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Exploring Different Keyboard Sensing Technologies

lttlabs.com

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Re: Exploring Different Keyboard Sensing Technologies

#11

Post by FuturisticLover »

arcologies1985 wrote: post #4
eknkc wrote: post #2

Is the mechanical keyboard craze still going on? At some point everyone was talking about / showing off their mech keyboard in developer scene. I don’t think I’ve seen much in recent years. I myself went deep into that for a while. Got a couple of keyboards and now I have two Apple Magic Keyboards. Don’t even know where I stashed my mechanicals.

Various patents expired and now you can get excellent typing keyboards from China for $30-50. Basically everyone I know who types for a living has one. Gamers have moved on to analog keyboards which are controversial because some of their features straddle the line into cheats. e.g. with an analog keyboards you can negate all inertia in Counter-Strike or do speed tricks in Trackmania not otherwise easily accessible t…

In India, many brands are now offering low-cost mechanical keyboards. They were costly earlier but one can find super amazing one with 50% less cost now.

Re: Exploring Different Keyboard Sensing Technologies

#12

Post by reedlaw »

arcologies1985 wrote: post #4
eknkc wrote: post #2

Is the mechanical keyboard craze still going on? At some point everyone was talking about / showing off their mech keyboard in developer scene. I don’t think I’ve seen much in recent years. I myself went deep into that for a while. Got a couple of keyboards and now I have two Apple Magic Keyboards. Don’t even know where I stashed my mechanicals.

Various patents expired and now you can get excellent typing keyboards from China for $30-50. Basically everyone I know who types for a living has one. Gamers have moved on to analog keyboards which are controversial because some of their features straddle the line into cheats. e.g. with an analog keyboards you can negate all inertia in Counter-Strike or do speed tricks in Trackmania not otherwise easily accessible t…

Could you give examples of excellent typing keyboards from China for $30-50? Every mechanical keyboard I've owned eventually suffered from key chatter or inconsistent actuation.

Re: Exploring Different Keyboard Sensing Technologies

#13

Post by aa-jv »

akdor1154 wrote: post #7

I want a keyboard switch with a weight on the end of a lever, typewriter or piano style. Or some other mechanism whereby the resistance would be constant or even reverse-linear-ish (from gravity and momentum), not linear (from a spring). But as far as I know no such thing exists. :(

In the piano-/synth-keyboard world, this is accomplished by 'interlocked blades', consisting of two curved blades interconnected with notches for each key, allowing the curve of the pressure mechanism to be tuned according to the depth and scale of the notches.

Its always curious to me that this technology hasn't been adopted in the QWERTY keyboard field, although that may be due to patents .. as I understand it the piano keyboard manufacturers are very aggressive about protecting these patents, and its one of the reasons that all synth manufacturers get their keybed mechanisms from the same supplier (Fatar TP9S) .. though recent technology has moved on to use piezo-electric switches.

https://www.fatar.com/products/tp9s/

(Some other interesting details here: https://www.fatar.com/products/)

Re: Exploring Different Keyboard Sensing Technologies

#15

Post by joebig »

Minor physics nitpick in the article "...and a gradually widening conductor lets the inductance increase proportionally with key travel instead of jumping abruptly as the metal traverses the field. As the key is pressed, more of the cone moves into the field produced by the coil, inducing eddy currents in the metal. Following Lenz’s law, those currents oppose the original field, which increases the coil’s effective inductance..."

L, the inductance, is reduced, not increased due to insertion of a conductor, unless the conductor is ferromagnetic. A non-ferromagnetic conductor will expel flux due to generated eddy currents, lowering flux-linkage, therefore L, assuming driving coil current is held at a steady rms magnitude.

Re: Exploring Different Keyboard Sensing Technologies

#16

Post by locknitpicker »

eknkc wrote: post #2

Is the mechanical keyboard craze still going on? At some point everyone was talking about / showing off their mech keyboard in developer scene. I don’t think I’ve seen much in recent years. I myself went deep into that for a while. Got a couple of keyboards and now I have two Apple Magic Keyboards. Don’t even know where I stashed my mechanicals.

> Is the mechanical keyboard craze still going on?

