Bambucha

@Himari I think that you created the tool that the keyboards should have come with. I would really love it if you could share!

 

Aside all this, I was wondering if I were to replace the keycaps on this keyboard to maybe white keycaps... do they need to be specific sizes or? If so may someone link me to a website where I can purchase these.

Hey!

The keycaps on masterkeys are standard Cherry keycaps (the ones who have a hole in the shape of a + on the bottom).

Pretty much all Cherry keycaps should fit perfectly. You only have to be careful of the enter key (which is 2 rows tall in some layouts) and the ALT, WIN, CTRL keys (these are normally one of three sizes -> 1 or 1.25 or 1.5 -> masterkeys uses 1.25 for all of them).

Some general info:

• There are 2 materials: ABS and PBT.. ABS is cheaper, but wears out over time (the top of the keycap becomes shiny and slippery to touch), PBS is more expensive but keeps the texture for a long time.
• And there is many printing options: double-shot (letters are made of plastic, these never wear off and you cant feel them), printed (lasts long, but can wear off and you can slightly feel them)

Also you should note that if you want lighting to shine through the keycaps, they have to be specifically made for that. These are normally the most expensive. (search for backlight keycaps or illuminated keycaps).

You can get a lot of info on the mechanical keyboards subreddit wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/

I also found these keycaps, which would fit the masterkeys S (they are UK based, so shipping would be cheap for you) http://www.ukkeycaps.co.uk/product/tai-hao-abs-iso-white-with-black-legend-doubleshot-keycaps

Long post, but I had the time to write it haha

Cheers!

Received my Masterkeys Pro S about a week ago.

 

I have only one complaint about the keyboard, same as many others.

 

Just an example:

 

Base color: green.

On keypress color: purple.

 

After the key is pressed, the LED doesn't go gradually back to green but behaves like this:

 

Purple -> Off -> Suddenly back to Green.

 

This is very, very jarring to see.

 

Can we be more vocal about this firmware issue? Could a CM community manager tell us if there is a fix on the way?

 

I;m loving everything else about the keyboard, but this weird behaviour has to change :/.

 

Take care.

Me and a couple of others are saying this for almost a month now and the only response was:

"Thanks for sharing your experience. I've forwarded this post."

And that was two weeks ago.

The keyboard has a problem with nearly every lighting mode.

1. Reactive typing (base color -> (press) -> reactive color -> OFF??? -> INSTANTLY base color???) just why. It looks like :).
2. Cross mode (same as 1.)
3. Star mode (same as 1.) This one looks the worst of all.
4. Rain drop (same as 1.)
5. Color wave includes black (or OFF) instead of yellow. Why is that? It looks weird, since Color Cycle mode has Yellow, and it looks good.

When I sent support a message, they answered with that I should wait for the SDK and use it to fix my problems myself.

The SDK came out a couple of days ago and I am dissapointed.

I am a programmer. The SDK is not well put together (i know C, but its just too confusing, and there is no examples, also there is tons of chinese/japanese _{sorry, I dont know which one}). Even if I would make a profile for myself, I would have to have a window open in order to use the profile. Also the window has to be in focus in order to work (at least for me), so the only window I could use my keyboard profile on is the window for the profile. Weird. In my opinion the SDK is useless in this form.

I think that the effects currently on the website should be open source, so people can look at them as reference to make their own effects.

I want this keyboard to be awesome. Hardware is, software needs some work, but not much (problems 1. to 4. need a simple and quick solution. The 5. one is already done in Color Cycle, so code just has to be copied from what I understand). Come on CoolerMaster fix this ASAP.

@K.M.

Well there always is a few % of defects, so in keyboards with 120+ LEDs there is always a small chance of an LED not working.

Also you should consider the fact, that people who bought a masterkeys and have a dead LED will a lot more likely post to forums than people who have a completely working keyboard.

