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Lez talk mechanical keyboards

sviri said:
That's a really good question. It was May 2012 and I'd been on the Diablo 3 hype train since being a little kid playing the shit out of 2. It really came down to me wanting to have a completely new rig for the moment of release. Still using the keyboard and the rest of the rig to this day.
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Mechanical keyboards don't really solve "problems" any more than, say, a convertible car solves problems. The reason people get them is their long lasting life (without the annoyance of continuously harder to press rubber keys), comfort, and satisfying feel. For people who type all day and work at the computer, it's a nice comfort/luxury purchase, and many of us end up buying more and more to suit our tastes.

That being said, yes, "feature wise", a $20 keyboard would work well enough.
 
I'm diving into the Q5. You can nab one right now for about $139. The keyboard will retail at around 229.

Only 5 days left
Kickstarter


97fe2b1c5f8ab84e6c485154464dfca9_original_zpspoqitpeo.jpg


Hardware

-Das Keyboard mechanical switches withstanding 100M actuations - made by Omron, Japan.
-Centered SMT RGB Leds
-Q button - dual purpose with volume
-3 light pipes: 2 on the sides, and 1 around the Q button
-Double-shot key caps for 104-key layout for US
-Laser-etched key caps for 105-key layout for UK, Nordic and German (see below for pictures)
-Tactile bump on F, J, and numeric keypad 5 keys.
-Extra-long 6.5 ft (201 cm) braided USB cable with single USB type-A connector
-Full-time NKRO over USB for fast typists and gamers
-Steel mounting plate
-UNLOCKED: Aluminium top panel
-Detachable palm-rest with magnetic locking system
-Compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux
Click to expand...


Software

-User upgradable firmware (over the Internet with the Q app)
Native support for Dvorak and Colemak and key remapping (E.g. CapsLock becomes CRTL)
-Desktop REST Api
-Q desktop application
-Q cloud software
-Q software compatible with Windows, macOS and Linux
Click to expand...
 
Rayge said:
I'm diving into the Q5. You can nab one right now for about $139. The keyboard will retail at around 229.

Only 5 days left
Kickstarter


97fe2b1c5f8ab84e6c485154464dfca9_original_zpspoqitpeo.jpg
Click to expand...
I hate when people use the phrase "bad ass", it just feels so forced.

But the kb looks nice. I don't know why it would require a cloud service though. I can see some benefits, but for the most part it seems unnecessary.
 
sviri said:
I'm not sure I'd ever buy another one. I bought the black widow ultimate and it didn't solve any problems, but it did add the problem of annoying click sounds.
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After reading this thread I decided to try out a mechanical keyboard and went with the black widow. Unfortunately I did not like the feeling of typing on it and I already returned it a few days ago. The stiffness of the keys and noise threw me off
 
THEBONDIGTY said:
After reading this thread I decided to try out a mechanical keyboard and went with the black widow. Unfortunately I did not like the feeling of typing on it and I already returned it a few days ago. The stiffness of the keys and noise threw me off
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You got the wrong switches then. Browns and reds require practically no force to depress and don't make significantly more noise than a membrane keyboard.
 
Only 4 hours left for the PBT topre space bars on massdrop. Reading through the comments it will probably be quite a while before the drop happens again. Last one was about a year ago.

Even if you aren't interested or don't have a keyboard everyone is saying you could sell them for a profit pretty quick if you wanted to as they are pretty rare. Just a heads up.
 
saunderez said:
You got the wrong switches then. Browns and reds require practically no force to depress and don't make significantly more noise than a membrane keyboard.
Click to expand...

Have to disagree with that. Browns are still much more noisy than a membrane keyboard in my experience. I mean they aren't your blue noisy, but still very noticeable.

Reds are nice, though it's so easy to bottom out that it gets noisy too lol
 
Ashhong said:
Have to disagree with that. Browns are still much more noisy than a membrane keyboard in my experience. I mean they aren't your blue noisy, but still very noticeable.

Reds are nice, though it's so easy to bottom out that it gets noisy too lol
Click to expand...

