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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: 2truth on Sun, 10 May 2020, 22:04:26
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Not familiar with mounting plates besides brass/aluminum or plastics. The best answer I could find online was "metal plate", which could be a number of things. It doesn't feel very thick or substantial but I always assumed it was thin aluminum.
If anyone has modded one of these, what did you do to it? I purchased some novelkeys cream switches to put inside eventually but I've found it hard to decide on anything else to do. I'm on the hunt for one of the aluminum cases though, that's a fact.
This one currently has the cherry mx reds, and of course, the clipped/lubed stabs from the factory + sound dampening within. I kept the stock black, blank PBT keycaps, and the stock ABS spacebar. A very, very quality board for what it's worth.
thanks :-)
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You are better of just replacing the switches and lubing the stabs. More then that i wouldn't do on a OEM board. Also OEM boards have Lead free solder so you will need a lot of flux paste to make it flow.
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the PCB is not screw to the plate. instead, the PCB is "hook" with the plate with few "knob". (refer to the image in the page : https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/g1bnx2/fixed_a_pcb_also_a_partial_matrix_map_for_the/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/g1bnx2/fixed_a_pcb_also_a_partial_matrix_map_for_the/)) I doubt there are any plate with this design.
I also put in novelkey cream switch into my FC660M with mill max 0305 to make it hot swap and it feels wonderful. However 1 of the pin of the switch is fatter so I need to shave it first to be able to put into the mill max socket.
Now I am looking for aluminium case for my FC660M but unfortunately there isn't any of it.
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The Leopold keyboards I've had all had painted steel plates. That seems to be pretty standard in off-the-shelf keyboards. It was a royal PITA just unsoldering the space bar switch in a couple of them that I had. It really takes a lot of heat to melt that lead-free solder.
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Update:
Lubed the stabs and added NK creams.
Noticed some odd sounds from specific switches so I decided to desolder and investigate... ended up burning off one of the pads on the S key and trashed the whole board.
Besides the weight of the keys, barely made any noticeable difference in sound/feel and wish I kept it stock. I think the switches come lightly lubed (could be wrong) but the cherry reds I had in there were incredibly smooth in comparison to other boards with reds I've tried.
Some notes if anyone comes across this post in the future:
- Can confirm The OEM solder is WHACK and really easy to burn pads through as a beginner. Flux seemed to help for sure but wasn't worth the extra effort imo.
I used a cheap solder sucker and had to pass over each hole multiple times to get it all out and took a very long time to finish the job. - PCB is hooked as stated above, not worth messing with to place foam or any BS in between.
- Switches are plate-mounted, so you'll need to clip the legs
- There's a small bit of felt in the case already, might be worth swapping out. There's not much space for much else in there.
Worth it if you can take the loss and want to practice some stuff. Not much else you can do.
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Sorry to hear that about your pcb. You might try to refer to this reddit post on how to fix the burnt solder pad by bridging the connection on pcb. https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/g1bnx2/fixed_a_pcb_also_a_partial_matrix_map_for_the/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/g1bnx2/fixed_a_pcb_also_a_partial_matrix_map_for_the/)
I was using solder sucker when desolder and I think I was lucky enough not trash my board. In my case the sound and typing feel does improved after re-lube the stab (the stabs are pre-lubed) + lubed & filmed NK cream.
I found this keyboard module foam https://kbdfans.com/products/kbdfans-module-foam (https://kbdfans.com/products/kbdfans-module-foam) and plan to put into my fc660m.