Today we have a build that’s been in the making for a long while.
So yeh, just getting this stuff out of the way first, this is like a 2 year long project
with many troubles getting this out to people because of a range of manufacturing issues
and whatnot.
And yeh, that’s the risk with group buys sometimes, where unexpected circumstances
occur, and the runner has issues fulfilling the buy.
And being from 2 years ago, they didn’t know what we do now.
And now we know that working with poly and PVD brass is pretty tough.
Disregarding all that stuff, let’s concentrate on the keyboard itself.
As always, stick the rubber feet on first.
I don’t know if I mixed them up, but these were too big for the holes on the bottom,
so I had to use my own.
And it’s a bit hard to tell, but you may be able to tell that the case is warped, and
we’ll see why later.
But let’s take it apart to have a closer look.
There’s 6 hex screws on the bottom.
And an addition 6 which are smaller and are countersunk for the brass weight on the bottom.
The weight is made from PVD brass, and is one of the problematic parts of the board.
One side of it is finished pretty close to perfect.
No real blemishes or scratches, and it looks so nice as mirror finishes are before the
fingerprints come.
And that’s the side that faces down onto the table, so it’s the visible side.
However the other side which you can only see when you open up the keyboard; does have
those imperfections.
But as it is enclosed, the finish isn’t a huge deal.
What is a huge deal though is the warp on this.
This is 3mm thick, so the rest of the keyboard conforms to this shape when you screw it in.
Here’s the CNC’d polycarbonate parts, and is the appeal of the board.
Poly is stronger than acrylic, and is more flexible.
Being plastic, it’s very light, but because of its thickness, there’s not much flex
to it, and it feels great.
And probably the best part of this specific unit in regards to quality is the 1.5mm brass
plate.
The mirror finish is stunning and is just so nice to look at.
It’s similar to the situation of the brass weight.
One side is pretty much perfect.
While the other does have a few imperfections, but as there’s less surface area, it’s
not as noticeable.
Plus, it doesn’t have the warping issues of the weight.
The PCB interestingly supports MX style switches, but also SMK switches.
I did a build a while back with SMK Whites, which were some really nice clickies.
There isn’t support for through hole LEDs for backlighting.
However on the bottom, we do have RGB SMD LEDs to illuminate the case.
For today’s build we’ll be using Mill Max sockets, which will make the keyboard
hotswappable!
These are referred to as pin receptacles.
And basically, we solder these into the PCB, so that the pins can just go into the sockets.
This drawing shows it pretty well.
It’s not just a tube where it would have to be a pretty tight friction fit.
Rather, it has these spring loaded contacts, kind of like the Kailh sockets.
Which makes it compatible with most MX style keyswitches, if not all.
All PCBs are different.
But these drop straight in, and are quite loose, so I had to use tape to make sure it
stay in place.
And yeh, you just have to solder them in place.
You’ll probably have a few spots where you can’t place the socket in the PCB, because
of multiple layouts.
So I just put the socket on the switch first, and then put it in place to solder.
And there.
We’ve just turned this into a hotswappable PCB.
It’s pretty cool, but also a bit pricey.
To fill up the board, it cost me like 40 bucks-ish AUD, so like 30USD.
Okay, so now to put it back together.
I actually spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out a way to work around the warped
weight.
And after a bit of experimenting, I found the easiest way was just to not fully screw
it in.
So I left 2 screws completely out.
And 2 other screws weren’t 100% tightened.
The weight still holds in just fine, and doesn’t rattle or move around or anything.
Obviously this shouldn’t be something you do, but you really couldn’t tell that I
did this from the outside.
This uses a top mount design, so the plate is screwed to the top piece of the case, with
the PCB being held by the switches.
For the keyswitches I lubed some T1’s with Tribosys 3203, that I both got from DailyClack.
It’s a pretty thin lube, as I didn’t want to take too much tactility away.
While hotswap is cool and all, with the top mount design, there’s nothing really holding
the PCB in place, it’s just the keyswitches.
So at the start in particular, everytime I put in a keyswitch, it would push the PCB
down.
You also have to make sure the pins are straight before you put them in.
They’re not as forgiving as Kailh sockets, so you’re definitely going to bend a few
pins here and there.
