My new Leopold is practically a musical instrument

[Wensey]

Hi,

Just made an account here to ask. I already spent hours reading threads here and couldn't find anything like this issue.

I just got a new Leopold 900R PD with Cherry MX Brown switches and this thing is ringing LIKE A BELL. From what I've read and listened to, this is above and beyond any kind of normal "ping" noise. It's every single key. Upstroke and downstroke. Even if I just lightly tap the case, there's a long, clear, resonant ring. It's to the point where my brain doesn't even hear the clicking, all I hear is this ringing noise.

Is this a defective unit? It seems like most people have minimum ping issues with Leopolds, and if they do it's only a couple keys. To add insult to injury the box even says there is a "sound absorbent pad" included but it's clearly doing ****-all.

It doesn't improve if I put a pad underneath the keyboard either.  Is there anything I can do short of opening this thing up and cramming it chock-full of foam?

Thanks.

[Sintpinty]

Hi,

Just made an account here to ask. I already spent hours reading threads here and couldn't find anything like this issue.

I just got a new Leopold 900R PD with Cherry MX Brown switches and this thing is ringing LIKE A BELL. From what I've read and listened to, this is above and beyond any kind of normal "ping" noise. It's every single key. Upstroke and downstroke. Even if I just lightly tap the case, there's a long, clear, resonant ring. It's to the point where my brain doesn't even hear the clicking, all I hear is this ringing noise.

Is this a defective unit? It seems like most people have minimum ping issues with Leopolds, and if they do it's only a couple keys. To add insult to injury the box even says there is a "sound absorbent pad" included but it's clearly doing ****-all.

It doesn't improve if I put a pad underneath the keyboard either.  Is there anything I can do short of opening this thing up and cramming it chock-full of foam?

Thanks.

I have strong ping on my corsair k63 and it ruins the sound

[Maledicted]

I have only heard good things from those boards myself, although I haven't heard much. I see one glaring problem though: Cherry MX Brown doesn't really make any noise at all other than bottoming out, so it stands to reason that the resulting ping is all you would hear. I'm surprised the upstroke is loud though.

If you had louder switches and/or ones that are heavy enough that you are less likely to slam into the plate, or ones that are dampened like Cherry's "silent" switches, I'm sure it would help.

I'm no uber stealthy, high speed, low drag Sam Fisher/Solid Snake type though.

My K65 pings like crazy once I ugpraded it to Box Navies, and I'm actually liking that. Reminds me of buckling spring.

[HungerMechanic]

Yeah...I was going to say, it could be the switches.

I wrote a draft post last night, then deleted it because I thought it might be off-base.

But when I first got my Leopold FC900R PD, there was some ping. The switches especially towards the centre of the keyboard were pinging.

Then, when Zilents replaced the Browns, the pinging stopped. I mean, just stopped. There was some ping before, and now there is none.

So the switches and the layout of the switches across the board may be causing the ping. Many people who review Leopold boards don't get MX Browns, and maybe they are getting switches with less ping.

Anyway, that's just a theory. Leopolds do have quality abnormalities - super-noisy space bars (unmodded), for instance. And I just saw a post today about someone who had spacebar double-keystrokes with 2 Leopolds in a row. So maybe they are undermining their QC in ramping up production, or maybe we just get more QC problems with a higher statistical pool of owners.

[Wensey]

Update:

I work at a engineering consulting firm and noticed a bunch of geotextile fabric sitting in our supply room, used for stabilizing soil. It looks exactly like the foam sound-absorbing pad that I saw when I opened up the keyboard.

I pulled out the OEM foam pad and used it as a template to basically cut a 3-4x thicker version of it and slapped that bad boy in instead. Voided the warranty but it sounds lovely now...

Noise gone.

[Riverman]

Very nice!  Do you have any idea where the average person could get fabric like that?  I have a Cherry G80-3000 that seems to suffer from an overly resonant case.  I'm sure some sort of sound-deadening inside it could help.

[Maledicted]

Nice, whatever works. There's always o-rings that prevent the caps from striking the plate too. I tried some on Cherry MX Reds once in a K70, but it made it feel mushy to me. I have heard there are thinner o'rings that don't have that side effect though.

It looks like people may have even tried Dynamat in a keyboard. Peel & Seal would be a cheaper alternative. I wouldn't think the fumes of the cheap Peel & Seal should be a huge deal when they're sealed up inside of a keyboard case.

[iliketimex]

I have a silent-red Leopold and one switch pings a lot. I wrote the vendor and Leopold would either repair the keyboard if i sent it to them, or provide permission to open the case and resolder the switch myself without voiding the warranty. It sounds like your keyboard just needs to be returned or you should email the vendor and see if Leopold will replace it. In general my Leopold is quieter and resonates less than my Filco.

[Maledicted]

I have a silent-red Leopold and one switch pings a lot. I wrote the vendor and Leopold would either repair the keyboard if i sent it to them, or provide permission to open the case and resolder the switch myself without voiding the warranty. It sounds like your keyboard just needs to be returned or you should email the vendor and see if Leopold will replace it. In general my Leopold is quieter and resonates less than my Filco.

He's got regular Cherry MX Browns in it though. Have you experienced this board with undampened switches? It is cool that Leopold greenlighted you to bust out a soldering iron without voiding the warranty. That commands respect.

[tex_live_utility]

Could be a weird batch of springs. All unlubed springs will ping or resonate, but it's only really that bad on certain vintage boards like the Apple M0110 and the IBM 6112884 (aka the "Pingmaster").

Can you take a video or recording demonstrating the problem? That might make it easier to figure out what's going on.

[HungerMechanic]

The OP already fixed the problem by using dampening fabric.

It would be interesting to know exactly what that dampening fabric was and how to get it.