Thoughts on modifying my RK68

I’ve now taken some forays into modifying retail keyboards and the first I’ve done is the RK G68 that I have. I did several modifications to it that I feel have helped it both feel and sound better than it did stock.

The first change was that I disassembled the board and covered the bottom of the housing in gaffer tape, and with the deepest sections, added some torn cloth under the tape to add even more volume to absorb sound reflection. This helped tremendously to reduce the hollowness and echo of any spring ping that might happen with switches. It also added some weight to the board, albeit rather minor. I did avoid the area surrounding the battery to mitigate fire risk and to prevent shorting the electronics. Ditto for the area surrounding the USB passthrough and out ports. In my experience because the board still has open volume under the PCB the sound is still even across all keys, probably because the battery itself is somewhat soft much like the gaffer tape. That was my largest concern when I modified the board was the fear that it would sound highly irregular but thankfully that isn’t an issue for me.

Now, as the G68 does feature exposed switches, there’s not much that can be done to that outside of changing the housing itself which is beyond the scope of what I intend to do with this keyboard. If I were to do something like that, I’d opt instead to build my own custom wireless keyboard kit rather than rely on modifying a retail kit, especially because I would not be stuck with the Royal Kludge software and instead could rely on VIA which offers far more configuration capability. Not to say the software is the worst I’ve used, but it’s not even in the top half of keyboard software either.

What I can change however is what switches I use. And while the Gateron Browns that are stock are a decent, low-tactility, budget option they’re not my cup of tea. I find myself shying away more and more from tactile, let alone clicky, switches. I’ve become proficient at typing without bottoming out and when it comes to that method of typing, I find the smoothness of linear switches utterly intoxicating. To that end, I’ve currently opted for TKC Tangerine switches, my dark green variant with 67g springs. They were my first pre-lubricated and very smooth switches, getting them not long after I got my NK Creams that I also still love despite their scratchier nature.

I now have numerous linear switches to choose from in my inventory. But as a standby I love my Tangerines. One fun bonus to them is that because they have no passthrough in the housing for LED backlighting they tint all backlighting a deep orangey-red and essentially mute the color of any blues or greens. I find that a bit cute and fun and see it as a bonus rather than a problem. As I use this keyboard with my laptop, an early 2019 Razer Blade 15” with its own keyboard RGB set to the fire visualization I find it compliments that rather well with both heavily favoring warm colors.

Finally, at least for now, I have my choice of keycaps for this keyboard. The stock keycaps, double-shot PBT, are nice for the price but still distinctly cheap and thin. They’re also OEM profile which is one of the profiles I don’t care as much for compared to others. Right now, I’m using a set of Cherry profile, PBT dye sublimated keycaps. They’re a very cheap set of black-on-white caps with Hiragana and ANSI English labels. But they’re also thicker, and smoother, than the stock caps from RK with no visible light bleed. That is frankly impressive given they are single-shot white caps.

These changes result in a delightfully smooth typing experience with a deeper, fuller sound. It also results in far less hollow echo or pinging over the stock board, caps, and switches. I also feel I should commend them for their stabilizers as they are well lubricated in stock form and very secure, allowing me to choose to do nothing to modify them while maintaining a great sound with very little stabilizer rattle. In the end, these minor changes allow the RK68 to punch above its weight class in feel, sound, and looks.

As for what I would further change, there are a great many options available to me ranging from changing up the lubrication, to painting the housing, to changing switches and caps again, to many other internal and external options. I think, however, my next choice is likely to be keycaps. As much as I do love these caps for their price, their legends are blurrier due to being dyed rather than double-shot. Also, by virtue of being Cherry profile, they’re also low-profile caps. Having used Drop’s Susuwatari MT3 profile caps for my primary keyboard for so long I’ve come to really love high profile caps with heavily spherical profile to them. I eventually want to get more MT3 sets but in the meantime, I think I might opt for my AKKO Carbon set in ASA profile that isn’t as tall or spherical but is closer than any other set I currently have. I’m also curious to hear how changing them to those double-shot PBT caps would change the sound profile of the board right now.

And, ultimately, that’s what the hobby is all about. It’s about mixing and matching, testing, and trying new combinations and new kinds of hardware. Sometimes you find something special and great, like this current setup. Other times you find disappointment, like the NK Vaporwave set that tragically suffers from keycaps prone to shattering their stems. Such as it is in hobbies though. You learn and explore. You’ll find things you like, things you hate, and sometimes things you love. There’s the risk of buying that one set that you appreciate but never use. Sometimes a favorite now becomes something you don’t enjoy as much in the future. I loved clicky switches for instance but now find them fatiguing and no longer enjoy them nearly as much. In the end, that’s what hobbies are while you maintain them. They’re fun, you learn and grow, and your interest peaks and wanes over time.