keyboard modding ;)

content/posts/keyboard-fun/index.md

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+---
+title: "Keyboard Fun"
+date: 2021-12-12T14:10:00+03:00
+draft: false
+categories: [keyboard]
+tags: [keyboard]
+url: /posts/keyboard-fun/
+author: "Christoph Cullmann"
+resources:
+  - name: "featured-image-preview"
+    src: "images/xtrfy-varmilo-moonlight.jpg"
+---
+
+## Keyboards?
+
+In the recent past, I started to get more interested in the qualify of the keyboards I use at work and home.
+I always hated to use very cheap low-profile boards, but otherwise I more or less always worked  with what came stock with my PC in the good old times ;)
+
+## TKL boards
+
+A longer time ago I bought some Xtrfy K4 TKL White Edition keyboard, my first keyboard that had no numbers block.
+I liked it a lot and the red switches were ok for my taste.
+Thought I didn't like the keycaps, they feel cheap.
+
+Some weeks ago, I bought the Varmilo Moonlight VA88M, a TKL keyboard with nicer keycaps (both in material and design).
+I now used it at home for some weeks and the brown switches are fine, keycaps are fantastic, Cherry profile PBT keycaps are really nifty.
+
+But....
+The ping...
+Especially in the middle of the keyboard, each and every key pings.
+Actually you can get the ping even if you just tap a bit on the backside of the board itself, seems to be no sole switch issue :/
+
+## Removing the ping?
+
+All reviews I read didn't tell a thing about any ugly ping with the stock Varmilo board.
+Thought most reviews naturally did look at the ANSI variant, but I bought the ISO one, given I like the German layout.
+Perhaps they just altered something in the more recent fabrication, who knows.
+
+I did take some look at the internals of the keyboard to see if some more dampening or taping could help.
+
+See the disassembly and later playing around with stuff and tape below.
+
+<center><img width=700 src="/posts/keyboard-fun/images/varmilo-moonlight-disass-1.jpg"></center>
+<center><img width=700 src="/posts/keyboard-fun/images/varmilo-moonlight-disass-2.jpg"></center>
+<center><img width=700 src="/posts/keyboard-fun/images/varmilo-moonlight-disass-3.jpg"></center>
+<center><img width=700 src="/posts/keyboard-fun/images/varmilo-moonlight-disass-4.jpg"></center>
+
+Short answer: it didn't help. You can even stuff the lower parts totally with "anything", given you screw all things together later it will still ping.
+Even alone the upper plate does ping if you tick it without any extra parts.
+I found no way to stabilize it in a way that removes that.
+
+Btw., hint for anyone trying this: Yes, there is some stupid screw below some white seal at the bottom ;)
+Unlike the one screw that is missing on the top, there is one...
+
+For flexing the case open, even if you are too dumb to remove all screws, my nice old BahnCard and credit cards did help a lot ;=)
+
+## The solution?
+
+Now, given I just use one PC, I had one keyboard that has no ugly sounds and is ok, and one keyboard that has really fantastic keycaps and is borked.
+
+Solution? Create one out of both.
+
+Given the red switches and the typing on the Xtrfy board was nice, why not just use the Varmilo keycaps for it?
+
+<center><img width=700 src="/posts/keyboard-fun/images/xtrfy-varmilo-moonlight-transfer-1.jpg"></center>
+<center><img width=700 src="/posts/keyboard-fun/images/xtrfy-varmilo-moonlight-transfer-2.jpg"></center>
+<center><img width=700 src="/posts/keyboard-fun/images/xtrfy-varmilo-moonlight-transfer-3.jpg"></center>
+
+Varmilo was nice enough to include a keycaps puller anyways, already used for the total disassembly above.
+
+## End result
+
+<center><img width=700 src="/posts/keyboard-fun/images/xtrfy-varmilo-moonlight.jpg"></center>
+
+I think the final "product" looks nice.
+The RGB back-lighting still works, thought the new keycaps are not shine-through.
+
+In addition I have now a full shine-through ABS keycaps set as backup parts for more keyboard modding.
+And some more or less useless Varmilo baseboard.
+But who knows, if I spill too much coffee or whatever in my board, I can still re-build the Varmilo board to have something that works (and pings).
+
+Naturally that was not the way I meant to use the new keyboard, but good enough ;)
+And I must confess, a bit modding around on the keyboards was fun!
+
+For any people interested in keyboards: I think both boards mentioned above are ok.
+Perhaps I just was unlucky with my Varmilo board and other builds of it don't ping at all, like the most reviews tell.