My Kingdom for Smooth ABS SA Keycaps
Every time I build a new keyboard, I go hunting for keycaps. And every time I go hunting, it eventually devolves into a desperate search for SA (or equivalent) profile keycaps with a smooth finish. SA is the ultimate profile, IMHO, and they're relatively hard to come by. Signature Plastics, which is where a lot of SA sets come from like the T0mb3ry SA Carbon set (they might actually hold the trademark on the SA profile if I'm not mistaken), is reportedly going through some management/ownership struggles (last I heard, they're looking for new ownership), and along with apparently the rest of the industry, they seem to be neglecting this superior keycap profile in their own stocks. If you order direct from them, they have a couple themed sets in stock (maybe), but generally you can have any color you want, as long as it's black or white. Drop carries a fair number of MT3 profile sets, which are very similar to SA. But just like SP's SA-P profile, they're made with a different...
Apr 10, 2024
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/ikbc-87-rgb-mechanical-keyboard
This video explains things better though. Skip to around the middle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScXf7zfwzcM
1. What the hell is the manual referring to under the Light Mode table for Fn + Blank = Pause current dynamic lighting/resume dynamic lighting. Seriously, wtf is "Blank". It's even mentioned again in the text under #3 "...press Fn+blank to pause current keyboard lighting". The only thing I can think of is it's a printing error, and "Blank" was a placeholder.
2. In the video at about 6:39 he displays a reactive mode that flashed the lights in "quadrants". I'm not seeing that mode on this keyboard. I know this is a different model, but they even include the manual to the F108/F87 with this keyboard, so I would have figured that they're indicating that the modes are the same. Is this mode missing in this model, or is my keyboard defective?
3. Speaking of the manual.....just wow, what a mess. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt as it appears to have been a best effort to translate into English. But, still, for a keyboard that has fairly complex lighting/RGB controls, and no software to control it, the manual is pretty vague and confusing.
4. Another thing that makes me think that this model is slightly different than the F108/F87: The manual states under "Speed mode and others" that the light to the right of the space bar will change with those settings. On this keyboard, the light that changes is in the Capslock. So, if that's different, what else is different?
5. Hey, another complaint about the manual: In the manual Fn+F4 only lists three modes. However, when you press Fn+F4 on this keyboard, there's five modes. So, great that we get five modes, but still makes me wonder what we'd know if we had an accurate manual.
Other than all that, I'm one of the lucky ones. I don't appear to have any issues with my keyboard. However, it's a bit disheartening to hear others are having issues. I don't remember how many people joined this drop, but my email from before it ended indicated there was at least 122 people. There appears to only be a "handful" reporting back in the discussion here about issues, but that doesn't factor in people that aren't reporting their issues, or don't know they have issues.
Anyways, all that said, I like the keyboard. It's very solid, and has a great feel to it. The lighting and RGB modes are pretty neat. Hopefully I'll either get answers to my questions above, or I guess I could become an electrical engineer so I can figure out the modes without - or in spite of - the manual.