Today we have another build from the ever growing KBDfans store from China, however
this particular keyboard kit is kind of a neglected and forgotten piece.
This is the KBD661 mechanical keyboard kit.
The main reason why this hasn’t been the most well received, is because of its polarizing
design which we’ll look at later.
And also KBDfans do sell the KBD66, and the TADA68, which are more traditional looking
65% keyboards.
I don’t have a clue how this was packaged, so it was probably better packed.
But these are all the parts that we have.
The kit comes with the case, plate, PCB, and stabilisers.
So you have to buy keyswitches and keycaps to finish it off.
Alright so we start with the PCB, which is very clean.
It is a 65% PCB, and comes with the diodes and resistors installed.
It does support a bunch of layouts, as we can see with the KBD66 layout diagram.
However it’s not all good news, as the mounting plate limits our customisability.
So as we can see, we have spots for stepped caps lock, split right shift, an array of
bottom row positions for the modifiers and space bars.
Split right shift, and split backspace.
But if we look at the KBD661 layout diagram, we lose a lot of that, purely because the
plate does not have the cutouts for it.
So that’s a bit unfortunate.
The plate itself is made from 1.5mm thick aluminium which has this brushed finish.
And it is quite clean and looks great.
First up as always we put in the stabilisers.
The stabilisers these come with are Cherry style.
Interestingly this comes with 3 spacebar stabilisers, 6u, 6.25u, and 7u, even though the plate only
supports 6.25u, which is a standard length for a spacebar.
Unfortunately these are not genuine, and they’re pretty bad.
These feel very similar to the ones that came with my KBD75, and they just feel very scratchy
and are very rattly which is just disappointing more than anything.
I didn’t have any spare proper stabs at the time, so this is when we turn to drowning
it in lube.
The switches we’ve gone with are the Kailh Box Jade’s.
The Kailh Box switches have really given us a fresh wave of switches.
Especially these clickies.
Due to their click bar design, they have a very sharp and distinct click sound to them.
Normally a clicky switch such as the Cherry MX Blue’s, will have a click jacket which
creates that sound.
And often this results in a slightly rattly switch.
With this, it’s just that metal click bar that creates that click, meaning that we also
get 2 clicks per keystroke, instead of one.
Jade’s are basically a heavier version of the Kailh Box White’s that perhaps is more
well known.
Although they have the same spring, but this just has a thicker bar, which increases the
tactility, and makes for a lower pitched but louder click than the whites.
These are plate mount keyswitches, so they don’t have the 2 little prongs that go into
the PCB.
So when you’re soldering, make sure that you press the plate and PCB together, to make
sure that the switches are flush to the PCB.
Because of its closed top design, if you are installing LEDs, you have to put them in first.
I’m using 1.8mm LEDs, but you can also use the 2x3x4 rectangular LEDs.
Because of the click bar mechanism, you cannot use the normal 3mm circular LEDs, as they
will interfere with the click bar.
So what I like to do, is the put in the LED, making sure the longer pin lines up with the
positive symbol on the PCB.
Then put the keyswitch in.
Then I like to solder 1 pin of the LED, and then reflow it so we can pull it all the way
down.
And then solder in the other pin.
If you don’t pull it all the way down, you risk having the LED hit the click bar, making
it unusable.
This is also the time you decide on whether you want the split shifts and backspace and
all that.
For this build, the layout will be determined by the keycap compatibility.
I think the main concern is the right shift key, as there is a 2.25u gap, which is the
same size as the left shift.
Meaning that our normal 2.75u right shift won’t fit.
So we have to split it, and put a 1.25u key and a 1u key.
Unfortunately these are not the correct profile, as we are putting row 3 keys with R4 keys.
So with the soldering all done, we can put it together.
First of all, it’s always good to put on the rubber feet before you do anything, so
you don’t scratch the bottom.
One little weird thing is that the rubber feet it came with are too big for the indents
on the bottom of the case.
Since they’re self adhesive, it’s fine, but it’s still not great.
But here’s the case, and it is an interesting design in regards to how it’s put together.
So it has the 2 main pieces.
The top piece is much like a plastic top shell on the typical OEM mechanical keyboard.
It goes over the bottom piece, and covers the sides.
This is made from aluminium, and of course has no flex to it in the hands, but is still
quite light.
The inside edges aren’t finished like that outside, not that it really matters.
The bottom piece has most of the weight, and as we can see, there are no standoffs on the
bottom surface, which most keyboards have, and all tray mount boards have.
Instead, we have 6 holes around the edge.
So to put it together, we first put the plate in which has 4 holes in the corners, and the
bottom piece has these little protrusions that go through those holes.
It’s not tight or anything, so it can move around quite a bit.
And then the top piece slips over the whole thing, and you screw it on the bottom.
So it’s kind of like a sandwich case design, as the plate isn’t actually screwed to anything,
like a top mount design, but the plate isn’t visible from the outside.
So for this to work, the tolerances and machining have to be quite tight and well done, otherwise,
this is what happens.
And there’s a load of movement with the plate, both laterally, and also up and down.
There just isn’t any clamping pressure between the bottom and top aluminium pieces.
And this makes the keyboard quite unusable in my opinion.
You feel the movement when you’re typing, in all directions, and it just rattles like
crazy.
