Has anybody seen my keys?
November 12, 2022 6:40 PM Subscribe
I've just started getting into the whole mechanical keyboard thing, because nothing is more fun than a niche hobby enjoyed only by yourself and ten thousand YouTube influencers.
I'm getting this keydous nj80-ap. Help me find the perfect keycaps for it?
Difficulty level: I know almost nothing about mechanical keyboards. There are so many different types and profiles! The Keydous is a 75% keyboard, so I know some keys are non-standard sizes. But then there's... Cherry profile? OEM? XDA? XVX???
I like keys that look like these vs these. What I like about the former version is that the keys seem more tightly packed together and seem more rounded at the top with maybe more surface area... while the latter are narrower at the top - they have more space between keys, and have sharper corners, which I don't love.
Most of my use of this keyboard will be for typing, and I've read that the OEM or Cherry profile is better for typing - but the keys I'm using right now are XDA on a Yunzii and it's fine, so I'm not sure how relevant that is.
I guess what I mainly need to know is - what search terms would I use to look for PBT doubleshot or pudding style keycaps with that more rounded/tight look, that are also good for typing, and would definitely fit the Keydous nj80-ap?
Difficulty level: I know almost nothing about mechanical keyboards. There are so many different types and profiles! The Keydous is a 75% keyboard, so I know some keys are non-standard sizes. But then there's... Cherry profile? OEM? XDA? XVX???
I like keys that look like these vs these. What I like about the former version is that the keys seem more tightly packed together and seem more rounded at the top with maybe more surface area... while the latter are narrower at the top - they have more space between keys, and have sharper corners, which I don't love.
Most of my use of this keyboard will be for typing, and I've read that the OEM or Cherry profile is better for typing - but the keys I'm using right now are XDA on a Yunzii and it's fine, so I'm not sure how relevant that is.
I guess what I mainly need to know is - what search terms would I use to look for PBT doubleshot or pudding style keycaps with that more rounded/tight look, that are also good for typing, and would definitely fit the Keydous nj80-ap?
when I was looking at a different manufacturer's mech keyboard (ErgoDox EZ, I think), I sent an email to their support or info address and got in touch with a very helpful person who was more than happy to discuss key/switch types with me, down into the dirty details. perhaps you might find such a connection at your keyboard's manufacturer.
posted by jerome powell buys his sweatbands in bulk only at 7:02 PM on November 12, 2022
posted by jerome powell buys his sweatbands in bulk only at 7:02 PM on November 12, 2022
Best answer: I found keycaps.info to be a pretty handy tool for comparing and contrasting profile types. Then you can search Drop (if you want to spend that kind of money) or Amazon or mechanicalkeyboards.com or whatever for your profile type. This is also a pretty good rundown of the various profiles, and has more info on the tops of the keys. (For what it's worth, both the keycap sets you linked to are OEM profile. One's just sorta more roundy around the edges. Sort of looks like an XDA profile, really. Compare to these or the keycaps on the Keychron K8, which are more "old terminal" sort of style with a scoop in the top; OEM profile keycaps are more flat topped.)
As far as working on the keyboard you have - that depends on the stem type, and that's defined by the switches on your board. It looks like they provide it with Gaterons (of various colors but that's not important here) and those are pretty well universally going to be Cherry stems (looks like a +). Not a lot of options here - it's usually either Cherry stems or Alps but the two aren't compatible. (Note that some of the Kalih switches and others have a boxed Cherry-type stem, and those will work with just regular Cherry stem keycaps. You sort of have to go out of your way to get Alps stems.)
I've found that most keycap sets come with a ton of keycaps you're not going to use - enough to populate a normal, full-sized board with a full 10-key keypad, plus some additional function keys and maybe ones with weird logos and sometimes keys to accommodate ISO vs. ANSI layouts and different sizes for Ctrl/Alt/Win and different spacebars and all of that. Unless you're buying a keycap set for a specific board, I wouldn't worry about them not fitting on your board.
Switches are a whole other rabbit hole to go down.. Also, get a decent keycap puller tool too. Part of the fun of this is that you can switch out the keycaps as you see fit.
posted by mrg at 7:48 PM on November 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
As far as working on the keyboard you have - that depends on the stem type, and that's defined by the switches on your board. It looks like they provide it with Gaterons (of various colors but that's not important here) and those are pretty well universally going to be Cherry stems (looks like a +). Not a lot of options here - it's usually either Cherry stems or Alps but the two aren't compatible. (Note that some of the Kalih switches and others have a boxed Cherry-type stem, and those will work with just regular Cherry stem keycaps. You sort of have to go out of your way to get Alps stems.)
I've found that most keycap sets come with a ton of keycaps you're not going to use - enough to populate a normal, full-sized board with a full 10-key keypad, plus some additional function keys and maybe ones with weird logos and sometimes keys to accommodate ISO vs. ANSI layouts and different sizes for Ctrl/Alt/Win and different spacebars and all of that. Unless you're buying a keycap set for a specific board, I wouldn't worry about them not fitting on your board.
Switches are a whole other rabbit hole to go down.. Also, get a decent keycap puller tool too. Part of the fun of this is that you can switch out the keycaps as you see fit.
posted by mrg at 7:48 PM on November 12, 2022 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: This is great info, thank you! So Cherry is... both a profile and a stem type? My switches are Gateron Pro Browns - which I believe are the same stem as Cherry. It sounds like as long as I have Cherry/Gateron stems on the switches, and get Cherry/Gateron compatible keycaps sized for a 75% (84 key) layout, I should be able to use any profile. Would that be accurate?
posted by invincible summer at 7:13 AM on November 13, 2022
posted by invincible summer at 7:13 AM on November 13, 2022
Best answer: Yup. Cherry makes the whole thing (switches, keycaps, and fully assembled keyboards) and has since basically ever, and others have cloned their stem style and profile type. (Generally, though, keycaps will have Cherry-style stems, so that's less of a thing to consider. Gateron browns definitely have a Cherry-style stem on them - I don't think they make anything different, stem-wise.)
The cap sizes are pretty well standardized - there's some variance but it's mostly in things like shift keys and enter keys and spacebars, but generally any set will have some options that'll take care of those keys. (Like, most spacebars are 6.25u across, which is 6 normal keycaps plus a quarter of one, and that works for most keyboards you'll run across. But there are some that have a split spacebar and there's things like Alice layouts.. none of that is stuff to worry about with a normal board like your Keydous, though. What I'm getting at is that you don't need to specifically find sets that work for X% layout - they'll generally all just be OK unless they explicitly say otherwise or you have a more exotic layout, like an Alice board.)
posted by mrg at 9:44 AM on November 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
The cap sizes are pretty well standardized - there's some variance but it's mostly in things like shift keys and enter keys and spacebars, but generally any set will have some options that'll take care of those keys. (Like, most spacebars are 6.25u across, which is 6 normal keycaps plus a quarter of one, and that works for most keyboards you'll run across. But there are some that have a split spacebar and there's things like Alice layouts.. none of that is stuff to worry about with a normal board like your Keydous, though. What I'm getting at is that you don't need to specifically find sets that work for X% layout - they'll generally all just be OK unless they explicitly say otherwise or you have a more exotic layout, like an Alice board.)
posted by mrg at 9:44 AM on November 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by invincible summer at 6:56 PM on November 12, 2022