Gallery Monsgeek M1 Keyboard "build"

[sswilson]

Wow, you got a solid price on everything. I'd have expected another 100 on top of that price overall.

I got a $10 USD coupon for the keyboard after leaving it in my cart for a few days, a $16 coupon from their anniversary sale on one order, and $8 on another, plus ordering the switches in X3 packages shaved 10% off of that order which saved another $6.

The whole order was an exercise in aliexpress coupon wrangling.

That's a lot more than I would pay for a keyboard, but considering what appears to be excellent build quality and expensive to produce parts, it seems like a great value compared to the big name brands. Keep us posted!

It is a bit pricey when compared to off the shelf consumer keyboards, but quite a bit less expensive than other similarly spec'd custom keyboards. Looking back, it's only a slight step up from my first RK84 (wired) which came in @ $210 + taxes.

No doubt about it though, it's an expensive hobby.

 

[Lysrin]

Very cool. Man. Not only do you have to learn about all the in-and-outs of the hobby, but you also have to learn how to correctly buy the stuff!

I think if I ever decide to go that custom route I should hire you as a consultant

 

[sswilson]

Well crap.......



I was looking at 65% aluminum barebones and happened to check into current pricing on the M1. Couldn't resist and ordered another one (I've got more than enough switches and keycaps for it...... ).

That's a crazy decent price considering it's supposed to be an amazing deal @ the $99 USD MSRP.

Wonder if I'll get dinged again at the border.

 

[Bond007]

Haha. Are you going to become a reseller of fully assembled variants? Allow people to custom order switches/caps...

 

[sswilson]

Keycaps arrived safe and sound. Ghost Judges Nautilus Colorway.

Decent weight to them with crisp legends. Doubleshot PBT that feel "soft/slightly rubbery" to the touch? They certainly don't feel like a cheap smooth piece of hard plastic.

Nice full universal set that should cover just about any possible keyboard configuration.





The bottom shot is an alternate color scheme, but for now I'm sticking with the conservative basic scheme (top image).

Not sure what I was expecting from these. They're decent keycaps, but don't feel a lot heavier than previous (cheaper) sets I've bought.

edit: And I'm going to switch this over to Gallery (as oppose to WIP) since there'd be no purpose to posting a fresh picture when I install the new switches. I'll probably post a pic of the second one when it's complete though.

 

[Lysrin]

That's a beautiful thing.

 

[sswilson]

I've got a couple of days worth of typing in on this board with the GJ keycaps sitting on Oil King switches and am happy with the sound and feel of typing on it. Best way I can describe the sound is that it's slightly sharper than my other boards, but not as loud. It's closer to the sound of a mechanical typewriter key hitting the platen than the other boards I've built.

I'm going to hold off on trying the Duhuk switches until the new body arrives and then I can do a side by side comparison between them and the oil kings on what will be mostly the same platform (the YMDK keycaps are similar composition to the Ghost Judges), as well as play around with the different plate material I've ordered.

I've ordered some audiophile dome bumper feet with the thoughts that I'd use them on this keyboard to raise the back, but I may just leave it as is and teach myself to enjoy a "flat" keyboard since that's supposed to be better for a person's wrist.

edit: Also worth mentioning that individual key sound profiles are a lot more consistent regardless of what row the keys are in. On my previous builds there was/is a significant difference in tone depending on what area of the keyboard it's in. I'm assuming that's a function of the weight/stability of the base.

There's also zero flex in this plate.

 

[sswilson]

Updated the stabs on this and replaced them with Durock V2 PCB mount screw in stabs. Worked well enough, but I'm not sure I'd recommend them to anybody else for the M1. The original AKKO stabs are apparently thinner than normal thus relatively normal sized stabs don't fit well into the plate unless you file down the stab openings.

Still waiting on the second base to see what I think of it with the Duhuk switches (and if the FR4 plate is worth trying).

 

[sswilson]

Second Monsgeek arrived this afternoon along with the FR4 plate I'd ordered with the first keyboard.

First kick was throwing the Duhuk Lumia Matcha V4 switches onto the stock Polycarbonate which resulted (as expected from my previous experience with the switches) in a much more muted bottom out than the oil kings on the first keyboard. Still very nice to type on, but without the sharp bottom out that (apparently) a lot of folks are looking for.





Next up was the FR4 Plate. I was surprised at how "hard" it was, I had to do an awful lot of tapping to convince myself that it wasn't a metal plate shipped by accident. The FR4 plate doesn't have mounts (like the stock PC plate did) so it's held in by the switches instead of with screws through the PCB.







I had initially wanted to transfer the YDMK keycaps I was using on my GMK87 (bright orange accent keys), but apparently when I bought the set I only bought a standard layout set. It works fine on a TKL as the keys are the same as a full layout, but the set doesn't include the normal width row 1 keycaps (R/H of the spacebar) which are required for the compressed layout keyboards (65, 75, or 80%) so I went back to the first set I'd thrown on my RK84. (I've got a pastel coloured set to throw on the RK84 for my daughter).

I will say the keycap storage case is a godsend for transferring keycaps between keyboards.

The FR4 plate sound profile is a bit sharper than the stock PC one, but it's still very muted when compared to the oil kings on the other keyboard. I'll play with it for a week or so and decide if I want to populate the second board with Oil Kings as well.

Ran into an issue with the volume knob rubbing when I re-assembled the board with the FR4 plate, but was able to make the issue go away by loosening the case screws to slightly re-align the PCB.

Over all.... still really happy with these two keyboards, regardless of whether I stick with the Duhuks or ultimate opt for throwing Oil Kings on it.

No plastic cases left on my main keyboards.... only thing left now is the 65% I use with my laptop.....

 

[sswilson]

Final configuration for the second M1.

I had initially wanted to throw on a set of GMKs I got on sale, but was unhappy with the sound profile I was getting out of them so I took a fit and took the whole thing apart again in order to revert back to the stock PC plate which results in a deeper / less sharp sound regardless of the keycap style/composition.

At that point, I decided that the Marrs Green on my 65% would be a better fit for this keyboard location as it's got really high contrast legends which are much easier to read in the dark corner where this keyboard resides.