Advice on buying o-rings.

[Finwens]

Hello. I'm currently using a vortex kbt oni with mx brown switches, and wanted to buy some o-rings to make it quieter. I don't want to change the feel of the switch, just make it quieter. Needing some advice because I don't want to pay 16 dollars for rubber and not use it.

[keymaster]

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=40227

[Finwens]

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=40227

Thanks, I should have searched here... will give it a read.

[gvfarns]

Any o ring will change the feel of the keys at least a little.  You can make yourself feel better about the purchase by going cheap. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051XWXCE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That's what I use.  They made it a lot quieter and currently only $8.25.  The 3/16 ID version (1/16 width) is what I use.

[sordna]

So, the 1/16" thick o-rings reduce travel rather noticeably, so that by itself is a change of feel. Metric o-rings (5mm x 1.5mm) will have a smaller reduction of travel. I would suggest getting a couple of o-rings from a hardware store to get the idea and see if it's for you. If it is, it's really worth the investment getting the best o-rings like those from WASDkeyboards since they are made of better material (EPDM) than buna-n or nitrile rubber and won't harden up over time. BTW the wasd 40A-L are metric 1.5mm thick, the -R models are a bit thicker at 1/16". The way I see it, even spending $20 is worth it, because they will last for many years and you can transfer them from keyboard to keyboard. Also, 50A and 40A o-rings are much quieter than the regular (and cheaper) 70A. I've tried them all!

[WhiteFireDragon]

I've tried them all!

We've both tried them all 

[insilica]

Lol. I would hate to ask but did you swap out all the keys everytime you tried one of those rings?

[zoolzoo]

I think they all change the feel to be honest. 50-AR has the most crisp landing but I dont like that much travel reduction, especially now that all my sets are Cherry profile.

I've tried them all, and now I only keep one 40-AL on my space bar because its the noisiest key. The rest are o-ring-less. My fiance has gotten used to the noise.

[CPTBadAss]

I've tried them all, and now I only keep one 40-AL on my space bar because its the noisiest key. The rest are o-ring-less. My fiance has gotten used to the noise.

I never thought about doing that. I should try that. I have soft-landing pads on my Leopold.

[noons]

I cant imagine dampening the sound of cherry mx browns. I love it.

[tp4tissue]

Ghetto Rings are better

[Lunartuna]

I bought the WASD sampler pack and ended up going with 40A-L.

I put the 5 o-rings of each kind that came with it on my WASD and Shift and did some fps gaming with each.

IMO

50A-R reduced travel distance noticeably and felt solid bottoming out with good sound dampening. This would be my second choice.

40A-R reduced travel distance noticeably and felt squishy bottoming out with very good sound dampening. I didn't like these ones because while gaming when I pressed and held a key down to run or hold shift to sprint, I found myself holding it down way harder as if I was subconsciously trying to find the solid bottom out feeling. This caused fatigue very quickly. I wouldn't have bought these.

40A-L reduced travel distance but not as noticeable as the other two options. Softer landing then 50A-R but not squishy feeling with good sound dampening. I think these ones are the best. They have about the same sound dampening as the 50A-R but don't reduce travel as much. They make the keyboard feel much more comfortable to type on and game on and don't trick my mind into thinking I need to press down really hard. These ones feel squishy like 40A-R until you get them on all the way on correctly. Then they are so thin they feel more like 50A-R than 40A-R.

This is important- You absolutely have to make sure the o-ring is pressed all down onto your keycap stem and resting against the cross brace. The o-rings simply won't feel right unless they are.

What I do is..

1. Put the o-ring on the end of the keycap stem with my thumb just so it stays on there.

2. Put the keycap onto the switch stem just enough so it catches the +, then tap the keycap with medium pressure about 5-6 times or until you notice a change in feel. This moves the oring down the stem onto the cross braces.

3. Push the keycap harder squishing the o-ring until you feel that little bump(click into place?) that tells you the keycap is on all the way.

4. A few more medium taps and NOW the o-ring will feel like its supposed to.

Until you get that o-ring on there absolutely all the way, you won't feel what your supposed to feel.

