geekhack

geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Targa-TV on Sat, 20 May 2017, 11:13:28

Title: Good old G80-3000
Post by: Targa-TV on Sat, 20 May 2017, 11:13:28
My motto "spend those few more € at the beginning to save later on" screwed me this time around. Since I received my G80-3000 I haven't taken my Filco out of its box anymore and, more importantly, I never imagined I could enjoy typing on this old thing so much.

I admit I was rather biased against Cherry corp boards because of all those "flimsy, clumped together"s in Chyros' reviews, but I wanted to try PCB-mount so this  time I went with the easiest way out.

...

Fam, I'm set for life. F* plate mount. I have this old thing taking most of my desk space, case corners f*ed up for some reason, leds lights bleeding through so when only one lights up, all three light up together, what I suppose are pad-printed double shot ABS caps in faded iso-DE layout and I DO NOT CARE about any of this.

Why? Because the caps are so f* smooth I'm never going to part from them ever, and the switches, I don't care if they are vintage or not, because these switches are f* smooth and most importantly the only sound they make is the sound of the downstroke and rebound. NO RESONATING A NOTE ANYMORE! Only the soft "toc toc toc" of me typing all day long!


I'm in linear switch heaven.
and
I rename this board "G80-Type Heaven."

Here have some gratuitous potato pics: http://imgur.com/a/BsKFa
Title: Re: Good old G80-3000
Post by: dante on Sat, 20 May 2017, 11:23:50
It always struck me as being odd that Chinese gamer board companies will try to penny pinch where ever they can but didn't go with PCB mounted to save money/assembly on the plate.
Title: Re: Good old G80-3000
Post by: Targa-TV on Sat, 20 May 2017, 11:35:35
Sometimes when I'm reading by my desk or whatever I just press a couple of random keys, just to feel the smoothness and listen to the switches again.
/shakes head/

Who the hell knew that typing could be enjoyable...
Title: Re: Good old G80-3000
Post by: Giorgio on Sat, 20 May 2017, 12:07:54
I've got the beige one :-) The problem of the beige one is that it has thin keycaps, while the black version (g80-3000 and g80-1800) has thick keycaps.

Why does you keyboard have a qwerty layout and german modifiers? German layout is qwertz.
Title: Re: Good old G80-3000
Post by: Targa-TV on Sat, 20 May 2017, 12:32:18
I've got the beige one :-) The problem of the beige one is that it has thin keycaps, while the black version (g80-3000 and g80-1800) has thick keycaps.

Why does you keyboard have a qwerty layout and german modifiers? German layout is qwertz.

They should write somewhere that the beige 3000 has those thin keycaps, that wasn't a pleasant surprise. Thank goodness the guy I contacted had both models and I asked one of both.

I swapped the Z and the Y to get the qwerty. I can touch type but it was a bit jarring to look down and see the "qwertz." It doesn't show from the pictures because all the caps  have shine on them so every light I photograph them with flats everything out.
Title: Re: Good old G80-3000
Post by: merlin64 on Sun, 21 May 2017, 01:59:54
PCB mount has always felt good to me. However when you go to larger sizes like the 8200 or the 8113 Cherry boards, you really start to feel the flex in the PCB as you type and its not a pleasant experience. I actually just built my first PCB mount custom this morning!
Title: Re: Good old G80-3000
Post by: Targa-TV on Sun, 21 May 2017, 02:53:35
PCB mount has always felt good to me. However when you go to larger sizes like the 8200 or the 8113 Cherry boards, you really start to feel the flex in the PCB as you type and its not a pleasant experience. I actually just built my first PCB mount custom this morning!
Feeling the keyboard flexing?  :-X Yeah, that doesn't sound good.

I thought the G80 would flex too, but the PCB actually has three big holes for three big notches of the case, so it's held firmly in place. Maybe the bigger models don't have enough notches? BTW, I ought to comment on Chyros' videos about this because the PCB is not actually "free-floating" in there as he says. When you disassemble it and put it back together you don't have to "guess" how the PCB is placed because of these notches.

Since I watched his reviews while I was debating whether to go new or vintage I was kinda worried about this. So I was pleasantly surprised by these notches too because they are way bigger than the screw holes in my Filco and Varmilo and there are three of them compared to the two of the full size Filco. I can't feel any flex whether I light-type or bottom out.

Merlin, congrats on your PCB mount custom btw! (Love your videos!) I debated for a while about soldering a brand new PCB mount board myself with a winkeyless PCB but I thought about all the money I'd already thrown at the Filco, so I decided to go cheap.
Title: Re: Good old G80-3000
Post by: Giorgio on Sun, 21 May 2017, 04:49:38
PCB mount has always felt good to me. However when you go to larger sizes like the 8200 or the 8113 Cherry boards, you really start to feel the flex in the PCB as you type and its not a pleasant experience. I actually just built my first PCB mount custom this morning!
Feeling the keyboard flexing?  :-X Yeah, that doesn't sound good.

I thought the G80 would flex too, but the PCB actually has three big holes for three big notches of the case, so it's held firmly in place. Maybe the bigger models don't have enough notches? BTW, I ought to comment on Chyros' videos about this because the PCB is not actually "free-floating" in there as he says. When you disassemble it and put it back together you don't have to "guess" how the PCB is placed because of these notches.

Since I watched his reviews while I was debating whether to go new or vintage I was kinda worried about this. So I was pleasantly surprised by these notches too because they are way bigger than the screw holes in my Filco and Varmilo and there are three of them compared to the two of the full size Filco. I can't feel any flex whether I light-type or bottom out.

Merlin, congrats on your PCB mount custom btw! (Love your videos!) I debated for a while about soldering a brand new PCB mount board myself with a winkeyless PCB but I thought about all the money I'd already thrown at the Filco, so I decided to go cheap.

Putting foam under the PCB is said to help reduce the flex. I'm not sure about that... Because the PCB rests on the foam instead of resting on the case. If I find some thin foam I'll try.
Title: Re: Good old G80-3000
Post by: dante on Sun, 21 May 2017, 10:40:58
PCB mount has always felt good to me. However when you go to larger sizes like the 8200 or the 8113 Cherry boards, you really start to feel the flex in the PCB as you type and its not a pleasant experience. I actually just built my first PCB mount custom this morning!

My Poker 1 with MX Blacks had mucho flex.  This was corrected in the KBT Pure.  I believe they added an extra screw for stability.