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I was reading today on reddit on a comment on a custom PCB, someone was mentioning that thick GMK cherry keycaps end up hitting the ASDF row switches when you have north facting LEDs (like on the CTRL and ALT). Seems it's something that's been going on for a while and why you end up seeing south faced LED on boards "in the know". Seems shortsighted to spend a bunch on a GMK set and then have a noisy ASDF row from the interference issue?
Is this actually a major problem when looking at GMK caps and MX switches with north facing LED? Is there any way Massdrop could consider swapping these to south facing LED if ti is a problem? Or is that a matter of just making compatibility with shine through caps + thin wall caps? As a south facing LED woudln't work well with the included PBT caps.
Are there any switches that don't have this interference issue with GMK caps and North facing LED? I'm not tied to MX switches, so I'm open to looking at other switch options.
passerby_92
69
May 7, 2018
HerpDerpenbergYou should use the search bar and look for mentions of "GMK," because these concerns have been noted and addressed somewhat. You really should look it up yourself to see the very involved discussions, but the gist is that these problems only occur with Cherry-profile GMK caps on switches that have standard travel (4.0mm), of which the only ones on this drop are the Cherry Browns. It also possibly only occurs on R3 caps.
passerby_92If it's just standard travel then switches like Box/Speed Kailh switches should work. If the only issue are on MX switches, then that's fine with me. IMO, cherry MX switches were good but I feel there are so many other aftermarket MX style switches now that are much better in terms of feel. I guess if someone truely wants a 4.0mm travel, but honestly I doubt someone could really tell a difference between 3.5mm and 4.0mm without being told there is a difference as that's 5-10 pieces of paper.
HotRoderX
753
May 9, 2018
HerpDerpenbergI think people are bad about blowing issues out of proportion special if someone popular in the community say's it. That's just my 2 cent's from what i have seen around the community in general.
HotRoderXI know what you mean. I'm rather new to getting in depth on switches and caps (have had a mech board for maybe 6 years but all I know were cherry switches) I ended up remembering I had some cherry caps from my Choc Mini and did some testing with my various switches and testers. I didn't really notice anything hitting, but then again these are relatively thin cherry profile switches. I do have a set of Nautilus that I haven't opened (really just waiting to see if Laser comes out how I thought it would) so I don't want to go about opening that just to test out switch interference.
Maybe I can go on /r/mechmarket and look for some left over GMK caps and do some testing on my own. Put some paint on the switch top, bottom out the cap and see if there are paint marks inside the keycap. I can then take one keycap and use a fine dremel to actually see how much is hitting by removing material.
I guess the bottom line for me, I'm more of a clicky switch person anyway. So having the keycaps bottom out a fraction of a millimeter less and have maybe a bit more plastic on plastic clack is not going to be noticed compared to someone who's trying to make an ultra-silent linear or tactile switch keyboard. So I can see the concern some people have and the lengths they go to make their keyboards near silent.
HotRoderX
753
May 9, 2018
HerpDerpenbergJTK cap's are just as thick as GMK are almost as thick and there is a blank set being ran right now for cheap. http://www.switchmod.net/product/redriot I think there like 42bucks shipped no tray's. They might be worth getting if you wanted to play around with clearances and what not.
I am the same way I am not a clicky person but I do enjoy the more muted sound cap's and switches can make. At the moment I am typing on a set of Cherry MX clear's with XDA God Speed Caps. I really enjoy the sound they make, Its not very loud but its just kinda reminds me of rain on a roof are window. Sorta muted soothing calming. Sounds strange I know.
Vandenhul
247
May 11, 2018
HerpDerpenbergMy understanding is the issue with thick Cherry profile and north facing LEDs, is only if there are actual LEDs in the switch housing.
As the Alt uses SMD LEDs, it should be a non-issue.
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