Last year I received a broken fan on one of the air coolers, and they sent me a response and a new fan within a week, so I guess you have nothing to worry about, since their customer support seems fine to me..

@K.M.

Hey!

1) MasterKeys uses Cherry MX switches, so all keycaps that are compatible with Cherry switches work. The only thing you have to look out for is the width of ALT, WIN and CTRL keys (there are multiple widths: 1, 1.25 and 1.5, MasterKeys uses 1.25). You can check out https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/index for more info and a list of stores. They really have a great wiki there!

2) I bought a MasterKeys S with MX browns a month ago, and the LEDs are really bright and reproduce colour very well. The only thing I dont like is the software. I have sent my complaints to CoolerMaster and they responded with "We forwarded your complaints to appropriate staff".. something like that. For an example of the stuff I really dislike, check out this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/index, especially this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRVxZSzuB2E

The problem is there only if you have your keyboard set to one of the "reactive effects" and you have a background colour set to something other than OFF (example: your keyboard is white, but when you press a key, you want it to turn orange.. what it does is WHITE-> (press)-> ORANGE-> OFF (here is the problem)-> instantly WHITE, what it should be WHITE-> (press)-> ORANGE-> fade to WHITE).

This is all I know about the LEDs on this keyboard.

All in all, the keyboard looks amazing and the build quality (at least on my keyboard) is top notch!

Have fun!

@Keith Duncan @Alejandro Loayza Barazorda

Any of the regular micro usb cables should work perfectly!

I have a white one from my phone, since it matches my desk better!

You can get the cables off Amazon or any other website (search for micro usb cable), or just use your phone's cable (if you have an android phone, it should come with an micro usb cable in the box).

@John Bierwagen try plugging the keyboard directly on the computer you are using (on a USB port that is on the back of the tower). I had it on a hub and it did not work properly, since it did not get enough power. If you do have it that way currently, i have no idea, it might be a defective unit

I just checked on the website of the keyboard. There is a new download and a new firmware version: 1.2.0 available through the new driver software called portal.

I did not notice any difference in how the keyboard behaves.

@Jayme it took me 4-5 days to get a reply from them

Well i just got a response from the cooler master support. They said the behaviour (with reactive typing / stars going from reactive color to OFF then instantly to background color) is intended, so colors don't mix. And that we could fix this ourselves once the SDK comes out. 

As you can see, we were wrong (even though the effects look like :) right now) and have to fix the problems ourselves. This is just sad.

@GurtTractor

That's awesome! Too bad I don't really get anything there is in the sdk haha.

But if i download a lightning script and run it, it only works when i have the exe file open. It reverts to what i had on before when i close it.. I guess it runs on your PC and not on the keyboard itself, which is kind of a bummer...

Its the weekend currently, so I doubt we will get any replies soon     I just want the reactive typing fix asap...

@Jayme Well probably all of them, since they use the same software...

It shouldnt be a hard fix for CoolerMaster though, they got cycling trough colors already, they just gotta implement it to the reactive typing

Reactive typing with background color OFF (so only the pressed keys are lit) works perfectly.

Regarding the lighting customisation:

The main thing that's bothering me right now is with the Single Key reactive mode; The single key press colour fades to black before immediately changing back to the the "Rest" colour of the whole keyboard. This means that as you type you can see your presses 'popping' back to the original colour, which draws the eye and is a bit distracting and annoying. It would be much nicer if it would gently merge back into the Rest colour instead. If this could be fixed or changed in an update soon I would be very happy!

Well basically this. It bothers me A LOT, I hope it gets fixed somehow soon..

Right now it works this (with reactive mode and background set to something other than OFF)

background color -> key press -> reactive color -> fade to OFF -> INSTANTLY background color

Why does it go to OFF then INSTANTLY to background color?

I think it should be like this:

background color -> key press -> reactive color -> fade to background color

Other than that i am loving the keyboard! I got the S version, because I want to force myself to type on the number row instead of the numpad (gotta get to 100+ wpm).