Swappable MX switch TKL for $30 @ Amazon (SMD backlit for $38-$40)

[Optima]

UPDATE: There's apparently some question about whether the pins on Gateron or other non-Outemu switches will fit into the sockets on these. (I do know Teamwolf's boards were sold on Massdrop with Gateron switches as an optional upgrade, but those boards are a different brand and are $50 on Amazon.)

MechanicalEagle Z-77

No backlight, $30
White with backlight, $38 
Black with backlight, $40 
104 key (numpad) black backlit, $56

I'm seeing conflicting info about whether a switch pulling tool is included. Comes with Gaote Blue switches.

Free two day shipping if you have Prime; otherwise, free shipping for orders over $49.

"Fulfilled by Amazon" , sold by GranVela. I'm affiliated with neither.  I just figured a few people around here might have some spare switches they don't know what to do with.  (Annoyingly enough, just last week I pulled the trigger on the gold tone Zhuque TKL for $50.)

[DALExSNAIL]

What is tlk?

[ideus]

What is tlk?

It's an acronym after ten key less, that means that the board does not have a numeric pad.

[ideus]

MechanicalEagle Z-77

No backlight, $30
White with backlight, $38 
Black with backlight, $40 

I'm seeing conflicting info about whether a switch pulling tool is included. Comes with Gaote Blue switches.

Free two day shipping if you have Prime; otherwise, free shipping for orders over $49.

"Fulfilled by Amazon" , sold by GranVela. I'm affiliated with neither.  I just figured a few people around here might have some spare switches they don't know what to do with.  (Annoyingly enough, just last week I pulled the trigger on the gold tone Zhuque TLK for $50.)

It is a very interesting proposal, thank you very much for sharing. I just wonder if it make takes any other switch.

[Optima]

It is a very interesting proposal, thank you very much for sharing. I just wonder if it make takes any other switch.

I could be wrong, but it kinda looks/sounds like the same manufacturer as the Teamwolf/Zhuque but with different branding. If so, these can take any plate mount MX switch (and you can mod PCB mount into plate mount by clipping off some extra pins, as I recall?). Gaterons on eBay are fairly cheap these days.

There are a lot of reviews you could sift through for more information, though it appeared at least some of them were incentivized.

[ideus]

It is a very interesting proposal, thank you very much for sharing. I just wonder if it make takes any other switch.

I could be wrong, but it kinda looks/sounds like the same manufacturer as the Teamwolf/Zhuque but with different branding. If so, these can take any plate mount MX switch (and you can mod PCB mount into plate mount by clipping off some extra pins, as I recall?). Gaterons on eBay are fairly cheap these days.

There are a lot of reviews you could sift through for more information, though it appeared at least some of them were incentivized.

Right! the pins for PCB mount could be clipped off the switches.

[klennkellon]

I'm thinking of ordering this cause I need a cheap keyboard to put ergo-clears in. Someone on reddit said that you could only swap around the included switches.

[klennkellon]

I ordered it. It should be here Monday. I'll post initial thoughts.

I ordered the non-backlit version.

[XMIT]

"How bad could it possibly be" says the person who just got a Logitech G410. What a miserable board that was. I've got one of these on the way, $30 is quite inexpensive.

I'm a little worried about bending switch pins or on having a poor fit that leads to chatter.

[klennkellon]

"How bad could it possibly be" says the person who just got a Logitech G410. What a miserable board that was. I've got one of these on the way, $30 is quite inexpensive.

I'm a little worried about bending switch pins or on having a poor fit that leads to chatter.

What's wrong with the G410? Do you really dislike Romer-G? I didn't care for them either, but if they weren't so mushy I might actually prefer them to MX Browns.

[XMIT]

I don't think much of the Romer-G switch. It doesn't have enough travel, the bump and actuation are too high up, and the force increases way too steeply after way too subtle a bump. If I wanted a laptop keyboard I'd type on a laptop! It's an excellent idea but poorly implemented.

[chicken]

I don't know if this is the case for all of these keyboards, but mine did not accept Gateron switches, the holes in the PCB seem to only accept the outemu switches.

[dante]

$30 shipped?!  Child labor much?

[klennkellon]

Unfortunately, someone reddit has informed me that

I don't know if this is the case for all of these keyboards, but mine did not accept Gateron switches, the holes in the PCB seem to only accept the outemu switches.

I have heard this too, too late unfortunately.

It seems the Outemu's pins are just a hair smaller than MX or Gateron.

[Optima]

Unfortunately, someone reddit has informed me that

I don't know if this is the case for all of these keyboards, but mine did not accept Gateron switches, the holes in the PCB seem to only accept the outemu switches.

I have heard this too, too late unfortunately.

It seems the Outemu's pins are just a hair smaller than MX or Gateron.

Curious. Is that specific to this branding (MechanicalEagle) or for all of these user-removable switch boards?

The Teamwolf CIYs were on Massdrop a while back and they offered a premium option (+$10 or whatever) for Gateron switches of any color you wished. I haven't yet had the time to play around with my Teamwolf to verify this (nor do I have any loose Gaterons yet.)  I assumed MechanicalEagle was a simple rebrand and was going to be the same thing under the hood, since it too had Outemu/Gaote Blues as default, the keycap font seemed similar and it had the same rainbow SMD backlight scheme, but I didn't look too closely since I wasn't buying one.

