Hello from Cali!

[BuildingKeys]

Hello everyone from Cali! I've always enjoyed building things like fight sticks and modding controllers. I never was handy with a keyboard, but ever since the quarantine, I've learned how to type ten fingers and I've gotten up to 66wpm (I started at 27)! Well anyways I started by looking up gaming keyboards and learned that wasn't even the tip of the iceberg. I brought a Ducky one two mini, but it didn't sate my keyboard hunger. Now i've got my mind set on building a TKL Keyboard. It seems like this site is a great resource for finding groupbuys and general info. I look forward to meeting some of you!   

[Maledicted]

Hi BuildingKeys. Welcome to Geekhack.

That's cool. What kind of mods have you done to controllers?

I'm no expert on kit/LEGO keyboards, but I don't think TKL leaves many options. I did order a TKL of one of the Heavy Metal Keyboards myself.

What switches have you tried? Which do you like?

[BuildingKeys]

As far as controllers go, I’ve mainly done cosmetic changes with the shells, analog sticks, and face buttons. Although I was fairly young when I was up to that.

Oh I see! I’ve used a 60% keyboard but using the FN key to utilize the rest of the keys wasn’t for me. So I wanted to try something larger but more unique than a traditional full sized keyboard. I can totally see your point with limited options with TKLs, searching for options is quite difficult itself. In your experience, how would you rank the type of keyboards based on the amount of options?

I’ve used the cherry Mx Red switches, and I’ve seen a couple of switches on YouTube. I was interested in the Orange Helios V2 switches!

[Maledicted]

I did the same sort of thing. I still have a red and black xbox 360 controller somewhere that I painted myself with rattle cans. I also soldered an extra button into a controller for my brother. There were a few PCB revisions that literally only required a button and some bits of wire to make a turbo button.

I agree. I need dedicated arrow keys myself, at a bare minimum. In that regard, you can get 60% boards that support dedicated arrow keys. I ordered the DZ60 for this purpose. I think that 60% is probably where you'll have the most options. I'm not sure what ranks next for sure, maybe 40%, sadly? 75% is around, and probably more common for kit boards than TKL, but still limited (unfortunately).

No love for tactiles or clickies? People do rave over Zeal's switches. I imagine you can't go wrong with them for linears or tactiles.

[BuildingKeys]

I see! That is what I assumed regarding the 60% keyboards. And exactly the missing arrow keys are the biggest throw offs for me too. I do like the heavy clicks of topre keycaps as well. I'm just excited to try out all sorts of switches tbh.

Thank you for the information btw!