Hey guys!
Been while, it’s great to be back.
And for today we’re gonna build a production sample of the Constellation custom mechanical
keyboard from Aeboards.
These guys are behind the Aegis and the EXT65, both having left hand numpads, and both being
quite unique boards that were made with real purpose.
The Constellation on the other hand looks quite normal on the outside, but what’s
really special about this board is its customisability, more specifically, it’s mounting customisability,
so yeh this keyboard offers a few plate mounting options which affect both feel and sound,
so super exciting.
Alright, let’s start with the bottom.
Something that was kinda missing from their old boards, we have this very sizable brass
weight that spans most of the bottom, and is quite thick actually.
So naturally it’s hefty, coming in at 1255g.
For reference this Ducky One 2 Mini without keycaps is only about 500g, so normally about
600.
This weight in particular wasn’t perfectly flat, which is kinda common with large flat
brass pieces, but when screwed together, it’s all fine.
Now to these L-shaped things.
These are accent pieces, they don’t impact on performance or anything like that, it’s
purely for aesthetics.
By default these will come in brass, and then optional are black, space grey, and red aluminium
in which you can purchase to your liking as add ons.
I’m gonna use the red ones for now, because I didn’t install the gaskets on there yet,
and we’ll get back to that stuff later.
Okay, the plate options.
Again, they’re giving us more choice, and as you probably know, the plate itself, not
only its material, but the thickness as well has a big effect on the board.
So by default we have the 1.5mm brass plate, pretty standard stuff, and simple.
And we can even see some mounting options on the outside.
Next we have the 4.5mm brass plate, so so cool to have this option.
I’m not sure how many will be available, as again I think how it works is that this
is an add-on sort of thing, where the 1.5mm plate is the default.
But yeh, super nice, it’s machined so the switches still clip in, and the stabs work
just fine.
And of course it adds a heap of weight coming in at around 540g.
And finally the 4.5mm polycarbonate plate.
This is something that we don’t get to see often at all, so again really cool, and it’s
exactly the same as the brass.
With all that out of the way, we can get onto all the different mounting options.
I’m gonna be building these with Alpaca’s from PrimeKB, which are a medium weight linear
switch.
I lubed them with Christo MCG111, which is quite a thin lube, because I didn’t want
the lube to affect the sound too much, so we can hear more of the board.
Also, these won’t be soldered for now, but are 5 pin switches, so hopefully that won’t
affect the sound too much.
Anyway, let’s start with the simplest, top mount.
Top mount means that we screw the plate to the top piece.
We’ll start with no gaskets on either the bottom or top pieces, and simply screw it
into place.
There’s this awesome reference sheet for mounting styles that we’ll refer to, and
this illustrates it perfectly.
Like most top mount boards, the mounting points are just along the top and bottom, therefore
there should be a little more flex towards the middle, but spanning the whole board laterally.
They also mentioned that this will act as a reference for the other mounting options.
Gasket mount.
This is when we use additional dampening pieces to create some sort of isolation.
By default, we’re given Poron, which is a urethane material, basically like foam with
dampening characteristics.
There’s also rubber, and silicone gaskets available, which all have their standardised
sizings for their boards.
As we can see, I have the Poron gaskets installed on the bottom piece, however I don’t have
any on the top piece.
They recommend to use this configuration; which will give a slightly more dampened feel
and lower pitched sound.
If you do double sided gasket, and therefore full isolation, everything is tighter, and
when testing, kind of backwards of what you might think, it creates a harder and higher
pitched experience, because the gaskets are so compressed, also because there’s not
enough space for them.
But anyway, with some changes in the design, you can’t actually do double sided gasket
mounting with the provided Poron, because it just doesn’t fit together.
So if you really wanted to, you’d have to get some thinner material.
It is also a little tedious to position, since we’re not screwing it into place, and there’s
nothing to help you align it besides just using your eyes.
And here we can see the sort of compression that we get.
Now to O-ring gasket mount.
This goes in between the plate and the PCB, and you just stretch it over.
