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Mechanical Keyboard Guide

overclock.net

86 pointsgeorgecmu47 comments

If you are new to mechanical keyboards, I recommend a Cherry Brown-based keyboard. They have a great tactile feel that quickly trains you to recognize that a key is typed without having to bottom out.

I prefer the Topre switches, but the tactile bump is very subtle and if you do not consciously make the effort to not bottom out (initially), you will. And then it's just a very very expensive rubber-dome keyboard.

(The reason you use mechanical keyboards is so that you don't have to bottom out -- slam your fingers against an unyielding piece of plastic thousands of times a day. If you don't realize that and treat your mechanical keyboard like a $3 rubber-dome keyboard, then you are not going to get the comfort that they are supposed to provide. Rubber dome keyboards are bad because the keys only register when you bottom out, forcing you to hurt your hands in order to produce any text.)

Also, if you've used a Model M and hated it, it's because it's bad. You have to apply quite a bit of force to the keys (80g, compared to 35g on a Realforce), and that can be painful. Model Ms make a really fucking cool sound and are built like tanks, but they are otherwise not particularly special. I used to use one, but after switching to a HHKB, I could not go back.

Finally, clicky keyboards are really cool, but the Cherry Browns ("tactile") are a lot easier to type on than the Cherry Blues ("clicky"). I am not really sure why, but the Browns feel "sandpapery" (try it and see) when they register, but the Blues just make a loud noise. The rough feeling is much easier to recognize while typing than the sound, IMHO.

If you can, try each type before buying, but if you can't, forget about clicky and go for Brown. If you like the Cherry Brown-based keyboard but want something higher quality and slightly more ergonomic, then make the step up to the Realforce.

Where can you buy a Cherry Brown keyboard?

From another post in this thread, it seems http://elitekeyboards.com/ has "FILCO"-brand keyboards available with Cherry Brown key-switches.

I'm confused. Why do all of these "elite" keyboards still have oversized dome keys that wiggle around, have a lot of travel, and have big gaps in between them. I'm sorry if this just makes me seem like a mac snob, but how could these compare to a slim, minimal-movement keyboard like this one? http://www.apple.com/keyboard/ [edit: I am not normally an obnoxious snob about keyboards, but considering the subject at hand is keyboard connoisseurship, I have to admit my strong appreciation for the slim-key style which didn't seem well represented in the discussion. (Not about mac vs. pc - just about the key-style.)] Maybe I'm missing something as I've never even heard the term "mechanical keyboard" before - some of the nuances might be lost on me.. but I know what I like and I'm pretty sure I would never go back to a large dome key keyboard like the ones shown. ...Oh wait, there is one keyboard shown that has minimalist keys, but it's $2,400! This is ridiculous, maybe I should go into the PC keyboard making business.

(Yes, I know that mac keyboards only work on the mac, but if people care so much about these things, then that's not really an excuse for leaving it out of the discussion. Anyone else feel the same way about the slim-key keyboards being so much better?) edit: correction -I guess they do work on PCs http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1095349

The optimus isn't minimalist by any stretch; the keys are individually addressable screens.

And modern Apple keyboards work on anything with USB or Bluetooth.

Mechanical keyboards may have lots of travel, but you don't have to use it all. While a mechanical keyboard may have 4-6mm of travel and scissor switch keyboards (like Apple's) only have 2mm, on a mechanical keyboard you don't have to bottom out the keys. Topre switches activate around 2mm - the same as your Apple keyboard. The difference being that your fingers aren't slamming into a hard plastic stop after each activation (unless you choose to bottom out your keys). Furthermore, well made domes don't tend to wiggle much more than the keys on an Apple.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by big gaps - Apple's keyboard also has some pretty sizable gaps between keys. Unless you have tiny fingers I think you'd want those gaps.

More information here: http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=START+HERE+--+The+Gee...

Cool, that's starting to make a little more sense. By gaps I don't just mean the distance between keys, I mean that your fingers actually feel like they get caught in the deep spaces as you slide over them. But maybe that only pertains to the PC keyboards that I have experience with - the ones with with wiggly keys.(Maybe none of them were mechanical keyboards.)

Are you talking about sliding up from home row to the keys above (e.g. J to U)? If so I believe I'm lifting my fingers up slightly (maybe 1mm) when moving between keys. I'm not actually sure if that is good or bad for my typing health, but it does keep me from getting caught in the gaps on an angled keyboard.

exactly - I think that lifting your fingers is the 'normal' way to type on a traditional keyboard with raised keys. But, I love that when I type on my low-profile keyboard I feel like my fingers are always in contact with the keyboard and just kind of slide over the tops of the keys to hit their target. On the occasion when I have to use a raised key keyboard, I have to re-remember how to lift my fingers to type. It takes me a minute to adjust before my fingers stop getting caught on all the key corners. Then again, it could just be personal style - anyways, while I am a pretty fast typist, I wouldn't say that I have the most pristine home row technique, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

I have a macbook, and a PC with a model M keyboard, so I'm familiar with both types and use both regularly. I hadn't noticed before reading this, but I do tend to type similarly to you do on the low-profile macbook keyboard. It's more "sliding" than lifting. I think the low profile necessitates it, because otherwise it's just a lot of wasted movement through thin air and leads to less accuracy.

