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geekhack Community => Ergonomics => Topic started by: swi7z3r on Sat, 03 September 2016, 13:52:32

Title: Kinesis Advantage2 - PBT Keycap Help
Post by: swi7z3r on Sat, 03 September 2016, 13:52:32

I know, I know. Search the forums right? Well I've done that. I've read for probably 5 hours on PBT caps for the kinesis boards already and I feel like I'm more confused than when I started. While Input Nirvana is clearly a juggernaut of all things kinesis and an awesome human being in general, I definitely do not have the capacity to take in so much new information about profiles and vendors. I am weak.

I just ordered an Advantage2 and expect to have it in two weeks. I currently type on a QF Rapid with Cherry greens and "thick" subbed PBT caps. Also on a Topre EK edition.  At some point I'll likely yank the browns from the Adv2 and put in greens. (fatty fatty fat hands) but I know that day one the ABS on the ADV2 is going to bother me slightly.

Is there any way to acquire a PBT set of keys for the ADv2 that will closely match the profile and shape of it's OEM keys, without me having to spend another 5+ hours researching loose threads of info for a handful of mismatched keys at a time?

Thanks for your time guys, this community is unreal

Title: Re: Kinesis Advantage2 - PBT Keycap Help
Post by: Salt Peanuts on Sat, 03 September 2016, 20:11:10

AFAIK, the only way to get PBT keycaps that closely match original profile is to order blank DCS keycaps from SP (here's the pst here detailing the information - https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=29875.0 (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=29875.0)).  Unfortunately, they haven't had some of the rows in stock and doesn't appear they will anytime soon.

Other than that, I think your best bet on getting PBT caps on Advantage2 is using DSA keycaps, which I plan on doing with mine eventually.

Some links -

http://sitr.us/2014/05/19/kinesis-advantage-with-dsa-keycaps.html
 (http://sitr.us/2014/05/19/kinesis-advantage-with-dsa-keycaps.html)
https://adereth.github.io/blog/2015/02/17/sa-profile-keys-on-a-kinesis-advantage/
 (https://adereth.github.io/blog/2015/02/17/sa-profile-keys-on-a-kinesis-advantage/)

Title: Re: Kinesis Advantage2 - PBT Keycap Help
Post by: Lanx on Sun, 04 September 2016, 22:59:51

Also, SP plastic feels dank.

Title: Re: Kinesis Advantage2 - PBT Keycap Help
Post by: swi7z3r on Mon, 05 September 2016, 19:19:00

Thanks Salt. I'll crawl those, but as I feared..

Title: Re: Kinesis Advantage2 - PBT Keycap Help
Post by: Salt Peanuts on Wed, 28 September 2016, 14:24:17

So I took a look at the keycaps on my Advantage2 to see how they match up with available profiles.

• OEM Profile R4 size 1 x10 (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 0, Home, Page Up)
• OEM Profile R3 size 1 x10 (Q, W, E, R, T, Y, U, I, O, P)
• OEM Profile R2 size 1 x4 (G, H, End, Page Down)
• OEM Profile R1 size 1 x18 (Z, X, C, V, B, N, M, <, >, /, ~, \ (int), [, ], left, right, up, down)
• DSA Deep Dish size 1 x8 (A, S, D, F, J, K, L, ;)
• OEM Profile R4 size 1.25 x2 (=, -)
• OEM Profile R2 size 1.25 x6 (Tab, Caps Lock, LShift, \, “, RShift)
• OEM NumPad Enter x2 (Backspace, Space)
• OEM Profile R1 size 2 turned vertical (Delete, Enter)
• Keycaps for Ctrl, Alt, and Win are OEM profile but super tall - they are bit taller than R3 keys from SA profile.  For these 4 keys, I think the best/easiest PBT option right now is to approximate them with PBT R3 SA keycaps (WAN color blanks or size 1 keys from Ice Cap set).

Title: Re: Kinesis Advantage2 - PBT Keycap Help
Post by: Input Nirvana on Sat, 10 December 2016, 17:37:29

Sorry to jump in so late to the party....

   KEEP CALM
         AND
INPUT NIRVANA

In my sig, the link that ties to the original Kinesis Advantage article...(that was saved by SOARER when it got borked with the infamous r00tworm caper of 2012...and I promised to fix repeatedly but never did). There is an EXACT detail of the EXACT KEYCAPS on the Kinesis Advantage. There is a link to a chart I made that is now posted on Imgur (thanks to CAPT BADASS). 

I'll try to dig through it for you.

Yes, the keycaps are important. I've tried with just DSA...it's not bad but not as good.

As I've always said...the keyboard deserves better than the plain ABS keycaps. I have a couple sets of the original double shot ABS keycaps and really prefer those. But after talking to Kinesis they are not very big on investing in the more expensive keycaps. So us Geekers are still pretty much on our own. I still want no-legend keycaps, but I want something other than the plain ABS.

Title: Re: Kinesis Advantage2 - PBT Keycap Help
Post by: Salt Peanuts on Mon, 12 December 2016, 19:21:30

I've actually managed to get all PBT keycaps on my Advantage2 and Advantage in profiles closely matched to the stock ones.  I'm using blank Cherry profiles for all 1u keys, except for Ctrl/Alt/Win/Cmd keys and home keys.  Home keys are filled with DSA Homing Dish keycaps and Ctrl/Alt/Win/Cmd keys are filled with SA R3 (R1 would be better but SP doesn't have R1 SA in PBT).  Two top 1.25u keys are filled with DCS R1 while the rest of them use DCS R2 (SP hasn't had 1.25 R3 in ages).  Lastly, the four 2u keys are filled with blank Cherry Numpad Enter and Numpad 0.

This setup has worked very well for me, and with Cherry profile being wee bit lower than the stock OEM profile, SA R3 keys are tall enough to be used on Ctrl/Alt/Win/Cmd keys.

The big annoyance is the need to get two full sets of keycaps (along with DSA Homing Dish, DCS, and SA) in order to cover one keyboard, thanks to needing two Numpad Enter and Numpad 0 for each keyboard, not to mention 18 bottom row 1u keys.  This also means you'll be left with ridiculous amount of unused keycaps