deskthority

Okay, I'm a bit late on everything this year but here's the thread! The gifts should start clearing customs and all that good stuff soon!

Awesome! How are we on gift senders?

My awesome gift from Santa has just arrived !

I'll return with updates shortly

Okay so here it goes

I rushed to get the gift from the post office today before it closed again for a few days and let me wondering what surprises Santa had for me this year.

Got the box back in the house, nice and cozy. It's pretty big, so I was already excited that a full keyboard may fit there !
My Santa is a generous and rich guy, so I am sure he didn't even stutter when he got the shipping quote for the nice present !
(making a better world for kids anywhere, even across the ocean in a 3'rd world country, because he's a b0$$) So let's get to it:

Bam ! A full keyboard with switches I never tried before: Pow ! A Texas Instruments TI-99/4A keyboard replacement module : Ugh ! A bad ass coiled cable: {Excitement phrase} ! A few old school switches : {thickk ones} ! A cool vintage typewriter keycap set: Santa even left a cool note for me, written with his brother's typewriter because he doesn't want you guys to recognize his writing so he went full Jigsaw (Brother Citation manual typewriter - I did a brother joke because I consider myself funny)
First of all, thank you Santa for all the awesome stuff, they kept me lurking all afternoon for info and history !

I was impressed by the Focus 2001 clickyness, as I normally hate clicky switches and only tried (and disliked) Black Alps from a Dell AT keyboard, but these are loud and fun, and somewhat smooth !

The TI-99/4A keyboard left me dazzled with that schematics and funky mechanism and straight up sent me into the super Hackerman mood: Feel wise - interesting and definitely better than Cherry ML

That cable detachable cable beats the regular aviator detachable cable design and just looks like a baws.

The typewriter keycaps are a lesson for all the future sets out there, as we like them thiccc ... (Susuwatari early 2020 or the robot baws guy will fly to China to see it done !)

Thanks all for reading and thanks Santa !

I was finally able to get mine after letting it sit at the post office for almost two weeks. (It's a long story: picked the delivery notification card after the office had closed for the day but had to leave town very early before it opened the next day - turns out Canada Post gives you a final notice a day before returning or abandoning a tracked shipment.)

On a related note: I also was finally able to ship out my package due to a missing phone number for the customs forms and the aforementioned travel commitments. (Sorry.)

So without further ado, here's what greeted me after opening a large padded envelope that came all the way from Bucarest: Happy New Year!

Darkshado

I received a big series switch as well as all the kit to get it up and running ! It is pretty awesome !

Lots of snacks too , the butter ones where nice and some looked home made , they where awesome ! The others where too!

andrewjoy wrote: 06 Jan 2020, 15:25 I received a big series switch as well as all the kit to get it up and running ! It is pretty awesome !

Lots of snacks too , the butter ones where nice and some looked home made , they where awesome ! The others where too!

IMG_20191229_182351.jpg

Hey I think your this year's Santa was my last year's Santa ) I recognise the cookies pattern & brand as they were yummy !

Got my package today! The person who delivered it was a little confused on the name, since Santa addressed it to my handle and not my actual name lol.

Got a nice letter from Santa.


The letter from Santa mentioned some things that weren't keyboards, lets get tho those first: And the thing I typed this post on:

AdrianMan wrote: 06 Jan 2020, 22:14

andrewjoy wrote: 06 Jan 2020, 15:25 I received a big series switch as well as all the kit to get it up and running ! It is pretty awesome !

Lots of snacks too , the butter ones where nice and some looked home made , they where awesome ! The others where too!

IMG_20191229_182351.jpg

Hey I think your this year's Santa was my last year's Santa ) I recognise the cookies pattern & brand as they were yummy !

They where, the only one that was not for me was the marzipan, but that is because i dont like marzipan I am sure they are tasty and high quality if you do

I'm 99% sure this is my Secret Santa present! It arrived early last week.

Around 70 Blue Alps switches. I'll take the dust on them as excuse to finally buy an ultrasonic cleaner! Thanks Santa!

Nuum wrote: 20 Jan 2020, 11:58 I'll take the dust on them as excuse to finally buy an ultrasonic cleaner!

Don't ultrasonic them unless you have to. Always dust out alps with compressed air first and see how they are then before you go down the cleaning rabbit hole. There is some secret sauce dry lube on older alps that you will lose if you wash them.

Nuum wrote: 20 Jan 2020, 11:58 I'm 99% sure this is my Secret Santa present! It arrived early last week.

Around 70 Blue Alps switches. I'll take the dust on them as excuse to finally buy an ultrasonic cleaner! Thanks Santa!
IMG_20200120_115714.jpg

Seconding the recommendation to not ultrasonic them. From the testing of a friend who tried many lubes, every time you ultrasonic clean or use isopropyl and strip the lube, it is worse than simply cleaning or adding lube after cleaning.

Ok, thanks for the heads up, I'll clean them by hand then!

Nuum wrote: 20 Jan 2020, 19:22 Ok, thanks for the heads up, I'll clean them by hand then!

Just dust them out with a compressor or a can of compressed air first. Put em back together and see how they feel. If they are then smooth you can work on other things, like fixing inconsistent click or none registering keys. Any liquid or cleaning agent is a last resort on alps.

Any updates here ?

None. Compgeke said he would give a reminder to the santas.
Not sure I'll do this secret Santa thing again.

One i sent out was delivered on 7th Jan. Can provide tracking if needed .