Yo, hope you’re all well, today we have the Salvation from Wilba.Tech, a very exciting
design approach.
And uh yeh, it’s been a real good while since my last KPOP Mech episode where we made
that Wendy macropad, so today’s the day we have Episode 4 with the recently disbanded
IZ*ONE* as a thank you to them :(
And the giveaway winners from episode 3 are SaltyNutted and Iantonews.
Congratulations guys!~
As always, we’ll be giving away 2 physical albums, which comes with the photobook, cards
and all that stuff.
Details at the end of the video.
To be honest, I don’t know a heap about Izone, mainly only listened to their title
tracks, and then more B-sides when researching for this video.
And that’s all thanks to my friend Peach, when she got me to watch the Fiesta MV like
a year and a bit ago, so we’ll sub her in for some questions today.
Okay cool, so here’s a prototype unit of the Salvation in black.
Of course the first thing we see is the bottom inside of the board which is basically what
this board is all about.
And as we can see this is a unibody design which typically means tray mount, but this
is a different take on it.
Not sure if the anodisation will be like this in the final, it’s even and all, but has
a rougher texture to it, and for that reason, I’m just gonna chuck the etch primer straight
on.
IZ*ONE*!
Okay, let’s do bias.
Unlike Peach, I don’t have a problem picking one.
When I first watched that Fiesta MV, it was Chaewon straight away, and has been ever since.
I actually thought she was the centre or leader because she was so good in that.
And just gonna be honest, she looked amazing, and in my opinion is one of the prettiest
out there in the whole industry.
In the group, she’s a lead vocalist and lead dancer.
Lovely voice that always stands out in their songs, and like I said, her parts in Fiesta
were too good.
She really has everything and is super talented which you gotta respect.
And hopefully she does find a place to continue doing what she does best.
Sweet, now I have the primer down, and the white base, I can apply a design over it.
It actually looks really cool in white by the way, very nice, although unfortunately
it isn’t available in white.
Let’s open up Illustrator.
Obviously you would have seen the thumbnail, but this is the stuff I had at first.
Which was brave, but I did have another method of application in mind, which I didn’t go
through with.
And with the quite angular shape of the board, and the non-stretchy aspect of waterslide
decals, it’s difficult to apply such designs.
Favourite song!
It’s close, but it’s gonna have to be Fiesta.
Again, the first one I heard, and you know with music, you remember things from that
time, I guess it has that sentimental value.
But it’s an absolute banger, the whole thing goes hard, and it’s such an Izone style
song.
Heavy synths, a lot going on.
Great verses’, pre-chorus amazing, banging chorus, Chaewon in the bridge, unreal.
And then in typical Izone fashion, take it to another level at the end of the song.
Violeta is on the same level though, probably prefer it musically, but yeh, absolute bangers,
highly recommend.
I whacked some clear coat over it, and then as per my drawing, I used some clear pink
to get that gradient, which was supposed to help the Izone logo stand out.
As the name suggests, it’s a translucent paint that won’t just cover the stuff underneath
it.
But here, we can already see some silvering, which is air trapped underneath, and I changed
to Humbrol DecalFix later which worked better.
And it did need more clear on top of it before the pink, but a lot of the decal stuff is
fixed afterwards with clear coating, sanding, and repeating.
Favourite MV.
Easily Violeta.
What a beautifully aesthetic video.
Everything about it, the floral colour palette and theme is so elegant and clean.
Some of the scenes and sets are stunning, also with some slow motion and reverse video.
Not much green screen if any, which is nice.
And the musicality of the shots were on point.
They all looked great, but Chaewon again, damn she looked good.
A really well produced video, coherent, and just something about a soft palette with a
hard hitting song hits the spot.
Aaaand I failed.
Unfortunately I don’t have any proper video of it, but the clear pink paint intensified
with the clear coat over it, and was way too overpowering, so I was just depressed at the
time and couldn’t be stuffed recording.
Different paints react in different ways, especially when used together.
And that’s the thing with painting stuff, it takes such a long time, with all these
layers, so mistakes are so costly, but happen because I’m still learning what works with
what, and that’s always a process.
But because there were proper layers, I could just sand it back, but looking at it, I wasn’t
happy with the design anyway.
Disregarding the pink, it was cluttered and messy, the Izone logo didn’t really stand
out, it looked pretty amateur in my opinion, so I thought stuff it, stripped it all back,
and did it again, but with a new design.
Aight, let’s build the actual keyboard.
I’ve already installed the stabilisers, and being the solderable PCB, there’s various
layout options.
Because the PCB is what’s being screwed to the case, using the plate isn’t necessary,
so you could go plateless.
But the included plate is made from FR4, which is the PCB fibreglass material.
It does have standard mounting points, just like a normal universal 60% tray mount, so
you could use pretty much whatever 60% plate you want.
Alu, brass, polycarb, carbon fibre, whatever.
There’s a whole lot of cuts that go around the alphas.
FR4 is pretty easy to cut too, so you could make it a true half plate quite easily.
Favourite b-side, meaning non-title track.
As said before, I didn’t know much of them, so I went through their discography, and to
be honest it took me up until One-Reeler which was their last mini album, to have stuff that
stuck.
And those were Sequence and Mise En Scene.
Sequence is a banger with the slapping bass driving it.
But Mise En Scene is the one for me.
Still has that Izone vibe, but like the rest of One Reeler, it has a more mature sound
which I feel was a good way to finish.
