Modding My: Rocket Ninja RN-988 (1)
Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for another entry into the Modding My series. For this entry, we will be taking a look at the Rocket Ninja RN-988 full sized mechanical keyboard. This was a keyboard that I got during the recent Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Having seen and used my Ducky One 2 SF for several months, several of my team members at were beginning to notice the inadequacies of the office's standard membrane keyboard. As is the tradition, before parting ways, I would often leave behind a mechanical keyboard almost as a little token of me being there.
This year's sales proved to be an opportune time for starting a new mechanical keyboard project as I was able to get this RN-988 mechanical keyboard at half the price together with discounts on several additional accessories which I will feature later on in this build log. First up, we have the keyboard itself which is a standard 104-key ANSI layout keyboard. To the untrained eye, this black on black keyboard is pretty much indistinguishable from any other office keyboard.
Accessories which come included with the keyboard included a braided USB-A to USB-C cable and a keycap puller. The latter being a dead giveaway that this is indeed a mechanical keyboard of some sorts. While the former points is a really nice touch especially at this price point.
Rubber feet keep the mostly plastic framed keyboard firmly planted on the ground. The feet at the upper corners of the keyboard only have one level of adjustment. It would have been nice to see an additional level of adjustment included but, I believe that was omitted as a cost saving measure. On top of that, the keyboard itself already has a high profile chassis which forms a notable angle of inclination even without the feet flipped up.
Earlier, I mentioned the removable cable that came included with the keyboard. This is a feature hardly seen at this price point. Not to mention, this is a USB C input which makes it very future ready. This may not look like much but, for keyboard enthusiasts, this opens up another layer of customization with custom cables now being compatible.
The RN-988 came in a variety of switch types, all of which are manufactured by Kailh. Because this keyboard will be primarily used for work and typing, I decided to go with Kailh Browns. My Ducky One 2 SF's Cherry Browns were very well received at work thus, going with the Kailh Browns just felt like the safest option to go with. I would have loved to do a Cherry Silent Red and O-Ring combination but, I am afraid that will have to be held off as a project for another day.
Speaking of surprises, another feature which surprised me was the key caps. Where most major gaming peripheral companies are still using laser etched ABS key caps on their mechanical keyboards, the RN-988 actually comes with double-shot ABS key caps! On top of that, the thickness of the key caps wall are not too shabby either. There are some noticeable deficits in the double shot process and the key caps walls are no where as thick as those on third-party PBT key caps. But for a budget mechanical keyboard, I think this really ticks all the right boxes.
Stabilizers used on the modifiers are Cherry-stemed types which have more or less become an industry standard now. We no longer see wire type stabilizers anymore which is great and very important when it comes to third party key cap compatibility. Ready for more surprises? The stabilizes, in fact, come lubricated from the factory! I will diving a little more into that in the next part of this build but, I do not think I have ever seen a budget mechanical keyboards which came with pre-lubricated stabilizers ever before.
Next came the part of removing all of the existing ABS key caps exposing the Kailh Brown switches below it. I will be planning to replace these with a set of PBT key caps which ought to improve the typing experience a little bit more. The switches themselves are welded into the PCB and clip onto what feels like an aluminum mounting plate that is painting black. Despite being a full sized keyboard, there is little to no flex in the body and that can be attributed to the thick high profile plastic chassis of the keyboard. This high profile design hearkens back to the day of more traditional mechanical keyboards as opposed to the floating key designs. Which is better, is highly subjective and a matter of preference. I happen to like them both.
I had plans to disassemble the entire keyboard to see how things were built on the inside while at the same time, lubricating the stabilizers. Nevertheless, one of the last screws was placed behind a quality control sticker. Not being the primary user of the keyboard and not wanting to void the warranty, I decided to keep the entire chassis as is and worked through lubricating the stabilizer via other means.
Said method was via using an interdental brush, applying some grease on it and spreading it through the tight spots of the stabilizers. These stabilizers were pre-lubricated but, not in an ideal way as a spot of grease is simply applied and not spread evenly throughout the wire and base of the stems. Using a light bit of grease and the brush, I was able to apply a light coat of grease to properly lubricate each of the stabilizers. A quick sound check to compare them before and after did indeed confer a notable difference both in terms of sound and feel.
Comments
Post a Comment