- No matter what I do to it, it always sounds the same!
Today I'm taking this plain Keychron Q1
out of the box and making it better.
But this time it's not for me,
no, it's for Jake.
The Q1 is his daily driver
but out of the box, it's sort of, eh.
So I'm going to surprise him by stealing his keyboard,
souping it up and returning it a million times better.
So I stole his keyboard,
replaced it with something pretty similar,
really similar.
And I'm gonna revamp this thing before he even notices.
We're gonna make it worthy of Switch and Click.
(box opening)
I'm stealing your keyboard.
Thank you.
I've been listening to him using Q1 for months now
and I'm sick of it.
(computer keys clicking)
Something needs to change.
So first thing I need to do is decide exactly
what mods I'm going to do to the Q1.
I just wanna make it sound the best
that I could possibly make it sound
without being too loud because he hates loud sounds.
I hate loud sounds.
As we are in the living room together.
So I'm gonna look at a bunch of videos,
find the best sounds and decide what mods I'm gonna do.
Keybored is the most popping of us all,
makes the best content.
Oh, that sounds nice.
Okay, blue tape. Cheap, easy.
No PE foam. All right.
New stabilizers.
No PE foam though, don't like that.
Okay. So far from that,
I've got noise dampener, washburn mod, new stabilizers,
and then potentially PE foam, but probably not PE foam.
See what these people do.
(computer keys clicking)
Hmm. That sounds quite nice.
Some ting ting.
Oh, another person doing tape mod.
Tape mod seems worth.
Okay. I'm doing tape mod and that's it.
That's easy.
Oh, and stabilizers and switches.
I decide on some new switches instead
of phantom reds, which are nice.
Phantom reds are nice.
And then of course we're replacing the key caps.
So step one, take apart the keyboard.
We're going all in on this one.
Gonna have the best Q1 you've ever seen.
Okay. Just gonna tear apart this urban tape.
One of those kinds where you push out
it's also screwed on to there.
So I need another screwdriver.
This thing's gonna be awesome.
(drill buzzing)
Next, take the key caps off then take the switches off.
Basically everything will be taken apart.
(computer keys clanking)
Done with key caps, all empty.
Switches time.
Ew, hair everywhere. Ew.
There's a mix of phantom reds here.
And I guess Jake did something weird there
and there's a lot of nasty hair.
Oh, it's a little, but you know, he's my husband,
so, it doesn't actually matter.
Just gonna speed run this.
Looks like he's also changed the plate
to this polycarb plate.
I might keep that, might keep the polycarb plate,
I think he likes it.
Softer, not aluminum, you know.
Definitely hard to take out these switches though.
This plate is tight.
So Jake's using the GMMK Pro right now.
It has a similar size and look and feel,
well sort of similar feel to the Keychron Q1.
But after this,
this thing's gonna feel 10 times better, 20 times better.
I'm not sure, but I'll do my best to make it better.
If he's gonna be using something all the time,
in the living room, right next to me, it better be good.
So Jake has adamantly told me
that his preferences are that it's not too loud
a more muted sound, but not really like clacky either.
Just so in between, as long as it's not loud
like the QK 65, then we're good.
It's gotta be muted and it's gotta feel nice.
Close it up. Give it a nice slap.
And more unscrewing.
This whole process is just unscrewing things.
One keyboard, three different wow, stick heads
unbelievably needy, and a million screws.
Literally a million screws.
(drill buzzing)
It sounds like my dentist.
Keyboard comes with a nice piece of plate foam
and the stabilizers.
Got lube on them, that's for sure.
Not in the right place though.
Sounded all right.
Nothing wrong with them.
Just not what we're using today.
I decided to keep the key caps, the switches
the stabilizers, just in case he ended up
hating the upgrades and wanted the original version back.
That better not happened though.
Everything was going really dandy when I realized
how dirty the Q1 was after only several months of use,
and I gave it a nice clean.
(air blowing)
Nice blow, no more hair.
Well, a few bits,
little bit of hair, but mostly no hair.
We're good.
We're good to go.
The game plan now is to acquire the parts,
do the mods, test the mods, surprise Jake.
Let's get started.
Instead of this, which is this ultra, ultra thin piece
of whatever, it does nothing.
So I'm gonna go get better things in the garage.
I'm going to the garage.
(door opening)
Noico acquire.
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Here it is.
Step one, a piece of noico
instead of the fancy kill mat stuff that keyboard had.
I can't afford that stuff cause it's really expensive.
I, instead have bought this cheaper stuff
that is a lot cheaper. For 36 sheets of this noico stuff
I only paid $45.
I think.
So about $1.20 a sheet, very affordable.
So this is easy, cause all I have to do is
tear this one out, align it like so, and then cut.
Cutting time.
