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Kingsaver with Complicated Blue Alps

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CPTBadAss:

Title Card with the Kingsaver by CaptainBadass, on Flickr

All the pictures from this build and review can be found on my flickr. I have two albums, the Datacomp XT and Kingsaver. And I have posted a typing test video of me typing on the board here.


The Kingsaver keyboard; For me, this was my ultimate Alps keyboard. As you might have read in the “What did you get in the mail today?” or elsewhere, I’ve been hunting a long time for this keyboard. It was, and still is, one of my dream boards and I’m very happy to finally own it. And of course one shouldn’t settle for less when it comes to dreams so I have the “proper” switches in it as well.

Now I don’t think there’s a lot of information about the board other than some classifieds ads on Geekhack and a few pictures from AkimbrO. I think I only know about it because of AKIMbO and Smallfry. But that’s beside the point, since I’m going to try and cover as much information as possible in this thread about the keyboard. 


X SAVER by CaptainBadass, on Flickr

Kingsaver Info
If you have never heard of it, the Kingsaver is a custom keyboard from kbdmania. The keyboard was designed by Byungho Kim, aka TrueCustom. He’s on Geekhack and I believe he sold the Duck Mini v2, which had the ability to accept Alps switches as well. It seems he’s far more active on kbdmania since he hasn’t logged into Geekhack since November 2013. Anyways he designed the firmware, PCB, case, and plate; the whole keyboard. It was sold in a groupbuy on kbdmania during mid 2013.

The Kingsaver was designed around the Wang 724 keyboard’s keycaps, stabilizers, and layout. The keycaps are dyesub PBT. I think the windowed caps are dyesubbed as well. I’m a fan of the layout since it’s very similar to the modern ANSI winkeyless layout. Of course there are a few differences: the large Exec key, the GL key, and three extra keys on the function row.  The larger caps like Backspace, Shifts, and the spacebars are larger than normal. For example, I measure the top of a Cherry white on black enter to be 1.570 inches. The enter key on this keyboard is 1.620 inches. But overall, the layout and keycap sizes are relatively the same as the modern ANSI WKL layout.  Check out sandy55’s picture for more clarity. In use, I didn’t have any problems with the layout on the Kingsaver, other than missing the windows key. I’ll talk a little more about the Wang 724 a little further in this writeup since I also didn’t know a lot about the keyboard or what Wang keyboards were until I started this.

The PCB only accepts Alps switches, and I believe that the SMK Alps or “Monterey Blue Alps” switches will not fit. I think only SKCL/SKCM Alps or “complicated Alps” will fit. My Kingsaver has SKCL Blue Alps or complicated blue Alps switches harvested from a Datacomp AT 84 key clone keyboard, model DFK777. It originally had complicated linear Green Alps. As shown in AKIMbO’s pictures, the PCB will accept Salmon Alps as well. And finkl on kbdmania has tactile Orange Alps. So what I’m really trying to say is, if you’re able to get a Kingsaver, you will have plenty of switch options even if you can only put complicated Alps in. I should also say that the PCB has a standard mini-USB connector to it so that you can use your typical keyboard cables.

I believe the case is 6061 aluminum and TrueCustom states that the plate is stainless steel. I don’t have a scale but I would guess the total keyboard weight is between 5 and 6 pounds. (I finally bought a scale and it weighs 3 lbs 12.3 oz or 1.71 kg.) The board has a very simple design, reminiscent of the KMAC tenkeyless keyboards. The top cover has the word “SAVER” cut into it. “SAVER” is right below the navigation cluster (Where page up and down are). And on the bottom/back of the case, it says “X SAVER” with a huge X. All the cases I’ve ever seen are anodized silver. I’ve seen variants where the “SAVER” on the front had gold infill. And it also seems Duck0113 had a kit where you could infill the “X SAVER” on the back with a dark silver insert. I have neither type of infill. The case is propped up with two round feet, also like the KMAC. This is in contrast to say the flip out feet in commercially available keyboards or the bar on the LZ-GH.

Kingsaver Programming Info
Since the keyboard is a custom PCB, driven by an ATMega32U4, you can customize your layout using the GUI program named "Kingsaver.exe which will be contained in the "Wang saver keymapping program tutorial" links from Listokei's site. When you download it, the file should be a .zip and it's named "ksMap_v0.zip". It’s created by TrueCustom but hosted on Listokei’s site. The video isn't thorough and neglects to show some steps. I recommend referring to nubbinator's directions here. You’ll need to have Atmel Flip and Microsoft Framework 2.0 installed before running the remap program which has a nice GUI layout which is good for people who are code inept like me.

