Show us your Mechanical Keyboards and Mods.

[Vict0r]

Your cable for the mechanical keyboard what is that round connector in the middle that appears to be joining the two different colors together?

They're called aviator connectors. They come in many different colours, materials and finishes. GX12, GX16, 4-pin, 5-pin, heat-treated, brass, stainless, even cerakote'd. They are used to split the cable, making sure the coiled part keeps it shape and position on the desk. They also weigh the cable down, making the whole thing lay flat and secure.

 

[ZolaIII]

I never learned 10 finger writing, but as a layman I imagine that a short travel of the keys would be an advantage for writing faster? I might be wrong. My keys for example trigger after one mm or so. Those mecanical keys seam to require a much deeper typing. Again, I am just asking; I am total layman

It really depends from person to person, they affinities and how much you slapped your self while learning blind typing (practice). There are short travel switches aka faster ones (in reality mesured they aren't much faster), slim ones and such. I don't type much anymore but for me best where soft Cherry ones when I did which they sadly don't make anymore (just switches and some rodents).

 

[TheBatsEar]

making sure the coiled part keeps it shape and position on the desk.

If it's static, why have a coiled one?

Better, why have a cable at all?

 

[ZolaIII]

If it's static, why have a coiled one?

Better,ehy have acable at all?

Well 100 LED's suck a lot power so if you want it always on cable is a must. Mine have endurance around 8h with everything on including side light ribbons and on high luminance but how I use it it's recharged every 10~15 day's and I game with gamepad controller of course.

 

[Vict0r]

If it's static, why have a coiled one?

Better,ehy have acable at all?

It's another excuse to accessorize and customize, basically. And oh yeah, the RGB and power drain and whatnot. Mostly just for aesthetics, though.

 

[ZolaIII]

@Vict0r what's your rodent (mouse)? Thinking of getting a new one myself.

 

[anotherhobby]

I am substantially more accurate, and thus much faster, on a mechanical keyboards. This is very important to me because I write code for a living, and my brain is faster than my hands. The reason for the accuracy is the feedback to the finger tips. It's a feedback loop. The same feedback loop exists on any keyboard, even the flat chicklet ones like on a Mac laptop, but the feedback is much less. More feedback is better.

It's not just the sound. The taller keys have deeper center divots, and because of the angle of the keyboard and the depth of the key stroke, you can also feel the edges of the other keys better. As you type, and your fingers start to drift a little bit, the sense of touch in your finger tips gives info back to your brain about how you are hitting keys. Are you striking them with the correct force, are your fingers drifting, can you feel the edge of another key, etc. The brain continuously micro adjusts your fingers as you type to keep them whacking the right keys.

That's basically what's going on, and the more feedback you can get from your keyboard, sound and touch, the more accurately and faster you can type. The feedback is similar to a musician playing a guitar, and feeling the strings and hearing the tone.

I have a Keychron Tenkeyless with brown switches and RGB LEDs, and I love it. Although my wife says it sounds like there is a small band of angry woodpeckers in my office when I'm typing.

 

[_thelaughingman]

I have a Keychron Tenkeyless with brown switches and RGB LEDs, and I love it. Although my wife says it sounds like there is a small band of angry woodpeckers in my office when I'm typing.

View attachment 192235

My wife hates the sound of me typing on the keyboard too, thus I'm modding to kind of tone down the noise from the keys.

 

[garbulky]

I never learned 10 finger writing, but as a layman I imagine that a short travel of the keys would be an advantage for writing faster? I might be wrong. My keys for example trigger after one mm or so. Those mecanical keys seam to require a much deeper typing. Again, I am just asking; I am total layman

For me the short travel especially of laptop keyboards feel bad. The short travel means a too quick stop. And the flat keys on the laptops makes my fingers easier to slide around l.
Using ten fingers takes practice. Look up some YouTube videos. It took me about 4 million words to get to 80 words per minute so be patient and don’t expect rapid progress

 

[JanesJr1]

They click, making it sound as if you type hardcore assembler code at all times. Some even click twice per keystroke, which means you have a black hoodie on, even if you are just in your pajamas.
View attachment 192165


Ordered one from Amazon for 40€ once, chinese blue switches, brand was Aukey, it wasn't as cool as a Model M, but it had some nifty color effects. The keyboard was ok, but loud when you have video conferences all the time.

what is the advantage of those things? I watched some videos on Youtube a while ago but failed to understand the concept

I'm old enough to have experience with mech keyboards all the way back to IBM Selectric typewriter keyboards, which were considered the ergonomic SOTA for intensive typists. (They used to have these employees called "secretaries" back in the day.) Later came IBM PC keyboards, which weren't exactly the same, but were much more ergonomic than most (actually ALL) PC keyboards in the following couple of decades.

