Hello,
Just received the POM plate in the mail tonight and installed it. Took me about an hour and a half because I'm slow and we need to remove all caps, switches, and unscrew the old plate from the PCB. I also re-applied fresh tape layers to the back of the PCB before closing up the case (blue painters masking tape). The POM kit includes new gaskets for use with the plate. These are slightly narrower and slightly softer than the original gaskets that came with the Keychron Q3. But if you have a Q3 you know that Keychron includes extra gaskets, so we could use those instead of the ones that come with the POM plate. I decided to use the new gaskets that came with the POM plate. They work great in my opinion. I added an extra gasket on the left and right far edges which, on the original steel plate were completely absent.
The original standoffs that come with the steel keychron plate are built into the plate itself and screws in from the back of the PCB. The original plate, the top of it is completely flush/flat even where the standoffs exist.
But on the new POM plate, the standoffs are not built into the plate. The standoffs are seperate pieces and need to be secured with a nut or screw from the top of the POM plate and also a nut or screw secures from the bottom of the PCB. The end result is that the POM plate is not a completely flat surface on top because a nut or screw rests ontop of the POM plate to secure the standoff. The problem with this design is that the keycaps that are near those standoff nut/screw will contact it. Before the switch can bottom out the nut/screw of the standoff interferes with the keycap travel. This affects the down arrow key, the right arrow key (standoff exists between those two keys), and the Left most CTRL key and Windows key (standoff exists between those two also)... and a few other which I cannot remember at the moment.
The workaround was not to use the standoffs that come with this POM plate at all. The switches themselves seem sufficient and server the purpose of the standoffs. I ended up disassembling the whole thing because I didn't test this until I had it almost fully assembled with keycaps when I discovered this.
It's very nice plate. I'm not certain if I liked it more than the steel plate. Maybe I'm weird. The entire keyboard is lighter obviously because that steel plate was heavy. I kindof miss that weight. I'm also not certain I like the sound better than the steel plate. I might just be saying that because I had grown accustom to the steel plate while using it. I'm not displeased with this POM plate but I'm very surprised regarding the standoffs interfering with keycap travel. I'm using keychron's own keycaps... OEM PBT DYE-SUB 1.6mm thick.
I'll keep it with this POM plate for a week or two and then perhaps try the steel plate again to be sure which plate I like the best.
*photos below are before installing the new POM. You can see the POM in the bag still. I didn't take photos of the standoff interference while they were on the POM plate because I was so exhausted and frustrated at the realization at that point, knowing I had to dissasemble it all over. I didn't think to take pictures of that, ha. But I did take a photo of the standoffs after I removed them to give you a better idea of their design.
I do recommend this POM plate if that's what you are looking for. Just know you'll likely decide not to use the standoffs that come with it.
Thank you,
Benny