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geekhack Community => Keyboard Keycaps => Topic started by: zippox on Tue, 18 March 2014, 20:18:26
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So to get right down to it, I'm looking for the least expensive way to get thick PBT keycaps and wondering what price I should expect to pay. I am just fine with blanks if that makes it cheaper. Any suggestions?
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the black ones from ivan's gb? Those are $55 IIRC
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Yeah, what the Pacifist said. I'm pretty use he has some left over, you should PM him.
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So $55+ship is about as low as I should expect - good to know. I don't want to waste Ivan's time until I have the green light to buy (will be getting birthday money for caps end of next month), so once I'm in the market I can try and see if he has any left. Otherwise I'll try jumping in on the next GB that has thick PBT blanks for a similar price.
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http://www.mechkb.com/review/product/list/id/372/category/5/
These are cheaper, but might not be thick enough. Plus you'd have higher postage costs.
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http://www.mechkb.com/review/product/list/id/372/category/5/
These are cheaper, but might not be thick enough. Plus you'd have higher postage costs.
You're implying that these are in fact thinner than Ivan's GB keycaps?
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So $55+ship is about as low as I should expect - good to know. I don't want to waste Ivan's time until I have the green light to buy (will be getting birthday money for caps end of next month), so once I'm in the market I can try and see if he has any left. Otherwise I'll try jumping in on the next GB that has thick PBT blanks for a similar price.
A little after the group buy ends there should be some floating around in the classifieds, so if ivan is out, you can always check there.
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http://www.mechkb.com/review/product/list/id/372/category/5/
These are cheaper, but might not be thick enough. Plus you'd have higher postage costs.
You're implying that these are in fact thinner than Ivan's GB keycaps?
definitely
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The only others I know of are the vortex dyesub pbt set Feng sold like a year ago. Never saw them after. Got one set myself and a IMSTO from last Ivan GB and they are the same thickness as far as I know.
They were around 40$ + shipping in Feng GB.
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The ivan gb atm is being sourced from Plum, so it's not from imsto; but apparently it's the same thickness
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Will these be the same thickness as the ones sold by Ivan?
http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=792
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Will these be the same thickness as the ones sold by Ivan?
http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=792
This link was a reference to a thick pbt ducky set. After contacting mechanicalkeyboards they told me it was a 1 quantity item that was taken off a keyboard that was RMA'd. They couldn't tell me if the ducky thick pbt set was equal in thickness to IMSTOs thick PBT caps. I just wanted to update for anyone that was interested in my question.
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You could always pick up an older Cherry keyboard like this (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cherry-Keyboard-Multi-Functional-G81-8000-Credit-Card-Swipe-MY8000-NEW-OLD-STOCK-/141223630159?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item20e195954f) and take it's keycaps. Though, there are some potential disadvantages to those depending on what keyboard you want to use them on. Several of the keys are not compatible with other keyboards, most specifically the stepped caps lock, spacebar and 1.25 bottom row keys on G81 models. If you find a cheap older G80 that problem does not exist in their case... but more likely to have winkeyless layout with 1.5 modifiers instead.
The deluxe Ducky PBT sets are similarly thick to imsto's KBC/Plum/vintage Cherry.
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So some g81-8000s have PBT caps? Is there an easy way for me to know which of the g81-8000s actually have that vs. ABS?
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So some g81-8000s have PBT caps? Is there an easy way for me to know which of the g81-8000s actually have that vs. ABS?
I don't think any Cherry boards come with stock PBT, but I'm no expert.
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So some g81-8000s have PBT caps? Is there an easy way for me to know which of the g81-8000s actually have that vs. ABS?
I don't think any Cherry boards come with stock PBT, but I'm no expert.
Yes they do. Ivan knows what he is talking about. He is kind of an expert on Cherry boards and caps.
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So some g81-8000s have PBT caps? Is there an easy way for me to know which of the g81-8000s actually have that vs. ABS?
I don't think any Cherry boards come with stock PBT, but I'm no expert.
Yes they do. Ivan knows what he is talking about. He is kind of an expert on Cherry boards and caps.
