Dilemma (solved -> ghetto greens)

[Laser]

So as i live in Europe, i orderered and received a week ago, relatively cheap, a Cherry made keyboard with clear switches. I also have an old Unitek/Dah Yang K-160 keyboard with blue switches. After some days of hard test-typing, i felt the blue switches too light, and the clears too heavy. So, as both keyboards have PCB-mounted switches, i swapped the springs.

While both keyboards now felt way better than before, after some more days of test-typing, now i feel that the blues with clear-springs are a little too heavy, and the ergo clears a little too light. In both cases, i felt that a spring heavier than that of the blue switch and lighter than that of the clear switch "would" be close to ideal - for both keyboards!

And today i received at a steal price (~52$, sold out from a local store) a QFR, unbranded, new, with black switches, which i obviously intend to use, as it has the best material quality and looks ... and now my dilemma: how to mod it? panda clears, or ghetto green (both using the black spring)? I think i'd love them both ... but, i only have one choice.

[mauri]

#goldsprings #swag #blazeit

[Laser]

Uh, i'm kinda new here, please translate

The heavy blues remind me of the buckling spring i tested recently at work. When you type, it's like your writing gets "weight" ...
Also, is there any place/body selling a "Vim" keycap? I'd love one of those.

[absyrd]

Vim key:
http://techkeys.us/collections/keys/products/vim-key

[Laser]

Vim key:
http://techkeys.us/collections/keys/products/vim-key

Thanks for that info!

[Thimplum]

There are some places which sell 60-65g springs. These will be lighter that the stock clears and heavier than the stock blues.

[Laser]

This could help, if i'd had a 2nd useful keyboard - what i indent is to mod and use only the QFR to change the stems from black to either blue or clear ones. In my understanding, the spring of a black switch should be in the 60-65g range, so this should be ok, right?

[tp4tissue]

This could help, if i'd had a 2nd useful keyboard - what i indent is to mod and use only the QFR to change the stems from black to either blue or clear ones. In my understanding, the spring of a black switch should be in the 60-65g range, so this should be ok, right?

Don't bother if you need a blue...

You can find NEW mx-blue Quickfire boards for $50 in the USA.. I can proxy it to you for the $50+tax+shipping, assuming you do the leg work finding the keyboard.  shouldn't be hard.. black friday is coming up.

There's no reason to do a time intensive mod if you want mx-blue

If you want to mod for clears... they're aight... after you lube them, they feel like linear (black/red), and it's kinda hard to get the lube "off"... so cognizant of that...

[Laser]

But i don't want simple blues, i try to choose between ghetto greens and panda clears <--- the dilemma.

[tp4tissue]

But i don't want simple blues, i try to choose between ghetto greens and panda clears <--- the dilemma.

ghetto green is the same as "green"

Panda clear is not going to feel dramatically different from "Regular clears", they will be slightly heavier

[IvanIvanovich]

I would go clicky, but thats just me.

[Laser]

I would go clicky, but thats just me.

Yea, I probably want some nice arguments, although as you mention it, it has to be personal in the end.
Probably some imagery to put first, on both plates of the balance.

[mauri]

What about whites?

[Laser]

What about whites?

Nice idea, i am curious about them, but i also have a limited budget. In the future ... Now it will fill the plates of another balance, on the left: best of both worlds, on the right: neither of them. But first i'd have to get them, while the above solutions are let's say, at hand (only need to do the de/re-soldering job).

[tp4tissue]

What about whites?

Nice idea, i am curious about them, but i also have a limited budget. In the future ... Now it will fill the plates of another balance, on the left: best of both worlds, on the right: neither of them. But first i'd have to get them, while the above solutions are let's say, at hand (only need to do the de/re-soldering job).

Laser, I would actually Highly recommend you looking into the next round of Ergodoxes.  Because it seems you really want to try out all the switches.

Ergodox is currently the only Uber mod friendly board out there... and it will let you setup any switch you like, because it has an easy mod plate.. so you don't have to desolder all the switches to change up the spring/ stems.

You can open the switches without soldering, AND it's still plated.. so it's just as stable as other plated boards like the quickfire..

[Laser]

Pls, stop the ergodox anything Not only i'm on budget, i am not interested in that.

I also know that i could obtain, if i search, some custom plate compatible with the QFR with different-shaped holes for switches, so that i can remove the top cap of each switch without de-soldering it. But that's eventually for the future, and it's not quite what i ask.