Wang 724 Keyboard
Since the Deskthority entry is a bit lacking, I thought I’d put some information on this keyboard here as well. If you’re in the hunt for a Kingsaver, you may need to find a board for the keycaps/stabilizers.

Wang Laboratories was a computer company which was a competitor to IBM. Dr. An Wang founded the company and it was based in Massachusetts. The comporation was famous for its typesetters, electronic calculators, word processors, and personal computers.  Wang VS and Wang PCs were successful computers put out by Wang Laboratories. Wang Labs, as well as the companies that bought our Wang, supported the VS line from 1982 until 2008.  More information can be found in this company overview brochure from Wang Laboratories Inc.. Thank you to Wang2200.org for hosting the overview and providing a lot of information on Wang in general.

The Wang PC is the computer system that the Wang 724 keyboard is used on. According to the Wang Museum website, the 725-3770 went with a Wang PC that ran off the IBM 386 CPU.  A picture from the Wang Museum site showing the keyboard can be found here. The Wang 724 is the model number for the keyboard and the ANSI version of the keyboard is 725-3770. 725-3771 is the ISO version. According to the Deskthority wiki, the 725-3770 came in variants with Orange, Salmon, and Black Alps; the LEDs had Green or Yellow Alps switches which also had LED cutouts. The layout, as I mentioned before, is

In addition to the Wang Museum’s information, I found that sandy55 had great pictures of the 725-3770 keyboard. And I enjoyed komar007’s teardown, pictures,  and review of the 725-3771.

Kingsaver Build Log
Sometimes when I finish working on a keyboard, I look back and wonder why it can’t be a smooth process for me. I always have to have some kind of trouble or a story to go with the build. This time, I learned that the PCB has been worked on at least twice and it wasn’t in very good shape. In fact, I believe that the PCB has reached the end of its “moddability”. In other words, it cannot be re-soldered to have different switches because of all the lifted pads and melting from the heat.  I think I had 10 sets of pads lift on me, all of which I managed to salvage except for one.
The hardest switches to deal with were the “9” and “|\” switches. When I in the middle of desoldering those switches, I realized that pulling the switch bottoms out would completely destroy the pads. I left the bottoms in and swapped the click leaf, spring, and stem from the Blue Alps switches into the Green Alps bottoms I left on the board. That is why in this picture, there are two empty switch bottoms. I was so nervous I was going to bend the leaf springs or jam something. I had *exactly* 84 Blue Alps switches so breaking anything would mean I’d be short switches. Luckily, I was patient and didn’t rush the rebuild process too much so I was able to do a successful transfer. Looking back, I could have worked slower.

To open the switches up and swap the internals, I used this album from Ripster. If you look at this picture from the Deskthority wiki, you’ll notice that there’s two leaf springs. One is on the plate that has the little legs and one that has no legs. The one with no legs is the leaf spring that gives Blue Alps their clicky feeling. How did I learn this? While transferring the internals, I tried to rebuild the switch without that leaf. It doesn’t work.

When rebuilding the switches, the switch bottom will be on the board. When you swap in the internals, make sure you place everything into the *tip* half of the switch. It has guides and sections where everything should sit. You can use grease or really thick Krytox lube to hold the parts in place when you reseat the housing top. So place the stem in and then put the click leaf spring in carefully. Add a little lube to hold the leaf spring in. Then add a dab of grease to the top of the spring diameter and then sit that into the stem. Finally, carefully turn everything over and snap the housing and parts into the base of the switch. I had to do this multiple times because I kept seating the spring improperly, cause the switch to not actuate correctly. I was also freaking out that I was going to break something. So just stay calm so your work can go a little faster.

Because of the pad lifting issue and me rushing, I couldn’t fix the F8. My F8 doesn’t work but I will be remapping Scroll Lock to be F8. The other issue is that I learned that only Green and Yellow Alps have the cutout for LEDs. Other Alps keyboards will use just two of these switches in the LED locations. However, I don’t like non uniform boards so I’ve replaced *all* the switches and my LED windowed caps no longer light up. It doesn’t bother me.

If you manage to find a new kit or a kit that hasn’t been worked on twice before, you shouldn’t have any problems. And be sure to take care of your soldering iron. My iron was EXTREMELY oxidized which didn’t help the situation until mkawa scolded me and helped me to clean it.