It depends on your definition of "craze".

Mechanical keyboards are more popular than ever, and became mainstream to the point where nowadays they are just considered keyboards. Even Logitech sells whole product lines of mechanical keyboards, and even has specialized lines of mechanical keyboards.

Also, multiple companies sell ergonomic keyboards that fall within the "craze" classification. Even if they don't ship with noisy switches, they are still in line with what mechanical keyboards were known for.

Nowadays even the pure mechanical keyboards have non-mechanical switches. Optical, magnetic, hall effect, etc. they ship in the standard cherry MX form factor. But aren't mechanical.

A few years ago you had blue switches, red switches, brown switches... You could count the types of switches with your fingers. Nowadays the offer is so vast that you can't keep track. Some companies even sell sample kits with an array of different types of switches for customers to try out. That's a relatively new development.

And do I need to mention the massive inflow of mechanical keyboards on offer from cheap Chinese manufacturers? We're not looking at 400€ mechanical keyboards, but 20€ mechanical keyboards.

The truth of the matter is that in the past you barely had any choice in keyboards. You could choose brand and color, but it was always the same keyboard. Anyone who wanted something beyond this pattern was drawn to mechanical keyboarss. Not today.

So, knowing this, do you think it is a "craze"?

Re: Exploring Different Keyboard Sensing Technologies

#17

Post by d4rkp4ttern »

eknkc wrote: post #2

Is the mechanical keyboard craze still going on? At some point everyone was talking about / showing off their mech keyboard in developer scene. I don’t think I’ve seen much in recent years. I myself went deep into that for a while. Got a couple of keyboards and now I have two Apple Magic Keyboards. Don’t even know where I stashed my mechanicals.

I absolutely love my UHK [1] split mech keyboard that I ordered from Hungary several years ago. It’s the only one I stuck with after trying some other popular ones. Other than being split, the keyboard layout is standard so it’s easy to adapt to.

It probably helps me avoid RSI. I keep an apple trackpad between the two splits, so I never use a mouse. And a microphone in the middle as well, you can guess why. I clamshell my MacBook and almost always work on a monitor. Besides ergonomics, the biggest benefit is the on-board programmability; it lets me define custom layers and macros so I can trigger complex window management, app switching, and IDE navigation with simple key combos.

[1] https://uhk.io/

Re: Exploring Different Keyboard Sensing Technologies

#18

Post by donatj »

My general experience with Cherry style mechanical key switches is disappointment. In my almost 40 years of computing they are the only type of key switch that have consistently given me issue. I've owned at least five boards at this point with them, and they all eventually have issues.

They're like owning a sports car, you have to get used to opening them up and cleaning the contacts, desoldering switches, oiling stems. They're just too high maintenance.

I gave that life up when the P key stopped working on my WhiteFox mid outage and I had to frantically switch keyboards.

My daily driver for the last five years has been a rubber dome Sun Type 7. It has given me zero problems, no one complains about the noise, it's got that so ugly it's cool "retro chic" thing going even though I bought it new direct from Oracle.

I still have multiple IBM buckling spring boards from when I was a kid and none of them have ever given me an issue.

Re: Exploring Different Keyboard Sensing Technologies

#19

Post by bayindirh »

donatj wrote: post #18

My general experience with Cherry style mechanical key switches is disappointment. In my almost 40 years of computing they are the only type of key switch that have consistently given me issue. I've owned at least five boards at this point with them, and they all eventually have issues. They're like owning a sports car, you have to get used to opening them up and cleaning the contacts, desoldering switches, oiling st…

That's pretty interesting. My first mechanical keyboard (Logitech G710+ with genuine Cherry Brown switches) withstood daily bashing of 7+ years, and it still types like the first day. Considering I wrote a Ph.D. on that incl. code and manuscript, it has been used relatively heavily, mixed with some gaming.

I have two other 75% mechanical keyboards, but they are not used as much, and I can't give any feedback on their longevity, but high quality switches do endure from my experience.

On the other hand, I had quite a few top of the line Microsoft keyboards, which were built very well, but their stems wear down after some time, even though their membranes survive. They become a workout instead of being a work enabler, then they are given away.

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