This may also explain why I was extremely inaccurate when I first started typing on the macbook (until I learned to adjust and type as you do), and why I still find it to be not as comfortable to use as the model M. It is the best laptop keyboard I've ever used, but I don't find that style of typing to be as comfortable or natural.

I guess it's just personal preference, though. I learned on a model M back in high school.

Of course, realize that mechanical keyboards being made of higher quality components has nothing to do with them being mechanical, and rather everything to do with being a niche market. You can always expect to find high quality materials in niche markets, because the consumers specifically seek out the product and relatedly are willing to pay a little more.

I have an old IBM Model M with the buckling spring switches and it's the greatest thing in the world to type on. It's loud, but it feels so good. My typing accuracy and speed have both improved greatly since I switched to it.

I dug it out of the back of a storage building a couple of summers ago. The sticker on the bottom says it was made in 1986. It works flawlessly, and with the help of an old tooth brush and a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, it looks as good as the day it was made.

Why does typing accuracy improve? Is it because the keys have less wobble? I figured that generic keyboards on the market differ greatly in wobble.

Less wobble and it requires more force, so fewer accidental key presses. There's just so much more tactile feedback that it's easier to just "know" where your fingers are at all times.

I'd like to have a mechanical-switch keyboard someday; unfortunately most of the ones I've seen (including the ones in this article) tend to be full-size 104-key keyboards, while my tastes tend toward smaller keyboards like the Happy Hacker keyboard (which is excellent but uses rubber-dome switches).

Right at the moment I'm using a Lenovo Thinkpad USB keyboard because it's a smallish keyboard with a built-in trackpoint device (one less reason to ever leave the home row). If it wasn't for the trackpoint, however, I'd be back on the HHKB - I like the layout more and I seem to have less trouble finding the arrow keys by feel.

Since they don't make HHKB keyboards any more, I suspect my next keyboard might very well be an Apple USB mini-keyboard - it's got the layout I like, it's small and light, and I suspect I could get used to the key-switches soon enough...

The HHKB is very much still in production (mine just arrived last week), though it can be hard to get one in the US. I ordered mine from http://elitekeyboards.com.

My HHKB is replacing a 16 year-old Apple Extended Keyboard. It's definitely not as click-clacky as a buckling spring keyboard, but it's much easier on my wrists (and doesn't wake people up when I'm hacking at night).

Hmm... elitekeyboards.com only seems to have the HHKB Professional 2... the one I have is a "HHKB Lite 2", which (in a strange inversion of the usual hierarchy) includes an extra Fn key on the left and an inverted-T arrow-key cluster.

I realise using arrow keys is heresy to a certain subset of the programming community, but I've been using them for decades and it's hard to give them up.

I realise using arrow keys is heresy to a certain subset of the programming community, but I've been using them for decades and it's hard to give them up.

Then buy a RealForce or the Japanese HHKB Professional instead:

http://www.g-ray.co.uk/pictures/Realforce87U2b.jpg

http://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/hhkeyboard/lineup/pdkb420b.html

FWIW, I use the arrows once in a while (not everything supports Emacs-style keybindings, after all, especially on Windows), and I like the HHKB's approach. Less hand movement than normal arrow keys.

in a strange inversion of the usual hierarchy, includes an extra Fn key on the left and an inverted-T arrow-key cluster

"Lite" refers to the price, not the number of keys. Topre keyswitches are not cheap. A rubber membrane is.

The arrow keys are accessible with the function key. It seems awkward at first, but after a day of use it becomes very natural.

If it's what you really want, the HHKB Lite 2 is actually sold in the US and is quite a bit cheaper (though the switches aren't as nice).

Can you reprogram where arrow keys are? I have my arrow keys in emacs as Alt and then IJKL (like WASD), so it would be nice if Fn IJKL worked the same in OS.

No, you can't reprogram them.

The lite can be found here http://pfuca-store.stores.yahoo.net/haphackeyser.html

Though they didn't take away their days unavailable from august. I believe this yahoo store is also found from the officials manufacturers website for buying the keyboards.

HHKB Professional keyboards are not rubber-dome keyboards. They do use rubber domes to provide tactile feedback, but the actual switch mechanism is capacitive.

The reason rubber-dome keyboards are bad is because you have to bottom-out to get the key to register. Topre switches (which is what the HHKB and Realforce keyboards use) do not have this problem.

Also, HHKBs are very much still in production.

I think I can get by without right-hand number pad (that's for accountants). But how do you substitute for grey +-*/ keys?