So enough about me freaking out and saving my build, here’s some pictures. My flickr has the full albums of the Datacomp XT I harvested the switches from and the Kingsaver, both before and after the switch swap. As always, I tried to process the pictures to look nice but I’m still learning how to take good photos.


Datacomp XT keyboard by CaptainBadass, on Flickr


Kingsaver by CaptainBadass, on Flickr


Back of the Kingsaver by CaptainBadass, on Flickr


Kingsaver with Green SKCL Alps switches installed 2 (complicated linear green Alps) by CaptainBadass, on Flickr


Case top half 1 by CaptainBadass, on Flickr


PCB and foam liner by CaptainBadass, on Flickr


Kingsaver swapped to Blue Alps by CaptainBadass, on Flickr

Typing on the Kingsaver
For the first two or three weeks I owned this keyboard, I had linear green Alps in it. This was the second switch type in it? I think Akimbo got it with Black or Matias Quiet Alps in it and did the swap before he sold it to jdcarpe, who then sold it to me. I really like the linear green Alps. They are my new favorite linear switch and I’ll be swapping my Epsilon to something else as soon as my Zero has the harvest linear green Alps installed in it. The odd thing is that the keyboard was very pingy with these green Alps in it.  Akimbo and I thought it was the resonance from the spring return. Check out this typing video from Akimbo. It didn’t bother me too much though since I knew I was making the change to Blue Alps. As an aside I should say after swapping to Blue Alps, the keyboard doesn't have any ping.

Linear green Alps are easily the smoothest or second smoothest linear switch I’ve ever felt. The only other competition I see is hall effect switches. Linear green Alps. around the same weight as a 65g MX Black with a slightly smaller travel and higher actuation point. They’re incredibly smooth. Smoother than the lubed Blacks I have. It was amazing to play Diablo 3 on because they were so smoother and a nice light, but not too light, switch. I should also point out that I’m talking about the SKCL Linear Green Alps switch, **NOT** the KSB-C clicky green Alps clones found in the Ducky 1087XM keyboard. For what it’s worth, the Ducky 1087XM is the worst mechanical keyboard I’ve bought and those KSB-C clicky green Alps clones are horrible to me.

Complicated Blue Alps are my favorite Alps switch. They’re a little heavier than the SKCL Green Alps, are clicky, and feel springy as well as responsive. I find that the White Alps that is the closest analogue to this switch is heavier and a little sluggish. It’s also not as smooth. Perhaps that was dependent on the condition of the Focus FK2001 I had though. I also mention more about how I feel about the switches in the review I wrote about Akimbo’s Omnikey 101 modified to have Blue Alps. Check that out for more of my thoughts on the switch. I love them. They are the ultimate Alps switch for me. So earlier when I say my dream keyboard needs to have the “proper Alps switch” in them, this is what I meant and wanted.

As I mentioned before, the layout is very close to a modern ANSI winkeyless layout so there’s no adjustment to layouts for me. The board came with the “Lock”, or on my board, teal “Yellow” key mapped as the windows key. I love this and I’ll probably be doing this more.

Because of the rubber pads on the bottom and the weight of the keyboard, it is incredibly solid. I think that it’s on par with my KMAC in terms of feeling “solid” when typing and maybe even nicer than the SSK. But don’t just take my word for it. Check out this typing test video I made to show how the keyboard looks and sounds in action.

(The letter lego set I bought only had two “S” letters so I had to use a “5” for the “S” in Kingsaver)

Happily ever after with the Kingsaver
I’m very happy with this keyboard! It has been on my wishlist for more than a year; intensified when I tried it out at jdcarpe’s house during the Geekhack roadtrip dorkvader and I did last year. As requested by nuclearsandwich, I’ll be bringing the board to Keycon West 2014 in Mountain View, California. If you make it out to the meetup, come find me and I’ll let you try out the board for yourself!

If you would like more information or just have questions about the keyboard, please let me know and I’ll be happy to talk to you about it. And of course, any and all errors about the Wang company and Kingsaver are mine and mine alone. If you see something wrong, please let me know.


I also neglected to thanks a few people earlier. Thank you jdcarpe and AKIMbO for selling and building the keyboard to me. And thank you photekq for helping me with some of the research of this article.

exitfire401:
Excellent writeup! I really wish I could get my hands on one =(

Halverson:
TL;DR

:D

ComradeSniper:
Great review of an awesome keyboard! I'm super jealous   :)

RabRhee:
Lovely board, and nice to get it to your favourite switches even with the stresses and strains. Grats man.


(I shall use the faults highlighted in this post to justify a large discount when you sell it to me :))

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