he needed my giant keyboard... can I fix it in time? [ft mrwhosetheboss]

0:04 glasses.

0:05 Hello.

0:06 Long time no see.

0:07 Mr.

0:07 Who's the boss?

0:08 Hey, what's up?

0:10 Just to get straight to the point then,

0:11 I want to make a video on every single tier

0:13 of keyboard from the very weird to the very wonderful.

0:17 And I want to do it with you.

0:19 Oh my goodness.

0:20 A chance to talk about keyboards in front of millions of new people.

0:24 I can't believe it.

0:25 This is my moment.

0:27 Yes.

0:28 Hi.

0:28 There's one thing I wanted to check.

0:29 Do you still have that crazy 6 foot mega expensive keyboard?

0:34 I want that one to be the top end.

0:49 Hey everyone, so about that keyboard collab.

0:52 When did you want to film this?

0:55 On Monday.

0:56 Does that work?

1:02 Okay, what do I do?

1:04 What do I do?

1:05 I've spent about 10 minutes trying to process the actual state of this keyboard

1:10 um to see how possible it will actually be to get it into working order.

1:14 There there's a couple of problems.

1:16 So, the the glaring issue is it's it's missing a couple of switches.

1:21 Um and and keyboards need switches.

1:24 We're missing some key caps and I need to figure out a way to transport it

1:28 to a rune who lives about an hour and a half away from me by car.

1:31 But before I could do any of that, there was a much larger problem to deal with.

1:36 I don't know where the bottom half of this keyboard is.

1:39 Could be anywhere.

1:41 I think I know where it might be.

1:49 Okay, it's not under the pile of junk.

1:51 If I were 20 kg case half of a 6T keyboard, where would I be?

1:59 Oh wow.

2:02 Playing hide and seek with me.

2:03 Huh?

2:04 It's right over there.

2:06 If you're wondering why our storage unit is messy,

2:08 it's actually a really funny story.

2:09 So, I got evicted about a month ago, right around Christmas.

2:12 Well, hilarious.

2:13 And I only just had enough time to move

2:15 all of my life belongings to this storage unit.

2:20 That's the other thing that I freaking hate about this keyboard.

2:23 It's so heavy.

2:24 I'm not a weak guy.

2:25 You see these guns?

2:26 This is Brian and this is wood, but it's just such a gosh darn awkward shape.

2:32 Okay, find the materials.

2:34 Almost done.

2:37 I don't actually know what tools I'm going to need to fix this.

2:40 So, I just grabbed whatever looked useful and hope

2:42 for the best cuz I won't be able to come back here.

2:44 The storage unit closes in an hour.

2:48 Probably don't need that.

2:53 And after approximately 5 seconds, I realized why this thing was in a warehouse.

2:56 Moving the giant keyboard more than 2 ft is the biggest headache ever.

3:01 I can't carry it in a bag and I can't drive yet.

3:03 So, I always have to call an Uber XL for it, which is expensive.

3:06 And the Uber drivers never help me.

3:08 And then they have the cheek to ask, "Oh,

3:09 what do you do for a living?" whilst I'm dying in the back seat.

3:12 That was so much harder than I thought it would be.

3:13 But ironically, the car journey is the easy part.

3:16 It gave me a little rest before the actual hard part I'd been dreading.

3:21 Moving the keyboard up three flights of stairs by myself because

3:24 the lift in our new office isn't for goods and services.

3:28 Oh boy, I hate this thing so much.

3:45 Yeah, there's no time to rest.

3:52 That's not how it's supposed to look.

3:54 Uh, okay.

3:55 I've tried to fix this keyboard like two times.

3:58 Both times I struggled to even take the switches out.

4:01 This is because the holes or annular rings where the solder

4:04 bonds the switch pins mechanically to the PCB are very, very large.

4:09 So large in fact that my normal desoldering tools

4:12 are too shallow to get all of the solder out.

4:14 It seems to be doing something.

4:15 Meaning I can't insert any more switches without getting out the excess solder.

4:19 Like if only there was a some kind of solder wicking material that I

4:23 could use and just heat up the solder and then just suck it up,

4:28 which there actually is.

4:30 I completely forgot about it,

4:31 but a commenter reminded me the soldering wick exists.

4:36 This is our target area.

4:38 So, the way wick works is, as the name intends,

4:41 you kind of just put the wick on the solder, heat it up.

4:45 It's uh this really needs to work cuz if this doesn't work,

4:49 I can't get the switches in.

4:50 And if I can't get the switches in, I don't have a keyboard for Mr.

4:53 Who's the Boss.

4:56 Best of luck.

4:57 Oh, it's doing it.

5:05 Oh, it's doing it.

5:07 Look at that.

5:09 A hell yeah.

5:11 Where there was once no hole, there is a hole.

5:16 Okay, let's let's get down to business.

5:21 Uh, it is 11:00 p.m.

5:23 I need this ready in a couple of hours.

5:28 Done.

5:33 See, the holes are empty.

5:35 So now I can manipulate the gaps with switches, but not just any switches.

5:42 They're not just using your absolutely not run-of-the-mill

5:46 regular size MX switches like these Cherry MX Purples.

5:50 It uses 108 of these.

5:58 There we go.

5:59 Old Novel Keys big switches.

6:02 There's there's no comparison really to be had.

6:05 Like it's just crazy.

6:06 My Giant keyboard is probably the thickest keyboard out there, which is good.

6:10 My annoyance with lowprofile keyboards are the compromises to typing

6:14 feel and sound that getting a keyboard into that thin,

6:17 shallow form factor usually requires.

6:19 But listen to this.

