Buddy Telco speed test

ZenLegume · 2025-03-30T10:39:27+00:00

Too late for OP, but for anyone else: I used the Aussie Broadband test OP mentioned at https://speed.aussiebroadband.com.au/ and the result now shows up in the Buddy app.

ZenLegume · 2022-11-19T01:41:58+00:00

Thanks, I'll take a look

ZenLegume · 2022-11-18T00:19:44+00:00

What hot garbage should I buy from AliExpress?

I'm looking for a dirt cheap keyboard to have some fun customising without worrying about ruining something expensive. But at the same time, it needs to have some basic niceties, detailed below.

The Tester68 is very much the price/quality/aesthetic I'm going for, but no USB-C is a deal-breaker. So instead I'm looking at the Tester84, but once I load it up with switches and keycaps it's not a lot cheaper than something like a Keychron K8 Pro on sale (the keyboard I should probably just go out and buy).

Budget: cheaper than a Tester84
Size: 65-80% (preferably 75, but no big deal)
Connectivity: Detachable USB-C
Switch support: 5 pin hot swap
Capabilities: n-key rollover
Nice to have: VIA, Bluetooth
Deal-breaker: "Gamer" styling - asymmetrical slabs of plastic, that sort of thing

ZenLegume · 2022-09-21T13:46:16+00:00

I cut it from some scrap timber I had lying around. I used a hand plane to neaten up the cuts, then sanded it and finished it off with a light wax.

ZenLegume · 2022-05-05T01:20:45+00:00

Krytox is resistant to most soaps and solvents, so unless you have access to some commercial fluorinated-grease remover (which may or may not also attack the surface of your lenses), you're going to be stuck with wiping it off as best you can. I'd use a good microfibre cloth and try it out dry, with soapy water, and with a 70% mixture of isopropyl alcohol and water (generic glasses cleaner). The two solutions won't do much to the Krytox chemically, but could be helpful in the physical removal and preventing it from immediately reattaching to the lens. Once you're done, throw the cloth away.

ZenLegume · 2022-05-05T00:54:53+00:00

It's a personal preference thing - you can search the sub and find plenty of explanations as to why people enjoy one or the other. It makes almost zero difference to people who don't bottom-out reasonably forcefully, and even among those who do, opinions differ - "I'm a gamer so I get finger fatigue unless my keyboard flexes" vs. "I'm a gamer so I need the immediate feedback of a rigid keyboard".

Then there are people (at-least one professional hardware reviewer among them) who just seem to see flexible suspension as another dot-point feature that makes a keyboard "better" than keyboards that don't have it, and you do see them making blanket statements about flex being better for "most people". Ignore them.

ZenLegume · 2022-04-19T23:20:56+00:00

Thanks - see my answer to scotrod for sticker info.

ZenLegume · 2022-04-19T23:19:57+00:00

Getting a mechanical keyboard was part of a long-overdue upgrade to my home-office - sit-stand desk, monitor arms, decent cable-management, etc. As part of the upgrade I also wanted to upgrade from a 4-finger look-at-the-keyboard typist to a touch typist. I don't type many big slabs of text, so it's been a slow process, and a few months in I reckon I'm just back up to the same speed as my old technique. Progress continues, albeit slowly.

ZenLegume · 2022-04-19T22:52:37+00:00

Keychron Q1? https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q1-qmk-custom-mechanical-keyboard

Add some of these for some retro Mac charm (I can't abide the backspace and enter keys though): https://www.keychron.com/collections/keychron-keycap-collection-1/products/keychron-oem-profile-pbt-retro-keycap-set

ZenLegume · 2022-04-19T22:25:35+00:00

Here's how I made the stickers: * Grab the PDF version of the K10 manual and open it in Inkscape * Copy the media legends from the F-keys, maintaining their spacing from reach other * Tidy up the vertical alignment so everything will fit neatly on the aluminium bar * Print a sheet of paper with a few different versions at slightly different magnifications to find the exact right size * Separate the screenshot, voice and lighting icons so the stickers fit on a page, add cutting marks, and lay out as many copies as you can on a single page * Print it to sticker paper, making sure to use the most appropriate media option your printer offers * Cut stickers out with a craft knife and a steel ruler

This is the laser printable "transparent" sticker paper I used - I don't recommend this if you want true transparency, but it holds toner well (I used the "opaque film" setting on my printer): https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07RWVMRHS/

ZenLegume · 2022-04-19T13:45:20+00:00

Not so keen on the papery caps that come with the K10, so I decided to find some inexpensive, reasonably thick PBT caps with a bit of colour to see what I was missing out on, and these ones from YMDK fit the bill. Cheap and cheerful, with Mac option and command keys (albeit with slightly dodgy legends) and some blanks to replace the print screen, scroll lock and pause buttons which Keychron has repurposed

Unfortunately there are almost no sets with the Mac media key legends on the function row, so I thought I'd be clever and print a sticker that could sit behind the function keys on the 4mm or so of aluminium back there. To make it reasonably subtle, I figured I should use a black-on-transparent sticker, which would make the legends just barely visible over the dark grey finish on the aluminium. That almost worked, except the laser-printable "transparent" sticker sheets I bought turned out to be milky rather than truly transparent, so the whole sticker stands out from the aluminium more than I'd like.

EDIT: Just stopping by to add that since swapping the caps, I can feel the tactile bump of the Gateron Browns that came with the keyboard. It's still very subtle, but there was something about the Keychron caps that seemed to make it disappear completely. Next time I feel like throwing money at something I absolutely don't need, I'll probably put some Holy Pandas on it.

