Computer Peripherals and Peripherals Chapter 41: Alice + shipboard panda-themed keycaps, mechanical keyboard refurbishment, and low-cost update desk solution

Among the many things that I can never go back after using it, I think the mechanical keyboard is very playable. Beginners can play with general goods, and advanced ones can directly go to customization; if you want the feel, you can play with the switch body, and if you want the appearance, you can play with the keycap. I have bought more than a dozen mechanical keyboards back and forth, and experienced many switches, but this is the first time I have tried a third-party keycap.

DIY a customized keyboard requires a certain amount of hands-on ability, and the key is to have the "money ability". For people like me who are not enthusiasts and want to try something new, it may be a more economical and feasible way to replace the keyboard with a set of keycaps.

HELLO GANSS HS 108T is a keyboard that I usually use a lot. This keyboard adopts a 108-key arrangement, and the configuration of the numeric keypad area + multimedia shortcut keys makes the input efficiency of this keyboard very high, which is very friendly to users who often need to input numbers. Its keycaps use a white + light blue + orange color scheme, which looks much more comfortable than those all-black or all-white keyboards, but it will inevitably feel a bit monotonous after a long time.

To dress up the HS 108T, I chose a set of Lofree Alice-themed keycaps. This set of keycaps contains 131 OEM-height PBT material keycaps, which are almost compatible with most keyboards on the market. As long as it is not a particularly personalized keyboard with this set of keycaps, it should be no problem.

Now the height of the keycaps on the market is not very uniform, and Luo Fei adopted the OEM solution, which should be easy for most people to adapt to.

At present, the materials of keycaps on the market are mainly ABS, PBT and POM.

ABS is our common engineering plastic. Its low cost is an advantage, but its disadvantages are also obvious. The wear resistance is poor, and the keycap is easy to oil after a long time. I have a few keyboards that use ABS keycaps. After a long time, each of them has a greasy face, which is quite ugly.

PBT has strong wear resistance and is recognized as a material that is not easy to oil, and is very popular for use on keycaps. Luofei's keycaps use 85% high-content PBT, so you can safely say goodbye to the keycaps. Alice-themed keycaps focus on the fairy tale world of cartoons. The pattern details of the keycaps are very rich and the lines are very rich. This requires a high-quality printing solution to cooperate with the production to ensure the quality. Luo Fei chose to use the five-sided sublimation process, which can ensure that the details of the keycap pattern are clearer and the colors are more vivid.

The details of the keycaps are also in place. The spouts and burrs should have been polished more carefully. There are basically no flaws in terms of vision and touch. For a keyboard with a backlight, using this set of keycaps may have to be a trade-off. This set of keycaps is not adapted for light transmission, so the characters on the keyboard with backlight will not shine.

After introducing the details of the keycaps, we officially enter the process of changing the keyboard. The keycap set comes with a wire key puller, which is better than the key puller that comes with the keyboard.

My HELLO GANSS HS 108T is using Giadaron G-Pro optical white switch, which is a relatively new switch body. The total stroke of the time white axis is about 4.0mm, the trigger formation is about 2mm, the trigger pressure is about 45gf, and the official claims that the life span is 60 million times. The actuation force of this switch is very light, and the linear actuation pressure maintains a consistent feel throughout the entire process of pressing the key.

The Alice-themed keycap patterns are very rich, and distinctive patterns are designed for the main keyboard area, function area, and number keypad.

From my personal point of view, I think this set of pink card-themed keycaps is very suitable for gifting girlfriends, or making some cartoon-themed table sets.

After seeing the theme keycaps that are biased toward girls, I will share a set of themes that steel straight men like-shipboard pandas. Matched with this theme keycap is a DURGOD K330W Plus three-mode keyboard. This keyboard uses a 61-key arrangement, which is much smaller in size than the previous HELLO GANSS HS 108T.

I started with a K330W Plus keyboard with ion storm color matching. The keycaps are in black, white and blue colors. Because the number of keys is limited, many keys are responsible for more than one function. The multi-function keys are engraved + Side engraved scheme.

The workload of changing the K330W Plus is obviously much less than that of the first keyboard. This 61-key keyboard has too few keys, and the efficiency of office use may be greatly reduced, especially in terms of number input, it is definitely not as good as the keyboard in the digital keyboard area. But because it takes up less space on the desktop and can free up more space for the mouse, it is very suitable for playing games.

The carrier-based panda-themed keycaps are consistent with the previous Alice theme in terms of height, material and quantity. The difference is that it is a set of keycaps themed on aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft. It is estimated that they are equally attractive to male compatriots. Beautiful beauties on the street.

The theme of the keycaps is very strong, and the patterns and characters are also strongly related to weapons and military terms.

I usually use this Duga K330W Plus keyboard when I play games. Many games are based on the theme of war, and there will inevitably be elements of various weapons and equipment. Luo Fei's set of shipboard panda-themed keycaps combined with the gaming keyboard is definitely a bonus item, and it is very suitable for use as a gaming-themed desk.

To make a customized keyboard requires a certain foundation, and many people may not have the energy and money to start DIY keyboards one by one from the casing, PCB board, shaft body, etc. If you don’t want to go deep into the pit, but just want a keyboard with personality, choosing to change the keycap for the keyboard should be a shortcut. This time I bought two sets of Lofree themed keycaps to change the keyboard. It is an attempt to upgrade the original monotonous keyboard to a more distinctive appearance, which is still very helpful for improving the beauty of the desktop.