6:29 There was one thin keyboard I could stomach.

6:32 That was the Lafrey Flow.

6:33 So when Loafrey contacted me about its successor,

6:36 the Flow 2, I was happy to give it a look.

6:38 The combination of these redesigned Kale Cloud switches,

6:42 their pad gasket mount implementation and the way it's all built

6:45 into this aluminium case gives a typing experience that whilst not full size,

6:50 doesn't feel like I'm compromising from the sort

6:52 of full fat custom keyboards I normally type on.

6:54 It basically has everything else people usually want in a keyboard these days.

6:57 Different colors, perky lighting and underglow,

7:00 wireless and wired modes, Windows and Mac modes,

7:03 and they've added a capacitive touch bar

7:05 for those who like using their keyboards for work,

7:07 and the new silent switch variant for those who

7:09 don't like to disturb their colleagues, which is not me.

7:13 I will be using the noisiest one possible.

7:15 Get 10% off the low free flow 2 using my code.

7:24 I'm leaning it against the wall because we need space

7:26 between the PCB and the floor to push the pins through.

7:31 If not, they just bend.

7:34 Moment of truth.

7:40 I'm probably the first person to wrestle a keyboard.

7:44 And by the sounds of it, a I knew it could never be that easy.

7:50 Probably the first one to lose.

7:58 Please work.

7:59 Please work.

7:59 Please work.

8:00 Please work.

8:02 Yes.

8:06 Right down here.

8:08 Oh, heck yeah.

8:10 Look at that.

8:11 switches populated.

8:14 And doesn't she look good?

8:16 Huh?

8:17 I've got to say, honestly,

8:19 even though it is already past my bedtime at this point,

8:22 things were going unglassesly well,

8:24 which I'm sure I definitely won't regret mentioning at all.

8:31 One more.

8:31 Whilst the soldering was straightforward,

8:33 it did reveal a problem I didn't notice when making my original to-do list.

8:41 Oh, we have another problem.

8:44 Just as I believed I was finished and had

8:49 all of the hard stuff done, what do I discover?

8:52 A heavily frayed USB cable.

8:55 Oh, bother.

8:57 And the only way to access the cable was

8:59 by ripping off the super glued backspace which currently guards it.

9:03 Oh, it doesn't want to come off.

9:08 Guess we need another cable.

9:09 In my prudence, I had brought a spare cable from the storage unit.

9:15 Oh, look at that.

9:16 I did not think I would get that home.

9:18 But as I started to thread it into the case,

9:20 it's case much.

9:22 Oh, you're joking.

9:23 Oh, no.

9:26 Oh, you're joking.

9:32 The USB type-C connector has just snapped off.

9:35 That might be it, folks.

9:37 Ah, she uh we Okay.

9:45 Uh 4 hours left.

9:48 Not only do I not have the right tools for the job,

9:51 I have a pretty bad track record of soldering on connectors to PCBs.

9:55 Oh.

9:56 Oh boy.

9:59 Okay.

9:59 Well, if this doesn't work, this is all in vain.

10:03 If I plug this in and I don't get that, it was all in vain.

10:08 Yeah.

10:33 I couldn't believe it.

10:35 Oh, it's a Christmas.

10:36 By some stroke of luck, some mercy of God,

10:38 every single key in this keyboard was working.

10:43 Yes.

10:46 Oh, it's not completely cooked.

10:48 My work was done, but the adrenaline of the last

10:53 hour had masked the tiredness I've been acrewing all day.

10:56 And I'm supposed to be filming with Mr.

10:57 Who's the Boss in like 6 hours.

10:59 So going home probably take 20 minutes.

11:06 I'll get back.

11:08 I left the office with such a feeling of contentment,

11:11 such a tangible sense of fulfillment.

11:15 So tell me how 4 hours later I felt like the biggest doofus ever conceived.

11:22 I fell asleep and I come in and I

11:25 found out that the printer ran out of filament.

11:30 So, my key caps are half finished and it's eight.

11:41 How am I going to explain this to Miss Leos?

11:44 I don't even have time to explain that.

11:46 I need to go.

11:46 You might remember how expensive I said

11:48 it was to move this keyboard around, right?

11:50 Uber quoted me £300 to drive it to Mr.

11:53 Who's the Bosses, but fortunately there was a much

11:56 cheaper way I could drive it there myself, even without a full driving license.

12:02 First surprise for you to see what we're moving to.

12:07 Okay.

12:08 Yeah.

12:08 Yeah.

12:08 Yeah.

12:10 The biggest keyboard giant.

12:12 Yeah.

12:13 Yeah.

12:12 Uhhuh.

12:13 Okay.

12:13 Cool.

12:13 This is Francis.

12:15 He is my unfortunate driving instructor who has been teaching me to drive.

12:18 And as luck would have it, today I requested a motorway lesson.

12:22 I'm not sure it's going to fit in the car.

12:24 That's the first thing I think.

12:26 We'll make it work.

12:27 Like strap it to the roof.

12:28 Just um maybe strap me to the roof.

12:30 Maybe I get strapped to the roof.

12:32 Okay, we better hit the road and just try.

12:35 Yeah, but okay.

12:39 And man, did we cut it close.

12:42 But we just about arrived half an hour late.

12:47 But all was well and I still got to feature the glasses

12:50 company in front of an audience of millions of new people.

12:53 And all I need to do is get the stamp of approval from Mr.

12:55 Who's the Boss and this ordeal will be all worth it.

12:58 I think it's fair to give you a fall.

13:02 What?

13:03 Oh.

13:04 Well, that's awkward.

13:07 What does he know about keyboards anyways?