So I asked KBDfans about this, and they said to put some tape on the edge of the plate.
Essentially making the edge of the plate thicker to close that gap.
So I went ahead and gave it a go.
With the first attempt I basically wrapped electrical tape around each edge, making sure
I didn’t block the holes.
And as we can see, I couldn’t put the top piece back on, as it was too tight.
It wasn’t the thickness of the plate that was the problem, just that it made the plate
bigger.
With the 2nd attempt I just put 1 layer of tape.
And then I realised that I really should just be putting this on the underside of the plate
so it will be hidden away.
And with just 1 layer of electrical tape, it did fix the problem.
Although I think I could have put 1 more layer.
And then I also did put some foam on the bottom of the PCB, to also provide a bit of pressure,
but mainly to fill that void and make the keyboard feel better and more solid when typing.
And well it works.
But you shouldn’t have to do this.
Although others have said that their’s had perfect fit and had no issues.
And to finish it off we have the keycaps.
On the KBD661 product page they show the keyboard with SA profile keycaps, and I thought it
looked pretty good.
However with SA keycaps there’s not a whole lot that is readily available, especially
for sculpted caps.
Fortunately KBDfans did have a sculpted set in stock, Maxkeys SA Berserk.
We got the base set, and it comes with all these keycaps here, in a nice box as well
which I appreciate.
These are about 1.4mm thick, and are double shot, which means the legends are another
piece of plastic, and that also adds thickness to the top half of the keycap.
They’re made from ABS plastic, and have a smooth satin finish to them.
As we saw before, the normal right shift key won’t work, as it’s a 2.25u gap, which
is the same as the left shift key.
We do get a couple of novelty keys that can fill up that gap, however they aren’t the
correct profile.
But honestly looking at it, it isn’t so obvious.
And here it is all done.
And it definitely is a unique look.
Known as the keycap keyboard, or the shift key keyboard, based on it basically looking
like a Cherry shift keycap, it is a polarising one.
However it does make it different, which I like.
It has a quite tall design which is further accentuated by it’s flat ascending sides.
Normally there would be some sort of taper or chamfer, but the flat sides at an angle
give it a kind of monolithic appearance, which really gives it real presence.
And looking at the side, it does have a natural inclination to it of 6 degrees, and again
just looks like a strong solid block.
However when you look at the top of the board from a normal person's perspective, it has
tiny bezels at about 2.5mm thick, which is quite contrasting to the fullness of the sides
of the case.
Although from the top down view, you see those sides sloping away.
I got this in silver, however it is also available in grey, black, cyan, and purple.
The finish on it is clean and smooth, and I had no defects and has held up fine so far.
Although with the bottom, the colour choices are quite odd.
I have this in cyan, which comes with the black and grey versions as well.
Although for the cyan top version, it comes with a silver bottom, and the purple top version
comes with a gray bottom.
And you can’t customise this, so that is a bit unfortunate.
Although it doesn’t bother me personally, since it’s completely out of view, and it’s
pretty difficult to pick up the keyboard anyway.
I went with silver because of its ability to pair up with keycaps fairly easily, and
I think this Maxkeys Berserk SA keyset fits it quite nicely.
This is sculpted in SA 12343, giving it its nice curved shape.
And they’re quite tall which I found appealing in pictures.
The curve and tallness of the keycaps in my eyes accompany the straight angled enclosure,
somehow giving it the shape it needs.
And the colours are quite bright, being based on this guy here.
I think the white and yellow helps bridge the gap between the deep red of the alphas,
and the silver of the enclosure.
There are a couple more novelty keys, but with the split right shift situation, I didn’t
want to go overboard.
And it’s very comfortable to type on.
The 6 degree angle definitely helps in this situation.
But what makes the typing experience is the Kailh Box Jade keyswitches.
The click on these are so crisp and pronounced, and is furthered by it’s double click.
And that translates to the tactile feedback as well.
It’s quite strong and again sharp, especially in comparison to say Cherry MX Blue’s.
After using these and going back to a Cherry MX Blue board, the Blue’s just feel mushy,
sluggish, and rattly.
Not to offend all you MX Blue users, but that’s exactly how it feels.
And of course, this thing is an absolute machine gun.
This keyboard uses QMK, which is a powerful firmware to customise your keyboard.
There’s no links on the product page, but you just go to qmkeyboard.cn, and on the list
there isn’t the KBD661 specifically, but it’s just the KBD660, as this PCB is used
in other boards.
And here we have our default keymap.
If you want to learn more about QMK and flashing your keyboard, then definitely do your research.
Overall, it was a really fun build.
I haven’t seen too many pictures of this keyboard, so it’s nice to actually build
one that is slightly different to the norm.
And I must say, I do quite like the shape.
It’s bold, strong, and holds a real presence on your desk.
And I think it combines really well with the bright and tall SA Berserk keycaps.
The assembly was also interesting, with its kind of closed sandwich design.
This makes it a very solid feeling keyboard, much like a top mount board would be.
However the tolerances and fit with my particular case was pretty poor, and did require electrical
tape to make it tight.
And that solidity transfers really well to the absolute clickiness of the Kailh Box Jade
keyswitches, and these are just so much fun to type on.
This will be making its way to my friend Shin in the U.S, so I hope you enjoy it, because
I truly did enjoy the opportunity to build this lovely keyboard.