Using Cherry Corp DoubleShot Keys on Your Filco/Wasd/Rosewill etc...

[Soarer]

Well here's my fiesty lil Filly, straddling her double-shot donors...



The space bar from the 8200 fits perfectly with the extra piece glued in... before the glue set I fitted it to the board to get the position just right. If I hadn't, any slight error in the rotation of the new piece would've made space either wonky or sticky: 1 degree out would be 1mm out at the end of the bar. Then I left it upside down to fully set, just in case the glue was still mobile enough to slither downwards!

Delete/End/PgDn... I don't  have correct height keys for them  The ones off the 7000 are too tall, and they're annoying in use, so I ended up using the low profile ones off the 11900. Looks worse, but feels better. (They were the only keys off the 11900, which had already been raped by a raptor... but that's another story for another thread...).

Cast, in order of appearance (prettiest first, by a long shot):
Filco Majestouch Tenkeyless 87MC/EB
Cherry G80-11900HRMGB/01 (Del, End, PgDn)
Cherry G80-8200HPDUS-2 (all keys from the main block except Enter and '\')
Cherry G81-7000HUAUS-2/02 (Cursors, Esc, F-keys, Ins, Home, PgUp, PrtSc, Scroll, Pause, Enter, '\')

[Morning Song]

You're Canadian right? What on earth possessed you to get a UK layout keyboard? I've been trying to dodge them for years... well, one year.

USian--Michiganian, to be specific. And it was sort of an impulse. The 105th key makes a good compose key in Linux, though.

[ch_123]

Ambigious location is ambigious. =P

I've spent the past year trying to get rid of all my UK keyboards... Only the one on my laptop remains

[elbowglue]

Ok I was trying to do this mod (put cherry keys on a filco board) today.  The keys which require stabilizers dosen't work exactly right.  For example, left shift button, when I use the cherry keycap on the filco stabilizer / stabilizer stems, it pushes down too far, and makes it function in a sticky fashion.  I can get it to work if I don't push the cherry keycap down too hard or too far... is this how you did it, just use the filco stabilizer bar, filco stabilizer stem, and don't push the cherry keycap too far down?

I think the plus on the filco stabilizer stem is a little small making it slide too deep..

Thanks

EDIT:  Oh wait I just read the post 1 post above (facepalm) I guess you just stick it in but not too far.

This I think may have thrown off some people.  The stabilizers are quite different.  Filco on the left, Cherry 81 series on the right.

Show Image

It's simple though to just pull the stabilizers and exchange. The Filco stablizer fits a bit looser in the Cherry key which makes it annoying when putting on but it works.  It also sticks out a bit on some keys but trust me, it ends up working fine.

[thcyash]

great mod, ripster! :clap2:

the filco looks superb.. after reading this i regret that i´ve ordered a filco with the german layout because i doubt that there are german donor keyboards with ds caps  out there which fit to a filco.

[thcyash]

hehe, nice caps...

i´ve got to correct myself : "... german donor keyboards with BLACK ds caps..." or do they exist?

im still considering the alternative to replace the german layout with the us one... do you also own a filco full keyboard @ ripster?

i also want to replace the numpad keys with the ds caps of the donor keyboards.. do they fit? thank you in advance

[thcyash]

If you have a standard keyboard the numpad section looks to me to be fully compatible.

I know the black doubleshots are harder to get in Germany but they do exist IIRC.

sounds good... another argument for a replacement

thanx for the infos

[woody]

Thanks to ripster for this thread.

Maybe beating on a dead horse, but ... I don't want to seek old donor keyboards for keycaps. Shipping to my country is prohibitive and the evilBay heaven doesn't exist. More importantly, I stick to NIB only. At least wee bit more than ripster. :eyebrows:

What options are there for new DS keycaps for the Filco? The more the plastic, the better the sound/feel should become, right? If companies like Signature Plastics could make DS keycaps out of their library (no tooling setup), are there enough volunteers to combine? Nothing fancy, just the regular legends. Even if I would prefer light colours, it still doesn't matter.

[itlnstln]

Elitekeyboards was working with Signature Plastics at one point to make Filco replacement sets, but Majestouch said that he wasn't liking the samples they provided as he didn't feel they matched the Filco's profile quite right (IIRC).  That said, looking at how many people use Cherry double shots on their Filcos, I don't think most people would care too much about a minor difference in profile (I know I wouldn't), and demand would be high enough to get plenty of buyers for a group buy.  I think the problem has been getting someone to work with SP on setting up a group buy.

[woody]

Hmm, that's kinda good news. Makes me wonder why the online shops for mechanical keyboards haven't jumped onto the opportunity.

For sure, please sign me up for a group buy.

I read on GH that SP's Filco keycaps are bit light, is there any other manufacturer on the radar? At least from SP's site I get the feeling they have enough library so just a minimal order for a run is required (we cannot afford tooling setup). And if there is an option for thicker type of better plastic - that'll be cool, even if a key set results in the price range of $50-$100.

I'd want to help with organising this, but my location is wrong and I don't have the accumulated knowledge to do the specs. Would a sticky thread about this help?

[woody]

That's a problem, I probably have read your past post at some point. My main reason is putting keycaps heavier/thicker than the Filco's. (Yes, meatier)
There is still hope SP could offer other options for a price.
________
Toyota T transmission history

[lmnop]

what did they do to the plunger on the OCN keycap? looks more like a star.