Since we have the purple poly, which is quite reminiscent of the classic translucent purple
Gameboy Pocket, I borrowed GMK DMG from a mate.
Thanks again, you will be rewarded.
I know the purple Gameboy didn’t use this colour scheme for the buttons, but it I think
it fits regardless.
Well.
I’ve fallen in love with this thing.
I’ve built the Sol 2, which was made from polycarbonate, but this is my first ‘normal’
poly build, and it just looks so so nice.
We have the purple version.
In different lighting and angles, the purple is more dominant.
Especially in dim lighting, it looks really nice, and has a deeper colour.
But as the plate is brass, it does take away a bit of that purpleness, but at the same
time, gives this really interesting colour scheme.
And I mean, purple and yellow or gold is a classic complementary colour combo.
And that’s the cool thing about poly, it’s translucent nature, which can often be related
to retro tech.
We get to see the insides.
The screws.
The threads, and all that stuff.
I personally really like that aesthetic, and it’s just something different to the standard
opaque aluminium.
And what do you think of GMK DMG by the way?
I think it looks really sweet on this board, and it just feels right to me.
It’s a very classy set.
Without the accent keys, it’s a very understated colourway, with the legends being this dark
blue purple, which pretty much looks black in low light.
And as the poly is in its nature understated already, it works.
The design takes on an Apple M0110 type of look.
We have quite thick bezels, which slope down with a uniform chamfer, which gives it a real
solid look.
Looking at the side profile, it has just a 2.9 degree angle of elevation.
Which is quite low relative to a lot of other boards that hover at around the 6 degree mark.
Because I’m so used to the norm, it seemed quite flat to me.
But more importantly, it’s quite a high keyboard, especially at the front.
In a recent video I basically ripped into the Keychron K2 for having a high front.
And well yeh, it’s not the most comfortable keyboard to use if you’re resting your wrists
on the table, which regardless of how you type, you probably will do while gaming.
So I had to use a wrist rest for this, because the angle it created with my wrists was a
touch too straining for me.
The MxSS uses a 65% layout, with a blocker in the top right, which reveals some sort
of grill design for the lighting to shine through.
I’ve always been a fan of 65%.
Nice compact form factor, with most of what I need for primary access.
And if we press FN, which I have marked as Control, and this key, we can turn on the
underglow.
There’s a bunch of effects and patterns and stuff.
But yeh, it actually looks pretty good.
The LEDs are downwards facing, and are covered by the brass weight.
So we don’t really get those ugly concentration points that we see on other boards, because
we don’t have that direct sight of them.
Don’t know if it was intentional, but the brass weight works perfectly in reflecting
that light.
While the spread isn’t uniform or anything, the glow has quite a nice spread, and highlights
the polycarbonate characteristic of the keyboard.
But what I really did enjoy was actually typing on it.
Again, we have lubed T1s in here.
So these are a medium weight tactile keyswitch, with the bump right up the top, which is strong
and pronounced.
Wonderful keyswitches to use, and are some of the best tactiles you can easily acquire.
While the bump is strong, it’s nicely rounded, and smooth.
The legs were factory lubed, but I kinda went over that when I lubed the rest of the switch.
The combination of the brass plate, top mount design, and the polycarbonate case; provided
I guess a kind of bassy experience.
Like, it wasn’t as tight or dense feeling as other high end aluminium boards.
There is a slight feel of relief, and the bottom out is again slightly softer, which
I guess makes sense.
That’s not bad or anything, just different, and I do love typing on this.
And that’s the MXSS.
If you’ve been involved in the buy.
It’s fair to say that it’s been a really long wait, and you’re gonna have to expect
some problems with your board, which understandably can be frustrating.
I think while this one has issues, in the end, it’s come together really nicely, but
apparently it is one of the better ones.
And yeh I think it was just kind of taking on the unknown at the time.
It was their first design, and sometimes things go wrong.
But what I have in front of me, is something that still is a unique mechanical keyboard,
and it’s gonna be tough to pass it on to its owner.
Also, the Sydney Mechanical Keyboard Meetup 2019 is on the 30th of November.
So super close now.
We’ll have a heap of keyboards out, some cool activities, and amazing prizes as well.
So check out the link in the description, and come along if you can.