Just finished this “build” for a friend in art school that needed a fairly compact keyboard that still had a nav cluster. She was already borrowing my Keycool 84, which was how she found out she liked the  75% form factor, but that board has Kalih Brown switches, which are kind of crap. She was having the same issues that many people with Kalih switches have, that being an inconsistent feel from switch to switch, and double activations (i.e. some keys would behave as if they were pressed multiple times on a single press).

So, not wanting her to deal with that garbage, I took one of my spare 75% boards, and redid it for her.

It’s a Drevo Gramr 84 purchased on sale from Amazon. It came stock with Outemu blue switches, and while it was ok, I really don’t like Outemu switches (and she expressed the need for non-clicky switches). So, all the LEDs and switches were removed (this was the main reason why I bought a desoldering iron), and in their place, I put in Gateron brown switches with 80g springs harvested from Gateron greens (i.e. the springs I took out when I was making all my fingercrushers). I only added back two LEDs, one for the Caps Lock, and one for the escape key (should she want to put an artisan on it).

On top of that, the Drevo Gramr has two cons to it that I took care of, that being it has an attached USB cable, and that it’s kind of light.

For the former, I did a detachable cable conversion using an Adafruit USB mini-b breakout board, and the correct JST connector (prepinned/wired, even) to attach to the PCB. For those that may not know, the Drevo Gramr 84 (as well as the MK84) use the same body shell as the Keycool 84 (it even says Keycool on the inside), so the shell was already designed for a detachable USB cable, as the hole the cable exits from stock is actually a slightly hogged-out mini-USB hole.

As for the weight: if you’re in California, you know what “Prop 65” is, which is a somewhat alarmist notice that has to be attached to many products sold in California that states basically “this product contains materials that can give you cancer”, which is basically every electronic device (because of the solder). So in keeping with that theme, the bottom shell of the board is filled with lead for weight. I purchased some lead wire fishing line and cut/shaped the pieces to fit the various crevices on the board.

The keyset is nothing crazy. Just a basic Tai Hao ABS doubleshot set, with the addition of Tai Hao PBT keys for the 1.75u right shift key and 1u bottom row keys. The PBT keys are intended to go with the Carbon OEM set from Originative, but as they can be purchased on their own, I picked up a few to fill in various 75% boards. That keyset may or may not be temporary, as she may want to put on the Tai Hao Miami PBT keyset I gave her previously,  or the enjoyPBT Whitefox-rep keyset that is on the Keycool. We’ll see.

On the delete key is a Gudetama novelty purchased from Keyclack, as the stock delete key is the wrong profile for it’s location on a 75% board.

The white shell is actually from the Keycool 84, as the stock shell was painted and lives on the Keycool, and works well with the board, as I’m not too fond of black-bodied keyboards.

All in all, this was an enjoyable little rebuild. I’ve never desoldered anything before, so it was fun to just jump in and learn things the hard way. Once I get my Keycool 84 back, the plan is to desolder that as well, and then install Holtites in the switch holes (and maybe the LED holes) so I can use it as a switch tester (because the Team Wolf Zhuque TKL I was using for that purpose is starting to get janky on me).