deskthority

thanks Mu....always wondered about this as well? In this regard, do you know who is KBC?

That's always confused me! KBC Poker vs. KBT Pure, Race, etc. I think KBC==KBT but I don't know for sure. Perhaps they just changed their name after the original Poker. Perhaps there's a bit of GH vs. DT friendly rivalry going on there? Maybe it's all Webwit's fault and even he doesn't know it…

Muirium wrote:That's always confused me! KBC Poker vs. KBT Pure, Race, etc. I think KBC==KBT but I don't know for sure. Perhaps they just changed their name after the original Poker. Perhaps there's a bit of GH vs. DT friendly rivalry going on there? Maybe it's all Webwit's fault and even he doesn't know it…

KBC and KBT are two different keyboard communities.

KBT = http://kbtalking.cool3c.com/
KBC = http://www.likeyboard.com/

So Vortex does manufacture stuff on behalf of both communities?

I'm so lucky the restworld (everything except East Asia), has only 2 forums, so things are less confusing.


The Caps Lock key really looks like a production problem. The design is not really well, esp. with Alt and Control in different positions on the keys.

Also, the times of cylindrical key caps are definitively over. Sphericals (flat or high) are the future in key caps design!

The restworld? That's like a restroom, right?

Vortex can be a real pain to deal with as a client; like KBT and KBC each are (thanks Mashby). That's what you buy into when you don't do your own manufacturing. Ducky seems to be the next in line to run the Vortex gauntlet. From what Ducky Nordic's been saying lately, Ducky's many projects are in permanent disarray; and that's both with and without Vortex! So I can surely give these guys a break, you know, so long as its not my keyboard that's delayed or a mess!

As for caps, I for one welcome our new spherical overlords. The cylindrical thing was just a 1980s fad that somehow stuck around a while. Next up on the wheel of fashion: the glorious return of tall profile!

Muirium wrote:The restworld? That's like a restroom, right?

Sorry, I mean rest of world.

Muirium wrote: ...
As for caps, I for one welcome our new spherical overlords. The cylindrical thing was just a 1980s fad that somehow stuck around a while. Next up on the wheel of fashion: the glorious return of tall profile!

Vortex is a Chinese company as I know. Actually, pure, race, one, oni and the later production of poker are already made in China (some rumour said that, not 100% sure.)

Other than this, ducky 2108 is not designed by ducky itself. It is by *KBC/vortex. And the ducky just 'sell' their brand name/ get the license fee from *KBC/vortex. Due to the great selling of 2108 in the mainland China, Hong Kong and other Asia region, it blocked lots of new products, like Deck 108 and many many others.

However, some rumour also said that all the ducky products are made in China now. But....Who knows?
*( Not sure.

I find it all very confusing. All I know is that occasionally Vortex post some interesting or promising products on their page, a lot of that stuff seem to be delayed forever and most of it never seems to be available in Europe anyway. Most of people posting on their page are asking when product X is going to be released and how to buy it, and they never seem to receive a proper answer.

Simple questions like that are the most complex to answer, when you juggle manufacturing jobs like Vortex. Always have been, actually. It's the small volumes of all these different things that make release dates slide all around the place. Much easier to commit to a single something massive, like Foxconn and iPhones.

tinlong117 wrote:Vortex is a Chinese company as I know. Actually, pure, race, one, oni and the later production of poker are already made in China (some rumour said that, not 100% sure.) .

The Oni is made in Taiwan, or at least the stamp with their declaration of conformity was made there

7bit wrote:

Muirium wrote:The restworld? That's like a restroom, right?

Sorry, I mean rest of world.

Man, i love DT humor! Now I know why I spend so much time in here
(I hope the rest of the world appreciates it too)

BTW there is a massdrop with Vortex backlit PBT doubleshots (POM legends), black or white:
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/vortex-bac ... guest_open

every PBT double shot i have seen is shitty font or poor quality

Someone needs to do this right PBT is superior in almost every way to ABS, i am not a plastic fabricator but is it that hard to do doubleshot PBT ?

I love the feel of PBT its what i use on my cherry MX board for games when i am not rocking round 4 sph but i would love to see some doubleshot action.

There are more colour options doubleshot, not that there is anything wrong with the thick black on grey PBT dye sub caps i use , would recommend them to anyone. In fact i am thinking of buying a set for my friend when he gets his first mechanical ( filco ofc).

Laser wrote: BTW there is a massdrop with Vortex backlit PBT doubleshots (POM legends), black or white:
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/vortex-bac ... guest_open

Too bad legends still suck.

Suck in what way?

Expecting worse, they don't look too bad this time. Much improved from Vortex's earlier work, as far as I can tell from Massdrop's little pictures:



Backlight compatible PBT doubleshots? Fancy! The pictures look like there's a lot of leak, but!, I have tried shooting backlights myself and they often look blown out when you get the balance wrong between aperture and exposure.

I'm really way beyond my needs for caps right now, but these are interesting and someone needs to get them and write them up!

Muirium wrote: The restworld? That's like a restroom, right?

It was a movie starring Yul Brynner as an android cowboy....

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: Suck in what way?

They just seem poorly made, not precise, not consistent, especially in terms of width. Look at the Q: it's much thinner at the bottom and bolder atop. C, O and G seem to have the same issue. Look at the tab arrows: they sure don't seem even to me. Also, what's wrong with the numbers? And so on.

Also, I don't believe that the backlight/photo exposition is to blame, because if you just look at older pics of Vortex non-backlit PBT doubleshots they seem to have similar flaws.

I wonder, maybe that's the difficulty of double-shooting on PBT? Even the IKBC RGB PBT doubleshots (those who come with a new Poker II, and which are great), if you look at legends closely, seem to display a line contour 'uncertainty'.

Hypersphere wrote:

Muirium wrote: The restworld? That's like a restroom, right?

It was a movie starring Yul Brynner as an android cowboy....

<shudder> mixing several epochs of time and people having their faces removed for repairs was a great way to confuse a small child expecting a western movie.

It's probably that, but until they figure how to make it right I'll stick with Cherry ABS doubleshots.

We'd know a lot more if they took a good picture with the damn backlights off!

I found other pics on Vortex facebook page. The situation doesn't seem any better:

The lights are still on. Ordinarily, you wouldn't find me defending Vortex (I think they're cheap assed) but as a photographer I've got to say you can't judge based on these pictures. Even perfect legends smear readily when photographed (wrong) with backlights on.

I see your point and I hope you're right and the legends are acually better than they look here. But I can't help being skeptical about Vortex.

You can see the keycaps unlit in this posts:

http://kbtalking.cool3c.com/article/83141

http://kbtalking.cool3c.com/article/83278

Google Translate isn't doing me any favours, but am I right to assume that these are both Vortex PBT doubleshots, and only the legend material is different?




If so, the legend shape is fine. What we could be seeing is the 3D depth of the translucent legends themselves!

The problem seen with Q appears to be the halo you see when photographing backlit keys; the word "Control" appears to bow outwards because of the unevenness of Cherry MX-based backlighting. You don't see this in person as the human eye has phenomenal dynamic range, but cameras can't deal with the intensity of the backlight.

In my Poker II shots, the green backlighting comes out white around the LED, with a green halo, but those photos above have a brighter halo.

I must admit you were totally right, Muirium, the legends look just fine with the lights off!

Grizzled photographer's gut instinct. Beware unnatural light.