(scissors cutting)
Perfect.
So keyboard,
I don't know if he peeled this thing off or not.
I don't think he did, he just left it like this.
I wonder if it matters what direction?
I'll follow his instructions.
It will be like this, face down.
This part is just paper so it shouldn't conduct any,
some things, it's quite flat.
That is step one.
Step number two: force break mod.
Now I've seen people do it many ways.
One with was with blue tape, one was with silicone gaskets.
I have blue tape right here for spray mod.
I think you do it everywhere along the corners.
So just gonna put it all along the edge
and if it looks ugly, no one will know a thing.
I need reference.
All over the bottom and all over the top.
Keyboard, you're the best, thank you.
Forces have been broken on the bottom.
Now to tend to the top piece.
Top piece, tape time, more tape.
That's the bottom, this is the top.
Force break mod, check.
Force break mod is done.
That means the case has been prepped.
Now for the electronics.
This stuff doesn't need to be touched,
this tuff doesn't need to be touched.
This needs to be touched.
The PCB wonderfully hot swap
easy to work with, missing stabilizers.
Why? Because I'm replacing them.
I had to tend to my pots.
Stabilizers
(drawers closing)
Stabilizers, check.
There are only a couple more things to do
but already Jake is complaining
about the current keyboard that he's using
so I better hurry up.
I also ran out of blue tape but thank goodness
I've got large rolls in the supply drawer.
Brand new roll of tape because you know, he deserves it.
The only thing I have to avoid is this thingy-ma-jigger.
That's where the ribbon cable goes back in.
Other than that, I'm going crazy.
Wait. No, not yet.
I can't go crazy yet.
No, mistakes will not be made this time.
(tape crinkling)
First layer complete.
Now Jake doesn't hate tape mod, he hates PE foam mod.
So this is okay because we're going to be producing
a deeper sound and not a louder, poppier sound
or at least that's the goal.
Two layers.
Should I do one more? I should probably do one more.
I'm gonna do one more.
(tape crinkling)
Three is not too much.
I gotta say, I still don't really completely
understand what the science there is,
but it's cool and it's easy.
Tape mod, complete.
Tape mod, boop, check.
The case is ready to be closed.
Is my sheet too fat or is my tape mod too fat?
It will close, but there's no flex and he wants flex.
So this thing's too thick.
We're going back in with this flimsy bit.
This flimsy bit that does almost nothing.
Okay and that has flex that's much better.
Oh no, sound dampening thing.
Goodbye.
So, because I don't have that,
I actually do want to support the PCB
while I put the switches in
so that my hot swap sockets don't fall out.
I'm actually doing it like this
and the switches we will be using are...
let me get them.
To the switch stash.
We have the rock lavender, good pick, number one,
carrots are a good option, number two.
TTC gold pinks, always a good option.
Okay, these are the options.
Hun buns, you have to make a decision.
There's three switches, they're all different,
and you have to pick which one's your favorite?
- Ooh, like this one.
- Which one's that one?
- The orange one.
- Okay.
- Is that the carrot?
- Yeah. All right, carrot switches it is.
(keys popping)
Jake's been eyeing these key caps
since I first got them in the mail.
They're super simple, not eye-catching,
but that's the part that he likes the most.
Oh. And swords, he loves swords.
CannonCap ZeRo.
Got these on Groupon not too long ago,
but he's been eyeing them.
They're very clean.
Key cap speed run.
These are gonna look so good.
Look at that flex.
Oh yeah.
This is gonna be so good.
Can't wait to see his reaction.
Control.
Gray arrows, of course.
(computer keys clicking)
This one. Oh, look at that.
Finished product.
Beautiful.
Windows, Mac, works perfectly.
USB-C port aligned and it's beautiful.
Very nice.
I love it.
I hope he'll love it.
[Betty] It's done.
- Yay!
- [Betty] You have to come and check it out.
- Nice. Let's try it.
- [Betty] You're gonna love it.
- Whoa. These key caps are nice.
Is this a sword?
- [Betty] Yeah.
- Oh. Let me try it.
(computer keys clicking)
Oh yeah, it's not bad.
- [Betty] What do you mean it's not bad?
It's supposed to be amazing.
- It's amazing!
- [Betty] You love it?
- It doesn't have like the same, like clackiness
to it. You got rid of like the cute one,
- [Betty] Did you like the clackiness?
- No, no, I like this more for sure.
- [Betty] Give 'em a sound test.
(computer keys clicking)
- Hmm. That's good stuff.
(computer keys clicking)
Yeah. That's good.
It's awesome.
Thanks, baby.
- So Jake loved it, like I thought.
I wasn't worried or anything, you know.
Make sure to watch this video right here
where I upgraded a Razer keyboard.
Or this one, where I made my brother modded Q1 too.