As a person who's been using Reds for the last 3 years this is 100%, more than half the time I bottom out which makes it a fairly noisy board albeit a different kind of noise compared to Blues

I'm just on the verge of ordering a Shine 5 but can't decide whether I want TKL or normal.
 
MoonGred said:
As a person who's been using Reds for the last 3 years this is 100%, more than half the time I bottom out which makes it a fairly noisy board albeit a different kind of noise compared to Blues

I'm just on the verge of ordering a Shine 5 but can't decide whether I want TKL or normal.
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wilflare said:
the chattering on my 7 year old Filco is starting to really annoy me.

are mechanical keyboards supposed to last longer than this?
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It's funny that these two posts came right after one another, as on my Cherry Reds I had just gotten to the point where I could consistently avoid bottoming out before it developed a chatter.

FWIW, apparently "all" cherry keys chatter, and the keyboard's firmware suppresses it, and some firmwares will suppress better than others.
 
What is chatter?

I think I am going to have to settle on browns. I've been using Reds for the past week ish, and while I do like how fast it makes me type, it feels weird. It's forcing me to type faster than I even want, the spring seems to be very strong and pushes my fingers up. Also they almost feel cheap with no feedback. Hopefully I don't regret this decision..
 
"I think I am going to have to settle on browns. I've been using Reds for the past week ish, and while I do like how fast it makes me type, it feels weird. It's forcing me to type faster than I even want, the spring seems to be very strong and pushes my fingers up. Also they almost feel cheap with no feedback. Hopefully I don't regret this decision.."


Reds and browns have the exact same spring stiffness, which is the lightest Cherry offers.
 
I've had a Filco with Cherry browns, didn't like it and sold it after a few months.

Got a Logitech g810 the other week. Instantly regretted it also for almost the exact same reasons. It's crazy how similar feeling/sounding it is to my old Filco in every way.

I guess I just don't like mechanical keyboards, or at least ones Cherry type switches.
 
H3XAntiStyle said:
FWIW, apparently "all" cherry keys chatter, and the keyboard's firmware suppresses it, and some firmwares will suppress better than others.
Click to expand...
I can confirm that blues, even brand new, have bouncy contacts. Cherry recommands 5ms debounce time, but I think many makers use a shorter debounce time. The problem is that when keys get older, they're usually more bouncy, and you start to get chattering.
 
boneyjangles said:
I've had a Filco with Cherry browns, didn't like it and sold it after a few months.

Got a Logitech g810 the other week. Instantly regretted it also for almost the exact same reasons. It's crazy how similar feeling/sounding it is to my old Filco in every way.

I guess I just don't like mechanical keyboards, or at least ones Cherry type switches.
Click to expand...

You got a pair of keyboards with very similar feeling switches. The Romer-G switches used by Logitech are tactile and have same actuation force as Cherry MX Brown. Have you tried other Cherry keyswitches besides MX Brown? You really should go to a store and try keyboards with different keyswitches if possible.
 
Koren said:
I can confirm that blues, even brand new, have bouncy contacts. Cherry recommands 5ms debounce time, but I think many makers use a shorter debounce time. The problem is that when keys get older, they're usually more bouncy, and you start to get chattering.
Click to expand...

I've *also* heard that there's software that you can run on the PC that can help alleviate bounce/chatter, but I've no idea how well it works.
 
MoonGred said:
I'm looking for a change from my k70 with reds. Ideally something with brown keys or the equivalent of. I've had my eye of a few ducky keyboards but have yet to seem them in real life, all the photos I've seen makes it look really cheap which has kinda put me off them each and every time.

Anyone have any recommendations?


Edit: it seems that ducky just isn't very good at taking promo shots of their rgb back lighting. The build quality looks fine.
Click to expand...

I just got a Ducky One RGB TKL (they have non-TKL versions) and it's amazing. The RGB lighting looks a lot better in person than on their promo shots. It's built like a tank, heavier than my old K70. I went from reds as well to the One with browns, and I love it.
 
Snakethesniper said:
What's a cheap "entry level" mechanical keyboard? I tried one yesterday and it feels good
Click to expand...

