The easiest thing to test is fitment of the cap to the stabilizer stems: this is a common issue with taller keycaps and malformed keycap stem posts, but can also occur with stabs that have lube on the stems or poor mold tolerances. Try setting a small piece of plastic wrap on each stab stem, then set the cap back on and re-test. If you don't have plastic wrap, try a single ply piece of tissue, and if that's too thin, add another. I have an article on Drop.com's website detailing some other things that could be causing your issues. Search for "Identifying Stabilizer Tuning Issues."
Most of the sound is better from before, just the ticking and rattling in each stabilizer was terrible with that board. It's a tough spot to be in for some builds where the fix for one thing creates issues for another without changing certain parts out, which wasn't an option for this one. Also, is it just me, or are left shifts either really good or really not?
Hey, have you ever had a stabilizer rattle issue caused by the 205g0 sliding off the wire over time? Do you think it would make a difference with something more viscous like dielectric grease or xht-bdz?
205g0 can eventually migrate over time, yeah. BDZ or Permatex DE grease can help with that, but depending on the stabilizers, it can also make them sluggish even with small quantities applied, so be sure to check them prior to fully assembling the board.
Question for you. Avoiding overlubbing is ideal, but what do you do when you mess up, overlube and now have a sticky key? Clean everything and start from scratch or something else? Thanks 😊
For stabs there's a few things that might happen: too much lube in the stem, or lube migrated to the bottom of the housing and deposited on the PCB, creating a sticking sensation. You can just wipe down the outside of the parts with a cloth, and clear out the inside of the stabilizer stems with pipe cleaners. Be sure to also wipe off the PCB where the stabs sit over, and clean off the bottom of the stab stems really well. If the problem persists, try testing the stabilizer eith different switches or keycaps, even if the switches are from the same set and the cap doesn't have the same profile. Sometimes sluggishness can be caused by warped or defective caps, or switches that are just off somehow, like their top housing isn't seated all the way or the switch is over lubed.
This isnt working at all for my stock gk61 wire. Ive been trying os many different ways on how to fix the ticking but nothing works. When i try to balance it, the entire left/right side, not just the extensions, lift up. I try doing tiny amounts but nothing works. You think it could be the torque thing you talked about? I was thinking of getting durock plate mount stabs and I know they might come with wires a little unbalanced, but I really dont want to mess up the durocks. Please, what do i do?
If you've got the one leg lifting up, but the rest of the wire is straight, that can't really be fixed outside of Geon Works Wire Bending tool. You can grab replacement stab wires from Cannon Keys if you're state-side for a few bucks, cheaper than getting all new stabs and it's always a good idea to have a few spare wires lying around. If it's just a matter of straightening a bend in the middle of the wire, you may just need a bit more force to try and straighten it out. For plate mount stabs, I'd highly recommend Drop Phantom Stabs, probably some of the best plate mounts I've used in recent history. NK Plate Mounts are also pretty decent.
Sure, I suppose that would work... I'm just someone who'd prefer to invest in a better quality tool since I end up building several boards throughout the year, and some of them aren't mine, so a higher quality tool is something I'll spend a few bucks more on. I also come from an automotive background, had a roll cab full of Snap-On tools... the cost of these tools in keebs is small peas compared to what I used to spend on automotive lol.
Just got a set of the Wuque stabs for my incoming Odin V2 for the 1.2mm PCB. Overall, what were your impressions of the stabs? Did you see any issues with the insert that the stabs have on the inside of the stab housing? Any binding or risk of the insert of coming out?
Nope, no binding or sluggishness from the insert. That said, something was VERY off with the stabs on this Ikki68, even with several sets of known good keycaps tested. Your mileage may vary tho, I've seen these tuned with zero issues as well.
@@TheManicGeek Finally received my wuque stabs, I got the Aurora clear stabs and they didn't have the silicon bumpers in the stab housing. They did include the holee mod tape, did you find that helped with the wuque stabs?
@@jsunn6791 The stabs I had to work with did not have the holee mod components, which is why I ended up doing my own in the vid. It helped a bit, but I also didn't use very thick tape AND I have some odd caps on the board, so there's a lot of things working against me here. There's been a lot of different revisions of these parts released, which is yet another thing that makes it so difficult to get consistently good products with consistent tolerances. VERY frustrating.
