Corsair K95
Changing the Cherry MX Red switches to Blue (mostly) *Dec 19th 2014*
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Technically speaking my first mods were G710+ o-rings that my friend gave me cause he didn't like them and then LPWL thick clear o-rings but that's not really interesting so i'll just go with the big mod of the switching the switches. Although since i mentioned them i did really enjoy the thick LPWL o-rings on the reds but i only used it for a week before doing this.
Sorry for the horrible instagram pic, i deleted the original off my phone.
(http://puu.sh/hC9D4/e3031a796f.jpg)
So the reason i even decided to do this is because i knew i was going to be getting a red switched TKL for gaming in the near future because the distance between the keyboard and mouse hand has started to bother me during my gaming sessions where as it never used to. I love the red switches for gaming but i make a lot of typing mistakes with them and I used to have a 2013 Razer BlackWidow and i really enjoyed typing on the MX blues on it so i knew i'd have to have a blue switched board for the daily and a red switched TKL for gaming.
The reason i decided to do it on this specific board is mainly because i already had it but also because i do actually like this keyboard and plan to keep it for a daily driver for a while because i enjoy the features like the dedicated media keys, volume wheel, windows key lock button and the G keys are nice for program shortcuts, hot keys, and to type out emails and such.
So with all this decided i3oilermaker (techkeys) had a large batch finicky switches he got stuck with from a bad supplier and decided to unload them at a crazy price so i knew it was time to finally do this, they needed some TLC but i'm unemployed so i have the time to do it.
So i'm not sure what was up with these switches but it there was some gunk/lube on the sliders & contact leaf that had to be wiped off but it wasn't giving the satisfying clicked i remembered having on the BW so i bent the leafs a little bit too and that did the trick.
(http://photos-d.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t51.2885-15/10785061_619606811499667_1942654979_n.jpg)
When i finally get around to editing and uploading the video i'll be posting a detailed video on how to tear down a K95, it'll probably help if you guys bug me about it since i have no real motivation to do it right now.
So after it's all apart you get to the tedious task of soldering, now i don't know if it's because of the $4 soldering iron i got at Daiso or my noob soldering skills or what but at least half of the joints i desoldered had a tiny part still attached that i either needed to push off with a screw driver or use the soldering iron to push it off the side while i hold the pin away from the sides so this ended up taking a lot of time and if i ever get into desoldering more than another whole board I'm definitely buying a desoldering gun or something.
i didn't take any pictures here but here's the PCB completely off, i took it off completely because i wanted to put Black tape on the PCB where it's visible through the space bar stabilizer slot.
(http://i.imgur.com/Fh2xLS0.jpg)
Sorry my focus is off here, i was tired.
(http://i.imgur.com/AVPl4pW.jpg)
Here's the separated plate as well, kind neat how you can see the machining marks on the back.
(http://i.imgur.com/7aULa6f.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/aqGowSn.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/B4Gb6g5.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/y84Apov.jpg)
And here's the reason i had to do 16 extra soldering/desoldering joints....
(http://i.imgur.com/xHFmzF0.jpg)
Not really happy about this part cause the tape ended up not being long enough to cover the part i wanted it to so i had to use tweezers to more and fit in more tape to cover up the PCB.
Before (notice around the left stabilizer part but there was more exposed)
(http://i.imgur.com/DmBj4JW.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/ZvGNNOr.jpg)
After
(http://i.imgur.com/UjORMhP.jpg)
So after getting the board soldered back together i tested it with Aqua key test to test my board before i put it back into the case and my "G" and numpad "4" keys did not work so i checked the solder joints and they looked fine but i reflowed them and tried again and nothing, so i checked the traces and they looked fine so i just switched out the switches and it worked! i inspected the 2 switches and it turned out that i bent the leafs weird so the crosspoints didn't touch.
I added some foam to the bottom of the case, "because i could" but i realize now that i haven't had a problem with pinging like i used to but that could also be due to changing the switches too, who knows. I may also end up adding some lead weights because there's a bit of room on the topside of the case.
Keep in mind if you're going to do this that the contact pads for sister board for the media keys and such rely on the pressure between the top plate and bottom case on the silicone pads so you don't want to add too much foam here or it may cause the medias not to function.
