Cherry MX board 3.0 keycaps

[saxophone]

I went and bought an Cherry MX 3.0 board (g80-3850) just to get the keycaps. Here's some pictures for anyone else who might be interested:


Picture of the keyscaps except for capslock on my tenkeyless. Cherry supposedly use POM on some of their keycaps, so I can't tell if this is ABS or POM. Legends are laser etched on and sticks out a bit from the top of the keycap.



The caps are of course low profile. They differ from other cherry ones in they have an tiny distance around the base which isn't sloped. They also produce an much more subdued sound when typing and bottoming out compared to the OEM profile ABS caps I have. The top area is of same width but ~1.5mm smaller in height compared to that of OEM keycaps.



Of course ignorant designer still haven't bothered to center the stem despite it being perfectly possible.



Profile view shoes that it's pretty much flat, no sculpt I believe.



The original keyboard uses cherry stabs. There's a slight problem with fitting the keyboard onto costar stabs: if the wire is thick then the part of it that goes around the switch will bump into the bottom of the cap. This can be solved by filing/cutting away a part where the wire bumps into the keycap.



You can fit O-rings onto these. They still attach fine even with the 2.5mm ones that I'm using (obtained from LPWL) however it'll leave a gap as seen on bottom part. I'll probably end up getting 1.5mm rings which should work out perfectly for these.

[Geroximo]

The off centered capslock is borderline annoying.
Why you do this Cherry Corp? 

[Lpwl]

I've never seen this kind of keycaps before !

This is quite interesting.

Please, let me send you these thinner O-rings for free ... and for science !

[Hyde]

Yes I have Cherry MX Board 2.0 which has the same keycaps.  I have to say I really like them, this is like mixing the best of both worlds between mechanical and laptop keyboard.

Someone have found out that the keycaps are made by Devlin:  https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=42281.msg1408927#msg1408927

However I think they don't really deal with anyone other than QWER keys, so I'm not sure a group buy is possible.

And yes I also agree that the off centre capslock is just stupid.  =_____=

Hopefully we'll be able to find a way to source the keycaps one day.

[saxophone]

Yes I have Cherry MX Board 2.0 which has the same keycaps.

Could you post a picture of the stems for the ones you have?

I remember it being written somewhere about that MX2 had stems which made the keys feel stiff when being pressed off-center.
I'm also waiting on POM "G80 3850" keycaps bought on taobao which are probably just like the 3494 ones on the picture below.
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k221/undarken/G80-3800/Keycaps.jpg

[Hyde]

Okay I'll take a picture tonight when I get home. 

[slobo]

If you bought the keyboard only for keycaps, does it means that the plate (switches, plastic, board qualities) is bad?

[saxophone]

If you bought the keyboard only for keycaps, does it means that the plate (switches, plastic, board qualities) is bad?

No. I bought it simply for the keycaps to use on my TKL board. There's no TKL variant of this.

The keyboard itself is supposedly ok if you look at other reviews. Personally I don't like its shape with the cherry logo sticking out on the top, plus the finish on the plastic shell of it looks a bit cheap but that's all there is to say about it. It uses standard cherry red switches that are plate mounted. Not much else to say about it.

[Hyde]

If you bought the keyboard only for keycaps, does it means that the plate (switches, plastic, board qualities) is bad?

No. I bought it simply for the keycaps to use on my TKL board. There's no TKL variant of this.

The keyboard itself is supposedly ok if you look at other reviews. Personally I don't like its shape with the cherry logo sticking out on the top, plus the finish on the plastic shell of it looks a bit cheap but that's all there is to say about it. It uses standard cherry red switches that are plate mounted. Not much else to say about it.

Yeah I also bought the keyboard to try the keycap.  Mainly because there are no other ways to get such keycap at the moment.

Cherry MX Board 2.0 is PCB mounted.
Cherry MX Board 3.0 is plate mounted.

In fact I like the keycap A LOT.  It really is the best compromise between high and low key height considering typing speed and comfort.

The keyboard itself is ok, not a big fan of the design (purely on looks) though the build quality seems ok but nothing that stands out.  Really ideally we should try to push to see if we can get the keycaps made at Devlin.

Oh as for the picture you asked, here we go:



Keycap seems identical to MX Board 3.0:  http://iqmore.tw/cherry-mx-board-3-0-g80-3850-mechanical-keyboard-review/2

As for the off centre strike, I'm assuming it's not very reinforced for tilts.

But of the most part you don't notice any issues when typing.

[Lpwl]

[...]

http://iqmore.tw/cherry-mx-board-3-0-g80-3850-mechanical-keyboard-review/2

[...]

Thank you Hyde.