@tatavoronina7889 that should show when you lay the wire flat on your table or whatever you're using for a known flat surface. Are you re-checking the wire after your re-balancing attempts? It should be checked every time until it's lying flat, no matter how you flip it.
Holee modding, foam stickets under the middle of the wire (included as stickers with some kits) and plugging the butt has so far solved all tickers for me, some had to be slightly overlubed and break in over time to feel good. It can be a pain for sure, staebies and C3 has been the best for me personally. C3 due to them coming with holee mod parts and foam stickets for under the wires.
Early C3 stabs did well for me, can't speak to current batches. Have yet to try Staebies, but so far I've been having great luck with Cherry nylon stabs and TX Stabs. More recently I've also had two good sets of KBDFans stabs.
After many years and many boards I've come to the conclusion that costar stabilizers are superior in every way No disassembly required Easy to get to I been using custom boards for years NOTHING beats a good costar stabilizer
I'm glad costars work well for your boards. Sadly most all of what I deal with uses Cherry-style stabs, so that tends to be the focus of my tuning efforts. I've yet to see a modern custom use costars as the option outside of maybe really obscure GB's, or possibly other markets outside the US, so it's likely you won't see much coverage of them here unless a pre-built board I get in happens to be using them, which is getting less and less common in the stuff we see in the states.
very thorough video 👍🏽 deserves more views
Thanks for watching, and for the kind words! Hope you got something useful out of it 🤙🏼🍻
Very nice and thorough guide
Thanks for the feedback, glad you liked it!
my stabilizer has metal noise during upstroke, what should i do
The easiest thing to test is fitment of the cap to the stabilizer stems: this is a common issue with taller keycaps and malformed keycap stem posts, but can also occur with stabs that have lube on the stems or poor mold tolerances. Try setting a small piece of plastic wrap on each stab stem, then set the cap back on and re-test. If you don't have plastic wrap, try a single ply piece of tissue, and if that's too thin, add another.
I have an article on Drop.com's website detailing some other things that could be causing your issues. Search for "Identifying Stabilizer Tuning Issues."
@@TheManicGeek appreciate the tips on this, thank you
15:27 Maybe it's just me, but I prefer the sound 'before' than after except for that left shift key.
Most of the sound is better from before, just the ticking and rattling in each stabilizer was terrible with that board. It's a tough spot to be in for some builds where the fix for one thing creates issues for another without changing certain parts out, which wasn't an option for this one.
Also, is it just me, or are left shifts either really good or really not?
Hey, have you ever had a stabilizer rattle issue caused by the 205g0 sliding off the wire over time? Do you think it would make a difference with something more viscous like dielectric grease or xht-bdz?
205g0 can eventually migrate over time, yeah. BDZ or Permatex DE grease can help with that, but depending on the stabilizers, it can also make them sluggish even with small quantities applied, so be sure to check them prior to fully assembling the board.
205g0 will not last more than a few weeks. 205g2, XHT-BDZ, Permatex are better options.
@VladK-1 absolutely not true at all, I have several boards that have gone on months with the same tune on 205g0.
Question for you. Avoiding overlubbing is ideal, but what do you do when you mess up, overlube and now have a sticky key? Clean everything and start from scratch or something else? Thanks 😊
For stabs there's a few things that might happen: too much lube in the stem, or lube migrated to the bottom of the housing and deposited on the PCB, creating a sticking sensation. You can just wipe down the outside of the parts with a cloth, and clear out the inside of the stabilizer stems with pipe cleaners.
Be sure to also wipe off the PCB where the stabs sit over, and clean off the bottom of the stab stems really well. If the problem persists, try testing the stabilizer eith different switches or keycaps, even if the switches are from the same set and the cap doesn't have the same profile. Sometimes sluggishness can be caused by warped or defective caps, or switches that are just off somehow, like their top housing isn't seated all the way or the switch is over lubed.
This isnt working at all for my stock gk61 wire. Ive been trying os many different ways on how to fix the ticking but nothing works. When i try to balance it, the entire left/right side, not just the extensions, lift up. I try doing tiny amounts but nothing works. You think it could be the torque thing you talked about? I was thinking of getting durock plate mount stabs and I know they might come with wires a little unbalanced, but I really dont want to mess up the durocks. Please, what do i do?