[lmnop]

I think you need to have your eyes examined lol

[lmnop]

Trickery

[thcyash]

I have finally done it :



(sorry for the bad image quality, but no DSLR available atm,).

I am still looking for a G80-8113H*** donor keyboard to solve that "front row and Capslock problem"

Thank you to ripster and skcheng for the impressions :panda: ... i really love these bold legends of the ds caps

[nathanscribe]

What's the thing with replacing the keys - is it just that the originals wear quickly, or has the material thickness got something to do with it?  I have to say I like the look of some of these... I've been thinking of getting a tenkeyless blue lately and it's good to know the caps can be replaced for hardier ones if they go.

I've worn dints in my laptop keys... a few blank ones and some gouges.  Not attractive.

The US layout is looking good to me at the moment and is easily available here in the UK.  I like the look of the white one with black caps that was posted earlier, but the only white Filcos I've seen over here are browns/blacks, and I think I'd rather try the blues from what I've read about the brown.  Already have a black (from 1989) and it's OK but I've quickly come to prefer the buckling springs for typing.

[nathanscribe]

Oh yes.  Cough... I knew that...

Good stuff anyway.

[chet0]

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Cherry-MultiBoard-8040-USB-Point-of-Sale-Keyboard-/280567529240?pt=AU_CashRegisters&hash=item415320bf18
Cherry Multiboard 8040

Does anyone know if these are Double Shot?

Are they compatible with the Filco?

Can't seem to find any information on them.

[ironman31]

Doesn't look like it to me, but you can always find out for sure if there is an "H" in the long model number

[db_Iodine]

Well I finally swapped the double shots from a g81-1800 to my Das. The lowest row has keys from my Ducky, because I wanted to put all the possible blank keys on my Ducky.





Here you can clearly see the difference with the Cherry doubleshots and a Ducky key (Rshift)



Overall, I think the Das feels a little bit nicer to type on after the swap. The keys are a little lower profile, which seems to help me not bottoming out the keys too much.

[itlnstln]

Cherry caps, the black ones at least, are the bomb.  You would think that the thicker caps would dampen some of the tactility, but really, they don't.

[db_Iodine]

The sound or the feel of the switches hasn't changed at all IMO. This made me found a new love for the Das, even though I really like compact size keyboards more now.

[db_Iodine]

I only had some minor problems with those damn stabilizers. Ducky uses those Cherry stabilizers which are so much easier to deal with.

[db_Iodine]

I did check out your key pulling guide before swapping the keys, and it did help me. Thanks for that.

[WaffleIron]

These keyboards turn out so great! Awesome job on the guide Ripster. Too bad it seems impossible to get a norwegian set. But I guess a Swedish/Finnish key-set would work fine...

Where did you get your keys db_Iodine?

[db_Iodine]

I bought a german layout Cherry G81-1800 from sixty here at geekhack. I'm not so sure how common these are, but I haven't seen any SWE/FI layout ones anywhere.

Oh, and welcome to geekhack!

[sixty]

I bought a german layout Cherry G81-1800 from sixty here at geekhack. I'm not so sure how common these are, but I haven't seen any SWE/FI layout ones anywhere.

Oh, and welcome to geekhack!

Black ones are pretty damn rare for anything but ISO.

[nathanscribe]

Not sure if these pics belong here, but I just got sixty's Cherry doubleshots in the post and deftly applied them to my Filco Tenkeyless w/blues.

Foubleshot v1:



And some angles to illustrate the difference in profile:




I added some more of the lighter keys.  Foubleshot v2:



... and v3:



...and v3 in situ (note how marvellously it blends with the other gear...):



I think v3 looks a bit messy really, but can't decide it it's down to the black Caps Lock or the bottom row, or just that there are too many colours on there.  Anyway, a big cheers to sixty for these caps.  :tea:

[nathanscribe]

Did you spot the Lego keyring torch man?  His feet light up, and his legs are independently movable.  Happy happy joy joy!

[pfink]

Not DoubleShot but extremely rare Deck Trucker Girl.  I think only Lmnop and I have one.

I bought a couple of the Deck linux keysets before they sold out, I think they came with a trucker girl key.

[pfink]

You want to trade one of these keys for that Deck Trucker Girl?

I can modify any of these novelty keys  in MX or Buckling Spring format.  If interested PM me.

I'll probably hang onto them for now but I'll let you know if I change my mind.

I believe you've also called dibs on the Camo Mini...

[Lewserr]

So will be getting my Filco MJ2 TKL ISO in the next couple of week and would like to do this mod on it. Been scouring through this thread for anyone else with an ISO layout (MorningSong seemed to have managed it) to pull it off and only found one keyboard mentioned with a UK layout. The Cherry G80-11900 HRM GB/01, but a quick google search has come up with nothing for any body selling one. So that leaves me with a few other options and I'm wondering which would be the best way to go.

1. G80-8113HRBUS-2 - Has a J shape enter key and a small "| \" for my ISO layout and every other key should fit perfectly other than the left shift afaik. This just leaves me with finding a board with the small left shift "` ¬ ¦", " 2 " ", "3 £", "@ '" and "~ #" keys.
2. There are some group buys going on, one for double shot replacement keys for filcos (just waiting to see if he can do black keys with white text) as there is a add-on kit for UK language as well which should leave me with a full keyboard. Not to mention I'd want the Star Wars and Starcraft keys as well.
3. There is another group buy going for 104 ANSI Official Cherry Double Shots which would just leave me to find the UK keys again.

Any recommendations on what to do? Or is there anybody else who has managed this with a UK ISO layout?