Upgrading my Ducky One 2 Mini into an Enthusiast Keyboard!

in the last video I picked up a cheap Mack from Kmart and asked you guys what I should do with it and a lot of people start to mod it but it's actually really tough to do something worthwhile because it's just too far gone but I had the ducky slash hyper x12 mini next to me and thought that would be worthwhile sprucing it up a super-popular keyboard a heap of people have it and this one being the HyperX version I thought they had some decently smith switches so yeah we're gonna try and make this as nice as possible but first let's have a quick listen to it in its top form so not bad just as you'd expect but a fair way out from like a high-end custom ech so let's do it what I want to do with this is make it better but try and keep as many of the parts as possible like obviously an easy way to change how it looks and feels is to just change the case and even changing the switches as well it won't be one too many anymore right so the worst bit witness is the soldering this board in particular with the high price switches have RGB LEDs but our through-hole rather than SMD so they have four pins in addition to to switch pins so that's six pins per switch times sixty one and that's three hundred and sixty-six joints to suck [Music] so these are the HyperX red switches and they're very similar to Cherry MX Reds in specs but with a slightly shorter trouble but so I can feel better and it will make a huge difference in how the whole board feels where you're going to loop them and spring swap them unfortunately the bottom switch housing doesn't allow for switch fields even though it looks like it so ya can't do that we're going to use krytox to our 5g og0 for our lube which is a solid all-rounder and for the springs I have 55 to 62 gram face which brings thanks Tommy and this actually already lubed looping is a super time-consuming process especially if you want to do it relatively well but since it's just for me I wasn't super careful and I'm using a pretty thick brush for this [Music] [Music] here's the steel mounting plate it does have a completely standard ansi layout but because it's using plate mount stabilizers I won't be swapping it and the stabilizers weren't too bad as well as they are slightly looped from the factory since it's a limited edition board I do want to keep that red HyperX theme and there's branding and stuff as well so I'm gonna keep the bottom piece as is and it was a little scary to pull it apart as it's just like plastic clips holding the two pieces together [Music] [Applause] [Music] for the tapas though we're going to use metallic paints so that it at least looks a little like metal I was going to go with the metallic red but then decided to go with a light silver which still keeps in theme [Music] so the bottom piece this is a classic train map design meaning that the PCB screw to the bottom of the case this can result in an uneven and also harder typing experience the bottom out is Harsha where these points are and especially with the steel plate it doesn't really give that satisfying jockey experience so one thing we can do is remove that Miller stand off whether it makes a difference I don't know but whatever and soldering time [Music] [Music] another thing we like to do to help with the bottom out feel acoustics and just to make the case feel more full is to add foam I couldn't be bothered to order something online and wait so I went to my local hardware store and this is what I've found I'm not recommending it or anything it's just what I saw and it was like six bucks so not bad it's four millimeters thick and seems to compress a little bit and I was worried because there's actually not a whole lot of room in the case and the standoffs are super short like 1.5 to 2.5 millimeters so not much for a middle [Music] [Music] [Music] first attempt no chance not even close to the fitting then I removed a little more and I actually got this this screw down into place after a lot of force but it was bulging and the bottom out was just way too solid which makes sense and I didn't like how it felt at all it needed some flex especially towards the middle and we did remove that middle stain off so we should give it that room and I ended up with this just a bit in that deep bit at the back and hand those two bits on the sides so yeah not much really [Music] [Music] and here it is all done pretty nice I'll put Jim Kay home on on top to keep with the HyperX theme and yeah that's the one major substitute I did make the keyboard there's not a whole lot you can do with modern key caps I didn't want to paint them and you can't dye them since they're already black so it gets her gmk treatment the silver finish ended up pretty nice and is sleek and smooth and it just breaks up the look of the board being sandwiched between the red top and red bottom it would look more like metal if the shape of the plastic was maybe a figure like on the side profile you can pass that off the middle but the shape and the red plastic beneath it gives it away but the finish itself can easily pass for a sparkly anodized finish one thing that I don't particularly like is that the bezels don't go that little bit higher like 1 millimeter higher and it would reduce that gap where we can see the key switches and that doesn't really align with the enthusiasts consensus video it is a plastic case in the end and doesn't emulate a nice metal case plastic doesn't mean it's bad though there's some amazing layered acrylic boards out there which look and feel amazing but being a plastic shell design it's a little different alright now it's an important bit how does it feel and sound [Music] it sounds a whole lot different first thing you'll probably hear is that it's a lot quieter and it is originally the cue presses were quite high-pitched with a sharp top and bottom out sound keep in mind that the key caps also contribute to this bit too and there was also a bit of metallic ping before but that wasn't super audible so a quick rundown we lived and spring swapped the switches remove the middle stand off and added a bit of foam to the bottom lubing makes a massive difference you can hear that there's less scratch and it depends the switch internally the heaviest Springs also dampen it a little bit so it's much quieter and instead of having that high-pitched sharp sound it's much more mellow and dense there's no longer any metallic ping and the sound is much more self-contained I did find the heartbreak spread switch to be decently smooth for a stop switch certainly much better than a cherry MX red which it's based off and with the lube it feels fantastic not the smoothest switch out there but pretty damn smooth and satisfying the 55 to 62 gram face springs are pretty weird though I kind of wish I use something a bit more normal so that it would be easier to compare but it's what I had on hand and thought I might as well it has a bottom out of 62 grams which is somewhat light actually but an initial weight of 55 grams which is quite heavy for reference charreteras spike switch which is regarded as a heavy switch has an initial weight of like 40 grams or something I think that's how it works I may be wrong but it is definitely a little fatiguing to type one for me personally and that initial weight makes it feel a little stiffer and definitely contributes to the sound as well also with the plastic case the bottom out just doesn't feel as tight as like a high-end custom would be like I'm not sure how to explain it my customs can have that bit of give and flex and that's what many are designed to do but it still feels solid as it's usually to do with the plate mounting with this it feels like I'm feeling the table when I type that sort of base he feels so it doesn't quite reach that custom level and you wouldn't expect it to but it sure is a whole lot different to how it felt stuck and besides the way to the springs it's a really enjoyable typing experience oh and the stabilised keys are much better no rattle and have a rockier sound and feel and that's my upgraded one to mini I hope you liked it it's a lot of work but if you disregard the key caps it's not actually that expensive with a normal one to mini so not the high-priced version it would be much easier to do solder because it has SMD LEDs and you don't need to do soul to those but toward your own risk you can potentially record PCB and warranty it definitely won't cover that the paint job it is totally doable though if you're game to take it apart and anyway I think it turned out great let me know what you think and I do have something else planned for that cheap came up would so stay tuned for that [Music]

Channel: TaeKeyboards

Views: 1,053,354

Rating: 4.927803 out of 5

Keywords: mechanical, keyboard, gaming, mech, asmr, typing, sound, test, desk, setup, guide, alternative, keyswitch, loud, keycaps, pc, computer, tech, review, overview, unbox, unboxing, ducky, ducky one 2 mini, one 2 mini, one two mini, hyperx, hyper x, hyperx one 2 mini, silver, spray paint, painted, mod, mod log, how to, tutorial, dissassembly, fix, red, hyperx keyswitches, keyswitches, switch, gaming mechanical keyboard, mechanical keyboard, rgb, backlit, backlighting, light up, cool, best, 60%, compact, portable, office, wfh, lube

Id: pxul6g_8FI0

Length: 16min 58sec (1018 seconds)

Published: Sat May 30 2020