Cost-effective entry-level Gasket customization kit, cheap donkey A3 sunset orange share

Once upon a time in the keyboard circle, "customization" was still synonymous with high-end, and there were almost no kits with less than four figures. After two years of crazy introversion by domestic keyboard manufacturers, kits at various price points have gradually increased. Different materials, different structures, different configurations, and different connection methods are enough to dazzle you. In particular, the popularity of the hot-swappable structure has greatly lowered the threshold for customization. You only need to install your favorite shaft and keycap to complete the entire "customization" process, allowing many newcomers Pit users can also experience the fun and process of assembly.

A while ago, the cheap donkey launched an entry-level customized kit: A3, with a price in the early 200s. Among them, the original gray color is matched with monochrome white light, and the sunset orange color is matched with RGB backlight. The other parameters of the two colors are the same. What I want to share with you today is the Kitty A3 Sunset Orange kit. The lower right corner of the package also specially marked that the keyboard uses the "Gasket Pro" structure.

Happy to see the family portrait: A3 kit body, under-shaft pad, Type-C data cable, steel wire key puller, shaft puller, spare silicone pad, Phillips screwdriver, Allen wrench, 2.4G wireless receiver, and manual.

The A3 kit adopts an arrangement of 81 keys + knobs, the upper cover is pure black, and the surface is treated with fine frosting.

The positioning of A3 uses transparent PC material, the main purpose is to get a more soft and elastic feel, and secondly, it also has a certain bonus in terms of light transmission. In addition, the positioning board is marked with characters below the corresponding keys, which is very user-friendly.

The black knob shell in the upper right corner is made of alloy material, and the inside is made of plastic material. The damping of the knob is medium and slightly larger, and the scale is very clear. Rotate to adjust the volume, and press to mute.

The black and orange color scheme is a contrasting color design with the upper cover black and the lower cover orange, and the rear half of the keyboard is exposed by oblique cuts.

From the screw holes at the rear, it can be seen that the A3 has an obvious Keychron Q1 shadow in its design.

The A3 kit supports three connection modes: wired, 2.4G wireless and Bluetooth. The TYPE-C interface and the mode switch are set on the left rear side of the keyboard. There is also an indicator light next to the interface. The red light is on when charging, and the green light is on when fully charged.

The bottom shell is relatively simple, with a non-slip pad at each corner. The eight screws around it are all hexagon socket screws. The only pity is that there is no storage compartment for the 2.4G wireless receiver.

Comes with a two-section foot support.

The keyboard can be disassembled by removing the eight Allen screws on the bottom case. A3 from top to bottom are: upper cover, PC positioning board, EVA sandwich cotton, PCB board, bottom silicone pad and bottom case.

The positioning plate is clamped and fixed by the upper and lower covers through the 8 I-shaped silicone pads around it, so as to avoid rigid contact with the upper and lower covers and bring a relatively soft and elastic feel. This is what we often call "Gasket structure ", the cheap donkey called this I-shaped silicone pad the "Gasket Pro" structure.

The A3 kit uses the Kaihua hot-swappable shaft seat, which is compatible with 3-pin and 5-pin shafts. The battery is fixed on the back of the PCB with a buckle device, with a capacity of 3000mAh, and it can last for three to four weeks after turning off the lights. However, because of the existence of this battery, the buttons in the corresponding area will feel significantly harder. I have never really figured it out, why not use double-sided tape to fix the battery in the groove of the bottom silicone pad?

Use a Phillips screwdriver to remove the screws on the back of the PCB board to separate the positioning board, sandwich cotton and PCB board.

If you want to add the pad under the shaft, you have to remove the PCB satellite shaft first.

Finally, install the previous components one by one in reverse order and it will be OK. I use Gauss Luna Silver axis for the axis body, and the Gasket structure is more suitable for linear axes. The overall feel is quite comfortable, except that the area corresponding to the battery is slightly harder, and the sound is quite HIFI. Of course, different switches will have different feel and sound effects, and here I only focus on the Moon Soul Silver switch.

The transparent positioning board has a very obvious bonus effect on the lighting effect.

I still consider matching a large carbon keycap with the same black and orange color matching, emmmm, at the end of the installation, I found that a 1.75U Shift key is missing, forget it, let’s take a 1.5U keycap first.

All the lamp beads of A3 are in the lower light position. From the user's perspective, the light brightness of the keyboard is brighter and more obvious than that of the upper light position keyboard.

In addition, the A3 kit has corresponding drivers, which are basically conventional button customization, lighting effects (music rhythm), and macros, so I won’t go into details.

A brief summary of this A3 sunset orange kit, first of all, the cost performance is really high, the mainstream three-mode, hot-swappable, RGB, Gasket structure (sound package), etc. are all available, and it can be achieved by directly installing the shaft and keycap. the overall effect. If you have enough hands-on ability, you can change the position of the battery to fix it in the bottom pad, and the overall effect will be improved to a higher level. There are quite a lot of cost-effective linear axes on the market, and you can get them within 200 yuan including the keycaps. The whole cost can be controlled within 400 yuan. As an entry-level kit, it is also very suitable for players who have no new contact with customization and want to try new things. Finally, it is recommended to add a 2.4G wireless receiver storage compartment on the bottom case, so that it will be more convenient to carry out.