebart]

The real problem is if the user / buyer does not even know that there is another option. Most of those gamer mechs rightfully have a lousy reputation. I know someone who tried steelseries and went back to RD.

[Muirium]

Aye. Right now (as part of my review) a Cherry MX Board 6.0 is at a gamer friend's place. He'd dabbled with some mech or another in the past and thought it was just dumb hype. That board impressed him pretty well on first sight. I await his feedback after an extended playtest.

His rubberdome is truly awful! Yet he put up with that crap over entry level gamer mechs. It really happens!

[SL89]

This is why you save up, get a reputable brand and buy the right thing one time. Buying a shit board, to upgrade to a mediocre board, to upgrade to a good board, makes zero sense. Buy once, and speak with your money.

[Muirium]

Yup. Or you spoil yourself from the start with IBM like I did, and lecture MX lovers forever!

[seebart]

Sure. Only problem is if you have no idea what a reputable brand is and at the same time read all the moron reviews on the net.

[Muirium]

Also true. Protip for newbs: ask DT first.

[SL89]

Seebart, I have to imagine there is some level of hyperbole. Each reviewer is totally different, but if you find enough material, you can average it all out and get a decent picture. Keycool is an example of something that has never been held in high regards.

[seebart]

Sure but a lot of people do not spend enough time on product research.

[Muirium]

Seebart's right. That's why there's paid reviews out there, where shills will heap glory on their sponsor's shoddy junk. It's business. Why should they care if you buy a dud when they're getting paid?

Physical stores are the ultimate place for making mistakes. You do know that manufacturers must pay stores for access and positioning on their shelves? Supermarkets take this to the extreme: 200 different versions of Product A just to block Product B entirely. But dirty tricks like this run far in business.

The only people likely to care are your fellow customers. But even they are a mix of snobs (hi!) and fanboys. Tricky, eh?

[pcaro]

Sometimes there are no alternatives. For example, no respectable brand sells a keyboard with layout similar to Noppoo nano 75s

http://deskthority.net/product-news-f44 ... t8798.html

[Blaise170]

The problem for me is that Cherry refuses to sell RGB Blues and Keycool is the "best" when it comes to Kailh Blue RGB. The board is sturdy and I've not had any problems with it other than the M key. I bought one of those E-Element RGB keyboards from Massdrop but it was the cheapest thing I've ever used and I returned it the day I got it. I just want RGB lighting and Cherry is doing a truly awful job of getting them to the general public.

In any case, I am currently building a board with Blue SKCM so I will continue using the Keycool in the meantime and hope that no more issues pop up. It has at least survived the first 250K keystrokes.

[pcaro]

The problem for me is that Cherry refuses to sell RGB Blues and Keycool is the "best" when it comes to Kailh Blue RGB. The board is sturdy and I've not had any problems with it other than the M key. I bought one of those E-Element RGB keyboards from Massdrop but it was the cheapest thing I've ever used and I returned it the day I got it. I just want RGB lighting and Cherry is doing a truly awful job of getting them to the general public.

In any case, I am currently building a board with Blue SKCM so I will continue using the Keycool in the meantime and hope that no more issues pop up. It has at least survived the first 250K keystrokes.

My keycool 5000 have no issues a year after buying... I am a lucky guy

[andrewjoy]

I think they fill a hole in the market even if i would not recommend one.

If you want a standard ANSI or ISO cherry you buy a filco , simples !

[Blaise170]

I think they fill a hole in the market even if i would not recommend one.

If you want a standard ANSI or ISO cherry you buy a filco , simples !

What I really want is a Filco Zero to put my blue SKCM into.

[andrewjoy]

Ahh the filco alps board ?

They no longer make them right ?

[Blaise170]

Yeah discontinued and I've not seen one for sale anywhere.

[andrewjoy]

a shame considering matias switches exist now and in my opinion they are superior to cherry, they could start a resurgence ! And then finally i can get some thick PBT caps for alps!

[Muirium]

I used to hope for that. But then I used some Matias switches. Now I'm indifferent. They're better than MX in some respects but not nearly enough to be worth the effort. And the tactiles still suck badly compared to Topre. (Matias cloned the wrong generation of Alps. Creams are better than this.) I'm not holding out much hope the clickies compare well to IBM.

If only Matias made Montereys!

I've not had any problems with it other than the M key.

Translation: The board had a significant defect. Sounds sweet!

[andrewjoy]

the clickys are nice, feel better than complicated whites imo but that may be the lub and the newness

Want to try blue.

In fact forget the filco alps.

Filco microswitch hall effect. with PBT caps as thick as the hold hall effect

[Muirium]

Filco and fancy caps don't even belong in the same sentence. They're the number one reason for the aftermarket caps business to exist! Good on 'em too. Pity Filco couldn't even get its own SP SA set right when they tried…

http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/fil ... t9401.html

[andrewjoy]

I don't mind the filco profile so much its just the lettering and plastic they are made out of that is crap.

There should sell the bare board , then you could add your own caps. Or at least rock some of them cheap Doubleshot PBT, better than nothing.

[Muirium]

That's what I mean. When I was first looking into mechs, as a good perfectionist snob, I read about Filco's shitty shiny caps with horror. Never did get around to buying one of their boards. Once I got a Ducky with thick stock PBTs, I couldn't see the point in a Filco's besides the Minila Air.

Oh yeah, guess I still want one of those. Hmm. Seemed to slip right off the end of my wishlist… so many vintage boards up top!

[hypkx]

There are cheapos out there with some really lousy quality control and then there is Keycool without any quality control.

I have the same experience with the kailh clone switches. I use as main-keyboard
a keybord with cherry mx browns, almost every switch feels the same. Then I bought some months ago a cheap defect keyboard to harvest some parts. It had kailh brown switches and I tried them. It was just awful, not only one switch feels like one another switch. There was the whole spectrum from normal brown switch feeling to linear switch feeling on that keyboard, it was just awful to type on. Maybe it was just the keyboard, but if I had bought it for the full price on Amazon I would send it immediately back. Have Kaihua no quality control or test even some switches before they sell them?