(http://i.imgur.com/QLg4GDg.jpg)
And here here it is back together, without caps. I kept the arrow keys red just because, same with the few G-keys.
(http://i.imgur.com/0WMf9qb.jpg)
So that's it for the K95! I'm typing on it now and the blue switches are just as lovely as i remembered them being.
Thanks for joining me on this journey, here's some artsy photo's!
(http://i.imgur.com/GOWoCPW.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/yn2fqP9.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/XfmGIBH.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/RoYyb4B.jpg)
Keycap Update! *Jan 9th 2015*
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So i had a trip to Taiwan and my wife convinced me to pick up a set of caps while i was there =D
When i had gotten home though my CnC set from MD had arrived as well and well i like grey more than cream white =)
I realize some of the LED's are dead on the G-Key section, i'll either replace them or be doing a sip socket mod there when i'm not so lazy.
(http://i.imgur.com/wJojklU.jpg)
Forgot to mention that i used the 1.5 tab key for the CTRL key and used the 1.25 Fn key for tab since i use it less often and it bothers me less than the space on the bottom row.
Now i have a set of blue/white and i'm not sure what i'm gonna do with it, maybe sell it or use it on my GON or put this green set on the GON and the b/w set on this K95. we'll see.
(http://i.imgur.com/BxVlcLY.jpg)
LED Fix update *Jan 11th 2015*
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So you may have noticed on some of the older pictures that some of the LED's on the G-key section burnt out and i have a couple of extra 2x3x4 led's i got for the GON so i figured i'd replace them today.
Now i need around 90 LED's for my GON and only have a pack of 100 so instead of doing all 18 i just did the top 6 and moved around a couple of the stock LED's in case the brightness was different.
I always seem to forget to take pictures of the process..... so here's the end product.
Also note that the 2x3x4 is a little dimmer but at the same time more even where as the regular flange-less 3mm LED's have a hotspot in the middle and is very noticeably darker near the bottom of the numbers.
**after looking at it i notice that it doesn't really come through on the photo's since i had a long exposure time to make up for that....
(http://i.imgur.com/W1yujGk.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/l8o4vf6.jpg)
Here's the different led's
(http://i.imgur.com/ka4E9bw.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/pjBwdvJ.jpg)
Dark shot
(http://i.imgur.com/AD20P4D.jpg)
And i was experimenting with sip socket stuff getting ready for the GON so i threw them into one switch, yeah...just one....
(http://i.imgur.com/w56egbr.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/A6zXaZp.jpg)
And that's it for that!
DTA 2014 Limited Edition GON NerD TKL Ver2.0
Parts
LED's and SIP sockets arrive *Jan 7th ish*
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The GON parts should be coming (around) march 2015
Got the White LED's (might get purple/pink too) and SIP sockets in the mail. (Jan 7th ish)
(http://i.imgur.com/CcokfVM.jpg)
GON Parts arrive! *March 23rd*
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At some random point between Jan-Mar i clipped the LED legs to length, i forgot because i would do them little bits by bits while i was watching movies and other random activities.
I kinda forgot the timeline since i never updated this right away but IIRC it was about March 25th that the parts arrived from GON, i wish i took a picture here but i was just so excited about my GON arriving that i just busted the box open. oh right! i guess i kind of did because i took pics of the PCB about that time so if i check my history it tells me that my parts arrived March 23rd.
I guess i'll just photo dump those here!
(http://i.imgur.com/b1ZQ5Ng.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/IQZ9SQt.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/AQJoXiO.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/ZRWa9UX.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/BUE0avj.jpg)
I can't believe he does this stuff by hand man!
(http://i.imgur.com/K1j6Pfr.jpg)
Man this case is awesome....
(http://i.imgur.com/HMQv6s9.jpg)
So since i was soon leaving to another city for work for a while i decided that i would do the build there since i would be away from my family and with limited money for the first while so it'd be a great thing to distract me from missing my family or going out and spending money.
