FKcaps provides custom choc keycap, that you can design how you want. However they don't have a wide range of colours yet.
this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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That's so, so cool! At the moment I'm looking for more of the pre-designed sets like I linked to, but I'm bookmarking this for future needs. 😊
There are not nearly as many options for choc keys, particularly if you are mainly interested in ascetics. You can can get dyed mbk caps, off the top of my head I know Clickety Split has them. I'm sure you can find similar for different regions as well.
There is also Asymplex for both a variety of solid color CS profile as well as the occasional batch of artisan keycaps made. Also solid color DES caps with choc stems.
ascetics
I think you mean "aesthetics", an ascetic is something quite different. 😛
There are not nearly as many options for choc keys, particularly if you are mainly interested in ascetics.
Yeah, that's the impression I've been getting. Thanks for the links!
My limited experience with chocolate switches is that the cap options are severely limited. Mostly you have basic solid colored caps and beyond that not much. The biggest non-basic non-OEM set I'm aware of are the MBK Legend caps.
I think this is in part because chocolate switches being low profile tend to be used on smaller travel sized boards where minimalism is often prized, although that's just a theory.
Edit: If you're willing to spend a little money and your board is hotswap, one interesting option would be to swap to the new Kailh Choc V2 switches (assuming you can find them in stock somewhere). They're chocolate form factor, but with a cherry style stem on them. Doing that and then finding a nice lower profile set of cherry caps could be one way of getting around chocolate caps being pretty drab.
Be careful, choc v1 board are almost never compatible with choc v2 switches.
Hmm is it the pin placement or switch spacing? They looked like they had the same pin placement, but I know choc V1 boards tend to use a tighter spacing than V2, but that's going to vary somewhat, and you might be able to work around that with the right keycaps (maybe certain DSA caps?). At any rate it's worth pointing out it might be a problem.
Edit: looked it up and apparently the center stabilizer is slightly larger on the V2 which often doesn't fit in a V1 board, but a V1 switch should be able to fit into a V2 board. There's also an extra stabilizer pin on V2 switches but that can be snipped off just like the ones on cherry switches. In theory depending on how closely traces are routed you might be able to enlarge the center post hole of a V1 board to fit a V2 switch but that's a very risky procedure with lots of opportunity to permanently break a board so I'm not sure I would recommend it to anyone who isn't either a) made of money, or b) an expert at electronics and modding boards.
Ah, darn. Thanks for checking into this!
Thanks so much!