There are a lot of $40~ "knock off" ones on Amazon. If you can, try to find one with Gaterons, as I hear they are, more or less, not knock offs.

Do you know what key type you tried? There's a good variety out there, but if you tried one in store, good chance it was either Brown or Blue.
 
Snakethesniper said:
What's a cheap "entry level" mechanical keyboard? I tried one yesterday and it feels good
Click to expand...

somebody posted this in another thread https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OBA6QYY/?tag=neogaf0e-20

seems good for the money but it's using Kailh switches which are like a rip off/clone of the most commonly used cherry switches. I've no experience with Kailh but they are probably not much worse or too different. You can buy a very good 'real deal' cherry keyboard for like $80-90, so why not get the real deal. I see amazon has corsair strafe with blue switches for 90, that's really good.
 
Teknopathetic said:
"I think I am going to have to settle on browns. I've been using Reds for the past week ish, and while I do like how fast it makes me type, it feels weird. It's forcing me to type faster than I even want, the spring seems to be very strong and pushes my fingers up. Also they almost feel cheap with no feedback. Hopefully I don't regret this decision.."


Reds and browns have the exact same spring stiffness, which is the lightest Cherry offers.
Click to expand...

Well then maybe the fact that the browns have that actuation "click" kind of slows down the return of the key just a tad. I'm not sure if that makes any sense. Red just feels more springy overall
 
FerranMG said:
Wow indeed.
It looks very cool, I'll keep an eye on this.
Though 300$ is a lot.
Click to expand...

I know right? Normally I'd be like get out of town but I was looking at the kickstarter page and this friggin thing seems to do everything! It even looks like you can kind of use it like a HOTAS. It's even wireless...

I will say I will definitely wait for impressions for something so adventurous though. I am still new to the PC space in general.

On a side note, how often do EK generally receive stock on their keyboards? I'm waiting to buy a white Realforce 55g 87u but they have been out of stock for a couple days... Will it let me order and put me in a cue? Or do you guys think MassDrop will be dropping one soon? I'm actually kind of nervous and stressing out that as soon as I buy one from EK's website Massdrop will drop a special edition or something...
 
VlaudTheImpaler said:
I know right? Normally I'd be like get out of town but I was looking at the kickstarter page and this friggin thing seems to do everything! It even looks like you can kind of use it like a HOTAS. It's even wireless...

I will say I will definitely wait for impressions for something so adventurous though. I am still new to the PC space in general.
Click to expand...
It's a concept render of a KS that is two years and half old, two years late, it hasn't been update till last years, and the first set of beta isn't yet out...

I remember considering the KS, and decided against, because I wasn't convinced (the idea is sound, but it was rough, the promises not really convincing, especially considering the time table). I'm quite happy now...


One of the issues is that you can mostly do yourself such a keyboard, assuming an access to a fablab. The main advantage of a big-sized project is the finish. And the KS were not really clear on this part, especially seing how the prototype was far from the goal in terms of design.

If you browse Geekhack and Deskthority, you'll find plently of interesting projects. For example, a recent interesting that surfaced in terms of keyboards with keywell is this one:
yZKLKCe.png

(Plus, it's Topre...)
 
Pulled the trigger on a Ducky One with MX Brown. I hope I don't regret it, not easy to return to MechanicalKeyboards.com. Took forever to decide what switch I want..
 
VlaudTheImpaler said:
I know right? Normally I'd be like get out of town but I was looking at the kickstarter page and this friggin thing seems to do everything! It even looks like you can kind of use it like a HOTAS. It's even wireless...

I will say I will definitely wait for impressions for something so adventurous though. I am still new to the PC space in general.

On a side note, how often do EK generally receive stock on their keyboards? I'm waiting to buy a white Realforce 55g 87u but they have been out of stock for a couple days... Will it let me order and put me in a cue? Or do you guys think MassDrop will be dropping one soon? I'm actually kind of nervous and stressing out that as soon as I buy one from EK's website Massdrop will drop a special edition or something...
Click to expand...

I bought my realforce on amazon.com, if you're American.


