sticky spacebar on Keyed Up Labs ES-87

[TopreFan333]

Picked up a very nice set of DCS keys from Signature Plastics last week for my KUL ES-87. Very much loving the keys — but for whatever reason the spacebar does not fit right at all. No matter how carefully I put it on, it binds terribly. I also tried rotating it 180° and that didn't help at all. If it depresses at all, it sticks there and won't come back up on its own. Is there something about this keyboard that isn't compatible with my spacebar? Here's a picture that should help. The black spacebar is the original, and the grey one is the one that doesn't fit right. As you can see from the yellow lines I drew, everything *should* be lining up. Maybe the little fittings on the Signature Plastics spacebar are too fat to fit right into the stabilizers?

[TopreFan333]

Oops, sorry for the double-post — I got a "504 Gateway Time-out nginx/1.1.19" error and ended up sending it twice by mistake.

[esoomenona]

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[TopreFan333]

Yep, works perfectly with the stock spacebar.

The lady at Signature Plastics said "I will send out a second spacebar on Monday, though no guarantees that it will fix the problem!" which is kind of weird because unless I'm missing something here it's clearly defective.

[SpAmRaY]

DSA space bars have that problem sometimes. I never could get my retro DSA space bar to work on my ducky board.

[TopreFan333]

DSA space bars have that problem sometimes. I never could get my retro DSA space bar to work on my ducky board.

Weird. Ever track down the issue? Actually stumbled across the same keyset/keyboard combo I have in this post the other day (second pic), so I think *someone* has it working...

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=63826.msg1494826#msg1494826

[SpAmRaY]

I've had some DSA stabilized  keys that just didn't want to fit on cherry stabs, usually number pad 0 or enter.

I think some stabilizers can be too tight and/or some stems are just slightly off and it causes issues.

[TopreFan333]

I've had some DSA stabilized  keys that just didn't want to fit on cherry stabs, usually number pad 0 or enter.

I think some stabilizers can be too tight and/or some stems are just slightly off and it causes issues.

Thanks for the info — will just have to see if the replacement happens to work :/

[uns211]

I had the same problem with my KUL and DSA Dolch. http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=33130.msg1429774#msg1429774

You can try putting o-rings on the stabilizer stems before removing the plastic bits.

[rowdy]

Also check to see if the space bar is completely flat.

Cherry stabilisers are very unforgiving for warped keys, even if the warping is very slight.

[TopreFan333]

I had the same problem with my KUL and DSA Dolch. http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=33130.msg1429774#msg1429774

You can try putting o-rings on the stabilizer stems before removing the plastic bits.

Aha! It was your picture I saw pop up in another thread. Ok... so you said in your other post:

My DSA Dolch spacebar was sticking when I first put it on. I thought the issue was with the Cherry stabilizer, but my Granite spacebar worked fine. I discovered where the problem stemmed from. I removed the crossbars from the stems and the spacebar works fine.

Which leads me to this probably egregious noob question: what are the crossbars and how do I remove them?

[uns211]

Which leads me to this probably egregious noob question: what are the crossbars and how do I remove them?

I used a screwdriver to break them off.

[TopreFan333]

(Attachment Link)

I used a screwdriver to break them off.

Done. I used a flat, sharp tool to remove as much of those little crossbars as possible and get them down to the level of the surrounding key — and it's basically working now. It's still a bit mushy though, actually quite mushy compared to the stock spacebar. Did yours come up to normal functioning after your mod?

[uns211]

Try flipping it around. I don't notice a difference between DSA Dolch, Granite, and the stock spacebar.

[TopreFan333]

Try flipping it around. I don't notice a difference between DSA Dolch, Granite, and the stock spacebar.

Tried it both ways. They're sending a replacement this week so I'll try that too with the mod you shared — and if not I'm gonna just live with the mis-matched stock spacebar because it responds crisply and the DSA one still feels like it's been dipped in honey.  Thanks much for your help tho!

[absyrd]

Has anyone tried just "breaking it in" really well? Just jab on it hundreds of times and maybe actuation will smooth out?

[TopreFan333]

Has anyone tried just "breaking it in" really well? Just jab on it hundreds of times and maybe actuation will smooth out?

uns211's is apparently working fine — for mine, I spent maybe 20 minutes in total jabbing it at different angles, holding it down, repeatedly tapping, etc, and didn't feel like I was making any progress. Still feels quite nasty and sticky.

Since we're talking about the same spacebar from the same keyset and the same keyboard, I have to assume there's something a little off about mine. SP is sending another, so fingers crossed there's some small molding issue that will have been resolved...