Building A Budget $98 Custom Keyboard!

what's up guys i'm random frank p and today we're gonna be building a budget custom keyboard that cost me just 98 to build yes no more 600 plus builds 98 bucks under dollars if you're on a budget so today we're gonna go through it all talk about the case the components all that stuff in case you're trying to build a budget keyboard as well so the star of the show is the tm-680 or also known as the tom 680 for being a nice and compact 68 key layout that includes a hotspot pcb with dedicated arrow keys a volume knob it's usbc you got full rgb lighting with underglow on the backside and on the sides plus the fact that it's programmable you can create macros and the case frame pcb come complete with stabilizers built all in for just 48 when i got it from aliexpress prices have fluctuated it was actually originally just 44. but we'll talk about the price roundup later on just the fact is this is a crazy good value and a great starting point for getting into custom keyboards i actually discovered this on reddit last month in july someone posted this build in the subreddit and i thought well hot damn i wanna do the exact same thing for a video so i picked up the components for a budget build but this board has gained a ton of steam lately there's been tons of people buying this case you can probably see why so included inside the box is a usbc cable nothing too fancy just a braided white one to match the build you can also buy the board in black pink and a transparent housing by the way but when it's powered on you'll see the rgb lighting shining nice and bright there is software to control it but we'll talk about the lighting later on now one of the sacrifices this board makes to stay on the budget side of things is definitely what the materials used the case is plastic the frame is a standard aluminum but the pcb is north facing which could cause compatibility issues with some keycaps that's out there but again for beginners this should be okay the hotspot pcb is thankfully five pin though so you won't have any problems when it comes to picking out your switches definitely happy to see that speaking of which i'm also happy to see that a budget keyboard also features a volume knob easily adjust volume up and down on the fly press it in to mute it there's a glowing ring around it as well and like i said before on each side is a little bit of under glow plus a zone on the back side for just some extra flair on your desktop taking the tm680 apart is as simple as removing the eight screws on the plate this isn't necessary at all by the way for building your keyboard literally you can just buy switches and keycaps and be on your way but inspecting the inside is gonna be for those who want to mod it a little bit and make it sound better since it's just a plastic case does pop apart with a little bit of force it'll then separate into two parts the bottom housing and the top housing with the plate and pcb we'll see the bottom is empty it's pretty much just the plastic casing with nothing going on at all the top frame is holding the plate and the pcb together with just three screws if you want to remove them underneath you can see the hot swap switch plugs obviously pre-soldered for you got a strip of leds up top for the underglow so it's gonna shine underneath and get diffused out the bottom of the case now one thing i did was add a little bit of polyfill inside the bottom of the plastic housing uh it's just to help you know absorb some of that plastic you stay on the case has because it's pretty hollow overall just so you know dampen it a little bit and polyfill is very cheap and expensive odds are if you have a dog you know their dog toys are filled with polyfill so if you're like me it's everywhere but you can also just use like a thin layer of foam it's actually what i wanted to do but i'm fresh all out so i got to pick some more up anything just really put on the bottom under the pcb to just absorb sound is going to be great with that plastic case next thing i want to do is we're going to take it apart and i want to start to clip and do the band-aid mod and lube our stabilizers you'll see inside there's actually a pre-cut layer of foam underneath the frame already that gets sandwiched between the pcb again a nice addition for the price of this but our stabilizers are plate mount here and they're definitely gonna need some love so i clipped the feet to prevent them from being louder added some lube to each wire and the housing inside and then did a band-aid mod underneath the stabilizers plus an additional pad on the pcb to where the stabilizers line up and sit again all just extra things to help improve and dampen the sound and it's called a band-aid mod because people just cut up and use band-aid strips to act as a layer of like a dampening pad underneath the pcb so you can use that um i always just use medical tape that's what i've always used so you can use really whatever you want just basic house held items you probably have that you could repurpose for your boards you don't have to go out and buy band-aids like i said i'm sure you have them next up let's talk switches to keep the budget friendliness build in mind i went with gadaron milky yellow switches and the pack of 70 from novel keys was just 16 these are fantastic for the price especially if you lube them and they're often referred to as butter on a budget in the community because you really just can't beat a smooth linear feel for under 20 dollars i did already lubed these a while back but again like modding our stabilizers and adding some polyfill it is optional but you will definitely benefit from lubing your switches because it'll just make them way better unless they're clicky switches then no and by the way these are called milky because they have that slightly opaque top shell to them other gathered on milk yellow switches out there may have a black bottom shell but the milky top is the main difference out there and that's why they're called milky if you were curious there are obviously hundreds of other twitch types out there that you can use in your build but as i said it's really hard to beat a pack of 70 for just 16 and i prefer linear switches so i'll be content with the smooth linear response and quiet profile once they're all popping to the pcb next step is adding keycaps and oftentimes keycaps are the most expensive part of a build they're stupid expensive and most gmk sets can cost anywhere from like one to two hundred dollars but today keeping