Mechanical Keyboards

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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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I have an old blue keyed Blackwidow and found it to be a pretty solid deck. Not sure I'd pay any premium for Chroma but I hate light up shit so thats just me.
 

Knytestorme_sl

shitlord
532
0
I have an old blue keyed Blackwidow and found it to be a pretty solid deck. Not sure I'd pay any premium for Chroma but I hate light up shit so thats just me.
Yeah, I do a lot of coding and gaming at night with lights off so backlight is pretty useful. I'd likely go for the new Corsair but this machine is my Razer peripherals one (I try to keep all periphs from same company so only need one set of drivers, ie other machine has logitech gear) so the Chroma pretty much fits in the pocket.
 

Mist

REEEEeyore
<Gold Donor>
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PSA: If you have a monochrome K95 and it is under warranty still, if you RMA it (dead keys, anything) they will send you a K95 RGB with an express RMA, because they're not producing monochrome ones anymore. Mine comes later this week.
 

Deathwing

<Bronze Donator>
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Ordered a switch sampler, it contained white, green, red, black, brown, and blue. I know for certain I don't want any of the clickers. I was hoping the keys with bumps(brown and white?) would be more tactile, but I can barely feel them. So I guess that leaves red and black? Red feels like it might actuate too easily. But blacks might lead to finger fatigue. I definitely prefer the keys with the rubber rings underneath them. I don't understand why that isn't a standard feature.

On top of all of this, I was hoping to buy Logitech because I have a Logitech mouse and I hate having separate drivers for mouse and keyboard. But that's admittedly a stupid reason. And, from what I understand, they make their own switches now. If I'm looking at primarily red or black switches, what are the best models for them? I see the K95 and Chroma listed above. Any others?

On the bright side, my toddler son loves the sampler.
 

Brahma

Obi-Bro Kenobi-X
12,645
47,192
Ordered a switch sampler, it contained white, green, red, black, brown, and blue. I know for certain I don't want any of the clickers. I was hoping the keys with bumps(brown and white?) would be more tactile, but I can barely feel them. So I guess that leaves red and black? Red feels like it might actuate too easily. But blacks might lead to finger fatigue. I definitely prefer the keys with the rubber rings underneath them. I don't understand why that isn't a standard feature.

On top of all of this, I was hoping to buy Logitech because I have a Logitech mouse and I hate having separate drivers for mouse and keyboard. But that's admittedly a stupid reason. And, from what I understand, they make their own switches now. If I'm looking at primarily red or black switches, what are the best models for them? I see the K95 and Chroma listed above. Any others?

On the bright side, my toddler son loves the sampler.
You called it with the blacks. VERY fatiguing. After a week I just gave my DECK away. Browns sound like they are your best bet. Not sure it gets more tactile and quiet than the browns.
 

gogusrl

Molten Core Raider
1,362
105
Tried them all, linear is where it's at. Been typing on blacks on nearly 2 years now, all I need is more smoothness, everything else is the same. That's why I was so excited in the Shit I bought thread, that keyboard has the smoothest mx switches period (or so the internet says, I've yet to try one).

I just got a Leeku v3 pcb that will allow me to do a layout like this one :

brH9vAX.jpg
 

Deathwing

<Bronze Donator>
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There is a chart on this wiki page that has a matrix of clicky/bumpy/linear. I like blue for typing/programming and I like brown for gaming. My coworkers hate blue for typing/programming and could care less what I do in my free time.

ZF Electronics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What's the difference between actuation and tactile force?

Also, I'm not sure I agree that whites are clicky. Certainly isn't on my sampler.


Any recommendations for someone looking to buy an intro mechanical keyboard in either red or black? I mean, I guess I could do with browns, just feels like a waste since that tactile "bump" barely does anything at all.


Where's the space bar on that pic?
 

Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
14,163
607
Sometimes I feel the answer is easier with graphs.

Actuation force is how much force is required to send the signal from the keyboard. For tactile boards that means achieving going over the tactile bump in required force then once over that bump generally it is easier to depress the rest of the way. For linears there is no bump to achieve so the keypress just progressively gets more difficult the closer you are to bottoming the key out.
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
65,963
150,310
You called it with the blacks. VERY fatiguing. After a week I just gave my DECK away. Browns sound like they are your best bet. Not sure it gets more tactile and quiet than the browns.
You can, for more tactile, you van use whites, which have a more noticable bump. However, whites come with a stiffer spring (55g, i THINK, probably 60g like blacks). I use whites with brown/red springs.
 