The difficult bit is getting it behind the USB C port.
Since I don’t have this soldered at the moment, it’s a bit easier.
But you do have to be careful when doing this, as clearly there’s not much space.
So desoldering a few switches on the top row would probably be a good idea just to give
it a bit of flex, but yeh, try not to put too much pressure on the port.
It works fine with screw-in stabilisers which is neat.
And those semi-circle cutouts on the PCB are for this.
So on the base of the board, we have these solid supports, 4 on the top edge, and 2 on
the bottom, and it just sits right on top of those.
It’s a unique one that personally I haven’t had much experience with, especially since
it involves the PCB as well.
So you have that contact all the way round, but then the more standard contact points
on the base itself.
And here we can see how it compares to the Poron.
Alright, so those were the different mounting options with the standard plate, now to the
thick plates.
The thick plates don’t use any of those options, but are solely I guess sandwich mount.
The plate is flush with the aluminium frame, and isn’t mechanically fixed or compressed
into place.
This one in particular is slightly warped, with the sides coming up, so that itself creates
that pressure and keeps everything in place.
However if that isn’t the case for you, then definitely there can be potential for
movement, because what’s pressing it down?
It’s an easy fix anyway of just adding like a tiny bit of tape, paper, or whatever on
the mounting points for that slither of thickness.
I’m not sure if they might include something like that, but not an issue for me.
Oh and the thick poly plate is exactly the same.
Yeh, definitely not the easiest to tell apart like that, so let’s have a quick listen
to all of the configurations together.
Starting with top mount.
This is like the most common configuration, seen on many many custom boards, and for a
reason.
It just feels so good already.
In; let’s call it it’s stock form, it has a nice not too hard of a bottom out, providing
a bit of thock.
So it feels a little thin and sharp, but not hollow, and not a whole lot of reverb and
vibrations onto the table.
But pretty typical top mount feel and sound.
And keep in mind that this is in comparison to these other configs.
Gasket mount, remember, just one sided, so it’s dampening that downwards pressure.
It's kinda close to top mount in feel.
Just slightly dampened, with that softer bottom out, also feeling a bit fuller.
And that carries onto it’s sound as well, being more dense, and lower pitched.
O-ring gasket mount.
Now this one feels and sounds quite a bit different to the previous two.
Again I haven’t had much experience with full O-rings, but I have one installed on
my Seulgi FE, and it’s like exactly what you would imagine how it would feel like.
You really do feel that the plate is sitting on that rubber ring.
Everything feels a little more springy.
When you bottom out, it’s dampened, it’s hard to explain, but it feels rubbery, and
it creates kind of a bouncy feeling.
It’s just a little bit, but there’s definitely that bounce and therefore a bit of vibration
that you feel throughout the board.
And again, that carries onto the sound.
It’s quite loud, a lot of that energy disperses around the case and onto the table, and you
can definitely hear the table come into play with this one, which personally I’m not
a big fan of.
I used the word tight before, and this is opposite to that.
Compared to my Seulgi FE though, this effect is much more noticeable, not very subtle,
so I find it pretty fun because it’s quite different.
Now to the thick plates.
4.5mm thick brass.
Another unique config.
As you would suspect, it has a harder bottom out, quite sharp, no flex at all.
But because of its thickness, it feels more full.
Just imagine knocking on like a hardwood floor, and a concrete floor.
Both no flex, but you feel that solidity.
Because of that, it does have a sharp and tight sound.
The spacebar really stands out compared to the other ones, it really pops here.
And for sure the plate definitely keeps the sound towards the top of the board, so it’s
very contained, and the table sound doesn’t really come into play which I like.
And out of all of these configurations, this is definitely the loudest.
And finally the 4.5mm thick polycarbonate plate.
Interesting one.
Again, you feel that thickness, but with a little bit of give because of the flexible
and soft nature of polycarb.
You can definitely tell that it’s plastic, it has that unique characteristic, hard to
express, but the energy travels through the plate and onto the board.