There's mathematical operator keys in the main part of the keyboard too. :)

When I had those keys on the keypad, I never really used them because they were further away from the home row than their counterparts on the main keyboard. With the left-hand hitting Shift (if necessary), it's not difficult to hit them with the right hand.

Those keys are good not only for typing in mathematical operators, but also for shortcuts. They must emit different keycodes from the ones one the main keyboard, and you don't need shift. I don't know how to do Shift+ or Control+ without them.

Maybe I should finally switch to Linux. There, you don't even need F keys in the terminal ;-)

I have a somewhat strange requirement which seems to be rather rare in stand-alone keyboard layouts (as opposed to laptops). I like to hit Alt_L and Alt_R (which I remap to Control) with my thumbs because it makes Emacs chording far more comfortable. This is very awkward with a long spacebar. The MS Natural keyboards are good with key placement, in my opinion, but I prefer the lighter activation of a notebook. I definitely like mechanical switches, but don't want to change my chording technique to deal with a long spacebar. Any recommendations?

A Japanese keyboard layout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Japanese) has a shorter spacebar and some extra keys instead. You might be able to remap them to extra modifier keys with suitable software.

The Kinesis Advantage (http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/advantage.htm) also has a unique layout where you hit modifier buttons with your thumbs, and it uses brown Cherry mechanical switches. It's $300 though.

Thanks for the Japanese layout tip. I've always thought the Kinesis looked neat, but not enough to order one without trying it. I also worry about using something that is so different that I forget how to type on a "normal" keyboard, though I don't have much trouble switching between dvorak and qwerty so my concern is likely unfounded.

I've been using a Kinesis for ten years, and while it took some time to get comfortable with it, I've never lost my ability to touch type on a regular flat keyboard; probably because I've had laptops around the whole time, and have done plenty of coding on the sofa/train/&c.

TVS Electronics India makes a cheap, decent 'Cherry Blue'-based mechanical called the 'TVS Gold' for around $30 (converted from INR).

I have one. I'm thinking of buying one for the day gig as well.

Pics: http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:7268&do=co...

Interesting, as Cherry Blue keyswitches are about $1 each in bulk. If you have 103 keys, that puts a lower limit of $103 on the keyboard.

This is a picture of a hall-effect keyboard, made by Sperry-Univac circa 1973. They were very reliable, and the most comfortable keyboard I've ever used (punch cards tho, but wth).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kd1s/4448262833/

I think they also still use hall-effect keyboards on airplanes. (Unfortunately, they use an "ABCDE..." layout!)

I have a rubber dome switch, which I always considered a step up from the membrame keyboards. I didn't realize it was considered one and the same; my Packard Bell keyboard feels almost as nice as some of the mechanical keyboards I've used.

Improper technique can make any mechanical keyboard feel like a rubber-dome keyboard.

Cherry Stream. The best $20 keyboard ever, hands down.

http://www.citx.de/citx/shop/catalog/images/tas0086-cherry-s...

If you want to read some thorough reviews, guides and even hear some sounds, you should check out geekhack: http://geekhack.org/

The problem with a lot of these fancy and expensive keyboards is that they have far too few keys.

For instance, the Realforce 87U ($255) has only 87 keys.

My current $24 keyboard has 136 keys. And I still wish I had more keys! Using a keyboard with a mere 87 keys would be torture, no matter how pleasant the tactile feedback was.

There are always the Realforce 103U models. If you don't mind me asking, what are the other 33 keys mapped to on your keyboard? In fact, what keyboard has 136 keys?

Learn to press two keys at once. Now you have 3741 keys.

(And yes, all these expensive keyboards have n-key rollover, meaning that you can press as many keys as you want and they will report exactly what you're pressing. Cheap keyboards have a matrix that results in "phantom" keypresses if you chord anything other than shift or control and a letter.)

Anyone know a SF Bay Area store with a good selection of mechanical keyboards?

Has anyone tried TypeMatrix 2030?

I'm using one right now. It's not "mechanical", it's scissor-switch. It's a bit better than plain rubber dome, but you still have to bottom out.

The layout on the other hand, is really cool. I can now touch type without twisting my fingers in weird ways. It's more comfortable (even more than a Natural keyboard, actually), and a bit faster than ordinary slanted keyboards.

The displacement of some of the keys isn't a big deal. It takes some time to get used to, but makes things a bit better in the long run.

I was interested in it's layout. Do you use QWERTY or other layout like Colemak and Dvorak with it?

The layout of the keyboard doesn't really matter. The Typematrix can send the regular key-codes like any ordinary ANSI keyboard, or it can mix them up so that it acts as a Dvorak keyboard even if the OS is set up on Qwerty. But really, the layout should be set by the OS, not by the keyboard.

Personally, I use Bépo: http://bepo.fr It's a Dvorak-like layout optimized for French. It works well for English, though (far better than Qwerty, anyway). If your native language isn't English and uses Latin letters, you may want to look for a layout optimized for it.

Sorry, I mean staggered vs aligned layout - not actual character layout.

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