Sir Funk

Molten Core Raider
1,251
155
So I've had one of these for about a year and a half now:Amazon.com: Tt eSPORTS Poseidon Z Blue Switch Illuminated Keyboard (KB-PIZ-KLBLUS-01): Computers Accessories

I've loved it up until just recently. Now, all at once, I have about 5 different keys that I really have to mash in order for it to register or I get 2-3 keypresses each time I touch them. Most maintenance I've done is pop off the keycaps and blow it out with a can of compressed air. I'm sure this is mechanical keyboards 101, anyone know what I should be doing to this mafucka?
 

ToeMissile

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
<Gold Donor>
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I have browns in a logitech g710+ at home. I'm aware there are better, but for the price I definitely enjoy it. I'd really like to pick something up for work as well, but want to go for a more 'normal' keyboard look, full standard layout, and fairly set on browns. Also don't really want to pay over $80, no luck so far.
 

Mist

REEEEeyore
<Gold Donor>
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Browns are very good for typing and good enough for gaming. Reds are good enough for typing and great for gaming. Not sure of the need for anything else.
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
65,963
150,310
So I've had one of these for about a year and a half now:Amazon.com: Tt eSPORTS Poseidon Z Blue Switch Illuminated Keyboard (KB-PIZ-KLBLUS-01): Computers Accessories

I've loved it up until just recently. Now, all at once, I have about 5 different keys that I really have to mash in order for it to register or I get 2-3 keypresses each time I touch them. Most maintenance I've done is pop off the keycaps and blow it out with a can of compressed air. I'm sure this is mechanical keyboards 101, anyone know what I should be doing to this mafucka?
If the same switches fail over and over, then the "leaf" is fucked (2 gold leafs make a contact). sure mashing the button once a week or month "soft resets" the button, but does it eventually re-fail? and the same switch? it's fucked, de-solder that switch and pop in a new one.

you have a few options purchase the switches from
1.
Mouser Electronics - Be back soon...
Cherry MX Switches
2.
or ebay, BUT ebay might have those cheap chinese switches, i'd caution it.
3.
Desolder a rare used, like the Function keys or if you don't use the num-pad or the tilde~, and repurpose those keys to replace your funky keys.
4.
buy a cheap mechanical keyboard and just "gut" it for parts.

Don't know how to solder/de-solder? google it/watch on youtube, it'll take 5minutes, and especially since you're just doing switches, it's easy, you're not doing pcb's

What ppl fail at, is they use those cheap pen solder irons, you know the 5$ kind from Radio Shack, don't don't heat up hot or fast enough, get a decent one
Amazon.com: Weller WLC100 40-Watt Soldering Station: Home Improvement

and you should be good (there are of course better, but that'll be great for many projects, like a weller 51 would of course be better, but double the price, i prefer hakko myself)

for desoldering, you can either use the wick or a solder sucker, i prefer the sucker, especially for big jobs like switches
LyonsBlue Desoldering Vacuum Pump Solder Removal Tool - Capacitors - Amazon.com

I think i've de-soldered 300switches with that, works great, and of course don't forget to add some solder and you should be good.
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
65,963
150,310
I've been meaning to grab one of theseCIY Mechanical Switches Team Wolf ZHUQUE GAOTE Blue Switches Mechanical Gaming Keyboard 87 Key Backlit Sale - Banggood.com

It has hot swapable switches, it's awesome for someone who's just getting into mechanical keyboards. Since there's no soldering involved, you can try all types of switches for 30-40$ (the price of a pack of switches).

p.s. pretty sure it's up on amazon as well.
yup, just found it
Amazon.com: CIY Mechanical Switches Team Wolf ZHUQUE GAOTE Blue Switches Mechanical Gaming Keyboard 87 Key Backlit: Computers Accessories
 

Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
14,163
607
I'm looking for something that will effectively group my keys together. Specifically for playing PoE I want to hit 3-4-5 all at the same time. I want some sort of bar I can place over my keycaps so when I depress 1 it depresses them all. Does something like that exist?
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
65,963
150,310
I'm looking for something that will effectively group my keys together. Specifically for playing PoE I want to hit 3-4-5 all at the same time. I want some sort of bar I can place over my keycaps so when I depress 1 it depresses them all. Does something like that exist?
what is POE? i use something called the xkeys, it comes in bar form and keypad form, it is a strip i place on the bezel of my computer monitor and it records macros, the usb version comes w/ software, i have the old ps2 version.
Amazon.com: X-keys USB Stick Keys with 16 programmable keys: Computers Accessories
 

Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
14,163
607
I'm not looking for something which would use a 3rd party to simulate the key presses. I could do that already pretty easily. I was just looking for a hardware solution.