Also interestingly, I could feel the switches a lot more, and it kinda accentuated the scratch
that I had in my switches, even though lubed Alpaca’s are some of the smoother MX style
switches out there.
So this one, not for me.
And that’s all of the configurations I did.
And keep in mind that this is just one type of switch, your experiences may vary with
other types.
And it’s tough comparing things that aren’t side by side, so don’t take my word as final
or anything.
You can for sure mess around with these, try double sided gasket, combine gasket with top
mount, so using screws.
All that stuff.
And it’s so awesome to have the freedom to be able to change this, because usually
we’re stuck with 1 mounting method, sometimes 2.
And to experience another type, you gotta splash out on another board.
So I really think it’s some great innovation here, and I’ve always been a fan of giving
people more flexibility and options.
Personally for me, I honestly love the classic top mount.
I still like a good dose of sharpness, while not being too harsh.
That’s just me.
However, I already have top mount boards, and that’s probably going to be the case
for others.
So I’d say the thick brass plate is my other favourite, and probably what I would go for,
because it does offer a unique experience, and is my sort of thing.
I like how the board looks aesthetically.
This will be available in Black, Aegis Navy, and Space Grey.
The Red one I have is the limited Influencer Red version, and there will also be a limited
edition Vickrey colour.
With the interchangeable accent pieces, you can play around with the combos a little bit
which is an awesome awesome touch just to give you that bit more personalisation.
Physically it’s quite a bold looking board, but not overly thick looking.
For example the RAMA boards, Norbauer boards are quite thick.
So it has what I would consider medium sized bezels, going towards thick.
Looking at the side profile we have a 7 degree inclination, which is pretty standard and
comfortable to most.
It is nice to see a bit more character here.
We’ve seen the accent line look on a few boards, but we also have this curved cutout
here which adds a bit of depth and reveals the curve of the butt.
The rear is dominated by the accent pieces, but are split by the centred USB C port.
And again, I love that strikethrough look.
And finally on the bottom we have these cool standardised rubber feet that they’ll be
using on all of their boards I believe, so they’ll be easily replaceable.
And of course the brass weight which has a clean and simple Constellation engraving.
Although the placement relative to the top feet does look a little bit odd because they’re
so close.
Of course it’s due to physical constraints with the internals and such, but still.
I guess the other notable thing is that there’s no blocker, which these days has become the
norm.
So interestingly, this actually makes it kind of unique amongst all the recent 65% releases.
But for sure some might find this a bit plain, like the bottom the weight as well, and a
blocker does have that enthusiast association with it, making it look different, but yeh,
personal preference as always.
It does feature a fixed bottom row, with a 6.25u spacebar, so nice and solid, but again,
can be seen as vanilla.
And yeh, no customisability there, but there’s the option for stepped caps lock, and split
backspace.
So it’s a very pure 65% layout, and its simplicity is something that is actually quite
refreshing to me.
But I can understand that for some, it definitely lacks a bit of flare, but it’s class.
Ok so, the Constellation by Aeboards.
An absolutely stunner of a board.
It feels and looks amazing, packs a punch in the hands with its solid design and hefty
brass weight, and will definitely get people talking if they see it in real life.
All quality.
But this board has so much to offer in customisability.
First off, the accent pieces are a great touch, but it’s the internal customisability that’s
amazing with the different mounting options.
Classic top mount, gasket mount, O-ring gasket, thick plates, these are all options that change
how the board feels and sounds, and is a characteristic that we don’t normally get to change, and
this puts this board in a special place.
COVID did push it back a bit, but the Constellation is slated for release very very soon, and
it will be an in-stock board, so no group buy, and will be available on the KeyboardTreehouse.com.
No official pricing yet, but being a custom like this, it will be pricey, won’t be for
everyone.
Won’t go far into it, but low production numbers, designed in Australia, COVID again,
etc, it’s an expensive operation.
I suspect it’ll be around the 500USDish range, I’ll chuck some links in the description
for more info.
It’s definitely a special board, and truly enjoyable, and I feel that whoever will be
lucky enough to snag one will enjoy it too :)