They do not work at all on SP caps unless you double or triple them up depending on which thickness you have. If you single them it will only inconsistently do its job until its pushed down onto the stem beyond the point where the switch reaches when pressed. I suppose singling them on SP caps may VERY slightly dampen the click of a clicky switch because the o-ring would still absorb some of the vibration from the click.

[Lastpilot]

50A-R reduced travel distance noticeably and felt solid bottoming out with good sound dampening. This would be my second choice.

40A-R reduced travel distance noticeably and felt squishy bottoming out with very good sound dampening. I didn't like these ones because while gaming when I pressed and held a key down to run or hold shift to sprint, I found myself holding it down way harder as if I was subconsciously trying to find the solid bottom out feeling. This caused fatigue very quickly. I wouldn't have bought these.

40A-L reduced travel distance but not as noticeable as the other two options. Softer landing then 50A-R but not squishy feeling with good sound dampening. I think these ones are the best. They have about the same sound dampening as the 50A-R but don't reduce travel as much. They make the keyboard feel much more comfortable to type on and game on and don't trick my mind into thinking I need to press down really hard. These ones feel squishy like 40A-R until you get them on all the way on correctly. Then they are so thin they feel more like 50A-R than 40A-R.

So are you saying that the 40A-R's were the quietest of the bunch? I've been reading up on these, and I'm at work right now so I can't listen to videos, but I'm curious how noticeable the sound differences are.

[Lunartuna]

50A-R reduced travel distance noticeably and felt solid bottoming out with good sound dampening. This would be my second choice.

40A-R reduced travel distance noticeably and felt squishy bottoming out with very good sound dampening. I didn't like these ones because while gaming when I pressed and held a key down to run or hold shift to sprint, I found myself holding it down way harder as if I was subconsciously trying to find the solid bottom out feeling. This caused fatigue very quickly. I wouldn't have bought these.

40A-L reduced travel distance but not as noticeable as the other two options. Softer landing then 50A-R but not squishy feeling with good sound dampening. I think these ones are the best. They have about the same sound dampening as the 50A-R but don't reduce travel as much. They make the keyboard feel much more comfortable to type on and game on and don't trick my mind into thinking I need to press down really hard. These ones feel squishy like 40A-R until you get them on all the way on correctly. Then they are so thin they feel more like 50A-R than 40A-R.

So are you saying that the 40A-R's were the quietest of the bunch? I've been reading up on these, and I'm at work right now so I can't listen to videos, but I'm curious how noticeable the sound differences are.

Yes that's correct but they completely change the feeling of bottoming out and/or holding down the key.

[Mainian]

I've put o-rings are blacks and blues. I hated the o-rings on blues, which will be the same brown.

I hated the feel of the o-rings on the blues, but loved the feel of the o-rings on the blacks. I imagine that it would be similar to browns.

[Skull_Angel]

I bought the WASD sampler pack and ended up going with 40A-L.

I put the 5 o-rings of each kind that came with it on my WASD and Shift and did some fps gaming with each.

IMO

50A-R reduced travel distance noticeably and felt solid bottoming out with good sound dampening. This would be my second choice.

40A-R reduced travel distance noticeably and felt squishy bottoming out with very good sound dampening. I didn't like these ones because while gaming when I pressed and held a key down to run or hold shift to sprint, I found myself holding it down way harder as if I was subconsciously trying to find the solid bottom out feeling. This caused fatigue very quickly. I wouldn't have bought these.

40A-L reduced travel distance but not as noticeable as the other two options. Softer landing then 50A-R but not squishy feeling with good sound dampening. I think these ones are the best. They have about the same sound dampening as the 50A-R but don't reduce travel as much. They make the keyboard feel much more comfortable to type on and game on and don't trick my mind into thinking I need to press down really hard. These ones feel squishy like 40A-R until you get them on all the way on correctly. Then they are so thin they feel more like 50A-R than 40A-R.

