AHEK95 "Void Keyboard" review (3D-printed Void switches)

Skip to 20:18 and 20:41 for typing demonstrations.
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Follow Riskable: fosstodon.org/@riskable & / riskable
Void Switch Github: github.com/riskable/void_switch
Keycap Playground: github.com/riskable/keycap_pl...
This keyboard practically gave me snowblindness xD . One of the most incredible and feature-laden keyboards I've ever reviewed, I present to you the 3D-printed AHEK95 Void Keyboard!
Intro by Kyle Carter
Outro by Facundo Cabanne
My keyboard reviews: bit.ly/1TbOtft
My switch teardowns: bit.ly/2C1QGHz
My TOP X videos: bit.ly/2FmpZfd
My XL typing demos: bit.ly/2OoAW3w
My tutorials and featurettes: bit.ly/2OrkLUh
My unboxing videos: bit.ly/2TSrr0m
I'm Thomas and I do videos and reviews on mechanical keyboards ranging from the most sickening modern RGB gaming keyboards to vintage hardware relics, or sometimes keycaps or keyswitches ranging from Cherry MX to Alps SKCM to IBM buckling springs and anything in between.
Follow me on Twitter for updates on my keyboard videos! / chyrosran22
The practice sentence was: "Hello my name is Thomas and I'm typing on the Void keyboard right now. This has been one of the most interesting and innovative projects I've ever worked on!!

[@_Lewo]

HE PROGRAMMED FUCKING BAD APPLE INTO IT, IT IS AMAZING.

[@jaredho7676]

I hate that I recognized it immediately

[@SonicBoone56]

Ikr

[@mixermaster10]

@@jaredho7676 after watching like a 100 videos of ppl doing it on everything... yeaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[@hjalfi]

If it has lights, it plays Bad Apple. No exceptions.

[@krissyboo6148]

OH MY GOD I SAW THAT TOO I FUCKING LOVE IT

[@junebugvintage]

i'm not buying any more keyboards unless they have an oreo holder

[@smoaf2010]

hi june bug vintage i know you from your typing tests

[@Ramon11cz]

Hopefully you'll find some vintage oreo holder keyboard

[@peep3298]

You can 3d print one

[@junebugvintage]

@@smoaf2010 hi smoaf

[@asryl5154]

6:02 that's an amazing bad apple lighting effect

[@leocomerford]

The moment of recognition…

[@jimbo_mode]

noticed it and immediately started scrolling through the comments hahaha

[@SonicBoone56]

This keyboard is quite literally a game changer. So much stuff that puts far more expensive boards to shame at a fraction of the cost. Who knew 3D printed keyboards would ever come this far.

[@Poolboy001]

My only concern would be the feeling of the plastic. The striations of 3d printed plastic drive me nuts in a way that I can't explain.; even sanded parts do it to me. Anything 3d printed that I have to constantly touch or handle is a no go from me.

[@l0k048]

@@Poolboy001 it's petg, it's self-lubricant, when it rubs it creates a powder, that lubricates the switches. you shouldn't want to 3d print this in pla though

[@BlueChrome]

@@Poolboy001 > You can wet and dry sand and polish a 3dprint to essentially injection molded like smoothness, would take a bit of work though for a whole keyboard, but it can be done.

[@BlueChrome]

@@l0k048 > If I recall correctly, PLA is slightly harder and stronger than most other 3d printable plastics, so that might actually work in its favor for smooth .2mm nozzle and .1mm layer height prints, sure the print takes longer, but what price can you put on near perfect FDM prints?

[@prokopf-9332]

I mean its not really unimaginable printed board coming this far. Eventually they will get much further even.

[@rafindeed]

THIS, this is what the keeb community needs. Not fucking pretentious 800 dollars keyboards. We need more of this, experimental, wacky, weird stuff. Glad you and glases cover the fun side of this community. What an amazing project, completely weird, over designed and awesome.

[@feelshowdy]

Yes! This is REAL innovation, in several different ways from the 3D printing, to the wide array of customization of components, to the switches, etc. I can't believe most people are still so enamored with minute variations on Cherry MX clones and foam-filled monstrosities.

[@bltzcstrnx]

Think of modern keyboard community like a sneaker hobby instead of tech hobby. That way it makes sense why the market is like how it is today.

[@lnkd61]

To answer your question about firmware updating not being all like this, it depends on the microcontroller. It seems like this keyboard is based on a Raspberry Pi Pico, which is able to mount itself as a readable/writable drive. A lot of boards are using weaker microcontroller which is where the limitation comes in.