Topre switches are the best switches
 
Winterblink said:
I just got a Ducky One RGB TKL (they have non-TKL versions) and it's amazing. The RGB lighting looks a lot better in person than on their promo shots. It's built like a tank, heavier than my old K70. I went from reds as well to the One with browns, and I love it.
Click to expand...

Yea, I've made up my mind and getting TKL, the only thing I'll really miss is volume control.

VlaudTheImpaler said:
Right Hand of the King
783e3c44.jpeg


Left Hand of the King
king-s-assembly-2.jpg


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/70308014/kings-assembly-a-computer-mouse-full-of-awesome

...

2086_a7ec.jpeg
Click to expand...

This looks like something out AC, maybe it just the font they used
 
Ashhong said:
Pulled the trigger on a Ducky One with MX Brown. I hope I don't regret it, not easy to return to MechanicalKeyboards.com. Took forever to decide what switch I want..
Click to expand...

I have Ducky for several years now and still enjoy it a lot. Can't think of anything that I am missing, apart from that the cable could be a little longer. The best thing (for me at least) is that every customizations you want to put through, it goes directly through the keyboard. No software/driver needed.
 
Paasei said:
I have Ducky for several years now and still enjoy it a lot. Can't think of anything that I am missing, apart from that the cable could be a little longer. The best thing (for me at least) is that every customizations you want to put through, it goes directly through the keyboard. No software/driver needed.
Click to expand...

Is there a way to program the calc button to something else? The keyboard is missing a pause button, it's all I need.

Hmm..also is there anywhere I can get a matching key that's a pause/play logo I can use instead?
 
Ashhong said:
Is there a way to program the calc button to something else? The keyboard is missing a pause button, it's all I need.

Hmm..also is there anywhere I can get a matching key that's a pause/play logo I can use instead?
Click to expand...
It doesn't have media controls, no. It does have a Pause (break) key if that is what you're saying.

I'm not sure if you can program the control keys (the calculator key etc) to do something else. I don't think so actually, but I have never looked it up or tried that myself as I simply do not even use them.

There are plenty of custom keycaps you can get for any Ducky keyboard, like with so many other brands. Any MX mount caps (in the right layout) will fit just nicely. PBT and ABS are interchangeable.

On the back of the keyboard there also little switches/levers that change the layout a little. As an example you can lock the windows key, switch Caps with Ctrl and some other features.
 
Paasei said:
It doesn't have media controls, no. It does have a Pause (break) key if that is what you're saying.

I'm not sure if you can program the control keys (the calculator key etc) to do something else. I don't think so actually, but I have never looked it up or tried that myself as I simply do not even use them.

There are plenty of custom keycaps you can get for any Ducky keyboard, like with so many other brands. Any MX mount caps (in the right layout) will fit just nicely. PBT and ABS are interchangeable.

On the back of the keyboard there also little switches/levers that change the layout a little. As an example you can lock the windows key, switch Caps with Ctrl and some other features.
Click to expand...

Well the One has volume up, down, and mute next to the Calc button. I'll have to find some kind of third party program that will reprogram it. Thanks for the advice on the key, I'll look on ebay or something. I just want a single key....will probably be hard to find that lol
 
hateradio said:
Probably Trajan?

https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/trajan/
Click to expand...

The little things you learn on the internet on a daily basis.
I have 0 knowledge of fonts though.

More on topic. I finally decided to order the ducky one TKL with brown switches and it was sold out. There only being one official retailer in Australia puts me at their mercy.

I had a quick look and couldn't really find a big difference between the One TKL the and the Shine 5 apart from the keys of course. Does anyone have a quick summary?
 
I impuls bought a Logitech G810 and really like it!

Took me a while to find out how to leave it on preloaded settings so I don't have to install the shitty software...
 
TerryLee81 said:
I impuls bought a Logitech G810 and really like it!

Took me a while to find out how to leave it on preloaded settings so I don't have to install the shitty software...
Click to expand...

Have you already learned to hold the light button and press 1 2 3 4 5 6? Changes the LED pattern
 
What are Logitech mech boards like?

I have Logitech mouse and headphones so want my KB to match... Currently using a razer blackwidow but will sell if they are worth it.
 
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