Rapid wear with shift key

[jthole]

The baby poop is the reason why I don’t mind the key being black now!

[ChrisB]

Somehow my yellow shift key caught the bad vibes regarding its seemingly ugly color and decided to get rid of its coating... so mine is rapidly progressing towards black, too...

[jthole]

Somehow my yellow shift key caught the bad vibes regarding its seemingly ugly color and decided to get rid of its coating... so mine is rapidly progressing towards black, too...

This is what mine looks like:

D4C1B147-7D14-4ED6-B01C-7C04ECCC67F0.jpeg (137.1 KiB) Viewed 294 times

[akaTB]

Somehow my yellow shift key caught the bad vibes regarding its seemingly ugly color and decided to get rid of its coating... so mine is rapidly progressing towards black, too...

This is what mine looks like:

D4C1B147-7D14-4ED6-B01C-7C04ECCC67F0.jpeg

That's our common fate, I fear.
I already ordered (bright) yellow paint...

[jthole]

That's our common fate, I fear.
I already ordered (bright) yellow paint...

I actually like it in black.

[akaTB]

That's our common fate, I fear.
I already ordered (bright) yellow paint...

I actually like it in black.

Coupled with the blue one they would match my favourite football team colors... but no: I prefer a gold one, after all the labels on the keys are yellow, no?

[pcscote]

That's our common fate, I fear.
I already ordered (bright) yellow paint...

I actually like it in black.

Coupled with the blue one they would match my favourite football team colors... but no: I prefer a gold one, after all the labels on the keys are yellow, no?

We could put the backplane in Yellow and the writing in black/blue to match the shift/alpha keys ! (just kidding)

[Geoff Quickfall]

Got some electrical tape, yellow.

Correct yellow. I think pin striping might be thinner but it looks good and is a solid colour so wont wear in that respect.







Geoff

[rprosperi]

As a small note of explanation, the DM42 had a solid yellow shift key that was integrated into the rest of the black key matrix using a certain technique, which worked quite well. After many DM42 users provided feedback that the DM42 keys required too much pressure to type quickly and/or register reliably, etc. Michael worked with the supplier to develop the improved softer touch keyboard you are feeling with the BETA 41X, which everyone agrees is an improvement (that is, everyone except someone that is sure to reply to this message) however this new design cannot accept keys molded separately to be integrated in the same manner as used on the DM42, leading to the decision to make the keyboard in one piece and paint the shift keys.

The yellow and blue shift keys were theoretically prepared using the same process, however it's quite clear that is not truly the case, as many users have noted the eroding of the yellow paint/print at varying wear rates, however not a single case of wear to the blue shift has been reported. I've no sample data or statistics or anything nice like that, but subjectively I'd say the [Shift] and [Alpha] keys are used about the same amount overall (shift is used for many non-alpha functions, whereas Alpha is used twice for nearly every use of Alpha characters) and the very different erosion is telling evidence that the preparation treatment seems to be different.

The ultimate solution for production has not been completely decided yet, but rest assured Michael and David are aware this must be addressed and will provide a solution to avoid these issues.

[jthole]

Got some electrical tape, yellow.

Correct yellow. I think pin striping might be thinner but it looks good and is a solid colour so wont wear in that respect.

That looks good indeed. I wonder how long it will stay attached?
If the blue key will wear at some point, I will go the sticker way as well. For the shift key, I am still on the fence.