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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: pexon on Thu, 03 March 2016, 07:04:44
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Does anyone have experience with ordering from Winkeyless in S.Korea? I am interested in a B.Mini as my RS84 kit is completely not working and getting a replacement is more effort than its worth.
The B.Mini looks sweet and so do the cases. I am just dubious of the quality as a kit with the PCB, stabs, soldering of the RGB bits and the case is less than 200 bucks US.
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i think justnits and some other fellow malaysians bought stuff from them. maybe they can come in and help relay some info.
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i think justnits and some other fellow malaysians bought stuff from them. maybe they can come in and help relay some info.
That would be sweet. I have a black and pink build in my cart, just wondering whether to do it or not.
I presume if I want LEDs, I need to choose resistors and diodes too?
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I have put together six winkeyless boards and have three more waiting to be put together, I'm basically Hojin's biggest fan. Currently typing on a B.87R X2. The quality is great aside from some minor laser cutting detail on the acrylic plates (around corners). The PCBs are super nice and the software is great, it's really easy to change keymaps on the fly. You need diodes if you want NKRO, you need SMD resistors if you want in-switch LEDs. Mind the shipping fee, though.
RGB part soldering isn't so bad as it's an SOIC chip and some SMD capacitors; the controller is tougher but manageable if you have a steady soldering hand. If you're able to do the work yourself it's probably the best deal you can get on a custom.
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I am not fussed about NKRO, so I can do without them by the sounds of it?
I will be using LEDs so resistors are a must then. The quality is good then? Sweet, I think I will pull the trigger and go ahead. 2-3 week lead time too?
Do you have a B.Mini at all? The layout looks sweet.
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I am not fussed about NKRO, so I can do without them by the sounds of it?
I will be using LEDs so resistors are a must then. The quality is good then? Sweet, I think I will pull the trigger and go ahead. 2-3 week lead time too?
Do you have a B.Mini at all? The layout looks sweet.
I'm actually not sure if the board will function at all without diodes. It's just a couple bucks, you may as well. Get the cheaper diodes, they're functionally identical and look better IMO. I had a b.mini but put gateron blues in it, pretty silly of me. Sold it to fund part of my Octagon purchase, I really like the 75% layout.
If you're just getting parts from him without soldering it's about a week, maybe a little more, of lead time. Before he changed shipping prices at the end of last year he used DHL Express IIRC; not sure what he uses now but it took two days to get from S. Korea to east coast US.
Here's some pics of my board:
http://i.imgur.com/M3ZnlGg.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7v30iRm.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/gIEPhmN.jpg
I have the old layered acrylic case that he doesn't offer anymore; the RGB diffuser case looks much better.
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You need diodes if you want reliable 2kro, if you type with one finger you could solder jumpers instead but diodes are cheap and no harder to solder than jumpers so just get some :)
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Did you get the kit to build yourself ika? Was it difficult with the diodes and resistors? Are there any instructions on how to do so?
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I had a b.mini for a while and loved it. They have great support, and great lead times. The firmware isn't the greatest, but it's manageable. Definitely need diodes and resistors though.
I made a guide for keymapping right here: http://imgur.com/a/Jbdh4
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Thanks so much for the input guys, will be placing my order later today then :)
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Did you get the kit to build yourself ika? Was it difficult with the diodes and resistors? Are there any instructions on how to do so?
I did everything by hand, but I also had considerable SMD soldering experience building audio DACs from scratch. A steady hand, a good iron, sharp tweezers, some flux, and thin solder is a good place to start in terms of equipment. If you haven't done SMD chip soldering before I would recommend spending the $6 to have Hojin do it. Everything else I think should be manageable for you, given the quality of your cable work. There's plenty of guides on youtube, here, and reddit re: SMD soldering.
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Did you get the kit to build yourself ika? Was it difficult with the diodes and resistors? Are there any instructions on how to do so?
I did everything by hand, but I also had considerable SMD soldering experience building audio DACs from scratch. A steady hand, a good iron, sharp tweezers, some flux, and thin solder is a good place to start in terms of equipment. If you haven't done SMD chip soldering before I would recommend spending the $6 to have Hojin do it. Everything else I think should be manageable for you, given the quality of your cable work. There's plenty of guides on youtube, here, and reddit re: SMD soldering.
Thanks so much ika, for your kind words and advice, I really appreciate it.
I think I will give it a go then, I don't have any experience with SMD work, I will get it done by Winkeyless then. I have a couple of good irons, good flux and super thin solder that I always use for my cable work so I can do all the other work.
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Thanks to all that helped. I have just placed my order with Winkeyless. Matte frost and pink translucent combo with pink in switch leds and pink stickers. Now to wait for a nice black/ pink, white/pink cap set
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Thanks to all that helped. I have just placed my order with Winkeyless. Matte frost and pink translucent combo with pink in switch leds and pink stickers. Now to wait for a nice black/ pink, white/pink cap set
Nice combo. Looking forward to it :D
What switch did you opt for?
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Thanks to all that helped. I have just placed my order with Winkeyless. Matte frost and pink translucent combo with pink in switch leds and pink stickers. Now to wait for a nice black/ pink, white/pink cap set
Nice combo. Looking forward to it :D
What switch did you opt for?
Undecided at the moment. I have some MX black here that I think I will use. Not got a board with linears at hand at the moment, so I think I will go with those as it has been a while since I typed on Cherry switches, especially linear.
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Thanks to all that helped. I have just placed my order with Winkeyless. Matte frost and pink translucent combo with pink in switch leds and pink stickers. Now to wait for a nice black/ pink, white/pink cap set
Nice combo. Looking forward to it :D
What switch did you opt for?
Undecided at the moment. I have some MX black here that I think I will use. Not got a board with linears at hand at the moment, so I think I will go with those as it has been a while since I typed on Cherry switches, especially linear.
Go for Gateron Blacks if you want some smooth linear goodness. ;)
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Need to look out for some :)