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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 5th, 2023

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  • Out of curiousity: 3U space with 3U or 2U wires?

    I kinda hate 3u bars for three reasons:

    • They are not standardized. the bars you just spent 30$ on might not even fit
    • it’s never stated what wiresize the 3U bars need when buying caps
    • there’s only one bar in mosts sets.

    3U bars are a half nightmare and need to be standardized. I much prefer 2.25/2.75 for those reasons, although it looks like shyte compared to nice and symmetrical 3U.



  • Drop is one of the rare shops that don’t run group buys, but have in stock items instead. Mostly. No need for fomo unless stated otherwise on the product page.

    Also, they have at least one buy-one-get-one-free sale per year. Because of that, you have a good chance of getting one second hand for less than a new one.

    Regarding kitting you have to watch out for modifiers in the correct size for the correct row, but most keyboards are fairly standard with the exception being the bottom row. Check Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Space and Fn/Win for correct size.


  • i think you might overestimate the building part.

    If you get a barebones board with a hotwap PCB you have to screw in stabilizers for all keys larger than 2u (=2 keys) - Shift, Enter, Backspace and Space. Since you can’t be arsed, screw lubing them. Just screw them in, takes 3 minutes.

    Then, place all the switches on Plate and PCB and since they’re hotswap you just press them in.

    Then place like 8 gaskets or screws, drop on your PCB-Plate-Switch-Sandwitch, screw together top and bottom with 4 more screws.

    When you’re done, mount the caps, also just pop them in place.

    That’s it. I reckon it’s about as much work as a 10$ Lego set.

    But going prebuilt is far easier of course: Unpack, plug in, done. If you get a hotswap you can change switches later on if you fancy.














  • I just started soldering. It’s not too difficult and super useful. Also adds a lot of options that are usually cheaper than hotswap.

    A pinecil is 25$. add another 25 for solder, flux, a pump and copper desoldering braid and you’re set up.

    I found hotswap is increasingly difficult to get once you’re looking for non-massmarket stuff outside of 60 or 65 keebs with ANSI Layout.

    It’s just faster to solder than to search for non-standard hotswap.

    And with millmax, you can make any solderboard hotswap if you fancy.