The point is that if you type a lot on typical modern laptop keyboards, there is limited key travel and a lot of repetitive impact on joints and finger-tips. Maybe ok for email and occasional typing, but a problem for some people doing high-vol typing. (It was a problem for me.) By contrast, when you get used to typing correctly on a mechanical keyboard, the long-throw key-press can limit or even eliminate the impact of each key press. The haptics and/or key-click of the different types of mechanical keys provide a physical point of feedback where each key-press can be truncated without much bottoming-out, or in some cases, any bottoming out at all. Takes a little practice to get good at it, but not that much. The original Selectric typewriter keyboard was even more exaggerated in this regard.

I'm not a gamer, but I guess gamers do a lot of high-impact "typing" and have a lot of nuanced mech-keyboard characteristics they look for, related to impact, sound, simultaneous key-presses, color-coding, backlighting and so forth.

I can get used to laptops with limited key travel, because some laptop-manufacturers have gotten pretty good at working around a short-key-travel specification for ultra-slim form factors. But I much prefer mech keyboards now that I am writing a book. I have a rehabbed IBM PC keyboard from the 1980's, as well as a couple of modern mech. keyboards. The rehabbed IBM keyboard was $275 a couple of years ago, but it is worth every penny to me. The original IBM PC keyboards have a buckling-spring key switch that is different from modern mechanical key switches, and it is one that I prefer. The IBM keyboard is built like a tank, and will last for decades (if I live that long).

 

[feynman]

Okay.

 

[Blumlein 88]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089YFHYYS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Logitech K845 Review

The Logitech K845 is a decent mechanical keyboard for office use. It's a full-size keyboard that feels well-built, and while our unit uses Cherry MX Blues, you c...

www.rtings.com

If you want one without spending lots of money, Logitech has some like the above. I actually prefer the Cherry Reds which are linear without the mechanical bump in the actuation. I also have used a brown which has a nice tactile feel if that is your preference. These are simply backlit with adjustable levels of lighting including none. They do have an aluminum base to them.

 

[bloodshoteyed]

when i want to feel old, i unwrap the bubblewrap from my original ibm model m (probably one of the last made, dated oct or nov '96)
otherwise i'm on two GMMK boards at home (full sized and the small 60%, which is basicaly unusable for me), went for them mostly because they were about the first commercialy available hot swap
running original cherry blacks on the big board and some yellows on the small one; have to try the heavy-as-hell 100g blacks i found somewhere

 

[digitalfrost]

View attachment 192235

I also use an Ergotron arm and I have the same DAC and also a TKL keyboard. Guess great minds think alike

 

[pierre]

That's the 2 I am using daily. Plus my favorite DAC on top. I am not completly convinced by the quality of the new daskeyboard. Time will tell.
I have another one 10 years old that works like a charm.

 

[Vict0r]

@Vict0r what's your rodent (mouse)? Thinking of getting a new one myself.

It's a Sharkoon Light2, one of those ultra-light mice. It's 65 grams all in, which is hard to believe until you hold it. Pretty decent budget mouse that I can recommend, if you don't mind its looks.

 

[ZolaIII]

@Vict0r thanks for reply. Not really my taste, I like when they have some waight. Found Coshair Sabre Pro wired very nice now for under 60$ (found it for 36$ actually) but wireless version is to expensive (for me at least) and I am in wireless bandwagon so looking at Asus Gladius III Wireless now (around 80$) and it's a nice mouse with dreadful software so I didn't decided yet. Want to add a little lighting to that end as I am on Logitech G305 now.

 

[Berwhale]

Durgod Taurus K320 with Cherry MX Silent Black switches and my first attempt at coiling my own cable....

It looks like the finish is starting to wear off the case around the cursor keys already (although the keys themselves are all fine). That's what you get for buying the cheapest keyboard you can find with the switches you want!

 

[hex168]

Old school here. Unicomp's real buckling spring keyboard.
Unicomp is a spinoff of Lexmark, which was spun off from IBM with the original Model M tooling. Modernized versions also available.

https://www.pckeyboard.com/

 

[TheBatsEar]

The original IBM PC keyboards have a buckling-spring key switch that is different from modern mechanical key switches, and it is one that I prefer. The IBM keyboard is built like a tank, and will last for decades (if I live that long).

I have one, inclusive original IBM clear/smoke cover, plus i have the IBM PS/2 Model 30 PC and tiny VGA monitor that came with it. The keyboard is heavily yellowed and needs retro-brighting.