[@fltfathin]

also rp2040 of raspberry pi pico is the cheapest MCU that can do USB DFU and the only one that can do it OOTB

[@nickeshchauhan5661]

Yeah, putting one of these into a £400 Model F Repro would have been too expensive.

[@Sazoji]

well, you can add another chip to do it as well, like those generic esp32 boards, but that increases the cost/complexity more than just getting a pico or the esp32-S3 which have USB host functionality out of the box.

[@Kevin-jb2pv]

@@nickeshchauhan5661 Yeah. Reprogramming mine was a _fucking nightmare._ I need to reconfigure it again, now that I've figured out how I want to use the layout along with my macro pad and... no, fuck it. It's not worth it. These keyboards don't necessarily need to be as easy as this void keyboard is, but there is just no fucking excuse for it to be as difficult as QMK is. I can only assume that QMK was made by someone who thinks that not liking the terminal should get you sent to a fucking death camp.

[@ZILtoid1991]

It could be done on other keyboards, but many open-source stuff don't since their developers and most hardcore users are already used to that, and then it's users that want better are shouted down by both the devs and more experienced users. I call this Open Source Gatekeeping Syndrome (OSGS), and software also happens to suffer from it.

[@TigerAceSullivan]

"you could even get different tactile levels for different switches" sounds amazing for people with, for example, finger injuries or nerve problems that affect some of their fingers more than others; being able to change a few keys that someone specifically uses with their pinky, which cant exert as much force as it used to (maybe shift and caps, or etc for people who have less reach), would be so cool

[@TIB1243S]

Ah, the bad apple animation reminds me of someone who did it on their AMD CPU in Task Manager

[@SomeGuyNamedMy]

Of course they did

[@Insanity5163]

Using a magnet as the reset mechanism is genius, what a neat keyboard

[@frank97865]

Regarding 6:35 The microcontroller this project uses (raspberry pi rp2040) released in January of 2021, and it is the reason why firmware is drag and drop like a flash drive. Before that microcontroller existed, there weren't any that supported this kind of firmware programming It's been a massive game changer in the DIY scene because of how cheap it is, $0.90 for the MCU, $4 for an entire dev board. The Arduinos people commonly used before used the 32u4 which costs ~$4, and a dev board costs ~$15 Those relied on either the Arduino IDE, VSCode Platformio, or DFU tools ala QMK toolkit to upload firmware. Relative to other families of existing microcontrollers, those were actually very user friendly (Atmel studio sends it's regards), but to everyday users it's still very unintuitive. The RP2040 programming method in comparison is amazing just thought I'd give you some context as an electrical/firmware engineer that makes input devices like these

[@FunOrange42]

Just checked on digikey to confirm the price and yep, the rp2040 is a bit above 1 USD. I can't believe such a cheap alternative to the ATMega32U4 exists. Wish I heard about it sooner.

[@frank97865]

@@FunOrange42 alongside being a replacement, it's vastly superior spec wise too 133mhz vs 16mhz clock speed (the rp2040 can even be overclocked/downclocked easily. The 32u4 has a fixed crystal oscillator for it's clock) 264kb vs 2.5kb RAM 16000kb vs 32kb flash (program space) Dual core + PIO state machines vs single core USB device + Host capability vs USB device capability The SDK is also EXCELLENT in comparison to Atmels This thing really is a game changer

[@Jordan4Ibanez]

That was definitely the kindest, most informative video about a truly excellent design. You have warmed my heart for these upcoming holidays, Thomas. I wish you happy holidays!

[@Chyrosran22]

Happy hols to you too! :)

[@flowerlandfilms]

The engineering on display here is extraordinary. I am very impressed.

[@NatalieT505]

Superb comprehensive review of an amazing board. Part of me wonders if big business could manage a "quality centric" mass produced run of this passion project, but I suppose that would be like asking the devil to cleanly eat an icecream in a sauna. On an additional note, thankyou for turning out wonderful content for such a long time. Your work has been a consistent pleasure for so many years. Happy Holidays ! :-)

[@Chyrosran22]

Thanks Natalie, you too! :)

[@geografiainfinitului]

This would be great in mass production, and the switch has potential for reduced cost, I believe Otemu or Gateron, Kailh would make great switches out of this, with Cherry mount this project would be great

[@SomeGuyNamedMy]

From what i understand there are licensing issues preventing that

[@bsadewitz]

The devil understands marginal cost just as well as ... anyone else in a sauna. Well, that's a null metaphor if ever there was one; how apropos for a void keyboard. Sorry, I haven't had my coffee yet, so I'm not exactly in a quality-centric state of mind.

