Drop Mech Keys Meetup Recap - Thanks for Visiting!
As you may have seen, we just hosted our first meetup in quite a while here at Drop HQ (Corsair HQ, but they seem to like us enough :) )! It was a blast to get to meet so many enthusiasts local to the bay area—it had been 10 years since I was last hanging out with keyboard nerds in the bay, at KeyCon 2014. We had a great time hosting everyone at the offices, checking out all the very nice boards y'all brought, and sharing some of our own projects/spaces! I knew it would be fun to host in the Game Room when I first saw it in person, but seeing it come to fruition was still so cool. Alright, I'll stop blabbering on now. xD Picture time! (Oh, real quick - there will be more of these! Stay tuned for more info and to catch the next one!)
May 15, 2024
Personally, I have no experience using any modern speed switch.... but I'm very interested in finding out what a speed switch with 70g for operational force feels like. Interestingly enough, I suspect that it might be similar to my old 80s Panasonic electronic word processor. But I just might have to get some of these dark yellows myself to find out.
I just got a GMMK TKL, these say they're compatible with Cherry MX stems so would that mean I can pop them into the GMMK since it's hot-swapable?
I suspect that these dark yellow switches might be good for gaming. I imagine they're relatively quiet due to being linear and with shorter travel, and feel like they are fast and responsive. But I think I'm most curious to see how they feel and sound for space bars... Sometimes the sound of larger space bars sound a bit out of place to me, compared to the rest of the keys - of course depending on the keycaps themselves. But right now, in my mind, I really want to layout my future Tokyo60 with kailh box blacks for alphas, kailh dark yellow for spacebar, and kailh box navy for everything else. Does that sound weird? I really want to see what that feels and sounds like.
Hot -swap keyboards will spoil us. ;)
Board: GMMK TKL Switches: Hako True (box style) Keycaps: GMMK shine through
I've had the GMMK TKL for exactly one week today and I can give you my thoughts on it.
Good things: Overall I like this board a lot, and would buy another one for the price. The biggest selling point is the hot swappable switches, I cannot wait for more manufacturers to adopt this feature. I enjoy the aluminum plate and quality look of the board. The included cable is detachable and feels nice. The RGB backlighting can be controlled via function keys on the board or controlled through the downloadable software. The LEDs in this board get pretty bright and have a pretty smooth transition, the white light appears to be a little on the warm side but overall I think its fine. I am very pleased with this board and I'm excited to swap out to new sets of switches often. The plate seems to be a good fit, none of my switches are too loose or too tight. You can get a discount, just google the Glorious Referral Program, You may have to use a throw away email address but it's 15% off your order (I generated a 15% referral code and then used my own code to both get a discount and later use the referral for a 10% kickback).
Some odd things: The lighting effects listed in the included booklet do not match the names of the lighting effects in the software There are two lighting modes called "Matrix 2" and "Matrix 3" but no mode called "Matrix" The capslock light indicator (tiny LED over the arrow keys) is red rather than white On the GMMK website you need to download the firmware/software version that matches the service tag on the underside of your keyboard rather than having one package that detects what version you are running.
Some Bad things: The rubber feet are not amazing on this board in comparison to others that I have used. when the flip out feet are engaged it is just fine. If you do not have the flip out feet engaged the board can scoot around a little (granted I am using heavy switches and I type very heavily). The stabilizers that come with the board are very rattly. Luckily they are plate mounted and easy to replace. If you do not replace them, they are easy to remove and lubricate (if the rattle bothers you). You can flex the plate pretty easily so don't try it.
Hope that helps!