Drop Mech Keys Meetup Recap - Thanks for Visiting!
As you may have seen, we just hosted our first meetup in quite a while here at Drop HQ (Corsair HQ, but they seem to like us enough :) )! It was a blast to get to meet so many enthusiasts local to the bay area—it had been 10 years since I was last hanging out with keyboard nerds in the bay, at KeyCon 2014. We had a great time hosting everyone at the offices, checking out all the very nice boards y'all brought, and sharing some of our own projects/spaces! I knew it would be fun to host in the Game Room when I first saw it in person, but seeing it come to fruition was still so cool. Alright, I'll stop blabbering on now. xD Picture time! (Oh, real quick - there will be more of these! Stay tuned for more info and to catch the next one!)
May 15, 2024
I've got a set of Granite (PBT DSA) and Deep Space (ABS DSA). The Granites are much nicer and solid feeling than the Deep Space caps, it's not a subtle difference either..
I don't know, maybe the Deep Space felt similar when they were brand new.. but now they've lost that nice texture and wont be going back on any keyboard that I'll be using. I guess they still look cool though, shininess and all.
SP says they can't make PBT doubleshots, but other companies do it. On top of that they somehow sell these on their keyshop:
http://keyshop.pimpmykeyboard.com/products/specialty-custom-keys/pbt-doubleshot-dcs-arrow-sets
If I'm already going to be spending this much on a set of keycaps, I'd rather pay extra to have them last.
Never felt any relevant difference when compared to EVE.
Considering ABS plastic to be a deal breaker is understandable, but most of people have the erroneous perception that PBT is premium quality and ABS is utter crap - because they simply read it somewhere.
There's not any company in the planet right now with technology to manufacture DSA doubleshot PBT keycaps. This isn't viable, right now.
I can't please everyone, hopefully you will find something of your taste elsewhere!
But please, don't underrate ABS like many people do, because this is not fair and I'm trying and I will brake this myth. Your DS is shining yeah, that's a fact. Perhaps you type too much on it, I don't know there are many factors involved. I'm not saying that you said this: but ABS is different from PBT, not inferior.
Again, thanks for the support and kind words! It's always great to have a constructive and clear discussion!
"This is ABS doubleshot, same texture as PBT. At the end of the day there's basically no difference between them."
That's simply not true. Maybe on brand new ABS caps, I don't have a set of untouched SP Doubleshots to compare.
Perhaps in my experience I just have not yet worn ABS down to the point that any difference (compared to PBT) becomes noticeable - even though I'm a heavy typist.
Thank you very much for sharing your experiences and thoughts, that's what makes us a community!
In the spirit of ABS and working with designers on short timelines with multiple keycap designs, Signature Plastics is churning out many great products using high quality ABS for caps including Granite, Dolch, Jukebox, and now MiTo all in the DSA profile.
Signature Plastics is fulfilling 3x as many orders compared to the recent debuts from GMK and Tao. The most recent keycap groupbuys in the DSA profile using ABS plastic, have been well received by the keycap community from orders shipped and thus should be given a chance to prove how great these sets are going to be. I am like all other enthusiasts both here and on RD, GH, and DT.
Great discussion to keep GMK, SP, and their rivals to push for the highest QA when manufacturing keycaps either in ABS or PBT.