[@laffeybunn8557]

6:04 I love how Thoma doesn't realize the beauty of Bad Apple on keyboard RGB. Truly a cultured man, riskable is

[@olik136]

I have seen quiet a good number of 3d printed keyboards, but they all use normal switches (which is understandable tbh) but they also often go for compromises that make them worse than the 13€ keyboard that comes with an office PC... so I am very pleased to see this keyboard not making all those mistakes. The "Void" naming is potentially a bit confusing because Zack Freedman from Voidstar lab is currently building a custom keyboard (different concept though) and at first I thought this here would be a new version of it

[@deathbyzen]

Resin 3D printing from what I've seen produces much smoother surfaces than PET 3D printing. Might make the void switches even cleaner. Keys printed with clear or colored translucent resin would look amazing.

[@snippingtool7810]

Exactly, testing this switch design with other 3D print method and variety of filament material would be interesting

[@amurtigress_mobile365]

@@snippingtool7810 Maybe nylon filament would be a solution. Nylon is slightly slippery feeling on the surface, could be a good natural lubricant. Any other surface would roughen up with time...

[@krikun98]

I asked Riskable about this, and he said resin has a higher friction coefficient, so the switches will feel way worse.

[@FindecanorNotGmail]

Resin printing is a lot more noxious ... Not for people printing at home. You'd need at least a garage with good ventilation.

[@BertrandLeRoy]

I concur. I’ve had some success printing Kailh stems (for some non-MX vintage caps) with an Elegoo Mars 2 pro resin printer, that while not perfect were astonishingly good. On a design such as these simpler Hall effect switches, I expect the result to be close to perfect. Resin really is superior for precise small parts such as these.

[@xard64]

For R&D concept work this is rather insane (in a best possible way). This really puts the C in Custom for a whole new level! Though I'm afraid that the world is not ready for this kind of product as currently something like Finalmouse Centerpiece is getting all the media attention for being the "bold and innovative keyboard of the future".

[@dosgos]

Engineering behind this keyboard is incredible.

[@Kraiord_]

I recognize the clip at 8:55 , its "Bad Apple"

[@thexenian]

5:58 Oh. the other "it runs on ANYTHING" meme, its been a while since i last saw it

[@bdhaliwal24]

The maker of this is the Stradivarius of keyboards!

[@michaeljames1334]

this is mind boggling how smart this is. blown away by the creativity and inteligence in this board.

[@vanderan]

I have no clue how Riskable came up with these designs, especially with their use of magnets. The fact that he not only proved his concept, but exceeded in making the design extremely practical for regular use is really interesting. Like you mentioned, even the firmware is stupidly intuitive, the fact that it closes out by itself almost seems like it's showing off but at the same time BMing other software. Even their humor is pretty witty. Great job covering this board!

[@0LoneTech]

I came up with a similar switch design, prototyped in lego and 3d printed switches, which I showed off at FOSDEM a few years ago. I didn't print the slider in place but did center the magnets in the hopes of not binding too much (which meant the post itself wasn't centered, later prototypes had double stems). Fun stuff. I don't think his design is based on mine. The window closing is a side effect, by the way; the USB drive is effectively unplugged when the MCU reboots to the new firmware. One silly little idea was that if the retaining magnets alternate polarity, you could slide them over one step to collapse the keys, flattening it for shipping or such. Another is that I could tune the resistance using paper shims rather than reprinting.

[@petitbiscuit77]

This is what so-called "endgame" keyboards should actually be aspiring towards... Well done to Riskable for making this and Chyrosan22 for reviewing; I thoroughly enjoyed the video. 👍

[@smoaf2010]

this is some super awesome and intuitive design. very excited to see how this develops

[@geografiainfinitului]

Would be great if someone tried to make this in China and sell as kits for those who don't have 3D printers

[@OhhWelll]

I absolutely love the style and customization of this keyboard and would love to see more like it. It's such a good idea. I'm loving your new videos

[@placeholder3863]

amazing ill get my hands on one when theres an injection molded version of the switch

[@narconyx]

The trailer got me so excited, thank you for this review thomas

[@ugyuu]

I knew a big video was coming, but this one blew me away! It pleases my 3d modelling hobbyist mind to be able to print whatever, for a keyboard!

[@noank9175]

Worth the wait. Great review, Thomas.

[@ayehavgunne]

Idea for real clicky switches. Use a non-ferrous metal that one of the magnets can slam into.