My apologies for the inconvenience if it does turn out to be useless for any other brand. I guess if push came to shove you maybe could rebuild every single Outemu switch with parts from a Gateron or Cherry... but that sort of defeats the convenience of not having to de-solder stuff, eh?

[klennkellon]

Unfortunately, someone reddit has informed me that

I don't know if this is the case for all of these keyboards, but mine did not accept Gateron switches, the holes in the PCB seem to only accept the outemu switches.

I have heard this too, too late unfortunately.

It seems the Outemu's pins are just a hair smaller than MX or Gateron.

Curious. Is that specific to this branding (MechanicalEagle) or for all of these user-removable switch boards?

The Teamwolf CIYs were on Massdrop a while back and they offered a premium option (+$10 or whatever) for Gateron switches of any color you wished. I haven't yet had the time to play around with my Teamwolf to verify this (nor do I have any loose Gaterons yet.)  I assumed MechanicalEagle was a simple rebrand and was going to be the same thing under the hood, since it too had Outemu/Gaote Blues as default, the keycap font seemed similar and it had the same rainbow SMD backlight scheme, but I didn't look too closely since I wasn't buying one.

My apologies for the inconvenience if it does turn out to be useless for any other brand. I guess if push came to shove you maybe could rebuild every single Outemu switch with parts from a Gateron or Cherry... but that sort of defeats the convenience of not having to de-solder stuff, eh?

The TeamWolf has a slightly different issue, the switch has to have an LED cut out or its difficult to put the switch in. Gaterons have this cutout and MX dont.

A reviewer on Amazon said you can crimp the pins on switches to get it to work but he didn't explain how.

[klennkellon]

I have a few spare MX Clears, so I'm going to see if putting the MX Clear slider into the Outemu housing may work, although someone has told me that Outemu feel much worse than MX.

[Optima]

[The TeamWolf has a slightly different issue, the switch has to have an LED cut out or its difficult to put the switch in. Gaterons have this cutout and MX dont.

Yeah, that had occurred to me as another advantage for the no-backlight MechanicalEagle model. Again, it's an issue one could bypass with switch surgery but (assuming one isn't completely averse to solder) how much hassle are you really saving yourself at that point?

Speaking of switch surgery, this might still be a relatively convenient board to use for switch mod experiments, like jailhouse blues (using the Outemus it comes with as guinea pigs.)

[klennkellon]

I suppose we'll have to wait for Glorious to release their TKL hot-swappable board early next year. The full-sized is a great keyboard but it's full-sized.

[XMIT]

I got mine yesterday! Man, Amazon is fast this time of year. I'm typing on it now.

I can confirm that Gateron, Noppoo, and Kailh switches DO NOT fit, for the same reason that was mentioned earlier: the switch posts are too wide. Bummer!

So now I'm on the lookout for some Outemu switches that I can drop in here to change things around.

Outemu Blues aren't /that/ bad - I like them more than Cherry MX Blue in fact - and $30 shipped for a TKL mech with lasered ABS keys is so inexpensive that I can't be upset. If nothing else I have a good showcase for some key cap sets!

[klennkellon]

I got mine today as well. And it's true, nothing fits except the included switches.

It is actually reasonably well built and doesn't feel shoddy. The included blue switches feel just as good as MX Blue IMO, if there is any major difference it's probably very small.

The spacebar stab was broken out of the box however, so this is a good enough excuse to return the keyboard.

The Team Wolf modular keyboard is probably a much better option, especially if you want to use Gateron or Zealios, both of which I think have the proper LED cutout in them. Also waiting for Glorious to release their TKL but their full sized modular board is also quite good though its the most expensive.

[ika]

I got mine yesterday! Man, Amazon is fast this time of year. I'm typing on it now.

I can confirm that Gateron, Noppoo, and Kailh switches DO NOT fit, for the same reason that was mentioned earlier: the switch posts are too wide. Bummer!

So now I'm on the lookout for some Outemu switches that I can drop in here to change things around.

Outemu Blues aren't /that/ bad - I like them more than Cherry MX Blue in fact - and $30 shipped for a TKL mech with lasered ABS keys is so inexpensive that I can't be upset. If nothing else I have a good showcase for some key cap sets!

What exactly do you mean by "switch posts"? Can you take a picture? Do you have the LED or non-LED version, or does that not matter?

[XMIT]

I mean the legs of the switch, the contacts. On everything but Gaote and Outemu switches they are too fat to fit!

I have the non-LED version (which was only $30) but this issue will happen whether or not LEDs are present.

[klennkellon]

I got mine yesterday! Man, Amazon is fast this time of year. I'm typing on it now.

I can confirm that Gateron, Noppoo, and Kailh switches DO NOT fit, for the same reason that was mentioned earlier: the switch posts are too wide. Bummer!

So now I'm on the lookout for some Outemu switches that I can drop in here to change things around.

Outemu Blues aren't /that/ bad - I like them more than Cherry MX Blue in fact - and $30 shipped for a TKL mech with lasered ABS keys is so inexpensive that I can't be upset. If nothing else I have a good showcase for some key cap sets!

What exactly do you mean by "switch posts"? Can you take a picture? Do you have the LED or non-LED version, or does that not matter?

The pins on the switches in the keyboard are just a hair smaller than most other switches so you cant get them to fit into the holes in the PCB.

[ander]

$30 is quite inexpensive... I'm a little worried about bending switch pins or on having a poor fit that leads to chatter.

Yikes—if someone as experienced as you is worried about that, what business do the rest of us have trying to do it?  :?)