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A community member
Jun 3, 2017
To new people, don't get this. The switches are NOT hotswappable (I destroyed a switch trying to pry it out) and people have been reporting you can't switch to regular switches anyway since the metal contacts on the bottom of the switches are in a different configuration than all other switches but the ones that come on this board.
I will be selling mine. The lights are fancy and OK but i find it more distracting than anything.
Also I don't know who leads this drop, but the stems I got were not ALPS, but Cherry MX stems. Which is better, since you can customise the keycaps much more easily or cannibalize the board for the nice see-through keycaps.
madscientist
23
Jun 4, 2017
I think the cherry stem version is the older model that is not hot swappable (I may be wrong about this).
I bought this same keyboard from Amazon a few months ago and received the ALPS-compatible stems as pictured in the photo. They were hot swappable, but they were also practically stuck in the face plate, and it took a ton of force/cursing/macerated fingertips to get them out. Several did fracture as pictured (see top row) below:
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Once I got the included switches out, I discovered the "different configuration" you alluded to. The pins, and hence holes in the PCB, don't align with the pattern found on standardized aftermarket switches and mechanical keyboards. This results in one pin being bent when you try to use standard switches (aftermarket Outemo brown switch shown - also verified with Cherry (Cherry switches struggled to even fit into the snug face plate) and Gateron switches):
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I serendipitously did find at least one more keyboard that had switches with the same oddball pin pattern. It's the RedDragon K556 RGB, which I had purchased for use at work. Since I wanted brown switches, I transplanted them out of the K556 and into this keyboard:
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The brown switches both came out of the K556 and went into the E-Element keyboard much easier than the blues that came with the E-element. After the transplant, I was able to get the configuration that I wanted (shown here with Ducky Double Shot floating keycaps installed):
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It "only" cost me an extra K556 keyboard to cannibalize for switches (and several sets of standard aftermarket switches that I was planning to try out in the keyboard). Now that I have it the way I want it, I do thoroughly enjoy the keyboard, but what a pain!
So, it is technically hot swappable, but the tight fit of the factory switches in the face plate (and associated switch fracture), the oddball pin pattern, and the ALPS stems make this the most poorly thought out hot swappable keyboard in history.
BlueCrowned
5305
Jun 4, 2017
madscientistThank you--I was considering this instead of the K-Type but it won't work for me with this in mind.
A community member
Jun 5, 2017
madscientistyou are the person on amazon who commented that they did this didn't you?
madscientist
23
Jun 5, 2017
Yes. I figured I would add a summation here for people who do not look at Amazon.
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