[@richardxstroker]

This is by far the most astonishing keyboard video I have ever watched. The engineering in the switches is extremely impressive. I really hope they’re patented, and an injection mold process cleans up their rough edges. I’d love a hot swappable production model with standalone numpad. I hate when I plug a keyboard in, and it prompts me to download software. As long as a keyboard has fluid defaults, I could care less about custom RGB profiles. Also, I feel dated with that Temple of Nod reference. 🤣🤣🤣

[@alkyne1022]

I died when I saw bad apple as an RGB mode

[@evilofalfa]

the fact that its tactile is awesome

[@Spearra]

What got me on board was the adjustable tactility and the fact that it apparently doesn't feel weak! Definitely will be looking into one of these in the future!

[@LostTheGame6]

We truly are in a new golden age of keyboards, that's amazing !

[@wkgmathguy218]

Very interesting! Great review as always Tom, and a very Happy Holidays to you and yours :D

[@1carusGG]

I would buy this in a heartbeat if it went into production

[@dogelife7901]

I've hated keyboard designs for a while but never had the knowledge to change it just have to settle for what's available. This man is a wizard and took all concerns and smashed them with a sledgehammer. I'll never settle for crappy overengineered keyboard or mouse again. Love that he did it with light hearted nod. Kudos!

[@TheRealStructurer]

Very cool 😎 A lot of creativity in this keyboard. As mentioned I hope he’s patented it and that it will take off! We live in a fantastic time.

[@jimbeenee]

riskable is seriously talented. glad to have found this

[@greyareaRK1]

Mind completely blown. It's a work of genius. It looks and sounds fantastic too.

[@edragon3046]

i've been waiting for news for quite some time now thats great

[@dratagalwis1]

This whole thing is so insanely amazing.. :-) I bow low against all the work ideas and efort added to this keyboard and video.. infinit respect. :-)

[@astrobotnautics5291]

When I saw the unboxing, I really wasn't sure what to make of this keyboard. But what a review, I'm genuinely going to think about looking into this if I need a second keyboard next to my Wooting 2.

[@RomeDrori]

Bad apple playing on the keyboard was amazing

[@Boyetto-san]

I really hope this takes off. I do still feel a bit apprehensive about the design being only able to use a purely electrical source of clicking, but I'd definitely want to see further refinements to the contactless magnetic tactility concept.

[@jimbeenee]

very much enjoying your content! pls continue

[@gearsgamer7115]

hey, i just ordered a space invader keyboard, vintage m10116 and a quietkey thanks for the reviews :D

[@VishnuZutaten]

Another great and interesting video :) Happy Holidays!

[@kendokaaa]

From a 3d printing and engineering perspective, this is amazing

[@gustavohqueiroz]

This is the most soulful keyboard I've ever seen

[@jialixx]

Great review. This is an exciting keyboard.

[@bunger8658]

I've been waiting for this moment since the void switch tare down, now I gotta make myself split ortho version.

[@sebastian_meier]

If I was a competitor I'd have shat my pants multiple times by now - I love keyboards, but looking back this is easily the only one of the past decade that really excited me

[@nate998877]

This is some pretty high praise!

[@MrBlitzpunk]

Bad Apple running on my keyboard rgb is something i never knew i wanted

[@melom8276]

this is the most creative key board ive seen ever

[@nixalin5525]

What a lovely keyboard!

[@maxmouse3]

Absolute legend! Talk about a CUSTOM keyboard!

[@Baalthazar]

Great review! It's a very fascinating design, and I honestly wonder whether printing the switches using resin instead to combat the roughness you've mentioned. I assume that would mean some redesign would be necessary since the switch is reliant on the plastic thickness for decreasing the magnet strength. Happy holidays!

[@rogue3398]

This is going to make me start building my own periphs. I mean, I was already looking into it, but this is really makes doing it well feel approachable.

[@CrimsoniteSP]

5:57 casual Bad Apple reference. Now I just wanna watch it again, lol. Love that song.

[@silasmayes7954]

I wonder what this guy could do with more resources! Someone with this kind of engineering knowledge and dedication will go places.

[@riskable]

Yeah seriously! Someone send me money (so I can quit my day job) and equipment (a really nice 3D printer would be nice 😁) 👍

[@pigfish99]

if there was a version of this that was BATTLECRUISER sized, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

[@JUSTiCE_22]

at 8:58, the "video clip" playing on the lights is the music video for the song bad apple by nomico. immediately recognized it, somehow lol

[@akeem2983]

You know that the keyboard is exceptionally good when it has a dedicated backlighting mode just to play endlessly looping Bad Apple video

[@agoogleviewer]

TEMPLE OF NOD KEYBBOARD!

[@vora300]

Having magnets is ingenious, since it doesn’t have springs it doesn’t wear down at all.

[@Zippy_Zolton]

I'm considering replacing my Corsair K95 Platinum when it goes kaput, this is now my favourite contender so far because it looks like it has more than 6 dedicated macro keys on it, and I've wanted to get deep into a good tactile board.