the budget in mind i'm doing what 75 of the keyboard community does and it's what i said i'd never do use a 36 set knockoff con momo and these knockoff sets are known as a clone set meaning they're copied from the original creator and then sold for considerably less but it also means they're more readily available and more justifiable to someone who wants to get in the custom keyboards who doesn't want to wait 18 months for their 109 set of keycaps to arrive on their porch maybe if there's no delays i personally don't endorse clones by any means but i understand where the consumers are coming from and why it's gotten to the point where clone sets are a viable option this set here is what the original reddit post i talked about used and i love how they look with the navy and pinkish sub legends the set has 148 keycaps included different colored spacebar modifiers arrow keys so you can build it to your liking so i went with the navy set i think it looks really great and stands out nicely with the all-white build so here we are just like that 98 dollars for a really nice and compact uh feature pack build as well so now we'll do a sound test you could hear how this keyboard sounds with the lubed milky gadiron yellow switches inside our tm-680 really not too bad overall again considering the price um i've heard a lot worse yeah i've heard better but that's also talking keyboards that are five times the price of this so under 100 bucks lubed milky yellow switches always a treat definitely worth it by the way um stabilizers they were kind of inconsistent i felt uh but again they are plate mount so the stock stabilizers here aren't that good but like i said i've heard a lot worse pretty content overall for the price now i mentioned before it has rgb and it does unfortunately have proprietary software so it's not via or qmk compatible they have their own homu software or something inside here is we can go in and create different profiles you can create macros reprogram keys all that stuff so if you are into doing that and you can you know reassign the keys to be certain macros if you want pretty much what i would do is just you know create a layer of rgb create your macros and then delete it and it'll be saved to the board so you can use the board and whatever lighting effects you've saved or anything but not have to actually have the software going which is good they do have a pretty good amount of rgb lighting to pick from i'll just run through a few real quick and for each of the effects if it's not like a static color you can pick from it being like a random rainbow effect where the colors that it uses are just you know randomized or if you want the effect to be a single color you can pick that as well unfortunately i didn't see anywhere inside the software where you could change the color of the red underglow side glow and the volume knob ring so i didn't see it i don't know if you can at all so it's just been stock red for me but you know really not a big deal i did try to change all the lights white in here so it would just be a lot more simple uh but again with the cheaper quality of the pcb uh it wasn't a pure white by any means it was more like purple than anything so i just have it blue nice and static nice and simple that'll just quickly lead us into the cons because you know i wasn't too happy with purple for white lighting but again like i said it's what you kind of understand you're getting at this price so the pcb and the leds overall aren't the best um it's not like an issue with the leds if you have it on rgb or a different color you'll be fine but the fact that they're north facing is kind of a bummer i did mention that you know most of you out there are going to be fine one of any problems with that it's just a certain compatibility issue with different you know key cap profiles but odds are you'll be okay uh you would like it to be south facing but at least it is five pin you know other than that i mean yeah the stock stabilizers definitely aren't good so i would recommend looping them like i did the stock plastic case also doesn't sound the best which is why i recommended um like foam or polyfill or anything but hell 98 when i bought it so let's talk about that real quick for the price roundup originally it was 44. uh when i bought it it was 48 but then there was a two dollar like new member discount code so i got this for 46 bucks recently i saw on aliexpress that the price jumped a bit to 58 or 55 dollars right around there but they also added different options you can now also get this uh bluetooth or wireless and they add a different color like that like a clear transparent housing or like a clearish blue transparent housing as well so they are updating this which is cool to see but the price now due to people making videos and getting a lot more you know hype in the community prices is unfortunately going up uh 16 bucks like i said for the gadaran milky yellow switches really hard to complain 36 dollars for the con momo knockoff set also pretty good price if you want to do some extra cosmetic things like adding a coil cable you know sure and a glorious has their cables for 50. uh i used a white was a semi cable for like 25 bucks again it's not necessary but it's just an extra visual modification if you want to do that sort of take it visually to the next level and in terms of like lube and stuff like that um you can get cry talks anywhere from like eight to twelve dollars so if you do want to actually you know lube your milk yellow switches like i would recommend um then you would spending an extra like 10 bucks for the lube but all that cosmetic stuff and extra things aren't necessary you can pick up any keycap set and really any switch as well and add it to this without the mods the mod is only going to make it sound and feel better so guys the tm 680 the tom 680 feature packed for just around 100 bucks mine 98 today probably closer to like 115ish with the price fluctuations which is really really hard to complain and uh happy with it overall if you want to check it out i have all the hardware and stuff listed for you in the description down below and hope you like this video if you did give it a big thumbs up show your support feel free to follow me on twitter at last if you haven't already hit that subscribe button hope you all enjoyed have a good day

Channel: randomfrankp

Views: 629,668

Keywords: randomfrankp, 4k, 2021

Id: AxgBkovFgVM

Length: 12min 31sec (751 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 28 2021