geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: funkmon on Fri, 24 April 2020, 20:28:00
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Hey guys. I just apprehended a new Matias keyboard and it's great; but I ****ing hate these Mac keycaps, and I was thinking that if I was going to replace the keycaps I might as well replace them with ones I like. I like the big tall SA keycaps, but I'll take some similar ones with varying angles. Does anyone sell these things?
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Key set options for alps are limited, I don’t know of any alps SA sets myself.
I do know that Signature Plastics, who manufacture SA sets, also create alps compatible keysets. Perhaps ask them if they can do SA keycaps with alps stems, the worst that could happen is they say no.
But actually I just wanted to say that Matias switches are incredibly wobbly compared to Mx style switches, and tall caps like SA exaggerate any wobbliness further. Just keep that in mind.
On a side note, didn’t someone create Mx style sliders for alps switches a long time ago?
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Matias themselves (https://matias.store/collections/all/keycaps) sell some keycaps. If you want to replace the Mac caps I'm pretty sure you can. The only issue I have with the Matias-built keycaps themselves is they're quite thin so, while they do sound distinctively Alps-like, they don't have that gorgeous bassy sound that the great Alps-based keyboards of yore had.
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Yeah I was thinking that too. I'm also vaguely worried about yellowing over time, but that's future me's problem.
So even if I get aftermarket OEM profile caps for this thing, it's 103 key, not 104 key, and it looks like that's the only style I can buy. My modifiers might not be replaceable. I might just be stuck with Mac keys. Yuck.
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I think Matias caps are roughly OEM profile-- cylindrical, not spherical like SA. The Tai-Hao offerings are fairly nice, although a similar profile, but they really only fit some very specific boards-- the rare ABS M1 and KBParadise boards come closest to matching, while other boards have problems with matching the bottom row in particular.
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It's possible to use SA keycaps with nexus sliders, but the top housings were not very good, it only works well if you modify original top housings. I've not done it with matias, but I have a board with SKCM orange modified with sliders and it works pretty well.