Mechanical Keyboards

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Any UK-Layout keycaps identical to 8BitDo's C64 Keycaps? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by SuperDuperKitten@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/mechanicalkeyboards@lemmy.ml

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When I first brought it year ago as it the first Mechanical keyboard I own, I only just notice it's a US Layout when I tried to use it which I assume because I got it on Amazon UK, it would be in UK Layout. ~~Note to myself, do few minutes of research before buying it online again.~~

I saw on 8BitDo's subreddit of someone contracting customer service if they sell UK-layout keycaps which they said no. I did tried look one identical to it but it both different colour and also in US-Layout.

Before tells me "Just use US Layout", I tried it and still feels unnatural to me. I really don't want my keyboard picking up some dust but if there's isn't any keycap that both looks identical and in UK, I'm considering maybe getting Keychron Keyboard at some point.

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[–] skarn@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm confused. The layout of the hardware switches is fundamentally different between ANSI (the US one) and ISO (all the european ones).

You see a normal UK keyboard has an extra switch near left shift key, and the double sized enter, etc.

This also means that the two keyboards need different stabilizers.

How do you expect a set of caps to transform a US keyboard into a UK one?

Switching between UK and any other Euro layout is easy peasy, but US? Nope.

[–] SuperDuperKitten@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago

How do you expect a set of caps to transform a US keyboard into a UK one?

To be fair, I am a newbie of mechanical keyboard so it only after I brought keyboard and search for keycaps that I learnt it the hard way. 😅

[–] cerement@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

it sounds like it’s going to be even more annoying than even @skarn@discuss.tchncs.de envisions – if you’re determined to go down this path, it will mean, at the minimum, opening up the keyboard you have to see what options the PCB supports before even thinking about purchasing new keycaps:

8BitDo does offer some of their boards with ISO layouts BUT according to one Reddit thread, they’re missing the symbol key between left shift and Z – a quick image search shows renders with that key in place so “your mileage may vary” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
check the PCB to see if 8BitDo used a universal PCB (supports both ANSI and ISO including the missing symbol key)
if the PCB meets those requirements, then:
- plan on desoldering and resoldering switches
- plan on moving stabilizers

as far as the actual keycaps are concerned

8BitDo commissions their own AF SA profile keycaps for their projects
you can get C64 style ISO keycaps but it really depends on availability – the two primary sources are Signature Plastics’ SA Retro set and Drop’s MT3 Retro set (it looks like the C64 Ultimate will be using the MT3 set)

[–] cairn@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

The MT3 Retro set was never produced, and Drop seems to be phasing out MT3, so it's highly unlikely that it'll ever be produced. There's been some discussion about this on Matt3o's discord.

SA Retro is pretty much the only option, but it is a very nice set.