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I spend a nifty deal of fourth dimension pecking abroad at a keyboard — it'southward an occupational hazard. I've gotten quite into the custom mechanical keyboard scene as a result. A few months ago, I talked most building a WhiteFox keyboard in an attempt to reach my perfect typing experience. That board continues to be great, only it's geared and then aggressively toward typing that I felt I needed something split for gaming. Thus, I embarked on a quest for the perfect gaming keyboard. I think I've gotten in that location.

Why would I do this?

I could, of form, become to Amazon right now and buy a gaming-oriented mechanical keyboard. Many of them cost upward of $150, which doesn't seem similar the best bargain when you await at what yous get. I don't want to lump all gaming mechs together, but past and large, they're not attractive devices. There's and then much shiny plastic, lighted accents, and abrupt edges that I experience similar I'm looking at a neon stealth fighter. The aforementioned goes for the cheap ABS keycaps — they're not attractive.

More chiefly, mainstream gaming boards don't accept the features I want. They near ever rely on desktop programs to control their features, rather than the firmware on the keyboard itself. The layouts are also simply marginally customizable — the best you tin 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 only not downward with large keyboards. With full programmability, yous can get away with a much smaller footprint. For example, the WhiteFox is a 65% board and it does everything a full size one tin can do. Fifty-fifty the few tenkeyless gaming boards out there are also big for my tastes.

I've get rather picky well-nigh switches recently too. These are the mechanical components under the keycaps that register presses. The way these are designed and congenital affects the feel of the board. Some gaming boards employ Crimson switches, simply an increasing number are using lower-cost "custom" versions of Cherry switches. Mostly, I haven't been impressed with them.

The but option I could see that would make me happy was to build a board, and so I kept an eye out for whatever custom kits that caught my attending. When Massdrop ran a group buy for a variant of the Scarlet Scarf Two+ ver.b, I knew that was the one. It has a 65% footprint plus a cake of ten keys on the left. These are mapped to F1-F10 past default. This gives me the perfect place to access game commands without fiddling around in function layers in the middle of a game. I similar having these on the left because they're easy to reach without pushing my mouse further out. It as well has a high-quality aluminum case with an acrylic bottom for built-in underglow lighting. It even has a remote control for the lights.

Planning and parts

The Red Scarf is a more difficult build than the WhiteFox in a few ways. The kit didn't come with keycaps that struck my fancy, so I ended up ordering those separately. Because custom boards like the Red Scarf II+ have unusual layouts, some keycap sets won't fit. Those that do sometimes wait strange because having keys in different places makes the sculpting of the keys inconsistent. I got around this by going with a keyset in the DSA profile. Each key is the same shape, so it's like shooting fish in a barrel to encompass a custom board. I also like the lower profile for gaming. I ended upward ordering the "gaming" themed Overcast DSA set up from Massdrop. They're double-shot ABS, and so the legends won't fade over fourth dimension.

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The un-assembled parts. Annotation 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, just they're fatiguing to hold downwardly for long periods. I needed something lighter, but what?

Switches by and large fit into iii categories: clicky, tactile, and linear. The original Carmine patents on mechanical switches expired a few years back, so in that location'southward a lot of innovation in the switch market. I knew I needed something light, but I besides like having tactile switches on a lath and then I could still enjoy typing on it.

Cherry MX Browns are a fit based on their specs. I've used them in the past, merely contempo batches of these switches feel more scratchy than they used to. Gateron is one of the companies that has fabricated excellent Ruby clones, and its switches have a reputation for being very smooth. Then, I decided to base this build on Gateron Brown switches. They're fairly calorie-free with a moderate tactile bump when you lot press them.

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A Gateron Brown switch

Since the Red Scarf is a kit, assembly involves soldering. The small surface-mountain components like 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. Yet, the Red Scarf has a universal switch plate, making the assembly process trickier.

Putting it all together

The first footstep in assembling the board is to plug the switches into the plate and line them upward. Considering this is a universal plate, several areas don't have dividers, You need to infinite the keys out and so they hit the correct contacts on the PCB for your chosen layout. If y'all solder switches into the wrong spot, you could terminate up unable to fit keycaps on them or program the board correctly.

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Checking switch spacing.

The best way to avert this is to use keycaps to verify spacing, then gently ready the plate with switches downwards on the PCB. To continue information technology in place as I prepared to solder the first few switches, I used a highly specialized PCB stabilizing system (also known as a safe ring). To go along the switches from shifting around, I soldered five switches right away  — one in each corner and another in the heart.

Because this PCB has born LED underglow, I decided not to add in-switch LEDs at this fourth dimension. I could drop them in later, only I'g trying to avoid that gawdy gamer aesthetic. Also many lights would probably take it in the wrong direction. With the first few switches in place, I (advisedly) plugged the PCB in and set it on a static pocketbook to exam. The outset few switches and the LEDs worked, so I went through and soldered the others.

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Highly technical.

The Red Scarf uses Scarlet stabilizers, which mount directly to the PCB. These clips are used on larger keys like the space bar and shift to keep the keycaps directly. Cherry stabilizers are easier to deal with if y'all're swapping out keycaps compared with Costar stabilizers, like those used on the WhiteFox. Nonetheless, they jiggle a little more than, and are a pain to mount the first time.

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Solder points for the switches.

The last 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 await, though. They wait fantastic and have really fun novelty legends. I likewise acquired a braided USB cablevision that matches the keycaps to finish off the look.

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Programming the Cherry-red Scarf is a fleck more tedious than the WhiteFox. It runs the TMK firmware, so the easiest manner is to build a layout on Keyboard Layout Editor and add together legends to each of the keys. Y'all can create a role layer by putting legends on the "front" of the keycaps. You can have the keys do anything you want, but for the fourth dimension being I have the left 10-fundamental block as dedicated F buttons. It's important the layout y'all build matches the spacing of the lath exactly, which is tricky as the Ruby-red Scarf II+ ver.b supports so many unlike layouts. The layout tin can be flashed with an online TMK tool. It took a few tries to become everything recognized, but the flash was successful.

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