Jelly Epoch by Owlab
The One that Broke the Mechanical Keyboard Hobby
A revolutionary piece of technology
It is hard to come by one in any industry. The first "mechanical keyboard" was invented in 1714 in the form of a typewriter but the modern day Cherry MX switch came almost 300 years later, in 1973. Going a step further, any one modification (or mod in short) to a custom mechanical keyboard are hardly a standard by any means. If your keyboard has a metallic resonance, throw a force break mod at it. Need less reverb? Try adding some case foam or tape modding the PCB. Mods are situational. Depending on how "flawed" you think your keyboard is, there is one or two particular mod you can do to combat that.
But there is one that rose above all that became a standard and staple - PE foam mod.
Someone went and stuck (PE foam) in between the plate and PCB…
PE foam is something you would use as stuffing or packing material for your shipments. You use it to fill up empty spaces in a box to reduce impact and spare damages to the contents. Someone went and stuck it in between the plate and PCB of a custom keyboard and discovered how amazingly marbly and thocky the acoustics were. It quickly became a popular mod. If your keyboard sounded thin, throw PE foam at it. If your keyboard sounded sharp, throw PE foam at it. If your keyboard sounded soft, throw PE foam at it. Regardless of how bad it is, the eventual acoustics of a keystroke becomes a warm, marbly thock with the use of PE foam.
PE foam may be the first mod you try,
but don't make it the last.
There are mods and there are standard offerings. It's ridiculous if a keyboard kit doesn't have the case included. It's ridiculous if a keyboard kit doesn't have a plate or PCB or daughterboard or screws. But these days, if a pack of foams are not included, it's ridiculous. I'm not just talking about case foam or PCB foam, I'm talking about PE foam. Yes, a mod became a standard offering in some, probably most kits these days.
And it all started with the Jelly Epoch, a custom mechanical keyboard by Owlab.
The Jelly Epoch looks every bit like a custom mechanical keyboard. An interesting design with a huge brass weight and some small accents here and there. The case itself is mostly plastic. It feels incredible though, probably injection molded and not like 3D printed ones which can be flimsy. I built my Jelly with a PC plate and Banana Splits for extra deep acoustics. To be honest, without using a PE foam, it sounds very good as is. The PE foam just modifies the acoustics to that of the PE-signature. If you are interested in hearing how the keyboard sounds, I will put up a link here for you to check out.
In my opinion, the Jelly Epoch sounds great without the PE foam. Some keyboards only sounds good when PE foam is used *er hum QK*. Personally, I quite like the PE foam mod but I am against using it in every Tom, Dick and Harry build. It is very overrated and very overused at this point. It is not difficult to see why though, because it is very warm sounding and is a likable signature. Nonetheless, there are so many varieties of acoustics to try out on a keyboard and PE foam is but one of them.
PE foam may be the first mod you try but don't make it the last.
