I prefer with legends as well but I also didn't want to wait for however long it would take as my F77 is going to end up being a Christmas present for my brother. I ordered a set of printed blues. Unicomp has that APL set that, as an engineer, I'm going to pretend that I need. I made the right decision on my book because my F62 never leaves my sight. Can't use it while on the phone or conference all work but otherwise it's becoming my new daily driver.
I did but only with one of them. Luckily, his site has very specific instructions how to fix most of what could happen. I ended up having a couple of keys not register at first. Then I took off and reinstalled the keys while following the video instruction and that fixed all but one. For the last one I tried adjusting the spring by doing a slight stretch and then reseating the spring and whole I was nervous, I fixed it first try. Because these boards our mountain on a curved back plate it's pretty well known that there needs to retain a certain amount of compression on that back plate like a spring otherwise keys are less likely to register. On a model m, that's a big feat because the plastic rivets break off especially as old as they are. on the model f, there's just tabs where you can slide the back off and you use the four screws on the bottom to control the spring tension essentially. I would recommend being comfortable taking apart keyboards and whatnot if you're going to purchase this
Yeah, the solenoid is just to make it louder like an old typewriter. They had done that with the old beam spring keyboards but they decided to do it with these two which is awesome. yes, inherently there will be the issue of the solenoid not being able to keep up if you type really quickly but I wanted to experience it. Only ordered it with one board. Haven't receive the solenoid yet but I received the controller. I don't remember how much it cost off hand but I'll have to install it once it arrives.
Regarding the spacebar, not a single one of my keyboards has the same sound for this spacebar as a regular 1u switch. Not on my Filco, Tofu, GK64, ... Well all of them. I consider the spacebar to almost feel like on an old typewriter the cassette tab or whatever it was. It's pretty distinguishing on the model f board I will admit, so if that's a big thing to you I would listen to some more sound samples before you make the call. Adding some lubrication to the clips could definitely help with any sort of rattle but the sound will still be a deep thocc compared to the rest of the key strokes.
Every single key is reprogrammable. My f-62 is set up like a HHKB layout with caps lock and control switched while the F77 is straight ANSI. On the ANSI, R-CTRL is Fn button and middle button was menu. But it's QMK compatible so you can make it do whatever you want.
Have you tried the Model M before? Before receiving this f62, I had never felt the capacitive buckling spring before. But I did have a m122 battleship and I can say there is absolutely hands down, no question in my mind that the model f feel is better. Model m, while still satisfying to type on, requires a lot more Force and I find myself typing more slowly on it than my model f because of hand fatigue. The model f i could type on all day and have absolutely no fatigue which is why it's becoming my daily driver. Don't want to stop you from picking up a model M because it's still absolutely incredible and significantly quieter but the feeling & sound are unmatched in my book for the Model F.
If you're not sure, go on eBay and buy one of they keychain samplers and compare them both. $400-500 is a lot to spend on a keyboard interested before and I knew it was a risk but I gambled on all of my favorite youtubers and reviewers were right and I'd love them. And I do love them. Immensely.
regarding the lack of f keys, that's the easiest thing to overcome in my mind because it's the same as the number room but you just hold down the function button just like on every 60 or 65% keyboard nowadays. F77 has several numpad configuration layouts and while it didn't come with the one I preferred, you can change it in the programming. I'm going to set mine up like a vortex vibe where a top left button will be num lock and I'll go back and forth between TKL modifiers and a full numpad like the Vibe or Cooler Master version.