Oh whoops, I didn't even realize that he was referring to PBT, although I should have been hinted to that fact based on this thread :p
Yep, Ivan is the pro, I'll just wait and see what answer he gives for identifying which boards have PBT stock.
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Essentially all light colored version with lasered legend have PBT, models with dark keys are POM. All current production G80/G81 models are lasered (or blank in the case of a couple models) one or the other material. Cherry dosen't use ABS anymore since they discontinued models with doubleshots. No current production G80/G81 models have pad printing ABS either that I am aware of though it might still be an option for bulk custom orders.
In regard to PBT, Cherry reduced the thickness of the keycaps by almost half in later years. Winkeyless boards are almost guaranteed to have thick since they were likely made well before the change. On winkey models the tell tales are the original rounded sans typeface, and the sys rq and break are sideprinted not also on the top along with prt scr and pause, and as far as I have seen thick sets never have a newer Windows logo than the 95 style.
Also another thing to watch out for, is the most recent PBT G81 have stabilzer inserts as part of the keycap. These will not work on MX style stabilizer, but you can use them with costar.
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Essentially all light colored version with lasered legend have PBT, models with dark keys are POM. All current production G80/G81 models are lasered (or blank in the case of a couple models) one or the other material. Cherry dosen't use ABS anymore since they discontinued models with doubleshots. No current production G80/G81 models have pad printing ABS either that I am aware of though it might still be an option for bulk custom orders.
In regard to PBT, Cherry reduced the thickness of the keycaps by almost half in later years. Winkeyless boards are almost guaranteed to have thick since they were likely made well before the change. On winkey models the tell tales are the original rounded sans typeface, and the sys rq and break are sideprinted not also on the top along with prt scr and pause, and as far as I have seen thick sets never have a newer Windows logo than the 95 style.
Also another thing to watch out for, is the most recent PBT G81 have stabilzer inserts as part of the keycap. These will not work on MX style stabilizer, but you can use them with costar.
Ivan: I remember I have read about the codes Cherry uses in its boards to differentiate between materials and legends for the caps. But I do not have the references anymore. Do you have some?
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I think most of the basic info can be had in this DT wiki article (http://deskthority.net/wiki/Cherry_article_numbers). There was never any indication to keycap material in the model code specifically... at least historically there was not. It was only implied by the type H, P, S, L where H and P is always ABS, S was always PBT, but L could be either PBT or POM depending on color. Now there is since color is only available in one material as in -0 for white (PBT) -1 ? for 2tone I think, which would also be PBT... but I can't seem to find evidence that supports that this moment... -2 for black (POM). But that only applies to later models with 5 letter codes. They didn't do any of that during the 3 letter code era where the trailing /## had to do with PCB revisions. Then even before the 3 letter codes, there was an entirely different model number for everything. Doubleshot or dyesubs... different model number. Different layout... different model number. Different switch... different model number. If they would have kept that up we would probalby be using G80-4365892781905682 by now.
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I think the best bet is to wait for those vortex oem thick pbt keycaps to come out of manufacturing. Those seem to fit the bill nicely for most people.
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I think the best bet is to wait for those vortex oem thick pbt keycaps to come out of manufacturing. Those seem to fit the bill nicely for most people.
Don't think they'll ever come out :(
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I think the best bet is to wait for those vortex oem thick pbt keycaps to come out of manufacturing. Those seem to fit the bill nicely for most people.
Don't think they'll ever come out :(
that's how vortex usually does things. They tease something, then no one ever sees it or talks about it until they release it probably 6 months to a year later...
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I think the best bet is to wait for those vortex oem thick pbt keycaps to come out of manufacturing. Those seem to fit the bill nicely for most people.
Don't think they'll ever come out :(
that's how vortex usually does things. They tease something, then no one ever sees it or talks about it until they release it probably 6 months to a year later...
Are these: http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=773 (http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=773) not the vortex caps you're talking about? That listing shows the thickness, but they also come in white on black. Are these not thick enough?
