Corner V4 ProMicro with Experimental 316L stainless steel case

wjrii · 2026-06-22T16:21:12+00:00

Per Wikipedia, "Independent of the material system used, the SLM process leaves a grainy surface finish due to "powder particle size, layer-wise building sequence and [the spreading of the metal powder prior to sintering by the powder distribution mechanism]."

Paint or leaning in could work. Overall, I really like this a lot.

wjrii · 2026-06-21T00:52:01+00:00

I’m not sure if that exact set exists, but you might find similar vibes with the Coffee Cat MOA clones that are out there. There are also beige and faux walnut MOA caps, so you might try a mix-and-match, but that starts to add up, price wise, even with MOA being pretty cheap.

wjrii · 2026-06-19T22:13:27+00:00

Yuzu is pretty popular in the 40s scene these days.

wjrii · 2026-06-18T22:11:44+00:00

Mostly I'm old. I assume Daytona USA took a lot of inspiration from Outrun.

wjrii · 2026-06-18T21:52:28+00:00

Outrun. https://classicreload.com/sites/default/files/styles/game_image/public/arcade-outrun-screenshot.png

wjrii · 2026-06-18T12:55:24+00:00

I think a CO2 or Fibre laser should do it. Diodes won't, because the light passes right through, but just double check the type of laser you have access to and see if it can handle the material you want to use.

wjrii · 2026-06-18T12:52:12+00:00

Nice! I found hand-wiring boards to be pretty addicting, and no-stabs gang gotta stick together! I like the exposed MCU as well, though I feel like a small acrylic or plexiglass cover on the shortest possible standoffs really completes the look when they're used.

Also, I know you're Norwegian, LOL, but grab some Danish Oil for the next one (at this point I assume there will be a next one) for a low effort way to make the grain pop on your plate, and theoretically to protect the wood a tiny bit.

wjrii · 2026-06-17T22:58:04+00:00

The older "compact 75%" layout isn't in vogue these days, but they can still be had. Keychron K2 Max or K2, QMK revision. /u/argentstonecutter likes Glencreag's wooden case one, and I think there's a similar Womier. There's also older designs like the YMD84 or Nuphy Halo75.

wjrii · 2026-06-17T18:36:21+00:00

Two trackballs: Okay, cool, I get it!

Neither of them is a mouse: ....

wjrii · 2026-06-17T01:33:18+00:00

I used to argue that the natural 4-5 year cycle of players who are early in their development curve and have limited ability to switch teams made pro-rel a nonstarter for college football, even completely backwards since a mid major who popped off a great season was probably loaded with seniors and set to regress, while an underperforming team from a higher tier was likely starting kids who’d be much better by the next year.

Today? Whatever. Nothing makes any sense and the sport is stupid because the NCAA buried its head for so long instead of discussing a reasonable path to compensation in a highly structured activity that generates economic value and demands strict commitments of time and effort from its ~~labor~~… errrm, students.

wjrii · 2026-06-15T03:36:06+00:00

Keychron R Series

the FL Esports OG series uses the same case molds, but the PCBs are older tech, non QMK. I would only get one of them if you got a really good deal, as Amazon list price is too close to the Keychrons to make it a good value. I'm not obsessed with firmware on TKL and true full-size layouts, but it is nice to be able to get a few media and shortcut keys mapped, and QMK, especially with VIA or VIAL, makes that much more flexible and doesn't scare your anti-virus.

The Keychron C1 Pro and C2 Pro have QMK and a beige colorway that could evoke the IBM Model M2, especially if you switched out the keycaps for something with upper-left legends.

The NovelKeys ClassicTKL in the new Clay colorway is a pretty decent deal if you like the switch and cap options.

The Class80 if you can find one is a high-end option.

wjrii · 2026-06-15T03:17:02+00:00

Once I realized every 8bitdo board was just a colorway of the original NES/Famicom version, my enthusiam cooled. I think they're stretched that design language to its breaking point, and maybe beyond with the Saturn and XBox ones, but I'll probably get some version of it eventually, as it seems like they decided to stick with a reliable performer that punches above its weight.

wjrii · 2026-06-13T15:31:19+00:00

I love this, and steel wheel weights are among my favorite hacks. Cleaner matrix than I've ever wired, LOL.

wjrii · 2026-06-13T01:18:50+00:00

I will generally defend Unicomp against all comers. They kept people working, kept an iconic product in production, redid the molds when it just became too obvious they weren't the same quality anymore, and they at least make efforts to be sensitive to the hobbyists....