[tp4tissue]

Pls, stop the ergodox anything Not only i'm on budget, i am not interested in that.

I also know that i could obtain, if i search, some custom plate compatible with the QFR with different-shaped holes for switches, so that i can remove the top cap of each switch without de-soldering it. But that's eventually for the future, and it's not quite what i ask.

it's just a suggestion... but if you do pursue the keyboard hobby to its end.. the Ergodox is "at the end"..

There is no up from ergodox...

I am glad you are taking on the quickfire modding project.. almost all of us here at geekhack started on modding our Tenkeyless-es..

Eventually, after extensive use... we all realized that our shoulders and wrists hurt.. and the cause of that is very much the "flatness" and the "compactness" of the staggered qwerty layout.

In summary.. good on you for joining the journey.. I am merely hinting you at the harsh reality that the veterans have all come to accept...  staggered qwerty = bad for your health...

[tp4tissue]

To clarify... I am not saying that the quickfire "suck super hard"...

My point is... It is a stepping stone that CAN be skipped, because the outcome to the modding scene is clear where Ergodox reign supreme.

[Linkbane]

it's just a suggestion... but if you do pursue the keyboard hobby to its end.. the Ergodox is "at the end"..
In summary.. good on you for joining the journey.. I am merely hinting you at the harsh reality that the veterans have all come to accept...  staggered qwerty = bad for your health...

Staggered Qwerty = You can actually feel the difference between rows. Ergonomic benefits/lack of benefits remain to be seen.
But tp4, back on your first day and at it already!

[Morwrath]

This tp4-guy is starting to get anoying with the neverending rambling about ergodox lol

[Hyde]

To answer the OP, get 65g spring from originativeco.com.  Oh the site's been down for a while try to contact sherryton on GH he's the owner of the site.

62g = slightly heavier than blue spring.
65g = slightly lighter than black spring.

So I think the 65g spring will be suitable for you.  Or you can just use the spring you got on your mx black and stem swap to clear to make panda clear.

[Linkbane]

This tp4-guy is starting to get anoying with the neverending rambling about ergodox lol

He got banned for two weeks when he was trolling literally every thread about the ED. In before he posts that it's not trolling.
Every single keyboard thread besides ED would always be something along the lines of "why do you even care? ErgoDox completely invalidates your keyboard" or something along those lines.

[Laser]

To answer the OP, get 65g spring from originativeco.com.  Oh the site's been down for a while try to contact sherryton on GH he's the owner of the site.

62g = slightly heavier than blue spring.
65g = slightly lighter than black spring.

So I think the 65g spring will be suitable for you.  Or you can just use the spring you got on your mx black and stem swap to clear to make panda clear.

Thanks for info, if i'll decide on the clear mx branch, i'll probably go for the panda solution - but that's the thing, do i go for the pandas, or for the ghettos? (starts to sound like a first rap lyric)

[Laser]

I just read this review of CPTBadAss, if i extract what i'm interested in, i get these:

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C) Black spring with Blue stem (Also called a ghetto Green) – I loved these. Switch feels like a SUPER clicky Blue switch. They’re nice and heavy; almost authoritatively Clicky. I am so smitten with these that I’m going to put them on my KMAC. And when I was in Pittsburgh, I tried Missalaire’s QFR with Greens and the switches felt the same to me. So I have faith that the ghetto Greens will be just as good as the MX Greens. And I can actually find them…unlike the actual Green switches.

I) Black spring with Clear Stem (Also called Panda clears) – I liked these. This was probably my favorite iteration of the Clear swaps. It wasn’t sticky at all. It was the right combination of springy and bumpy. Unlike the weak bump in Browns that felt almost mushy, the Clear bump was unmistakable. It’s lighter than the stock Clears obviously and I’m a huge fan of the weight/actuation force on MX Blacks.

L) Black spring with Whites – I loved these. Maybe we should just call this the Panda switch since it’s black and white? Hehe. Anyways, the bottom out wasn’t as resistive as the Whites feel. It was almost like the switch had a little more give on the bottom. Whites feel almost like they build resistance as you press down. It’s not TOO light and there is still the soft muffled click that I love from Whites.

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So, based on this and the above posts, I'm almost ready to change the title of the thread, from a dilemma into a ... "threelemma".
Are there any cheap whites/milkies? Or isn't it possible to alter the blue stems to make them more like the whites (or any other way to alter the click sound, not o-rings based) ?


UPDATE: I went for the ghetto greens, they work like a charm