If you've got the one leg lifting up, but the rest of the wire is straight, that can't really be fixed outside of Geon Works Wire Bending tool. You can grab replacement stab wires from Cannon Keys if you're state-side for a few bucks, cheaper than getting all new stabs and it's always a good idea to have a few spare wires lying around.
If it's just a matter of straightening a bend in the middle of the wire, you may just need a bit more force to try and straighten it out. For plate mount stabs, I'd highly recommend Drop Phantom Stabs, probably some of the best plate mounts I've used in recent history. NK Plate Mounts are also pretty decent.
2 empty syringes work just fine for torsion correction on the space bar wires, no need for fancy tools
Sure, I suppose that would work... I'm just someone who'd prefer to invest in a better quality tool since I end up building several boards throughout the year, and some of them aren't mine, so a higher quality tool is something I'll spend a few bucks more on. I also come from an automotive background, had a roll cab full of Snap-On tools... the cost of these tools in keebs is small peas compared to what I used to spend on automotive lol.
Just got a set of the Wuque stabs for my incoming Odin V2 for the 1.2mm PCB. Overall, what were your impressions of the stabs? Did you see any issues with the insert that the stabs have on the inside of the stab housing? Any binding or risk of the insert of coming out?
Nope, no binding or sluggishness from the insert. That said, something was VERY off with the stabs on this Ikki68, even with several sets of known good keycaps tested. Your mileage may vary tho, I've seen these tuned with zero issues as well.
@@TheManicGeek Finally received my wuque stabs, I got the Aurora clear stabs and they didn't have the silicon bumpers in the stab housing. They did include the holee mod tape, did you find that helped with the wuque stabs?
@@jsunn6791 The stabs I had to work with did not have the holee mod components, which is why I ended up doing my own in the vid. It helped a bit, but I also didn't use very thick tape AND I have some odd caps on the board, so there's a lot of things working against me here. There's been a lot of different revisions of these parts released, which is yet another thing that makes it so difficult to get consistently good products with consistent tolerances. VERY frustrating.
Hello, do you need to balance the wire on both sides or on one?
In balancing for one side, you're balancing for the other as well. You can't really just balance "one side" of a wire.
@@TheManicGeek I manage to balance one side, but the other is unbalanced.
@tatavoronina7889 that should show when you lay the wire flat on your table or whatever you're using for a known flat surface. Are you re-checking the wire after your re-balancing attempts? It should be checked every time until it's lying flat, no matter how you flip it.
@@TheManicGeek I'm using my phone screen. After balancing, one side makes no sound. As soon as I turn the wire over to the other side it rattles.
Then you've over-corrected the wire, which just bent it the opposite way. It has to be flat. Otherwise, it's still just an imbalanced wire.
Holee modding, foam stickets under the middle of the wire (included as stickers with some kits) and plugging the butt has so far solved all tickers for me, some had to be slightly overlubed and break in over time to feel good.
It can be a pain for sure, staebies and C3 has been the best for me personally. C3 due to them coming with holee mod parts and foam stickets for under the wires.
Early C3 stabs did well for me, can't speak to current batches. Have yet to try Staebies, but so far I've been having great luck with Cherry nylon stabs and TX Stabs. More recently I've also had two good sets of KBDFans stabs.
Do you have to balance both sides of the stabilizer wire? As in flipping the wire face down and balancing it again to make sure both sides are even?
That's advisable, yeah. That way, you can see if you've over-compensated or not.
After many years and many boards I've come to the conclusion that costar stabilizers are superior in every way
No disassembly required
Easy to get to
I been using custom boards for years
NOTHING beats a good costar stabilizer
I'm glad costars work well for your boards. Sadly most all of what I deal with uses Cherry-style stabs, so that tends to be the focus of my tuning efforts. I've yet to see a modern custom use costars as the option outside of maybe really obscure GB's, or possibly other markets outside the US, so it's likely you won't see much coverage of them here unless a pre-built board I get in happens to be using them, which is getting less and less common in the stuff we see in the states.
Disrespectful comment
Witty and sarcastic engagement, complete with instantaneous ban hammer.
Angry but-you-forgot-about comment!
@@keithplayspc at this point I'd take any comments lmao