My hotdox in its most current form — even the Seattle gray can't dilute the gorgeous colors of the vilebloom set

My hotdox in its most current form — even the Seattle gray can't dilute the gorgeous colors of the vilebloom set

<aside> 🌊 this keyboard was the slippery slope that got me from fairly basic keyboards (aka the humble keychron k2) to casually dropping $200+ on something more ✨ custom ✨. I did have somewhat of a legitimate reason though because I wanted to get something to help ease my carpal tunnel pains (wfh amplified all sorts of problems lol), and I was intrigued by the cool, weirdly laid out Ergonomic keyboards I’d seen around. I still wasn’t prepared to drop $300 on the Ergodox EZ by ZSA (or the even cooler Moonlander) so lo and behold — my Hot Dox!

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specs

build log

actually putting together this thing was a breeze. I bought the kit from Alpaca Keyboards when it briefly came in stock summer of 2020 and it came with the acrylic body pieces, aluminum plate, bolts, stabs, pcb, and a USB a-a (more on this later) cable. I put together everything as per the instructions on their website and didn’t take more than an hour (I would say the hardest part was removing all the backing from the clear acrylic — surprisingly very robust lol). I eventually ditched the stabs because I don’t think I put them on correctly and they rattled too much anyways.

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/78eac037-7b26-48c1-96d4-55b97c6b94b7/EB61950C-6C53-47A8-B1AE-3E62F6BCAA0F.jpeg

hello arm

hello arm

I ordered some basic things from kbdfans to start my build off with: fog white oem pbt caps and hako violets. as you can see below, I was not thinking and only ordered enough switches to cover half the keyboard lol. to rectify my mistake I ordered some silent roses from Kono store with the hopes of actually being able to use my keyboard 🥲

I’m a professional dumbass and didn’t buy enough switches for the keyboard HAHAHAHA

I’m a professional dumbass and didn’t buy enough switches for the keyboard HAHAHAHA

everything that I did purchase to start the build with eventually was replaced as I figured out my keeb preferences. I tried a set of gateron yellows (KS-3 black) version