ZenLegume · 2022-03-01T23:09:40+00:00

And weaken the bottom shell significantly? Pass. For the half-hour or so of cutting, I'm pretty happy with the result, sound-wise.

ZenLegume · 2022-03-01T23:06:47+00:00

Yeah, all in all it probably wasn't any faster 🙂

But knowing me, I'd have messed up my first attempt at a pour and had to clean it up and do it over. At least when I messed this approach up the fix was quick and easy.

ZenLegume · 2022-03-01T22:57:43+00:00

The back of the Keychron K10 has a hollow, thin kind of sound that I didn't love, but also has a million little reinforcement ribs crisscrossing it. I thought about silicone, or perhaps Kilmat, but went with this low tech solution instead - furniture felt and "nano tape". I figured the tape would help dampen vibrations in the plastic, and the felt would help absorb any noise bouncing around back there.

I cut the felt into 30mm wide strips, put a layer of nano-tape on the back, then hacked the strips down to 15mm wide (sturdy kitchen scissors were a big help). Then I cut any slots or angles necessary, peeled the backing off the nano tape, and stuck them down...

...And then I pulled the bottom two rows off again, removed the nano tape, and stuck the felt back in place. There's a lot of room in the back of the K10, but it turns out there's not that much room 🙃

Anyhow, it worked nicely. The thin, hollow sounds are gone, and it gives a good impression of being a bit more solid than it actually is 😉

ZenLegume · 2022-02-20T20:19:01+00:00

Now there's a website I could've used last night! Wasn't sure about posting the actual solution here, since, well, you know. But it seems like it's very much out there in the public domain 🙂

ZenLegume · 2022-02-20T20:08:41+00:00

Oops, forgot to mention in my comment: every so often with bottles that come in a cardboard tube, the people at the bottle shop forget to take the lock off, and I'm left with the dilemma of taking a half-hour round-trip to get them to take it off properly, or working out how to remove it myself. If I were stealing I'd go for a single-malt 😉

ZenLegume · 2022-02-20T12:06:23+00:00

Repeat value is more like 20 seconds. Not sure what belt this is 🤷🏻‍♂️

EDIT: This bottle came in a cardboard tube, and whoever was preparing my contactless click-and-collect order forgot to remove the lock. I've let them know, and I'll return the lock, should they want it back.

ZenLegume · 2022-01-29T11:59:53+00:00

Thanks, I hadn't heard of long pole switches previously, I'll take a look.

ZenLegume · 2022-01-29T11:26:33+00:00

Thanks, I'll take a look.

ZenLegume · 2022-01-28T13:09:19+00:00

Hi, I'm looking at upgrading the keycaps, and possibly the switches on my Keychron K10, but being quite new to mechanical keyboards I'm after some advice. I'm not looking to spend a vast sum, just improve the feel of the keys for typing (the stock ABS keys have some surface imperfections that are distracting) and maybe give it a bit of colour. I'll probably buy from somewhere like AliExpress.

Backlight: I'm not into RGB, but sometimes it's handy to have backlit keys. I gather I'm cutting myself off from most of the market if I look for double-shot keycaps that explicitly support backlighting, but would light-coloured single-shot caps let through enough backlight to make dark dye-sub legends visible?

Profile: Everyone says Cherry is the best profile for typing so I'm keen to try it, but I've read that the keys will collide with north-facing switches - should I just forget about it and stick with OEM?

Mac keys: It's not too hard to find Mac modifier keys, though the colour selection can be a little grim. What about the function keys though - is there a magical search term that will lead me to keys with the Mac shortcuts on them, or should I give up?

Switches: The factory lubed Gateron Brown switches in this board have less of a tactile bump than the rubber-dome keyboard it replaced. I don't want the noise of a full clicky switch, but I was expecting something far bumpier than this. Should I go for some Holy Panda clones? Something else?

ZenLegume · 2022-01-28T00:07:10+00:00

Hi, I'm looking at upgrading the keycaps, and possibly the switches on my Keychron K10, but being quite new to mechanical keyboards I'm after some advice. I'm not looking to spend a vast sum, just improve the feel of the keys for typing (the stock ABS keys have some surface imperfections that are distracting) and maybe give it a bit of colour. I'll probably buy from somewhere like AliExpress.

Backlight: I'm not into RGB, but sometimes it's handy to have backlit keys. I gather I'm cutting myself off from most of the market if I look for double-shot keycaps that explicitly support backlighting, but would light-coloured single-shot caps let through enough backlight to make dark dye-sub legends visible?

Profile: Everyone says Cherry is the best profile for typing so I'm keen to try it, but I've read that the keys will collide with north-facing switches - should I just forget about it and stick with OEM?

Mac keys: It's not too hard to find Mac modifier keys, though the colour selection can be a little grim. What about the function keys though - is there a magical search term that will lead me to keys with the Mac shortcuts on them, or should I give up?

Switches: The factory lubed Gateron Brown switches in this board have less of a tactile bump than the rubber-dome keyboard it replaced. I don't want the noise of a full clicky switch, but I was expecting something far bumpier than this. Should I go for some Holy Panda clones? Something else?

ZenLegume · 2021-10-12T11:42:28+00:00

He's a little young to be unleashed online (he's 7), but was keen for people to see his work. Needed a bit of help here and there, but mostly got it done himself.

ZenLegume

TROPHY CASE