[@dannyspiteri1589]

Excellent creativity and I'm a sucker for RGB. It even sounds pretty good

[@censoredterminalautism4073]

Strong candidate for most brilliant keyboard design ever made. The Dactyl Manuform also exists and is 3D-printed. I guess a version of that could be made using these switches as well.

[@Bassium08]

2:00 I've always loved that clip.

[@juliaz12345]

If y'all didn't see the unboxing, go watch it. Like, the box is booby trapped, there are so many accessories that he included...It's just great! Great review of a great board. Not my style, though. I prefer my classic IBM model M. But, to each their own.

[@deldarel]

That keyboard is fantastic! I hope the next version has room for optional up-stroke and down-stroke dampeners. I really want an as quiet as possible programmable tactile keyboard with macros. I'm most used to 80%, but as far as 60%'s go, this is my favourite layout.

[@0LoneTech]

The third magnet is a down stroke dampener. If you remove the bottom magnet, you get a smooth feel with very low resistance at the top but rapidly rising resistance at the bottom. However, I think you'd want to rearrange the sensing to use it that way, as that's the magnet that comes close to the sensor for this setup.

[@ericqhochuli6004]

How can we support this guy?

[@michaelacri2875]

What great sounding key! All made on a 3D printer! Amazing 👏

[@chell6022]

This switch design is my favorite.

[@thethriftyfawn]

It's adorable too! 😍

[@MokkaHai]

have you had a look at the older logitech boards like the g15 with its lcd screen at the top

[@nathanmiddleton1478]

Absolutely wonderful! Could do without the clicking and the RGB but everything else seems top notch.

[@riskable]

I have a non-RGB 75% design that I'm like 60% done with sitting in my projects directory. Would that be good enough or are you a full size purist? 😁

[@dogelife7901]

I'd go for a full size stealth silent version in heartbeat.

[@flanx5432]

@@riskable how hard would it be to do a 1800 style layout? If you did that at some point later down the line and in a more stealthy look I would buy that IMMEDIATELY

[@riskable]

@@flanx5432 1800 style layout wouldn't be a problem it'd just be expensive to prototype because the PCB is wider than 350mm. That's the point where PCB prototyping places really crank up the price. It wouldn't matter much when you make like 1000 boards though.

[@101rockfreak]

So amazing!

[@darkurthe]

This was brilliant.

[@saitodosan9377]

Damn, Merry Christmas to you haha.

[@Sw00z]

you could smooth out the printed plastic with acetone/isopropyl alcohol mist depending on what kind of plastic was used in making this.

[@yPhil]

This is simply fantastic.

[@Jacklsovakia1]

This being an analog keyboard, you could add a mode to emulate a gamepad stick based on input pressure. Very cool

[@robr640]

I hate say it as I much prefer smaller independent projects, but dude might want to shop this design around to the major KB manufactures out there. With Vortex's recent retro boards this may be right up their alley. Although I would prefer to see Leopold get their hands on it LOL!

[@ARandomClown]

5:58 the bad apple lighting goes hard. i wish i had a 3d printer so i could play around with this. i remember watching his tutorial on making a pcb for hall effect in kicad a while ago, maybe i will revisit that since this one does not have a numpad. i hope the 3d modeling required to modify the enclosure to be larger is not too much work

[@steen275]

Sounds sooo cool

[@Soledata]

This is ingenious and I love it. Hopefully no trolls or esoteric Company has a patent.

[@ilusions4]

6:25 new model f moment

[@keagan5379]

Oh this looks like a fun one

[@Scio_]

I have no frame of reference but these keys must feel so much fun to button mash

[@riskable]

They do 😁

[@Scio_]

I _will_ quote you on that! 🌝

[@Doty6String]

Awesome! Does it work with a Mac? Love the clicker!

[@ArtyI]

5:58 fuck you for playing Bad Apple on it. That's absolutely brilliant

[@zloboslav_]

I love it!

[@hairtoss7975]

Amazing! I hope he already has a patent on it.

[@paulosullivan3472]

Hi, I recently bought a keyboard called an RK-T8. Its not exactly like the kind of keyboard you normally test as its pretty standard but it was only £30 and I was shocked by how good it was! I thought maybe it might make for an interesting video to compare how even cheap mechanical keyboards these days can be surprisingly good? It has MX blue clones in, no maker but they feel similar to Outemu's to me, anyway either way thanks for all the fun keyboards and happy xmas!

[@holly_hacker]

That video it played on the keyboards is the Bad Apple music video :D It's the video equivalent of trying to run Doom on anything. People have played it in weird places such as the Windows task manager CPU display.