Worklog
Cut SIP plastic socket shroud *Jan 16th*
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Might be kind of ridiculous but I'm a perfectionist (until i get fed up/lazy -_-) and i wanted the sockets to hold themselves in place rather than me having to align them with an LED before soldering so i went through the work of cutting one side of the plastic on the SIP socket shrouds so they'd be out of the way of this weird lip. (might have worked out for the best since i don't have something to hold the PCB up off the table) (*update*for some reason i wasn't thinking of just cutting the LED's to length and using the uncut LED's to align it.....)
(http://i.imgur.com/W8fRQMi.jpg)
I probably wouldn't do it again...
(http://i.imgur.com/nOKtQ7H.jpg)
(Now that i think about it a little more it was kind of stupid since i could just pop in the LED's to hold the SIP sockets while i'm already there lubing, stickering, and closing the switches to fully assemble them and not have to solder everything and then flip it back over to install just the LED's)
* I ended up just clipping these out of the plastic shroud completely since it just works better without the shroud, i wasted so much time here lol
Unfortunately from here I have a lot less pictures here than i would have liked since i always seem to forget to take them when i'm concentrating....
Switch stickers and SIP sockets! *April 2nd-5th*
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Giving a general timeline it was about this time that i did the switches, I did them very slowly since i was in no rush to finish since i had to caps nor a computer to use the board with when i finished it anyways.
Also i unfortunately had a lot of issues with customs getting the lube from BunnyLake from the advent giveaway and i really didn't feel like trying to get lube from another source just to maybe still not be able to get it past customs so i ended up just skipping on the lube completely which is really unfortunate but i'm kinda glad too because i didn't have to do the tedious switch lubing process XD
This was my work station for the build. Listening to some music with my AKG Q701's powered by a FiiO E07K from my Nexus 5.
(http://i.imgur.com/Z1fi84U.jpg)
Phew! even just stickers and SIP sockets is hard work.....
(http://i.imgur.com/AWtKMB8.jpg)
ALL DONE!!!!!
(http://i.imgur.com/szPNeAj.jpg)
I accidentally pulled off an extra sticker so i snuck in a random blue switch lol
Kinda sucks to do all this work and not lube the switches but i guess there's always a next time.
PHOTOGRAPHY BREAK!!!!
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(http://i.imgur.com/i4ogUro.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/ESqtIMS.jpg)
There was actually some work done here by clipping the cherry stabs but i literally took no photo's of that....
Bottom SMD LED's *April 5th*
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Alright..... time to do bottom SMD LED's.....wish me luck..... (sorry for the potato pic, i was actually taking this to show my co-workers how small they are)
(http://i.imgur.com/KEIj1U1.jpg)
All done! looking back at LPWL's pics of GON's soldering work, i definitely put on too much solder but i'm too lazy to go back in and fix it unless it becomes a problem.
(http://i.imgur.com/VOuBrsR.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/U6TPTym.jpg)
Switch Soldering and Finish! *April 6th*
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So unfortunately with the switch soldering time it literally never crossed my mind to take photo's so i didn't take these till i was done.
(http://i.imgur.com/1myKyes.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/KvQZIJP.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/GKRfvHP.jpg)
So i'm not sure why but my entire navigation keys area was like this, I think the plate was cut weird and don't think it was the PCB because i tried very hard to fix them with the exact same results.
(http://i.imgur.com/Y5L3Sti.jpg)
Whatever! i'll never notice it once the top piece and the caps are on.
Well! It's done!
I wanted to see what it would look like without the top plate on and just the "floating" switches.
(http://i.imgur.com/HLuyt17.jpg)
And here it is with the top plate on!
(http://i.imgur.com/1H7fV6X.jpg)
The bottom.
(http://i.imgur.com/4lhkk0K.jpg)
Obligatory artsy shot!
(http://i.imgur.com/H3nmOSS.jpg)
And here's a photo shot just to bring the quality down a peg.
(http://i.imgur.com/pJLIYm2.jpg)
Ducky PBT CCnG keys! *May 4th*
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(http://i.imgur.com/1G9lHEj.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/cLoAING.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/jwYhLSf.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/71JXe00.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/zoiOzNj.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/UReB5qV.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/pr7xPO6.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/JHdZj7I.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/kE4xL1I.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/YBfzgfR.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/46WtPJP.jpg)