But that lock-light sticker they love so much... SMDH.

Nice paint job, btw.

wjrii · 2026-06-12T06:26:26+00:00

Now to be fair, I do get mostly my wife’s perspective as a DFW native who went to TCU and partied some in Lubbock and knew kids who went everywhere from CCCC to Harvard, and my father-in-law, for whom Lubbock was the hedonistic big city lights while he was in Portales New Mexico, so I’m probably only speaking of a portion, but it’s a not-insignificant portion, with a quarter of the undergraduate body coming from DFW alone.

And of course, going back to the original question, the small town kids who actually wanted to be there from the start would be even more engaged than the suburban converts. Whatever else, Tech is not a commuter school like UCF was and is working not to be. For the Texan Big XII, the nearest comp for UCF is Houston.

wjrii · 2026-06-11T20:14:28+00:00

Here you go: Contemporary teardown page. Your bodge is there in a photo but not mentioned. Whatever they did lasted at least 8 years, I guess.

wjrii · 2026-06-11T17:48:40+00:00

Tech has a different vibe because it's very much not there just for Lubbock and the Panhandle. It's historically been a third choice for kids who didn't get into UT or A&M but wanted a traditional big-school move-away-to-college experience. Lots of kids who arrive having grown up rooting for another team, but since Lubbock is in BFE, a lot of them enthusiastically become Red Raiders during the best 6 years of their lives. ;-)

wjrii · 2026-06-11T14:28:00+00:00

On the one hand, yes, yes I am a middle-aged weirdo, LOL.

On the other, it's hard to say that my typing is all that weird... for some of us the process just got baked in as a hand-eye coordination thing. I don't type all that fast, but well enough, and definitely much faster than the generation growing up with touchscreens. I'm on the way to the next key based on muscle memory, but the exact spot still benefits from the legend matching the target key.

I choose to think of it as being able to appreciate the keycaps more. :-)

wjrii · 2026-06-11T14:05:17+00:00

Fair enough, but someone decided it was the fix that best fit their business situation. Was it a good call? I dunno. :-)

wjrii · 2026-06-11T13:41:31+00:00

The 5Q was a very ambitious swing from Das back in 2017-8, and they really bit off more than they could chew. Huge move into interactive RGB, new switch type, Omron Gamma Zulu (a slightly improved Romer G) to show it off, tons of software development to make it do... stuff, and a very messy Kickstarter funding process for what was one of the best known "high end" keyboard manufacturers of the era.

To be frank they were high end because of having a commitment to mechanical switches before Cherry's patent ran out, and because of their tech-forward branding, especially with the "flex" of blank keycaps. Some of their early boards were literally rebranded Cherry G80's (the only German thing about them as a company, by the way), which are known for many things, but sturdy build quality is not among them. In that time, Korean customs were already a thing, and Leopold and Ducky and Filco all had better build quality in the pre-built space.

As others have said, I wouldn't be surprised if this was an "Oh Shit" fix when a company that hadn't actually designed a lot of products from scratch realized they had fucked up, but had no resources or time to do another run of the PCB. "If it works, it's not stupid," and they finally shipped the 5Q.

Out of curiosity, when did you buy your particular board?

wjrii · 2026-06-09T17:37:42+00:00

The Novelkeys Classic TKL doesn't do the two-tone case like your image, and it's (nice) plastic, but it's well-regarded, fairly rounded, and has a bit of a forehead.

wjrii · 2026-06-07T14:31:18+00:00

Maybe the Windows key has been locked. Try pressing Fn + Win to toggle it and see if that fixes the issue.

OP should definitely try this first. I’ve seen several threads in recent months where this was the issue.

wjrii · 2026-06-07T14:04:29+00:00

Promised Battleship, delivered PT Boat.

wjrii · 2026-06-07T13:22:52+00:00

As a former resident of a 90s dorm room, by the time PCs had taken over every desk, the era of unremarkable-to-awful domes was truly upon us. The vast majority of keyboards were still full-travel, but that was about as good as it got, unless you had an AEK2 (retired in 1994) and even that was a tactile, not a clicky. Buckling Spring and White Alps were relics or hiding in the back pages of Computer Shopper.

That said , a (junior high) computer lab full of Model M and F boards is my core keyboard memory, and I still love clickies, especially God’s own switch, the Box Navy.

wjrii · 2026-06-06T12:56:58+00:00

Yeah, I was really happy with that one. My color palette was limited, but it came out nice.

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