geekhack
geekhack Community => New Members => Topic started by: shawndo on Wed, 23 September 2015, 00:28:41
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Long time lurker and have read quite a bit on here. I have been using an HHKB for a few weeks and am adapting quickly although I have no idea how one would be able to use this with blank keycaps yet.
I may be hitting the keys too hard just to get a louder THWOK and love it!
Unrelated to the HHKB, my end goal is to have a purple-backlit, quiet click, full size mac layout keyboard with all the mac specific and media keycaps. (eject, control center, as well as the normal cmd,opt)
After reading alot, I found and purchased a razer blackwidow ultimate with a mac layout on ebay (green clicky"razer" switches). I purchased it without thinking too much about it because I couldn't find it on their store and am assuming they discontinued the mac layout version. After I got it I remembered the whole razer "cloud driver" thing that I swore I would boycott razer for a while back!
My first thought was to transplant the keycaps onto another keyboard, but from what I understand the layout isn't standard enough and the ctrl/cmd/opt keys won't necessarily fit another keyboard.
My current plan is to desolder everything and replace with cherry MX brown or clears and take the opportunity to put in purple leds and repaint the plate. This is alot of work and I really want a simpler solution I can buy my way out of! I'm also not crazy about the razer controller board, so would really like to use another keyboard, but the sticking point seems to be the backlight-compatible mac keycaps.
Someone give me a plan B please!
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Welcome to GH! And plan B is to get out while you still can... Once you get into some customs you and "your wallet" will never look back! :)
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Welcome to GH! And get out while you still can! :)
Enjoy your stay! :)
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Welcome to Geekhack!
Although most mechanical keyboards will work with a Mac, not all have specific Command, Option, Eject and so on keys. Even the humble HHKB has a Mac mode.
AFAIK DAS makes a Mac layout keyboard - you might look into that, although it is not backlit.
Otherwise you're in for a fairly big chunk of work - resoldering switches, replacing LEDs and so on. The satisfaction you'll get from finally completing it will make all the pain worth it though. And you'll have something unique.