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Author Topic: Deck 82 space bar and keycaps  (Read 8643 times)

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Offline Chloe

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« on: Thu, 22 January 2009, 15:41:04 »
I've been thinking about getting a Deck 82, but two things concern me.

In some pictures the angle of the space bar looks a bit uncomfortable, sloping upwards towards you. It looks like it can be turned around without modification. Can anyone confirm this?

The keycaps appear to have mold lines on the surface. Can these be felt at all? I have used keyboard stickers before and the feel of the edges was really annoying.
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Offline billm

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #1 on: Thu, 22 January 2009, 18:06:48 »
Quote from: Chloe;19191
I've been thinking about getting a Deck 82, but two things concern me.

In some pictures the angle of the space bar looks a bit uncomfortable, sloping upwards towards you. It looks like it can be turned around without modification. Can anyone confirm this?

The keycaps appear to have mold lines on the surface. Can these be felt at all? I have used keyboard stickers before and the feel of the edges was really annoying.


Hmm... just tried it. Yes, you can turn the space bar around. Feels kind of weird but it can be done.

As for the mold lines, I've never felt them. There's a post on Deck's website explaining how their caps are made.

What is this picture you've sent here? It looks very similar to my Deck 82 key, with the addition of a couple of extra LED's on the space bar. I've basically unpimped my deck fire (as explained in another post on here somewhere) to look more like the TG3 commercial model than the gaudy thing it was when it came from deck.
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Offline Chloe

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #2 on: Thu, 22 January 2009, 18:40:16 »
Thanks Bill. Here you can see there are solder points for two extra LEDs under the space bar on the Telxon BL82:
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~hisao/image/bl82.htm

I'm not enamoured with the look of the Deck but I expect the BL82 will cost more. Unfortunately there aren't many compact keyboards with Cherry MX switches to choose from. I'm also worried the Deck will feel too high. The dimensions are similar to my KPT-84.
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Offline sandy55

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #3 on: Thu, 22 January 2009, 20:17:29 »
Front edge of BL82 is higher than Cherry boards. Furthermore it doesn't have legs or bumps so you may want rubber insulators to make it stable on your desk, and may need a palm rest thingy.  In addition, BL82 comes with Black/Linears on a metal face plate. Tad difficult to use other stems.
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Offline billm

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #4 on: Thu, 22 January 2009, 20:57:37 »
Quote from: Chloe;19213

I'm not enamoured with the look of the Deck but I expect the BL82 will cost more. Unfortunately there aren't many compact keyboards with Cherry MX switches to choose from. I'm also worried the Deck will feel too high. The dimensions are similar to my KPT-84.


Yeah, what I ended up doing was buying the Deck 82 fire and an extra black case to replace the glowing red one. The black case was $10 or $14. Also I very carefully scratched the stupid accent of the "e" in deck. Once that's all done the thing is visually pretty indistinguishable from the BL82. I don't know about the guts.

The board is a bit high but I got pretty used to it.
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Offline Chloe

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #5 on: Fri, 23 January 2009, 10:58:00 »
If I do get a Deck I'm going to replace the switches with browns. It might be quicker for me to desolder all the LEDs and switches than to open each switch to swap spring and stem.

I think my Cherry keyboards have the perfect height and tilt, but since getting the KPT-84 I realise how much more comfortable and fitting compact keyboards feel. I wish Cherry would make an MX version of the G84-4100. My arms feel tired after typing for a long time on the KPT-84 because of the added height.  

There are other differences between the BL82 and Deck. I'm still not sure if I like the font on the Deck keycaps. I don't look at the keys much but I care about these details. The Deck keyboards seem to only look good in the dark. I don't know how distracting it will be to have backlit keys but they can be turned off. I may have to get a Filco Tenkeyless instead and sacrifice the extra 5cm or so in width.
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Offline bhtooefr

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #6 on: Fri, 23 January 2009, 12:24:45 »
Or you could just wait for lowpoly's board. :)
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Offline billm

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #7 on: Fri, 23 January 2009, 13:59:31 »
Quote from: Chloe;19275
If I do get a Deck I'm going to replace the switches with browns. It might be quicker for me to desolder all the LEDs and switches than to open each switch to swap spring and stem.

