Thoughts on putting great switches and caps on a mediocre keyboard?

[ziwzih]

N00b status here, have one board; a drevo gramr. I's a cute little board and pretty amazing fro the price ($35). Would it make any sense for me to buy some sweet switches (like zealio 67g) and some nice, thick, front printed PBT caps, desolder and toss em on this sucker? The alternative is to stop being a baby and purchase a board of quality. There's a few I have in mind, even a couple ppl willing to sell them to me.

I suppose my point here is, since this board has a relatively attractive, heavy, black case and a solid PCB (rebranded keycool) could it be possible to bring this board into a realm of greatness by swapping the switches and caps? It'd sure as hell save me a buttload of money that I totes shouldn't spend right now.

[exitfire401]

N00b status here, have one board; a drevo gramr. I's a cute little board and pretty amazing fro the price ($35). Would it make any sense for me to buy some sweet switches (like zealio 67g) and some nice, thick, front printed PBT caps, desolder and toss em on this sucker? The alternative is to stop being a baby and purchase a board of quality. There's a few I have in mind, even a couple ppl willing to sell them to me.

I suppose my point here is, since this board has a relatively attractive, heavy, black case and a solid PCB (rebranded keycool) could it be possible to bring this board into a realm of greatness by swapping the switches and caps? It'd sure as hell save me a buttload of money that I totes shouldn't spend right now.

I don't see why not. My current work board is a CM Quickfire TK that I threw some Lubed 62g gateron clears into and gave a nice paintjob and threw the Toxic set on. It's not about the price of the board, it's how you like it and how you make it your own. As long as you're happy in the end, it was worth it.

[happylacquer]

Depends! It's possible but not guarenteed you can. Some things you should take into consideration.

I got a Corsair K65 on sale for no other reason than it was the cheapest board with Reds which I wanted to try. What I didn't know until it was too late, the damn thing had a non standard bottom row. I had to deal with a mix of caps or just not using anything but the stock bottom row. And the caps were hideous! That I eventually put some white PBT caps on everything but the bottom row (it bugged the hell out of me) but eventually a friend was over and asked if I had any spare keyboards. I ended up giving him a crappy HP USB board and the K65 with white caps. I asked him what caps he wanted most and showed him the stock ones and my Advanatage ones... he picked the white pbt ones. Don't blame him 

Another board I had trouble with is a super cheap board with MX Blue clones, not even real blues. The space bar can't be removed, and any of the keys that expect 3 switches to mount onto won't work as there's plastic raised there those keys' other switches would be!

So, I think if you can avoid these two snags, you can do it.

[ziwzih]

So, I think if you can avoid these two snags, you can do it.

Haha nice! Yeah the drevo has a couple non-standard keys as it's a 75%, namely the right shift, but I've seen plenty of cap kits out there that will cover this board. The caps I'm looking at are actually the front printed caps from a leopold 980m, which comes with the caps I need!

[ziwzih]

I don't see why not. My current work board is a CM Quickfire TK that I threw some Lubed 62g gateron clears into and gave a nice paintjob and threw the Toxic set on. It's not about the price of the board, it's how you like it and how you make it your own. As long as you're happy in the end, it was worth it.

Yeah that's sort of what I was thinking, if the board feels fine on it's own, then swapping its parts out for ones that I like should not only make it my own, but make it feel great! I suppose I am most interested if people think that doing this kind of thing is a fool's errand as far as putting quality-built stuff in a not-so-quality-built base.

Thanks!

[catawalks]

I don't see why not. My current work board is a CM Quickfire TK that I threw some Lubed 62g gateron clears into and gave a nice paintjob and threw the Toxic set on. It's not about the price of the board, it's how you like it and how you make it your own. As long as you're happy in the end, it was worth it.

Yeah that's sort of what I was thinking, if the board feels fine on it's own, then swapping its parts out for ones that I like should not only make it my own, but make it feel great! I suppose I am most interested if people think that doing this kind of thing is a fool's errand as far as putting quality-built stuff in a not-so-quality-built base.

Thanks!

I don't think it's a fool's errand. The amount of money you save and the satisfaction of having customized the board to your liking are well worth all the effort. Sure, dropping a boat load on a new keyboard could get you close to where you want to be, but building that thing yourself is much more fun. I'm currently doing the same thing with a Dell AT101W. I've got so many hours into tuning the switches, desoldering everything, making CAD drawings of the back plate to cut my own, swapping switch types to see which feels best, and all sorts of other things. In the end I'll have a decent base board, but it'll be fully customized to my tastes and liking...it'll be MY board through and through.

I say go for it.

[fohat.digs]

I'm currently doing the same thing with a Dell AT101W.

The Dell AT101 is a very high-quality board as Alps go. Well worth an investment of time and effort to improve the switches. Here is one with with orange Alps.

Damn you Tai-Ho for non-standard CapsLock and space bar.

[hwood34]

Go for it. Not everyone is serious enough about the hobby to drop a ton on some rare, l33t board. Hell, plenty of huge posters here rock QFRs, KULs, and the like. If you've found a keyboard you love and throw some more love in it, you really can't go wrong. Now you might run into some issues if the PCB is real ****ty and it doesn't like to be soldered and re-soldered, but that shouldn't be a big issue. Other stuff like poorly soldered ports and such from the factory are easily fixable too.

