Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Beam Spring Keyboards

modelfkeyboards.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 116 posts

Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards

#71

Post by Hendrikto »

wpm wrote: post #48
porknubbins wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are mechanical keyboards becoming a way to show off like the programmer equivalent of loud truck exhaust? The sound is satisfying yes, but with other people in mind I am looking for the quietest mechanical keyboard I can find these days. I have become self conscious about typing quietly during phone calls or meetings in case I am unmuted.

I think the "buy a solenoid and a hammer to slap the case everything you hit a key" think most definitely is, like the typists truck nuts of keyboard mods.

This was in the original, because without that solenoid, typists accustomed to the sound of typewriters were not sure their presses registered correctly. The times were different.

Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards

#72

Post by kotaKat »

ndiddy wrote: post #27

Note that Ellipse/modelfkeyboards is notorious in the keyboard community for poor quality control and support. The keyboards often come misaligned or damaged in shipping, and it's up to you to fix them. I'm not sure about their beam spring keyboards, but their Model F keyboards come without keycaps installed, meaning that the keys haven't even been tested to actuate properly before the keyboard is shipped. If you hav…

Guess I spin around and go back to Unicomp...

Kinda digging the Mini M. https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/MINI_M

Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards

#73

Post by TwoFerMaggie »

jmspring wrote: post #39
ndiddy wrote: post #27

Note that Ellipse/modelfkeyboards is notorious in the keyboard community for poor quality control and support. The keyboards often come misaligned or damaged in shipping, and it's up to you to fix them. I'm not sure about their beam spring keyboards, but their Model F keyboards come without keycaps installed, meaning that the keys haven't even been tested to actuate properly before the keyboard is shipped. If you hav…

The keyboards look janky. Why buy this over something like Das Keyboard which has mechanical keys as well and is cheaper?

MX switches are the entry point of the "mechanical keys". You can go into way too many rabbit holes beyond consumer brands like Das Keyboard.

There are topre capacitive switches (HHKB, Realforce etc) , buckling spring switches like the ones in this post (& older IBM model M, Unicomp), Alps switches (older mac keyboards, matias), and an endless selection of MX compatible customized switches. All with different tactility and sound profiles.

Merely "having mechanical keys" is a very basic criteria especially for enthusiasts who might have very specific requirements and preference for how their keyboards should feel and sound. This one is mainly targeted towards those enthusiasts.

Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards

#74

Post by amelius »

appplication wrote: post #21
userbinator wrote: post #17

Some keys won’t work right away – you are responsible for making this keyboard work Do not use any beam spring keyboard in a mission-critical environment. I can say this is the first time I've seen this in the sales description for a keyboard. Are these assembled from NOS parts?

I’m not going to call it dumb, but I will will say… reading that bit, I don’t understand this product at all and could not be further from their target market.

These are keyboards for users of LLMs. Every time their keyboard falls apart they are reminded that LLMs can make mistakes.

Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards

#75

Post by TylerE »

ndiddy wrote: post #34
fooqux wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for posting this. I've been looking at getting one but this has made me pause.

Yeah it's a shame because his keyboards are genuinely good, I just find it strange that he operates like this. If he charged an extra $100 or whatever and acted like a normal company (fully assembling and testing prior to shipping out products, packaging things properly so they don't get damaged in shipping, having a mail-in warranty service, that sort of thing) I think he'd have better sales.

All of those things would cost a hell of a lot more than $100 unit. Probably closer to doubling the price.

Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards

#76

Post by TylerE »

TwoFerMaggie wrote: post #73
jmspring wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The keyboards look janky. Why buy this over something like Das Keyboard which has mechanical keys as well and is cheaper?

MX switches are the entry point of the "mechanical keys". You can go into way too many rabbit holes beyond consumer brands like Das Keyboard. There are topre capacitive switches (HHKB, Realforce etc) , buckling spring switches like the ones in this post (& older IBM model M, Unicomp), Alps switches (older mac keyboards, matias), and an endless selection of MX compatible customized switches. All with different tactili…

Mechanical was always a dumb name. A collapsing rubber dome is a mechanism anyway.

Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards

#79

Post by kqr »

ndiddy wrote: post #27

Note that Ellipse/modelfkeyboards is notorious in the keyboard community for poor quality control and support. The keyboards often come misaligned or damaged in shipping, and it's up to you to fix them. I'm not sure about their beam spring keyboards, but their Model F keyboards come without keycaps installed, meaning that the keys haven't even been tested to actuate properly before the keyboard is shipped. If you hav…

What a contrast against MoErgo, which I recently contacted just to notify them that a keycap broke in transport due to rough handling by the postal service.

Although spare keycaps came with the purchase and the broken one still worked anyway, they insisted on sending me a replacement for the keycap that broke.

Re: New Beam Spring Keyboards

#80

Post by AndrewOMartin »

KronisLV wrote: post #14
rbanffy wrote: post #11

In the meantime, I would remind the people who would like to experience a vintage keyboard to take a look at the Unicomp model M keyboards. They are not Model Fs or beam spring, but are rock solid, reliable, and sensibly priced considering their quality.

Link: https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/category/UKBD I’d get one if the shipping to EU would be more reasonable.

That's $55 to ship to the UK. Tbh, I have an original Model-M and if ~£175 gets something of similar quality on your desk I'd say that's a fair value deal.

It's not cheap for a keyboard, but no one on this forum should be cheaping out on a keyboard. I always say, if you can find a vendor of Model-M keyboard buy a lifetime's supply (i.e. one).

Post reply on HN