N00b ignorance

[tjcaustin]

Forgive my ignorance, but would patrick be the best person to pick up a Pure keyboard from in the US? 

Feel free to mock and delete, I don't cry.  Too much.  <.<

EDIT:  Oh, and would I be making a mistake to get a Pure over waiting until the new year to get a Poker instead (assuming production happens again)?

[Halverson]

There is also mechanical keyboards located in the US. I would say between the two, find one with the board in stock you like and place an order! I've ordered from PS and he was a great seller, had friend order from Mech-keyboards, also a great seller.

[Halverson]

http://mechanicalkeyboards.com/search.php?switch_id=ALL&size=ALL&keyword=pure

Link to all the pures in stock there

[IvanIvanovich]

They also have Poker in stock, so if you want a Poker buy one. If you don't like blacks, buy one anyway. It is easy to exchange the stems and springs as needed.

[tjcaustin]

Is the poker that much better in terms of quality, then?  It seems like a fair amount of tedium if I can get one with the correct springs/form factor already how I want it. 

[IvanIvanovich]

Quality is probably the same Poker vs Pure non-backlight. Same company, made in same factory... well it's almost the same thing asides from the right shift, but the 2nd layers have the biggest difference. I am not a huge fan of the 2nd layer arrangement on the Poker, but much less so on the Pure that I wouldn't even consider buying one at all. Due to the 1.75 shift on Pure aftermarket keycap sets are a little harder, but much easier now than a few month ago.

[tjcaustin]

Instead of making a new thread, I figure I'll add this question to this one:

I'd found a thread that I now can't again that said the light feel springs where essentially the same spring with a slightly different mechanism to effect the feel so I was wondering, could you effectively make a green switch by adding black springs to a blue switch?

[sth]

http://wiki.geekhack.org/index.php?title=Cherry_MX
Check out the bottom

[IvanIvanovich]

Yes, blue stem black spring is what is often refered as ghetto green. Similarly a lot of people used to make ghetto reds with black stem and blue/brown spring when red were still uncommon and hard to get, and other combination like ergo clears brown spring with clear stem is very popular. It's one of the great thing about pcb mount boards, it's very easy to modifiy the switch and try different things out.

[tjcaustin]

Holy crap my search-fu failed.  Miserably.

[dorkvader]

It's okay. Sometimes you just can't find it. Good synaptic search techniques are really a lost art.

That said, now that we have some base information in that article, I'm going to update it with more information. Hopefully later the GH wiki will be the starting point for keyboard minutiae and information.

[tjcaustin]

Another thing, but more for discussion I suppose.

Would it be more of a hassle than it's worth to try and change the color on a keyboard plate?  IE: A CMStorm Quickfire, pull all the caps, prep the surface, then paint without trying to remove the switches themselves.

[dorkvader]

I wouldn't want to risk getting paint in my switches.

[tjcaustin]

I wasn't even thinking in that direction.  I was more mindful of the absolute tedium sanding between all the switches and taping the switches to not cover what I want painted, though if taped off right, I wouldn't have to worry about them getting paint on them but yeah, the more I think about it the more meh it becomes.

[tjcaustin]

/dusts thread off

If I wanted to combine black and blue switches to make ghetto greens, do I have to put the black springs in what holds the blue stem or can I do it vise-versa, blue stem on black holder?  Found a keyboard with green LEDs and black switches and want to know before I order it.

[bounce]

if you want ghetto greens you use the spring of the black with the blue stem.

[tjcaustin]

Curses, I was hoping the swap worked both ways.  Ah well.

[TheQsanity]

Wait so when you pop the top off, you can only change out the stem? The spring stay suck on to the bottom?

What board did you find with green led?

Do you need special switches and PBC with led to switch out led switches?(even if you solder)

[tjcaustin]

Other way around, I can swap the spring but what the stem attaches to stays the same.

Race has green LEDs. My thoughts are:
1. to find a black switch race with white led, and get red cover things to put on it after I swap the springs around and get green LED to swap into my pure
2.  get a blue with green led, buy a bag of black switches, swap the springs around, then put the now red switches on my pure and swap those LEDs to red.
3.  get red switch race and put red LED in it, buy black springs and green LED for my blue switch pure
4.  or say screw the LEDs, get a black with white, swap springs and have a red with white race and a green with blue pure.
I'm a big fan of color theme boards.  I want to have a red theme(red switches/led/RA2.0 with red mods/red case/red usb cable) and green theme (see the first, but green).

Dunno about the third thing.

[IvanIvanovich]

All switch housing is the same, only the spring or stem is different, and all the parts come out. You could even pull out the contact leaf if you really wanted to. It's when I buy G80, I don't care at all what switch type it is because I can change it to anything I may prefer as long as I happen to have the spring and stem on hand.

Get the non backlight version, do your switch mod if you still want green, then add led yourself if you want backlight. You won't have the backlight specific caps, but you save $20, and a lot of effort.

[TheQsanity]

All switch housing is the same, only the spring or stem is different, and all the parts come out. You could even pull out the contact leaf if you really wanted to. It's when I buy G80, I don't care at all what switch type it is because I can change it to anything I may prefer as long as I happen to have the spring and stem on hand.

Get the non backlight version, do your switch mod if you still want green, then add led yourself if you want backlight. You won't have the backlight specific caps, but you save $20, and a lot of effort.

Two things, can led go on any switch(if so would it be hard to do)?

And OP is only having a delema at the led? Not the switch swaping themself?

Sorry for being confused. I never modded an led.

[tjcaustin]

Awesome, this is what I wanted to know.

There's a black w/green LED race on ebay for less than non LED prices that's now mine!

I was about to buy a black/white race and blue/green pure and sell the blue/blue pure I have now and now I don't have to, hooray!

EDIT:  Aw, crap, I bid and now my ocd is kicking in.  The race has a red pcb, this won't do well for my green themed keyboard.  Eh, either way this will be fine.  It can be my red board and I just don't turn on the LED or it can be my green board and I just suck it up.

[IvanIvanovich]

All MX switch can accommodate led, but most pcb don't. So you can stick it in a switch, but there is no holes or traces for backlight on most, so it's not so simple to do on just any board. Some do have pcb support for led like Pure, Race, Zelia, Plum96, and some others. Most that have a backlight model use the same pcb and just don't install the led at the factory. So if there is one of those board you like and it dosen't come in the led color, you can save a step and buy non backlight so you don't have to desolder anything.