Cherry MX Rubber O-Ring Switch Dampeners

[Bender16]

Hi there!

Im thinking about getting the O-Rings for my Blackwidow, but I still have some questions.

1.) Should I get the 50A or the 40A ones? I dont really know what the difference is between them, I just know that the 40A ones are a bit softer.
2.) Are the keys from the blackwidow compatible with them?
3.) Should I get the plastic key cap puller or the wired key cap puller? I've never done something like this before on a mechanical keyboard.

4.) wasdkeyboards got single switches from the Cherry MX ones, I considered ordering a brown and black switch to try them out, is this a good idea?
5.) Is my Blackwidow compatible with other keysets from wasdkeyboards, like a blank keyset or something like that? Are all the Cherry MX keys the same?


That's it for now -

 I'd appreciate any help given.

Thanks in advance

[sawedust]

Welcome to Geekhack!

1.  That comes down to personal preference.  I currently have a set of 50A O-Rings installed, and I like the feel of them.  It's a little bouncy, not mushy but does a great job of dampening the sound when bottoming out as well as providing a little more comfort.  Why not order a pair of both and see if you like either one?  There is a group buy for the 40A O-Rings going on right now in the Group Buys subforum; you might want to check that out.

2.  Yes, the BW keys are compatible.

3.  I prefer the wired key cap puller, but to each his or her own.

4.  Sure, why not?  It will help give you a better idea of what the switches feel like.  For best results, it's usually better to get a board to try out but that isn't feasible for some of us.  (Although if you hang out around GH long enough, you will eventually have more than one, two, three sets of keyboards.)

5.  Yes, as long as they're Cherry MX keys, they will fit.

Have fun!

[WhiteFireDragon]

:welcome:

1) Difference between 40A and 50A is the softness, with 40A being slightly softer. There are hardly any difference though, if you pay attention then you'll notice, but for normal usages, these miniscule things don't matter.

2) Yeah, the caps from your Razer works with them. Although, I will mention that that I installed O-rings on my friends Black Widow and when pressing the O-rings all the way down to the cap stem, there were some instances where the O-rings didn't have the effect it was suppose to. This is because the stems from the black widow is a tad longer than other keyboards, like Filcos.

3) Plastic or wire keypuller doesn't matter, but I personally prefer wire. I just don't want to chance the sides of the caps scratching when using a plastic clip-type puller.

4) True they do have single switches available, but you won't get the full switch experience from the switch alone. You really need to install caps on it, and even install the switch actual keyboard (btw, it's impossible to replace switches on your black widow without desoldering). I'll even go as far as saying you should do the whole keyboard with the switch, because typing on just a few installed ones is not the same has typing on the whole keyboard with the same switches. There are some tester boards that lets you sample all the various switches at once, but the line for that is a bit long.

5) Any Cherry MX cap will fit the black widow switches, but just pay attention to the layouts as you look for more custom caps.

[laffindude]

The bottom row keys don't fit.

[Bender16]

Thanks for all the help and answers!

I think Im just gonna get the 40A rings and the wired key puller.

@WhiteFireDragon
Is there something you can do about the O-rings on the Blackwidow when they dont have the effect they should have? Like not pressing the O-rings all the way down to the cap stem or something?

[Dajm]

Hi there, I just did the exact same thing you plan to do: I bought 40A O-Rings from wasdkeyboards.com and put them on my Blackwidow.

So far I've only put the rings on the keycaps for the letters, not the other ones (so my enter key, spacebar, etc. are still "undampened").
Which brings me to my next point: Get the wired keycap puller, not the plastic one! Because the plastic one will only allow you to pull the "normal" keycaps. It will not help you for the odd-shaped caps like the enter key, spacebar, shift key, etc. So get the wire one.

I'm happy with the result. I bottom out when I type, so the rings help with that. What remains is the click-sound of the blue switches. It's still louder than a rubberdome keyboard, but I think it's much better without the bottoming-out-noise.

So far I haven't seen the problem WhiteFireDragon described, but maybe I will encounter this on one of the keys I haven't equipped with O-rings yet, I don't know.
In any case, if that happens: Not pushing the O-ring all the way in is not a solution since it will be pushed in all the way if you want the keycap to sit properly. Otherwise your keycap will stand out. The only solution I can imagine would be to use sandpaper or something to make the keycap shorter.

[omuerte]

I'm going to be very GH here and say get both. I prefer 40a on some keys (letters, num-row, punctuation, arrows, space and the 9 prtscrn->pgdn cluster) and blacks on other keys like the modifiers, win key, enter/tab/backspace/fkeys. Basically any key I usually hit with a fast striking motion gets a 50a ring - everything else gets 40a. Consider how you type on the letters vs how you use backspace or esc