And that’s the thing as well, I don’t think I’ve listened to their other stuff
enough to let them grow on me.
But it is what it is.
Let’s prepare the mounting parts.
We have these FR4 leaf springs, which we have to cut off.
And we get 8 with a singular hole, and 4 with 2 holes.
Then we have to stick these rubber standoffs on the singular hole ones on the opposing
end, and this is what the PCB will rest upon.
And then we grab 2 of the double hole leaf springs and screw on the steel standoffs.
And in the end, you should end up with something like this.
Then we grab our case, and I’ve already installed the 10 Poron foam pads.
And there’s small divots in the channels so you stick them in the right place.
Although, you can move them around to adjust the resistance to your liking.
Let’s screw in our threaded standoffs.
And this only requires 2 in these positions.
If for some reason you’re using a different PCB which doesn’t have these standard mounting
points, then you can use the 2 outside channels.
And then the rest are just the leaf springs with the rubber standoffs.
It’s important that when you’re screwing them in, they don’t touch or scrape against
the sides of the channel, and that they can move up and down freely.
And you can see how it works.
One side is screwed in, and the other side of the leaf has the rubber piece which contacts
the PCB.
So when pressure is applied, it flexes downwards with the Poron pad underneath dampening it.
And that’s what’s so exciting about it.
In a typical tray mount design, you have these mounting points scattered around the bottom
where there’s free space.
Whereas this just has the 2 actual mounting points, and then the PCB is just sitting on
top of the leaves which are basically arranged with 4 on top, and 4 on the bottom.
So they’re not really scattered, it just kinda looks like that because they’re angled
to fit in the case.
And here it is, the IZ*ONE* themed Salvation custom mechanical keyboard.
It was an absolute mission.
So many unseen mistakes, obviously I redid a lot of it, but we got there in the end,
and I’m happy I fixed it up.
The design of the Salvation being a unibody 60% is naturally quite basic as they are,
especially when looking at it from the top and front.
Healthy sized bezels with strong chamfers all around.
The corners are chamfered as well creating quite an angular design, but not too extreme.
So not a whole lot of real estate to play with up top in trying to theme it up.
So we just have a few flowers, and Eyes on Me on the front left which is their greeting
phrase.
Looking at the side profile, it has a 7.5 degree incline, quite comfortable, and again
a basic angular design.
I had to chuck Chaewon on there somewhere, so there she is.
Looking at the rear, there’s a roomy USB port hole which is needed because look at
that flex.
Although it also acts as a limiter for that left corner flex.
And then the bottom.
As you would have seen before, this is simpler than all the other designs.
And that’s the beauty of going through revisions, and I’m always learning on the way.
I think it looks pretty, it’s clean and what I was going for was a floral theme based
on much of their earlier imagery.
I dunno, it’s nice but doesn’t hit the spot for me.
And then the Izone logo smack bang in the middle which ended up working perfectly with
Wilba’s logo, luckily.
His logo by the way has 13 of these lines, so close to the 12 members.
I did previously have the members on the rear, but I decided to leave them out to keep it
clean.
But yes, thank you thank you thank you IZ*ONE*!
Okay, let’s have a quick listen.
Lovely.
I used Raed switches in here, which are linear and have long stem poles, so these switches
in themselves do have their unique sound and feel.
In high end custom mechs, majority tend to be top mount or gasket mount, where the mounting
points are along the outside of the board.
Here, there’s none that are out that far, but still along the top and bottom, just inwards
a bit more.
So it creates this unique kind of flex, and from what I can feel, it creates quite a bit
of vibration with each keypress.
And you feel that when you bottom out.
So yeh, definitely vibrant.
Although I don’t know about soft, but I am using Raed’s.
And with that it kinda does travel through and out of the case, so you feel and hear
more of the desk.
But a deskmat does help with that quite easily, tightening it up, which I personally prefer.
Of course having flexible mounts takes away the harsh hard points, but there’s still
mounts underneath there.
And keep in mind we have the Weirdflex PCB in here, and only the 2 threaded standoff
points are within that alpha cluster.
So you end up with the supporting points kind of being in between the edge of the board,
and the edge of the alpha cluster.
So the edges have a lot of flex, but the middle also does.
So it does have quite a different distribution compared to other boards.
Personally, it’s not really my kind of typing experience, perhaps with other switches, I’d
like it more, but still very enjoyable and fun to use.
And that’s what’s awesome about it.
It’s a different take, and an evolution on the classic tray mount design, which coincidentally
Geon has also explored with his Vanquish65.
I love to see more innovation, more options.
It totally might not be for you, and that’s fine, we don’t need to see the same things
being churned out over and over again because they’re guaranteed to be good.
It’s good to have those, and good to have stuff like this.
So yep, I’m a fan.
And finally, IZ*ONE*.
Love you’s, it was a pleasure for the like 1.5 years I was a fan, and the 3 years you
were around.
It’s always tough saying goodbye, but we all knew it was coming, and exactly when it
was coming.
For a temporary group, you guys reached amazing heights, won a heap of awards, and won over
many fans, and for that you’ll always be permanent.
And that’s episode 4 of the Kpop mech series.
I know this kind of thing isn’t for everyone, but I hope you can still enjoy the board and
all the mods I do.
Big big thanks to Peach for getting me into IZ*ONE*, hope this somewhat cheers you up,
and a huge thanks to Wilba for letting me play with this board.
And for letting me do a KPOP Mech episode with it, probably against his desires.
Many thanks.