This is important- You absolutely have to make sure the o-ring is pressed all down onto your keycap stem and resting against the cross brace. The o-rings simply won't feel right unless they are.

What I do is..

1. Put the o-ring on the end of the keycap stem with my thumb just so it stays on there.

2. Put the keycap onto the switch stem just enough so it catches the +, then tap the keycap with medium pressure about 5-6 times or until you notice a change in feel. This moves the oring down the stem onto the cross braces.

3. Push the keycap harder squishing the o-ring until you feel that little bump(click into place?) that tells you the keycap is on all the way.

4. A few more medium taps and NOW the o-ring will feel like its supposed to.

Until you get that o-ring on there absolutely all the way, you won't feel what your supposed to feel.

They do not work at all on SP caps unless you double or triple them up depending on which thickness you have. If you single them it will only inconsistently do its job until its pushed down onto the stem beyond the point where the switch reaches when pressed. I suppose singling them on SP caps may VERY slightly dampen the click of a clicky switch because the o-ring would still absorb some of the vibration from the click.

The easiest way I've found to install o-rings is to use the eraser "holder" on a mechanical pencil or one of those push out eraser caddys to push them down to the cross brace.

[zoolzoo]

The best way to install o-rings in my opinion is to just push the o ring down around the stem using your key cap puller.

This is the tool you probably have in your hand already, so it saves a bunch of time. The cornered edges of the metal part of the puller work well for pushing down the O-ring, as you spin the cap in your fingers to make sure you have pushed all parts of the ring down against the base of the stem.

[TotalChaos]

They do not work at all on SP caps unless you double or triple them up depending on which thickness you have. If you single them it will only inconsistently do its job until its pushed down onto the stem beyond the point where the switch reaches when pressed. I suppose singling them on SP caps may VERY slightly dampen the click of a clicky switch because the o-ring would still absorb some of the vibration from the click.

Is this failure to work, due to the fact that SP (Signature Plastics) keycaps have no crossbars?

Are the keycaps u r referring to doubleshots?  Or not?
I have a theory that says "All doubleshot keycaps on Earth are lacking crossbars and therefore not nearly as ergonomic as nondoubleshots."


I asked SP to clarify the issue of do some/many/all of their keycaps come with crossbars or not?  Could u please post upskirt pics of your keycaps so we can see if there are crossbars or not?  They said they would look into it but I never got any kind of informative answer or saw any upskirt pix.

I explained to SP that having crossbars (reinforcement bars) makes a huge difference for ergonomic reasons.  I donno if they understood or not.

[Polymer]

There are doubleshots w/ crossbars....Look at the Cherry red esc as an example..

There are a lot that do not though...

O-ring wise...Different rings seem to fit differently depending on which keycaps you have..including keycaps with the same profile...

I don't believe there is any standard as far as crossbars so they will all fit slightly differently..

40-A-R vs. 40-A-L.  The L definitely reduces travel a lot less than the A-R...but it also doesn't  reduce sound as much....I like the L's  when the R's reduce travel to the point of being "too short" but there are keycaps were the R's feel fine...

[birthdaymonkey]

I tried o-rings on my brown and blue boards. Didn't care for them because they reduced key travel and made the typing experience unsatisfying (for me). Then I tried the EK soft landing pads and found them equally dissatisfying.

Eventually moved to Topre. Quiet and feels even better than unmodded cherry switches (for me).

[Macsmasher]

I tried o-rings on my brown and blue boards. Didn't care for them because they reduced key travel and made the typing experience unsatisfying (for me). Then I tried the EK soft landing pads and found them equally dissatisfying.

Eventually moved to Topre. Quiet and feels even better than unmodded cherry switches (for me).

Same. My son got the EK landing pads for his CM with browns. I kept trying it and couldn't stand using it. He didn't like them either and eventually took them off.

My browns were too loud when on the phone with clients. Had too many complaints while taking notes in phone meetings. Also, the hard landing was killing my knuckles. Moved to an 87U silent and an HHKB. Solved both my problems. Even the non-silenced HHKB is much quieter than my browns.