Does anyone have any tricks or suggestions to get dampeners onto the keyboardio keys?
I bought some o-rings from wasd, but, being round, they really don’t want to go onto the key bases.
Any suggestions for installation techniques or alternate dampeners?
Thanks, greg
Indeed, O-ring style dampeners are designed to go around the keycap stems of MX switches. Because the sliders inside an MX switch go inside the keystem, that works ok. But ALPS switches are the other way round.
Matias Quiet-click switches have internal dampeners. Can you tell us a bit more about what you’re trying to accomplish? There might be another way to get what you want.
Thanks Jesse.
I love the click of the keys, but the bottoming out sound is a bit louder than ideal. Trying to reduce the bottoming out volume a bit if possible.
Thanks, greg
Is this a quiet-click or a loud-click keyboard?
Loud click keyboard
greg
Hey Greg,
I also have the clicky version. I bought linear matias switches and swapped out the clicky sliders for the linear sliders by opening the switch top with tweezers. I can confirm that this vastly reduces how loud the switches are. I got the idea for the mod from this comparison video: https://youtu.be/Son03f8ul4E. I really prefer the sound and feel of the switches when dampened. I’ve also lubed the switches thoroughly with Tribosys 3204 lube and that also has made the switches much more silent (and pleasant).
Also, I have noticed that the “click” in the clicky switches is rather inconsistent. Some switches click much louder than others. After permuting the click leaves in the switches, I noticed that this also permutes the noise levels of the switches in the same way. What this implies is that if you have any frequently used keys which are particularly loud, you can switch the click leaves of those switches with that of less frequently used, less loud switches.
Overall, I am much more satisfied with these switches after lubing and dampening them. Between the two, dampening provides a better sound-dampening. I also believe dampening the switches made a more positive impact on the key-feel than lubing them.
Edit: I forgot to mention that if you wanted the even more sound-dampening, you could also swap the click leaf in the clicky switch with the click leaf of a linear switch or tactile switch.
Thanks Tony. I’ll check out that mod. It may be outside my abilities, but perhaps not.
greg
Hey @jesse do you have a CAD file of the enclosure and the position of the switches relative to it? I also want to damp the sound that according to my tests it is produced by the keycaps hiting the enclosure (the loud click produced by the switches is not that loud).
Last weekend I was playing with my boyfriend’s keyboard and I realized that it has a rubber pad around all switches (you can see it here) and I think that could work with the Keyboardio too
I don’t think it’s the keycap hitting the enclosure. At least, that should not be happening. I suspect that what you’re running into is that the inside of a keyboard is what’s known as a ‘resonating cavity’ – Just like the inside of a violin, the inside of the keyboard acts to amplify the sound of the click.
If the keycap is scraping the edge of the enclosure, you’d be able to see and feel it (and it would only happen with the keys on the outside edge. If the sound is caused by the keycap hitting the black metal plate, you would hear two clicks rather than one. That’s easy to check by taking off the wooden enclosure and pressing keys to see how far down they go around the edge.
The major sound difference between “clicky” and “quiet click” switches is the bottoming out, when the keycap hits the plastic and makes the the resonant thocking that Jesse is describing. If you are investigating modifying your switches, you could swap out for dampened sliders, leaving the existing click leaves in place. The decreased travel of the dampened sliders prevents any of the keycaps from bottoming out on my board, but I still enjoy the gentle clickiness of the existing click leaves.
There’s a second difference that, to me, makes more of an impact on the sound - The “click leaf” inside is what makes the pronounced clicking noise. I’ve never found the 'thocking" noise to be all that pronounced myself.