Taobao VE.A. clone - CNC aluminum edition!

[tchalikias]

So some time ago I was talking with the seller of the popular acrylic VE.A. style board over on Taobao and he asked me if I'd be interested in a one-off, aluminum version of the clone. I said yes without even thinking about it. A month later I received it and I have to say I love it so far.

Originally I used some leftover DSA caps on it (alphas are the stock Vortex Race 3 ones, mods etc. are DSA Legacy from the recent Massdrop recap plus a few random ones). It runs the ps2avrgb_split firmware and is programmed through Bootmapper.





What impressed me is the overall fit and finish of the board. Almost zero scratches/nicks, nice diffusion of the RGB leds in the acrylic layer, micro-USB all around, and no perceivable lag whatsoever that I can detect at least. One of the through hole LEDs doesn't work, and that's it. I'll probably replace it later myself (I got it assembled by the seller).

Here it is with Maxkey SA Foundation caps:

[Tekilashot]

this is neat . I want the same now 

[tchalikias]

You can contact the Taobao seller but it does require certain steps first - while he does speak English, the only way to contact sellers on Taobao is by using a proprietary Chinese IM service called Aliwangwang, which installs a bunch of shady, persistent services (so its best to install it in a VM) and is, of course, only in Chinese. Here's the store link (use google translate): https://shop110310565.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1.1000126.2.6c3f750bL5exlZ

[AuthenticDanger]

How much did it cost?

[tchalikias]

With shipping, cherry mx blues and leds plus the superbuy agent fees it came to about 220 euros.

[japancakes]

Damn. This is like a dream keeb for me but the app and hassle seem crazy.

Could I talk with him via an agent?

[tchalikias]

I really don't know. The agent could supposedly pass on a message but with this board being unlisted it on Taobao could prove troublesome. To be honest, the app is easy enough to use, even with 0 knowledge of chinese - there are youtube videos to guide you through the installation and you start the chat via clicking on the IM icon next to the seller's name on the taobao page.

[0-matic]

Did you add the LEDs or were they build in?

Background: I just modded my own Taobao VE.A clone and I can't get the LEDs on the right half to work. (With LED I mean the key backlight LEDs, not the underglow ones)

[MarbleKeeb]

Can find some interesting stuff on Taobao!

[PikaJoyce]

Definitely wish it was easier to contact this dude! You should tell him to consider opening up shop on aliexpress too!

[Sintpinty]

I mean, i have some leftover OEM and DSA keycaps that unfortuately won't fit on my board because it is corsair. Anybody's welcome to have them

[p_blaze]

You can contact the Taobao seller but it does require certain steps first - while he does speak English, the only way to contact sellers on Taobao is by using a proprietary Chinese IM service called Aliwangwang, which installs a bunch of shady, persistent services (so its best to install it in a VM) and is, of course, only in Chinese. Here's the store link (use google translate): https://shop110310565.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1.1000126.2.6c3f750bL5exlZ

>only reachable through a service called aliwangwang

lmao

[p_blaze]

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a312a.7700824.w4004-15650377400.19.edd3da78NvTjH3&id=588902076779

Is this the aluminum version?