geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Franck Dernoncourt on Fri, 29 April 2016, 18:24:54
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I plan to add o-rings in my mechanical keyboard. Does stacking o-rings provide the same result as using a thicker o-ring, from the standpoint of the keyboard user?
For example, I could use two o-rings stacked on top of each other (1.5mm + 2.5mm), or directly use a 4mm o-ring.
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Send Lpwl that question. He has his own vendor sub forum:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?board=189.0
Before that he was just operating out of the classifies, but he talked about stacking a bit in this post:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62935.msg1652742#msg1652742
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Assuming you're talking about adding them to Cherry MX keys, then I'd imagine they feel pretty similar. Potentially stacked o-rings might feel *slightly* softer because I'd imagine they would allow for slightly more compression when compared to a single o-ring of equivalent thickness. Be careful though, Cherry MX switches have 4mm of travel, so 4mm of o-ring will make your keyboard unusable, unless you're using SA profile keycaps, which are really tall (in which case, you'd basically be stacking o-rings to pad the distance until they actually had any sort of effect).
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I wasn't home last week-end, so I answered Franck's question directly via e-mail but I guess a few words here might also help a few wanderers ...
Does stacking o-rings provide the same result as using a thicker o-ring, from the standpoint of the keyboard user?
The answer is both yes and no.
It depends on what keycaps you are using !
For example, if you are using SP DSA profile caps then 4mm ≠ 1.5mm + 2.5mm.
And from my testing, anything thicker than 3mm will stop you from being able to actuate every switch comfortably.
Further reading :
[1] O rings for DSA Caps (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=77788.msg1981381#msg1981381)
[2] Lpwl O-Rings - FAQ & HELP (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=81141.msg2129518#msg2129518)
[3] hjc1710's comment from my older sale thread (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62935.msg1737938#msg1737938)
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Thank you again ddot for referring him to me :thumb:
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I wasn't home last week-end, so I answered Franck's question directly via e-mail but I guess a few words here might also help a few wanderers ...
Does stacking o-rings provide the same result as using a thicker o-ring, from the standpoint of the keyboard user?
The answer is both yes and no.
It depends on what keycaps you are using !
For example, if you are using SP DSA profile caps then 4mm ≠ 1.5mm + 2.5mm.
And from my testing, anything thicker than 3mm will stop you from being able to actuate every switch comfortably.
Further reading :
[1] O rings for DSA Caps (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=77788.msg1981381#msg1981381)
[2] Lpwl O-Rings - FAQ & HELP (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=81141.msg2129518#msg2129518)
[3] hjc1710's comment from my older sale thread (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=62935.msg1737938#msg1737938)
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Thank you again ddot for referring him to me :thumb:
Out of curiosity, is it because the 4mm has a larger OD compared to the the 1.5mm and 2.5mm rings?
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Yup, you're right - though I think this has more to do with SignaturePlastics keycaps lacking cross-shaped supports.