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Everything is Bakeneko

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Rubbermilitia:

--- Quote from: hplar on Thu, 24 June 2021, 00:12:39 ---Excuse me for being a little slow here, but how do the PCB and plate stay in? From what I’m getting you got rid of the stand off screw-in slots, if that’s the case wouldn’t the PCB just fall out if the board is flipped?

--- End quote ---
Its friction fit, people do this with unikorn, bakenoko, similar boards. Havent had the chance to actually read through this but it should be possible if using an o-ring around the plate/pcb

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

chungsteroonie:
The PCB assembly is friction fit around the entire perimeter. . . additionally, the rubber O-rings in this proposed mod configuration slot and lock into the grooves that are cut into the side walls of the case to allow the o-ring to clear the Durock V2 screw in stabilizers.  This VERY securely locks the PCB/plate assembly into position once the O-ring is squished in there.  It takes a significant amount of force to pull the PCB/plate assembly up by the front lip near the spacebar.  I usually use a pencil with a rubber eraser to push the PCB up through the access hole at the case base while simultaneously pulling up on the plate with one end of a switch puller.  It takes so much force to dislodge the O-ring once seated into the groove that there is no way it will accidentally fall out.  You can hold the keyboard upside down and shake it as hard as you can.  The PCB is not going anywhere.



Here is one of the front O-ring relief cutouts.  The wedge shaped portion of the cutout allows the O-ring to have enough space to wedge into place near the spacebar as the assembly is first pressed into the butt end of the keyboard where the USB port slots in on the left side, and the two cutouts for the backspace stabilizers are located.  With the back installed first, the front end of the PCB assembly is lowered into place, and the O-ring carefully squeezed into first the wedge cuts and then locks into the full cutout at the spacebar stabilizers.  Without those wedge cuts, it would be tremendously difficult to press the PCB into the case and even more difficult if not impossible to remove it.



Here is a photo where you can see the O-ring seated into the side of the case under the plate once installed.

chungsteroonie:
I'm not so sure a lot of folks are chomping at the bit to buy and then hack up their keyboard cases like this, but if you plan to, the best Dremel tool to hand cut the inside case slots with is the #199 high speed cutter which works well on wood, plastic, and aluminum.



After doing a couple of cases with cutoff wheels and ball end cutters, I found this one to be far superior for control.

Another must have to avoid cutting too deep on the KBDfans Anodized aluminum case is a depth gauge.  I made mine from cutting an old credit card with scissors.



You can stick this into the groove as you cut to make sure you do not cut through the thin side wall of the case.

chungsteroonie:
Economics of various mods as compared to group buy/wait options

The most economical VIA compatible options that I tried for 60% PCB's have been KBDfans DZ60 Rev 3.0 ($38), YMCK GH60 ($29), and KPRepublic XD64 ($30 caution: NORTH LED's!).  I don't think that hot swap PCB's are mechanically prudent to use long-term in this setup so I haven't tried.  The pads on the YMCK board seem a little more fragile than the KBDfans offering, but since I'm cheap, I'll go with that PCB for comparison.

Entry level kit options of gasket mount variety:

Cannon Keys Bakeneko kit - $130 (includes case, PCB, plate, stabilizers)

KBDfans D60Lite kit - $119

The Key Dot Co Portico - $135


Dremel Hacked Options:

plastic Bakeneko - $15 (case) + $29 (PCB) + $18 (Plate) + $12 (O-ring) + $2 (Sorbothane strips) + $18.50 (stabilizers) = $94.50

wood Bakeneko - $50 (case) + $29 (PCB) + $18 (Plate) + $12 (O-ring) + $2 (Sorbothane strips) + $18.50 (stabilizers) =  $129.50

Anodized Aluminum Bakenkeo - $73 (case) + $29 (PCB) + $18 (Plate) + $12 (O-ring) + $2 (Sorbothane strips) + $18.50 (stabilizers) = $152.50



It seems to me that the economies of scale tip the favor towards the entry level kits when available, but I do like having the ability to build a number of options with no delay if needed with very good performance and that can look pretty ok all the way up to the point where you open it up and look inside.  I've been able to learn a lot from doing these builds in various configurations and even had a chance to order some laser cut delrin plates to experiment with. . . even though I screwed it up and used 19mm key spacing instead of 19.05mm , a little filing sorted it out.  It is astounding to me how much of a difference changing out the case makes to the typing feel of the keyboard.  I was not expecting with the exact same PCB/plate assembly and mount system to have a completely different feeling coming back at my fingertips when typing between the wood case and the Aluminum case.  It's all been super fun.

A couple of options that stand out to me are the plastic case in milky white (available on Aliexpress) and the wood case.  The plastic material and molding/texture is pretty cheap on these plastic options but the milky white option masks a lot of those textural deficiencies and looks really nice with RGB underglow.  It also yields a comically light-weight package that feels and sounds really nice to my ear.  The plastic case also has the lowest front height and shallower typing angle than the aluminum case which suits my preference for ergonomics.  The wood case was interesting to me because it provided an assortment of varied sounds that was just fun.  I'm sure it is completely accidental, but there is a deep cutout on the right side of the specific case that I'm using which on the wood case, makes the right side sound significantly different from the left side when typing.  So, if consistency is your jam, you may want to select a wood case with more symmetrical cutouts.  There is not another wood offering on the market right now that I know of that is a proper gasket mount, and the material adds a complexity in the resonance it produces that just doesn't happen in plastic and metal.

Generally, Bakeneko seems to produce a sound with poppy alphas that are differentiated from the perimeter keys a bit.  These hacks retain that characteristic.  The Aluminum half plate accentuates that differential between the alphas and the perimeter keys as well as give the spacebar a higher pitched sound than the alphas.  The Delrin plate with plate foam seems to even things out a bit and creates a spacebar that is deeper than the alphas. . . more of a thud.

As expected, friends started coming out of the woodwork asking for builds so in the process of setting up another Aluminum case, I was test fitting a PCB/plate assembly to see if I had made my sidewall cuts deep enough, and I had not yet hacked off any of the standoffs since I use a bare PCB resting on the original standoffs to make my cut markings.  This was the very first time I typed on one of these with the stock mounting points intact, and even without the PCB screwed into any of the mount points, the difference was night and day!  There was a lot of metallic pinging sounds coming back at me in the stock configuration.  In the "Bakeneko" configuration, due to the internal void shape and material, the aluminum case is most problematic of the 3 that I have tried so far, but the most prominent ping coming only from the backspace key on the Aluminum plate configuration.  I made some efforts to tune that out with additional sorbothane, but in the end, I figured a ping isolated only to the backspace key could be considered it does not seem to happen with the Delrin plate.

I'll sit with these boards long-term and continue to tweak things specifically with adding weights to various internal areas as well as cutting internally to see if the sonics can be optimized more.  Overall, I think this build method is super fun and reasonably affordable.  I was inches away from purchasing Salvation when it first came out, and that would have been a really interesting board to have in my fingers for comparison and a reality check as to whether these mods are actually good or if they are in fact garbage, but I have not clue what I'm doing so did not pull the trigger.  Perhaps I will buy the weirdflex PCB and give that a go.

chungsteroonie:
If anyone is interested in seeing and hearing this mod, I made a video of a build.

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