[1391406]

If the board is sturdy and you like it, who cares how much it cost?

[catawalks]

I'm currently doing the same thing with a Dell AT101W.

The Dell AT101 is a very high-quality board as Alps go. Well worth an investment of time and effort to improve the switches. Here is one with with orange Alps.

Damn you Tai-Ho for non-standard CapsLock and space bar.

It's the same idea though. Take a cheap keyboard of some sort or another and customize it to suit your own needs.

The Drevo Gramr can't be that bad of a starting point. If he goes the route of replacing the switches than there won't be much left to go wrong with it. It's already plate mount and if he replaces all the solder then the joints will be fine. The chassis is plastic but the switch mounting plate is aluminum so it should be decently sturdy. The only thing left would be the controller but that can be replaced as well. You don't need to spend a ton of money to make a nice board especially if he already has an aluminum plate to mount things on. Hell, he could throw in some decent switches that he likes, hand wire the thing to a $25 Teensy++ 2.0 and have a completely new board all his own for dirt cheap.

[ziwzih]

Hell, he could throw in some decent switches that he likes, hand wire the thing to a $25 Teensy++ 2.0 and have a completely new board all his own for dirt cheap.

Hoooooooly **** I did not know that was possible. Frankly the main reason I was considering a more expensive 75 was for programmability....

[happylacquer]

Hell, he could throw in some decent switches that he likes, hand wire the thing to a $25 Teensy++ 2.0 and have a completely new board all his own for dirt cheap.

Hoooooooly **** I did not know that was possible. Frankly the main reason I was considering a more expensive 75 was for programmability....

Not only is it possible, it works very well  I have done it with an AEK2.

[ziwzih]

Not only is it possible, it works very well  I have done it with an AEK2.

Do you have any pics of that build?

[OfTheWild]

My work board (Ducky in my sig below) was $14 on ebay. I've since put $80 worth of switches in it, $140 worth of key caps on it, and its a wonderful board to type on. Thats what matters.

[Puddsy]

i have 62g lubed blacks in a 5 year old QFR

just use what's available to you

[davkol]

Well, I mean… my primary keyboard was a Noppoo Choc Mini for at least a year. The case, PCB and overall assembly sucked, but I loved MX Red switches and thick Cherry-profile POM caps. And later I used a QFR (nothing spectacular) for a year—with a replacement controller and thick PBT doubleshots from Vortex.

As long as neither switches, nor keycapsare suck (definitions of "suck" may vary), and the keyboard actually works, I'm mainly concerned about the form factor and layout.

[happylacquer]

Not only is it possible, it works very well  I have done it with an AEK2.

Do you have any pics of that build?

No sorry, I decided I didn't like Alps as much as buckling springs and put the aek2 in a box... it's still sitting around here. I'm waiting for some GHer to snatch it up 

[TheNamesTy45]

I don't see why not. As long as you don't mind desoldering the entire board. I've desoldered two of my boards, and all I can say is make sure you either A) carve out a night to do this, or B) make sure you have a backup board as you do this over the course of a couple of days. It definitely gets easier the more you do it, but the time doing it when you're first learning is substantial. However, this does give you great practice with a soldering iron so that you're not damaging an expensive PCB if this is one of your first experiences with a soldering iron and a PCB.

I personally love my Ducky One TKL like no other keyboard before after taking out the Cherry MX Browns and swapping in some Gateron reds. In fact, it completely sold me on using linear switches in my upcoming custom build. My other board is an MK Disco TKL that I took the KBT brown switches out of and swapped in 67g Zealios. The LEDs on that board were a MAJOR PAIN to desolder. 4 pins for each LED + 2 pins for each switch to desolder... Still gives me nightmares. Despite how much I love these, I still have the desire to build custom boards because I want the feeling of something completely custom by picking out every little component, so, I'm not sure if that feeling will go away for you. This exercise just may further exasperate that desire.

The good news is that if you decide to upgrade to a completely custom keyboard, you can remove the switches from this board to place into the new board and use the same keycaps. The tinkerer in me says go for it because if nothing else you've gained the experience doing this at a rather affordable price.

[merlin64]

In my 2 + years of mechanical keyboard hobbyism, I've found that half the joy of this hobby is in the making, modifying and programming. There's the satisfaction that you built it yourself, or that you made it your own. Whether it be new keycaps, or a new PCB design with a crazy layout. I think all of us get the itch for the next keyboard, but for me specifically I get the itch to build. Offering to build keyboards for people has also proven to be a good way of stopping me from spending on more keyboards haha.

If this is your first time through, it definitely won't be your last. Mod away, it doesn't matter what keyboard it is or how much you bought it for. It will be an experience that prepares you for the next. The mistakes and the successes are what make this hobby so rewarding on the DIY level.  (well the mistakes aren't as rewarding when you mess up on very expensive keyboard)

[tp4tissue]

It doesn't really matter, because the entire process of dressing up a keyboard is vanity.

But the disadvantage to keyboard vanity is that , almost definitely no one will see it enough to justify the aesthetic cost.


As for the FUNCTION of switches and caps.. there will be no difference in performance, so Any and all preference which are outside of that is also Vain..



In the end,  decorate your closet however you like,  But keep in mind, not enough people will visit your closet for it to be worth decorating..


Now, you'll say,  well it's for me...  fine...  if that sort of self-delusion is a necessity, so be it.