I think of myself as a tinkerer. I pull things apart and put them back together again in a way that is better than the original. No, it’s not broken; it’s improved, okay?
Since I started fixing NAG’s broken keyboards or adding different switches and keycaps to my own when I got the chance, I’ve stumbled across a few great mods that piqued my interest.
One such mod, the Tempest Mod, really excited me because it can be done with little monetary input and some elbow grease—the perfect tinkerer project.
What is Tempest Modding?
The Tempest Mod, more colloquially known as the Tape Mod, involves slapping a few layers of painter’s tape to the bottom of your keyboard’s PCB to dampen the sound. This makeshift filter is supposed to add a nice bass to your keyboard, making it nice and thocky.
Sounding like the easiest mod to do, and knowing I had an old roll of masking tape lying around my garden shed, I put in a little time and did the research.
The consensus seemed to be this:
- Everyone uses the blue painter’s tape.
- You need to lay down at least three layers of tape for any difference to be heard.
- There is a risk of overheating and possible battery fires in wireless keyboards.
- Most people don’t seem too worried about point number 3.
IMPORTANT: Now that I’ve mentioned the word “fire,” I should also mention at this point of the article that NAG accepts no responsibility for anything that happens beyond this paragraph. Modding your hardware always comes with risks, and it’s up to the user to decide whether to proceed with the mod or not.
Considering all this knowledge, I headed out to my shed to pick up the old roll of tape. There was an immediate problem. Besides the fact that it wasn’t blue, the tape was so old it poofed into clouds of dust every time I tried to pull a strip from the roll.
After a quick trip to the hardware store, I had a fresh roll of blue tape, just like the internet said I needed. The colour of the tape makes no real difference. If you want to use green, purple, brown or the standard beige tape that most of us already have, use it.
The Before
Now that I had all the tools I needed for the mod, I just had to pick a keyboard to do the mod on. Considering my usual Logitech Pro X 60 costs a bit more than I’d like to admit, I wasn’t brave enough to start ripping it open. Plus, Logitech doesn’t make their keyboard for modders anyway, so I was sure it would be hard to access the innards without causing some damage.
Instead, I dug through the old NAG store room and found my old Akko PC75B V2 Plus. This was my first real moddable keyboard, and it’s still solid overall. You can check out the review for this bad boy over here.
The keyboard comes standard with a silicone damper inside, so it’s already got a decent sound, but I was curious if I could change its normal clacky sound to something deeper.
Kitted out with the Akko CS Crystal Switch and the Akko ASA Translucent Keycap Set White V2, here’s what the keyboard sounds like before the modification:
The During
If you’re going to try this on a wireless keyboard, make sure it’s turned off before you start. So that you don’t accidentally open up weird websites on your computer, and also because you could snag the battery cable and you don’t want anything to short out. Then, you should remove the keycaps and key switches to make things easier. Any knobs or scrollers should also be taken off.
The Akko PC75 B V2 Plus is your typical modder keyboard minus one crucial feature: screws. Before accessing the insides, I had to dig between the top and bottom plates to release the snap clips. Luckily, this was easy with a small screwdriver. The PC75B is also sturdy enough that I didn’t crack or break any of the top or bottom plates when doing so.
Once in, I gently flipped over the PCB so as not to damage any of the cables inside and had a quick look at what was going on. Here is where I found the silicone damper that had already been inserted and the two cables that were connected to the PCB. Some keyboards may not have anything inside, and others may have more. Things like rubber spacers between your shell, gaskets, springs and such should be carefully noted because you’ll need to put these back in the same place when you’re done. The PC75B has a small switch at the bottom of the PCB that you can access from outside the shell, which I had to make sure was positioned in the same place when I put it all back together.
Wired keyboards have only one cable connecting the PCB to a USB port. Some may have the USB port soldered directly to the PCB. You will also have to disconnect wireless keyboards next.
Once the PCB is cable-free, it’s time to tape it up.
Put aside all the other parts of your keyboard and place the PCB in front of you so it’s easy to apply the tape. Since I was taping up a wireless keyboard, and there was that aforementioned fire hazard with the batteries, I did some extra research. I found that you could apply a layer of electrical tape just around where the battery sits to help prevent the more paper-like tape from overheating.
One strip after the next, I applied the tape to the back of the PCB, pressing it down to ensure it was firmly stuck. I was cognisant of the ports where the battery cable, USB cable, and toggle switch needed to go, so I stuck the tape down, avoiding these outlets.
Since I had a fresh roll of tape, I opted for four layers instead of the recommended three. Remember, you need to squish all this back into the keyboard shell, so don’t overdo it.
After all the layers were stuck down, I searched for the single screw hole that my PCB needed and stuck a small screwdriver through the tape to allow the screw access. Then I trimmed off all the rough edges and quadruple-checked that it was all stuck down securely.
Before connecting everything back up, I checked to see that the PCB would still fit in the shell, trimmed off a touch more tape and then began putting it all back together.
After forgetting to put the toggle switch in place the first time, I was pretty happy with how easily it all snapped back into place the second time around.
Now, to see if it made a difference.
Note: Every keyboard will disassemble differently. Before going ahead, search YouTube for “how to disassemble XYZ keyboard”, where XYZ is the keyboard in front of you. It will just keep you from breaking things unnecessarily.
The After
With everything back in place and no smell of fire in the air, I ran another test to see how well I had done.
The keyboard’s sound may not have been as thocky as I originally hoped, but the Tempest Mod removed some of the clickiness from the sound, which I count as a win nonetheless. For just R80 and less than an hour of work, I was able to modify my keyboard to sound more like how I like my keyboards to sound.
And after a good few days of usage and charging, I’m happy to report the keyboard has not overheated in any way, shape, or form.
Overall, I call this mod a success, and I give it a 3/10 on the difficulty scale. So if you’re looking for something to tinker on, and you have some masking tape lying around, perhaps try a little bit of Tempest Modding for yourself.