I'm still not sure if I like the font on the Deck keycaps. I don't look at the keys much but I care about these details.


Be advised, you're in for some soldering if you want to swap the switches. At a minimum you'll have to unsolder and resolder the LEDs. You can't open the switch casing to swap the stem and spring with out doing this. If you want to swap the whole switch, you're looking at 4 solder points per switch. One of the differences between the Deck and the TG3 board is that there's no metal plate in the Deck so that may make swapping the switches a bit easier.

As for the font, and the back lighting I've grown to like both. Once you tone down the case, the board ends up looking striking but still tasteful.
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Offline Chloe

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #8 on: Fri, 23 January 2009, 19:35:12 »
I don't mind soldering. I would prefer it came with brown Cherries but I don't think there will be a Deck with tactile switches for at least a few months.

Another consideration is the keycap material. The Deck keyboards have PBT keycaps with exception of the space bar which is ABS. I think the Filco have ABS keycaps which will go shiny more quickly from use. You can buy replacement sets from Diatec but they are not complete. I prefer the feel of PBT.

Have you had any issues with phantom keys? Apparently they fixed it but have not sold out of the original batch of Deck 82 Fire.
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Offline billm

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #9 on: Fri, 23 January 2009, 21:13:44 »
Quote from: Chloe;19365

Have you had any issues with phantom keys? Apparently they fixed it but have not sold out of the original batch of Deck 82 Fire.


Mine is definitely a first gen fire, and it only supports 4 key presses at once. I've seen that happen but I've never had phantom key issues.  I loath gaming however so lack of N-key rollover is not an issue for me.

Nice to now there are diatec replacement keys. I wish I could read japanese. It would be nice to know if there were blank replacements for the windows key.
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Offline sandy55

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #10 on: Fri, 23 January 2009, 23:18:26 »
Diatec replacements are all JP layout. Some symbols are printed in deferent place.  If you touch type, symbols on wrong keys are not problem, though.
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Offline lam47

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #11 on: Sat, 24 January 2009, 06:35:32 »
Hey Chloe.
Could you add to the wiki page a list of boards you know to have one kind of plastic caps or the other.
I would be interested to know.
As an example could you tell me what the caps on an IBM model M are.
I really like the feel of them.

Oh and do a little dance too.
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Keyboards. Happy Hacking pro 2 x2. One white one black. IBM model M US layout. SGI silicone Graphics with rubber dampened ALPS. IBM model F. ALPS apple board, I forget what it is. And some more I forget what I have.

Typewriters. Olivetti Valentine. Imperial Good Companion Model T. Olympia SM3

Offline Chloe

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #12 on: Sat, 24 January 2009, 06:48:29 »
I don't know what the IBM keycaps are made of. Most keyboards have ABS keycaps because it is cheaper than PBT or POM.
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Offline bhtooefr

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #13 on: Sat, 24 January 2009, 06:56:01 »
Unfortunately, I pulled the spacebar on my Model M, and the only identifying mark was "B4," so...
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Offline billm

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #14 on: Mon, 26 January 2009, 12:25:22 »
Hi Chloe-

Where were you planning to get your brown cherries for this project? After my successful Filco project, I'm much more confident in my soldering abilities and am considering swapping the switches in my Deck 82 as well.
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Offline Chloe

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #15 on: Mon, 26 January 2009, 12:51:38 »
I'll probably use one of my Compaq MX 11800s as a donor.
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Offline elmwood

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Deck 82 space bar and keycaps
« Reply #16 on: Mon, 26 January 2009, 20:20:57 »
I picked up a new BL82 outlandishly cheap off of eBay years ago, before keyboard geeks from Japan drove the prices of everything up.  Question: are they made in the USA?
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