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I spend a great bargain of time pecking away at a keyboard — it's an occupational hazard. I've gotten quite into the custom mechanical keyboard scene as a consequence. A few months agone, I talked about building a WhiteFox keyboard in an attempt to attain my perfect typing experience. That board continues to be great, but it'south geared so aggressively toward typing that I felt I needed something separate for gaming. Thus, I embarked on a quest for the perfect gaming keyboard. I think I've gotten there.

Why would I do this?

I could, of grade, become to Amazon right now and buy a gaming-oriented mechanical keyboard. Many of them price upward of $150, which doesn't seem like the all-time deal when you await at what you get. I don't want to lump all gaming mechs together, only by and large, they're not attractive devices. There'southward and so much shiny plastic, lighted accents, and sharp edges that I feel similar I'm looking at a neon stealth fighter. The same goes for the cheap ABS keycaps — they're non attractive.

More than importantly, mainstream gaming boards don't take the features I want. They virtually e'er rely on desktop programs to control their features, rather than the firmware on the keyboard itself. The layouts are too but marginally customizable — the all-time you can hope for are some macros. I'm accustomed to having a fully programmable board after using the WhiteFox.

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C'mon, this is pretty ugly.

Full-size boards still rule in the mainstream gaming space as well, and I'm just not down with big keyboards. With full programmability, you can get abroad with a much smaller footprint. For example, the WhiteFox is a 65% board and it does everything a full size 1 tin can do. Fifty-fifty the few tenkeyless gaming boards out there are too large for my tastes.

I've go rather picky nearly switches recently too. These are the mechanical components under the keycaps that register presses. The style these are designed and built affects the experience of the board. Some gaming boards use Cherry switches, but an increasing number are using lower-cost "custom" versions of Cherry switches. By and large, I oasis't been impressed with them.

The only option I could see that would brand me happy was to build a lath, so I kept an heart out for any custom kits that caught my attention. When Massdrop ran a group buy for a variant of the Scarlet Scarf II+ ver.b, I knew that was the i. It has a 65% footprint plus a cake of 10 keys on the left. These are mapped to F1-F10 past default. This gives me the perfect identify to access game commands without fiddling effectually in office layers in the middle of a game. I like having these on the left because they're easy to reach without pushing my mouse further out. It likewise has a loftier-quality aluminum case with an acrylic lesser for built-in underglow lighting. It fifty-fifty has a remote control for the lights.

Planning and parts

The Red Scarf is a more than difficult build than the WhiteFox in a few means. The kit didn't come with keycaps that struck my fancy, so I ended upwardly ordering those separately. Because custom boards like the Red Scarf II+ have unusual layouts, some keycap sets won't fit. Those that do sometimes expect strange considering having keys in different places makes the sculpting of the keys inconsistent. I got around this by going with a keyset in the DSA contour. Each key is the same shape, so it'south easy to cover a custom board. I also similar the lower profile for gaming. I ended up ordering the "gaming" themed Clouded DSA set up from Massdrop. They're double-shot ABS, so the legends won't fade over time.

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The united nations-assembled parts. Notation the lighting remote.

I likewise had to decide which switches I would use for a gaming-oriented board. The reason I don't like using my WhiteFox for games is that I chose very heavy switches that are pleasant for typing, merely they're fatiguing to hold down for long periods. I needed something lighter, but what?

Switches mostly fit into three categories: clicky, tactile, and linear. The original Crimson patents on mechanical switches expired a few years dorsum, so there's a lot of innovation in the switch market. I knew I needed something calorie-free, but I likewise like having tactile switches on a board so I could still enjoy typing on it.

Cherry-red MX Browns are a fit based on their specs. I've used them in the past, simply contempo batches of these switches feel more than scratchy than they used to. Gateron is one of the companies that has made excellent Scarlet clones, and its switches have a reputation for existence very smooth. So, I decided to base this build on Gateron Brownish switches. They're fairly lite with a moderate tactile bump when y'all press them.

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A Gateron Dark-brown switch

Since the Red Scarf is a kit, associates involves soldering. The pocket-size surface-mount components similar LEDs, diodes, and resistors are already on the board. I was more confident with soldering this time around, having refreshed my skills with the WhiteFox. Notwithstanding, the Red Scarf has a universal switch plate, making the assembly process trickier.

Putting it all together

The starting time step in assembling the board is to plug the switches into the plate and line them upward. Because this is a universal plate, several areas don't have dividers, Yous demand to infinite the keys out then they hit the right contacts on the PCB for your chosen layout. If you solder switches into the incorrect spot, yous could end up unable to fit keycaps on them or programme the board correctly.

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Checking switch spacing.

The best style to avoid this is to employ keycaps to verify spacing, then gently set the plate with switches down on the PCB. To go along information technology in place as I prepared to solder the get-go few switches, I used a highly specialized PCB stabilizing organization (also known every bit a rubber band). To keep the switches from shifting around, I soldered 5 switches right away  — one in each corner and another in the middle.

Because this PCB has built-in LED underglow, I decided not to add together in-switch LEDs at this time. I could drop them in later, but I'm trying to avoid that gawdy gamer artful. Too many lights would probably take it in the wrong management. With the first few switches in place, I (carefully) plugged the PCB in and set it on a static pocketbook to test. The first few switches and the LEDs worked, then I went through and soldered the others.

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Highly technical.

The Reddish Scarf uses Ruby stabilizers, which mount directly to the PCB. These clips are used on larger keys like the space bar and shift to continue the keycaps direct. Cherry stabilizers are easier to deal with if you're swapping out keycaps compared with Costar stabilizers, like those used on the WhiteFox. Nonetheless, they jiggle a footling more than, and are a pain to mount the first fourth dimension.

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Solder points for the switches.

The concluding steps in getting the board assembled were screwing the instance together and putting the keycaps on, which showed up several weeks after the kit. It was worth the added look, though. They await fantastic and have really fun novelty legends. I also acquired a braided USB cable that matches the keycaps to finish off the look.

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Programming the Red Scarf is a flake more tedious than the WhiteFox. Information technology runs the TMK firmware, and so the easiest way is to build a layout on Keyboard Layout Editor and add legends to each of the keys. You can create a function layer by putting legends on the "front" of the keycaps. You can have the keys do anything you desire, but for the time existence I have the left 10-fundamental cake as dedicated F buttons. Information technology'south important the layout you build matches the spacing of the board exactly, which is tricky equally the Red Scarf II+ ver.b supports so many unlike layouts. The layout tin exist flashed with an online TMK tool. It took a few tries to go everything recognized, but the flash was successful.

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I'thou quite pleased with the final product. The lighting is a chip goofy with the remote command, simply it's the right kind of goofy. The board itself works perfectly, and the switches are just correct for gaming. They're likewise acceptable for typing (for me). The total cost of the build was… significant. Permit's just say I could have gotten 2 Razer boards for the cost, but I wouldn't have liked them equally much.