This review answered pretty much all the questions I had left ! (eg. how are the switches are soldered to the PCB)

I'll probably grab this keyboard (with AZERTY keycaps) once its price crosses the "acceptability threshold" for what I think it's worth (50/60€).

----

@saxophone - you might want to take a look at this thread over at Deskthority.

It explains how to mod your off-center CAPSLOCK keycap to a more standard (centered) one.

In case the pics are not showing up, you'll probably have to follow this imgur guide made by Ripster 

[saxophone]

O-rings from LPWL have arrived, I'm very thankful that a sample bag was included as well since that allows me to try out the XXL (3mm rings) as well.

Have some pictures. These are of the F-Keys going high->low start with the XXL ring on the left down to no ring on at right.




Here's of how much down they'll go when pressed normally.


Things to note: Because O-rings are flexible you can exert a lot of force onto the keycap to make the rings flatten and force the slider deeper into the keycap. As you can see on the picture the slider for the key with the 1.5mm o-ring is inserted as deep as that for the key without any o-ring. Doing this you can brute force even the 3mm o-ring to work fine with low profile keycaps, especially if you were to add the scotch tape trick as well. I would not recommend doing this on something like PCB mounted switches however and the reason should be obvious.

Acoustically there isn't much of an difference between the 1.5mm and the 2.5mm when bottoming out. I'd say what's packed below the plate makes more of an difference at this point. I would still definitely recommend 2.5mm and 3mm o-rings if you're looking to reduce max key travel distance.

/off topic: If you have something like PCB mounted keys or a Team Wolf ZHUQUE you could minimize the key travel by opening the individual key switches, lift out top shell+slider, jam slider into the keycap and then reattach the slider+top+keycap clump into the switch.

[7zS2]

Googled these to find out their profile. Came across this thread and thought I'd show you my V60 and Pok3r keyboards with these on top. Here they are:

[Hyde]

Damn I still want this really bad, too bad last I heard Devlin need an insane amount of MOQ.

Someone should re-quote with them. 

[majstor]

You want the keys, I have a couple of sets and something a little different  .

[ander]

The off centered capslock is borderline annoying.
Why you do this Cherry Corp?  :-[

People still use Caps Lock? Why? When they feel the urge to shout? It's the first thing I deactivate in the Windows registry, personally; always pressing it inadvertently, otherwise.

Besides, even if you do use it, you must press it only occasionally, so who cares if it's perfectly centered or not? Are we possibly being a bit fixated here?

[ander]

Oh, wait, you were probably referring to being able to replace the caps, right? Duh.

[nyunyu]

Oh, wait, you were probably referring to being able to replace the caps, right? Duh.

You can use any spare 1.5 mod key as temporary Caps Lock:


That is the only non-standard cap on MXB2/3, everything else fits perfectly.

[disposalist]

Hi Geek Hackers!  Registered just to post to this thread

I bought the Cherry MX 3.0 board just to get the keycaps and put them on a new Cool Master MasterKeys Pro S.  They went onto the Cherry MX Brown switches fine, though with 2mm O rings they were a little wobbly, but they didn't flip off when running a finger across the keyboard, for example.

Unfortunately... the Cap Lock didn't fit!  The socket on the keycap was off-center on the Cherry MS 3.0 board, so it wouldn't go on the MasterKeys board.  I don't know which was non-Cherry standard, but just thought I'd raise the flag.

Also, the Cherry MX 3.0 key caps were only 'painted' not dual-layer and the symbols and text were often off-center.  Really not what I'd expect from Cherry.  I should have taken pictures - maybe I got a fake board?  But it was from Amazon UK...

[SpAmRaY]

Hi Geek Hackers!  Registered just to post to this thread

I bought the Cherry MX 3.0 board just to get the keycaps and put them on a new Cool Master MasterKeys Pro S.  They went onto the Cherry MX Brown switches fine, though with 2mm O rings they were a little wobbly, but they didn't flip off when running a finger across the keyboard, for example.

Unfortunately... the Cap Lock didn't fit!  The socket on the keycap was off-center on the Cherry MS 3.0 board, so it wouldn't go on the MasterKeys board.  I don't know which was non-Cherry standard, but just thought I'd raise the flag.

Also, the Cherry MX 3.0 key caps were only 'painted' not dual-layer and the symbols and text were often off-center.  Really not what I'd expect from Cherry.  I should have taken pictures - maybe I got a fake board?  But it was from Amazon UK...

Your board is fine that's how it is made.

Most modern cherry boards have lasered or pad printed caps.

The caps lock is a unique offset to that board.

[tp4tissue]

Doesn't have to fit perfectly guys..  they all look good.