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orangefinal

Long ago, I vicious down the custom mechanical keyboard rabbit hole, and several of my experiences in this expensive world accept been detailed on ExtremeTech. Sometimes my keyboard projects are motivated by a need for a specific board that fills a niche, and other times I just want something that's more than powerful or pretty than what I currently have. My latest projection is the latter — a gaming lath designed around one of my favorite keysets.

When y'all commit to having more than one keyboard, you tin tune them to specific tasks. I have some that I prefer for typing, some that are better for gaming, and others that I accept when I'm traveling. The final time I built a gaming board, I tried to keep it a petty on the conservative side. This fourth dimension, I wanted to become all-out and build something visually striking without ending up with a neon stealth fighter (looking at you, Razer). The event, is the orangest keyboard you've ever seen.

The Big Question: Why?

This projection was inspired by keycaps. There'due south a custom keyset called GMK Carbon of which I'm very fond. It has a similar color scheme to the HEV accommodate from One-half-Life — orange, carbon, and cream. It's a striking colorway, but the keysets are rare. The official Carbon sets are produced in batches, and so far at that place have only been two, with a third one underway now.

carbon

The Carbon colorway.

The first Carbon round was in the SA profile, which is a taller keycap designed to look similar old typewriters and beam spring keyboards. The GMK version of Carbon was sold last summertime in Cherry contour. They look more than similar traditional keycaps, simply slightly shorter and more angled. I find these to exist extremely comfy. The current sale of Carbon, if you lot're interested, is in SA profile again. The expect for commitment is pretty long, though.

I have had GMK Carbon on several boards since I got it, but I decided a keyset that I similar so much deserved a special keyboard. So, I embarked on what would plow out to be my most ambitious keyboard build to date. Not only did I have to assemble this keyboard, I had to make some additional modifications to it earlier it was perfect.

The keyboard kit I ordered is known equally a KBD75. I chose this board specifically because of the layout. 1 of the things that makes Carbon keysets then popular is the alarm sign novelty kit. Many of my keyboards are smaller 65 percent layouts, and those don't accept enough space to prove off all the novelties. The KBD75 is a 75 percent layout, which has an extra row of keys at the superlative for F1-F12. On a 65 percent board, the F keys are in the function layer.

So, the slightly larger KBD75 is ideal for showing off all the neat Carbon novelties, and the manufacturer offered an orange aluminum case. Information technology's a hefty board, clocking in at a little over three pounds fully assembled. Since Carbon has orange cardinal caps, this seemed similar a perfect mix. The board even has RGB underglow that tin can be set to orangish. Gaudy? A little. Fun? Definitely.

Edifice the Board

Since this board was primarily intended for games, I wanted to utilize a lighter switch than I usually prefer for typing. The winner here was the "milky" Gateron Brown. They're like to Cherry Brown switches in weight, but they are noticeably smoother than Cerise's current switches. Don't ask me why, simply Red'south newer switches just don't feel right. The milky Gateron housings seem to have a slightly softer lesser-out compared with the clear/black ones besides. Going with a tactile switch also means I can comfortably blazon on the board.

switches

It took about iii months for all the parts to arrive, which was faster than some grouping buys I've joined in the past. The KBD75 has a universal PCB and plate that support several unlike layouts, and so it was necessary to put some keycaps on the switches before soldering anything together. Rushing this step runs the risk of putting a switch in the wrong place, and that could make programming and even plumbing equipment keycaps impossible. Desoldering a switch is near a one thousand times harder than soldering it in the outset place, and so I like to avoid that if at all possible.

spacing

Checking the switch spacing.

Since I opted non to put LEDs in the individual switches, in that location were only two solder points for each switch. There are 84 switches in my chosen layout, and then that's a total of 168 solder points. Each one but takes a few seconds once y'all become into a rhythm. You lot can see an example of my mediocre (but functional!) soldering below.

solder

With the soldering washed, I put on my dear GMK Carbon keycaps and set to work programming the KBD75. This version of the lath runs PS2AVRGB and tin can be programmed with the Bootmapper customer, which is a desktop app that connects to your keyboard. Y'all don't get a overnice visual layout editor like the WhiteFox offers, only Bootmapper is serviceable. Subsequently connecting, you press a button on the keyboard, and so click the button in the software yous want to demark to it. The Bootmapper client too handles RGB colors, and so I set that to orange, obviously.

Colors Are Important

Since I started this project with the intention of building a home for GMK Carbon, the color of the example was important. I thought picking upwardly a snazzy orangish aluminum case would complement Carbon nicely, simply there was a trouble. The case was not very orange.

not orange

Definitely non orangish.

The color of the anodizing when I received my kit was decidedly red. After reaching out to the manufacturer, I was informed this was indeed the "orangish" anodizing. Well, that was clearly going to be a problem if I wanted this keyboard to be the visual masterpiece I had originally envisioned. The manufacturer is in China, so information technology's not like I could just return the lath and look for a dissimilar orangish keyboard. I decided to look into changing the anodizing, which was not a uncomplicated matter.

Anodizing is a process that uses an electric current to create a blanket of aluminum oxide. Nigh forms of anodizing are performed in an acrid solution, which slowly dissolves the oxide layer and produces tiny pores a few nanometers beyond. A dye tin can exist introduced to fill the pores, giving the aluminum a fun colour, but lighter colors tend to exist more hard. Imperfections in the evenness are much more than obvious with colors like orange. White anodizing really does not exist at all because the titanium atoms used in white dye are too large to fit in the pores.

very orange

Afterward re-anodizing.

Anodizing is not the sort of affair you lot can do cheaply or effectively at home — yous demand a few hundred volts of directly current. Nearly metallic finishers that practice anodizing only handle larger industrial orders. It took about a dozen phone calls before I found anyone willing to exercise this task.

Because the case was anodized incorrectly, information technology offset had to be stripped to get rid of the micro-pores with the dye in them. So, it was anodized again with the correct color. At that place are a few subtle variations in the color, but it looks great considering the aluminum had to exist stripped first. See above for a comparison betwixt the onetime and new anodizing. The image at the top of the post is the finished product with the right anodizing besides.

final

The finished product.

So, it took a lot more time and endeavor than I expected, but the concluding production is exactly as I envisioned. Some people will think an orange keyboard is likewise loud, but I love it.