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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Fluxiantor on Fri, 30 March 2012, 11:14:08

Title: black widow key caps?
Post by: Fluxiantor on Fri, 30 March 2012, 11:14:08: FYI, this is a repost of something I posted on another forum (the registration for this wasn't working for me at the time)

So I have the black widow ultimate, but I want to buy some keycaps for it from WASD keyboards. People have told me that some keycaps cannot be replaced on the BWU due to the size of the keys, as shown here:
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?24126-Blackwidow-WASD-Das-Stabilizers-Space-Bars-Sliders

But other people have said that if I replace all the keys it won't be a problem because they'll fit in with eachother. So, what keys can I and can I not replace?

Could I, for instance, buy this:
http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/index.php/products/keycap-sets/105-key-cherry-mx-keycap-set.html
and use all of those keys fine? Could i replace some keys but not others?

Any help at all is appreciated :)
Title: black widow key caps?
Post by: hazeluff on Fri, 30 March 2012, 11:17:08: Those are just the stabilizers, you should be fine, I believe for the keys with them.

The only different keys I believe on a BW are the Ctrl,Alt and Windows key, They are different sizes to the one WASD offer.
You'd also obviously be missing keys for your macros.
I am unsure about the Enter key.

Also, Welcome to Geekhack, all your moonay are belong to us. = )
Title: black widow key caps?
Post by: Fluxiantor on Fri, 30 March 2012, 11:22:45: Second and third question:
1) will that set come with something to remove the keys with?
2) how easy will it be to tell which keys go where if I order blank keys? I might just use lazer etched keys though.

[edit]
And thanks for the welcome :)
Title: black widow key caps?
Post by: Human on Fri, 30 March 2012, 13:00:28: Blackwidow using DSC(a height standard for keycaps) profile keycaps which is similar to most other modern mechanical keyboards out there such as FILCO and DUCKY.

Though, the stock keycaps on BW is somehow a tad taller than most other OEM DSC keycaps.

If you want to change the keycaps, the whole bottom rows(Ctrl, Alt, Spacebar and so on) cannot be used, you can use your eyes and brains to judge by comparing it's dimension with other keyboards(simply google for a normal mechanical keyboard).

In case you want the exact numbers, most modern keyboards using the standard of (starting from left Ctrl)1.25x, 1.25x, 1.25x, 6.25x, 1.25x, 1.25x, 1.25x and 1.25x sized for the bottom(Ctrl row), and the total of them are 15x. With the same total length(15x), Razer BWU(or I should say iOne) go for 1.5x, 1x, 1.5x, 6x, 1.5x, 1x, 1x and 1.5x.

If you are getting blank keycaps, there are 2 possibilities. One is that there will be a mark under the keycaps telling you the height of the particular keycaps(R1, R2, R3 and so on). If none, then you need to arrange them together, comparing them and seperating them.

For removing the keycaps, you can buy optional keycaps puller from WASD.
Title: black widow key caps?
Post by: Fluxiantor on Fri, 30 March 2012, 14:07:49: so I could order the keys, and have all the keys white apart from the bottom row and macros? Hmm... I don't know whether it would look good, but if not I could move keys about until I liked it (maybe just the letters or something).
Title: black widow key caps?
Post by: Human on Fri, 30 March 2012, 14:11:27: Quote from: Fluxiantor;561744
so I could order the keys, and have all the keys white apart from the bottom row and macros? Hmm... I don't know whether it would look good, but if not I could move keys about until I liked it (maybe just the letters or something).

Probably fine, here is mine. Though IMO, it is better to keep the macro, Function keys and big sized keys of your numpad black to balance out the oddity...
(http://i.imgur.com/hxwOl.jpg)
Title: black widow key caps?
Post by: Fluxiantor on Fri, 30 March 2012, 14:37:40: Quote from: Human;561749
Probably fine, here is mine. Though IMO, it is better to keep the macro, Function keys and big sized keys of your numpad black to balance out the oddity...
Show Image
(http://i.imgur.com/hxwOl.jpg)

Yeah I suppose I could keep a sort of border, like the bottom row black, macro keys black, top function keys black and the enter, + and - numpad keys black. Oh and probably left shift keys etc black because of the caps key.

Thanks for the help :) Going to buy white keys and play around with the design myself.

Which option for the letter engraving should I have so that it almost looks blank, but if you look close you can still see what it is?
Title: black widow key caps?
Post by: SerenadedAbyss on Fri, 30 March 2012, 16:55:37: Quote from: Fluxiantor;561772
Yeah I suppose I could keep a sort of border, like the bottom row black, macro keys black, top function keys black and the enter, + and - numpad keys black. Oh and probably left shift keys etc black because of the caps key.

Thanks for the help :) Going to buy white keys and play around with the design myself.

Which option for the letter engraving should I have so that it almost looks blank, but if you look close you can still see what it is?

That option would be "Engraved".
Title: black widow key caps?
Post by: dippingriz on Fri, 30 March 2012, 22:41:15: Here's mine with a clear set. The only keys I could not replace were the function, title bar, and the macro keys.
(http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n165/dklic6/Picture12.jpg)

Here's another one to help explain. Notice the gap on the Alt key to the right of the keyboard. Not really a big deal unless you are anal.
(http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n165/dklic6/Picture26.jpg)
Title: black widow key caps?
Post by: Fluxiantor on Sat, 31 March 2012, 12:23:02: are there any sites other than WASDkeyboards that would sell white keysets for the UK layout, that's located in EU/UK? Cause it could take 5 weeks to deliver to over here in the UK from WASD.

[edit]
Was also going to buy this instead of the keycaps:
http://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=leopold,tenkeyless&pid=fc200rraw
But that's the American layout and not the UK one :(