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I think the best bet is to wait for those vortex oem thick pbt keycaps to come out of manufacturing. Those seem to fit the bill nicely for most people.
Don't think they'll ever come out :(
that's how vortex usually does things. They tease something, then no one ever sees it or talks about it until they release it probably 6 months to a year later...
Are these: http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=773 (http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=773) not the vortex caps you're talking about? That listing shows the thickness, but they also come in white on black. Are these not thick enough?
Those doubleshot PBT's look really nice... and the price is pretty good too. Too bad there's so many group buys for keycap sets and they don't have a Tsangan set or else I'd pick one up right away :(
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So they have those in;
pink - http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=769
orange - http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=770
green - http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=771
red - http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=772
blue - http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=773
Nice, would probably get some if I was into hhhwhite. Anyone know if the stepped caps is center-stemmed?
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I think the best bet is to wait for those vortex oem thick pbt keycaps to come out of manufacturing. Those seem to fit the bill nicely for most people.
Don't think they'll ever come out :(
that's how vortex usually does things. They tease something, then no one ever sees it or talks about it until they release it probably 6 months to a year later...
Are these: http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=773 (http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=773) not the vortex caps you're talking about? That listing shows the thickness, but they also come in white on black. Are these not thick enough?
Those doubleshot PBT's look really nice... and the price is pretty good too. Too bad there's so many group buys for keycap sets and they don't have a Tsangan set or else I'd pick one up right away :(
Yeah, it is a shame this is just a standard ANSI with no options for other layouts, I also think it is a very option and being PBT with DS may last forever. Maybe I will get one, when I have been done with my current GBs.
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I personally like the sharp edges of IMSTO PBT keycaps so even though the Vortex caps seem thick, I don't think it's for me.
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I personally like the sharp edges of IMSTO PBT keycaps so even though the Vortex caps seem thick, I don't think it's for me.
IMSTO caps are sublimated, and the new Vortex's caps are DS, I think there is no way to make a direct comparison, just because of that fact. Only if you are referring to the old long available Vortex with dye sub legends.
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I personally like the sharp edges of IMSTO PBT keycaps so even though the Vortex caps seem thick, I don't think it's for me.
IMSTO caps are sublimated, and the new Vortex's caps are DS, I think there is no way to make a direct comparison, just because of that fact. Only if you are referring to the old long available Vortex with dye sub legends.
I personally like the sharp edges of IMSTO PBT keycaps so even though the Vortex caps seem thick, I don't think it's for me.
IMSTO caps are sublimated, and the new Vortex's caps are DS, I think there is no way to make a direct comparison, just because of that fact. Only if you are referring to the old long available Vortex with dye sub legends.
I was simply referring to the sharp edges. Not about the fact one is sublimated vs DS. Perhaps you thought I was referring to the font instead of the key edges.
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I personally like the sharp edges of IMSTO PBT keycaps so even though the Vortex caps seem thick, I don't think it's for me.
IMSTO caps are sublimated, and the new Vortex's caps are DS, I think there is no way to make a direct comparison, just because of that fact. Only if you are referring to the old long available Vortex with dye sub legends.
I personally like the sharp edges of IMSTO PBT keycaps so even though the Vortex caps seem thick, I don't think it's for me.
IMSTO caps are sublimated, and the new Vortex's caps are DS, I think there is no way to make a direct comparison, just because of that fact. Only if you are referring to the old long available Vortex with dye sub legends.
I was simply referring to the sharp edges. Not about the fact one is sublimated vs DS. Perhaps you thought I was referring to the font instead of the key edges.
Your comment was crystal clear, but you should explain what type of Vortex caps you are referring to, because now it produces more than one geometry.
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Ah I didn't know that. The ones I have seen have more rounded corners at the base. Do you have a link to ones that you think would be closer to the style I was describing?
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Ah I didn't know that. The ones I have seen have more rounded corners at the base. Do you have a link to ones that you think would be closer to the style I was describing?
I own a set of Vortex that has very square edges, similar to Cherry originals, they have an ugly italic font though, but I think it is the shape you may like, but I do not have any link to those.