"Gritty" feeling in my new filco keyboard

[Lust]

hey guys i just recently purchased a new filco keyboard (MX Blue) and it felt really gritty. i dont know how to put it really but it doesnt feel right.
i had another board from filco which was an mx brown and it didnt have the issue as bad as this new one. ive also typed on another mechanical keyboard (razer blackwidow ultimate) and the comparing the two the razer surprisingly felt smoother. if that makes sense...

im no keyboard expert and ive tried searching stuff like this up but couldnt find any answers. i apologize in advance for my ignorance.

thanks

[intelli78]

Some MX blues are grittier than others from the factory, I find, and they also get smoother with use. If you tried a used Razer, that's probably why it felt different. It's possible there's something wrong with your switches, but it's unlikely.

[Lust]

i think im going to return this filco and purchase somewhere else.

im not too sure if it really makes a difference but the switch housing was assembled upside down on some of the switches.
the keyboard also felt very dry with the large keys(constant squeaking sound and you can feel it rubbing constantly)

ive never had any issues with a filco keyboard until now... do you think it might just be defective? and if so is there another brand i should be looking at or a certain place where i should be buying a new filco keyboard? ive been buying from amazon and spending 220 dollars on a keyboard and not being satisfied kinda sucks

[swill]

Just so you know. New switches always feel a bit gritty before you break them in. My browns (on a filco) were really gritty when it was new. After a couple weeks it was not noticeable. After a couple months it was buttery smooth.

[strict]

i think im going to return this filco and purchase somewhere else.

im not too sure if it really makes a difference but the switch housing was assembled upside down on some of the switches.
the keyboard also felt very dry with the large keys(constant squeaking sound and you can feel it rubbing constantly)

ive never had any issues with a filco keyboard until now... do you think it might just be defective? and if so is there another brand i should be looking at or a certain place where i should be buying a new filco keyboard? ive been buying from amazon and spending 220 dollars on a keyboard and not being satisfied kinda sucks

How could a switch housing be assembled upside down? They only fit together one way. Pics?

[swill]

i think im going to return this filco and purchase somewhere else.

im not too sure if it really makes a difference but the switch housing was assembled upside down on some of the switches.
the keyboard also felt very dry with the large keys(constant squeaking sound and you can feel it rubbing constantly)

ive never had any issues with a filco keyboard until now... do you think it might just be defective? and if so is there another brand i should be looking at or a certain place where i should be buying a new filco keyboard? ive been buying from amazon and spending 220 dollars on a keyboard and not being satisfied kinda sucks

On the large keys, lube your stabilizers.  It made a huge difference on my filco...

[ynrozturk]

Don't sell it or give it back, just type on it.

[swill]

+1...  it will fix all its problems... 

[Lust]

alright ill take your advice and try typing on it more. the razer that i compared it to was actually brand new too alongside with my mx brown filco.
the keycaps feel better IMO on the razer, i feel like i shouldnt be saying this but i am. i might be in the wrong section but is there a good quality and simple keycap set available?

im not sure if im using the terminology right about the switch housing and it seems like its most likely an aesthetic thing but for a quality brand like filco i wouldnt expect something like this to happen.

[Puddsy]

normal

and you only have one flipped because you have a ninja

top is filco camo with blues

bottom is regular mj2 with reds

PCB doesn't have backlight support anyway, so it doesn't matter at all.

[intelli78]

It's not possible to put a Cherry MX switch housing on backwards. That means that the switch(es) are actually installed backwards, which means that the PCB was designed that way.

So, it is a bit unusual but it's definitely intentional.

[Lust]

hmm interesting. is there a reason for it being flipped? thanks for taking the time to educate me on this. im quite ignorant on the subject haha.

[Puddsy]

hmm interesting. is there a reason for it being flipped? thanks for taking the time to educate me on this. im quite ignorant on the subject haha.

literally no good reason for it

engineer was probably bored

[intelli78]

I'm not an engineer but possibly due to the layout of the traces on the board.

[Puddsy]

I'm not an engineer but possibly due to the layout of the traces on the board.

then why would 2 be flipped on the normal/camo, but 1 on the ninja?

[strict]

The flipped switch is intentional as my Filco Ninja looks exactly the same. The PCB requires the switch to be installed in this fashion due to Diatec using a universal PCB that supports 86/87/88 key layouts.

Your switches will definitely get smoother with use. Some batches of cherry switches come from the factory feeling smoother than others. Its nothing Filco or any other manufacturer can control. You could end up buying CM board that feels worse and then buy yet another Filco and it might feel the best of of them all.

Check out MechanicalKeyboards.com, they stock tons of ABS and PBT keys and most of them are pretty reasonably priced.

[Puddsy]

The flipped switch is intentional as my Filco Ninja looks exactly the same. The PCB requires the switch to be installed in this fashion due to Diatec using a universal PCB that supports 86/87/88 key layouts.

TIL

thanks

[intelli78]

I'm not an engineer but possibly due to the layout of the traces on the board.

then why would 2 be flipped on the normal/camo, but 1 on the ninja?

I don't know, but I would guess there is an actual reason even if we don't know it right now, not boredom. 

[Lust]

The flipped switch is intentional as my Filco Ninja looks exactly the same. The PCB requires the switch to be installed in this fashion due to Diatec using a universal PCB that supports 86/87/88 key layouts.

Your switches will definitely get smoother with use. Some batches of cherry switches come from the factory feeling smoother than others. Its nothing Filco or any other manufacturer can control. You could end up buying CM board that feels worse and then buy yet another Filco and it might feel the best of of them all.

Check out MechanicalKeyboards.com, they stock tons of ABS and PBT keys and most of them are pretty reasonably priced.

thanks for clearing this up for me. i was a little worried. is there anything you recommend that wont sacrifice the look of the ninja keyboard? and am i the only one to think that the keycaps feel kinda cheap?

[strict]

thanks for clearing this up for me. i was a little worried. is there anything you recommend that wont sacrifice the look of the ninja keyboard? and am i the only one to think that the keycaps feel kinda cheap?

The OEM keycaps are definitely crap. If I were going to buy another MX keyset right now it would be Leopold's thick PBT keys. We even have a thread about them (and how awesome they are ).

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=59780.0

[ynrozturk]

+1 for the Leopold set, great caps. They feel awesome.

[strict]

Since I brought my Filco home from work (in favor of the Realforce  ) I figured I would pop the case apart and share pictures of the universal PCB Diatec uses. This is from a Filco MJ2 Ninja purchased around November 2013.

I stand corrected about the layouts it supports, I tried to remember them all but without the board in front of me it was a crap shot. It supports 87 key (ANSI), 88 key (ISO), and 89/91 key (JIS) layouts.

You can see in the pictures below that unused switch posts get their respective through holes filled with solder. I'm not sure why they would do this instead of leaving them empty.