From: dbucklin@sdf.org
Date: 2016-03-11
Subject: Mechanical Keyboards
How can a keyboard be a hobby? Let me tell you. Keyboards may be a
commodity, but that doesn't mean you can't seek out a nice one.
The keyboard you type on every day may have been a carefully con-
sidered purchase but, for most of us, it wasn't given much thought.
There's an explanation for this mindset. This quote from the excel-
lent Mech 101 series at Keychatter.com[1] sums it up:
Like a mattress, a good quality keyboard is an easy thing
to overlook. And, like it or not, many of us use our key-
boards even more than we use our mattresses. So is $100
really unreasonable for a great keyboard? Not at all.
It's actually a bargain.
If youre still not sure, consider this quote from Eiiti Wada in an
interview with Massdrop[2]:
Because keyboards are accessories to PC makers, they fo-
cus on minimizing the manufacturing costs. But that's in-
correct. When America's cowboys were in the middle of a
trip and their horse died, they would leave the horse
there. But even if they were in the middle of a desert,
they would take their saddle with them. The horse was a
consumable good, but the saddle was an interface that
their bodies had gotten used to. In the same vein, PCs
are consumable goods, while keyboards are important in-
terfaces.
If youre convinced that keyboards are worth thinking about, there a
few things to consider before you make a purchase.
Keyboard Size
Full Size
A full-size (or 104-key) keyboard includes the alphanumeric keys,
function keys, navigation cluster, and number pad (or tenkey).
This is great for people like me who use the alphanumeric keys to
type, the nav cluster to get around documents and spreadsheets, and
the tenkey when a little data entry is in order. The downside is
that it takes up a bit of space and makes you reach further for the
mouse.
80% / Tenkey-less / TKL
An 80% keyboard has all the goodness of a full-size keyboard minus
the tenkey. If you don't enter lots of numbers often enough to jus-
tify dedicated keys, you can save some space. That's about all
youll save, by the way. Smaller keyboards are not necessarily
cheaper.
60%
If you can part with the nav cluster and function keys, you can go
even smaller. There are a number of in-between sizes like the 64%
and 68% that add parts of the nav cluster back in, while others
provide you with one or more built-in layers that provide access to
navigation keys.
Others
There are a lot more form factors including 40%, Planck, Ergodox,
and just of ton of weird stuff that you really have to see for
yourself. New things are being developed all the time. If youre
considering making the switch to one of these, youre already pretty
far down the rabbit hole.
Keyboard Layouts
If, like me, you grew up in the US, you are probably familiar with
the QWERTY layout on an ANSI keyboard. The QWERTY layout predates
modern technology and was designed to minimize mechanical interfer-
ence in typewriters. An alternative layout, DVORAK, was created to
maximize the speed and comfort of the typist. Why were all still
using QWERTY is a very interesting topic. There are still others,
such as COLEMAK, which was designed primarily as a remedy for QWER-
TY typists who don't want or need to change to the radically dif-
ferent DVORAK layout, but would like to pick up some speed and make
typing more comfortable. *Try this:* Map your caps lock key to
backspace. Now, when you make a mistake, backspace is right under
your left pinky instead of having to reach all the way to the upper
right corner.
If you want to pick up a third-party set of keycaps, you will want
to learn to spot keyboards with non-standard layouts. There are a
couple things to look out for. ANSI layouts are more common in the
US while ISO keyboards are more common in, well, the rest of the
world. You can tell them apart by looking at the enter key. The
other thing to look at is the bottom row of keys. You will have an
easier time finding and installing keysets if you have a standard
bottom row. If you think of any single character key like, say, the
Y key, it has a size of one unit or 1u. Larger keys can be thought
of as multiples of 1u. In a standard bottom row, the spacebar is 6u
and the ctrl, win/cmd, alt, and Fn keys are all the same 1.25u
size.
How I Got Started
I had been eyeing a Das Keyboard for a couple years and figured I
would pay a premium for the name. After some research, I picked up
a Cooler Master XT full-size keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches.
Blue switches are recommended for typists, so I went for them. Typ-
ing on this keyboard was much louder than typing on the Dell key-
board supplied by my office. It actually made me feel a bit self-
conscious. To try to address this, I got a second Cooler Master XT
with Cherry MX Brown switches. Going to brown switches made a minor
improvement. The majority of the noise was produced when the key
cap would land on the top of the switch (this is called bottoming-
out). To reduce the sound, I got a set of o-rings that fit onto the
shaft under the key cap and soften the landing when the key bottoms
out. This was working pretty well on the brown switches, so I got
another set to put on the keyboard with the blue switches. I was
really happy with how this turned out, but I still had the stock
key caps.
You don't need to get after-market key caps but, with most mechani-
cal keyboards, you can. I picked up a set of Ducky PBT key caps.
They were gray with blue modifiers. The legends were engraved, not
printed so, from a distance, they looked like blank keys. I pulled
my stock keys and moved the o-rings to the new keys. When I was all
done, it looked really good. After using it for a while, I noticed
that the enter key on the tenkey would stick in the down position.
I looked at it and determined that one of the stabilizer inserts
was loose. I figured it was falling out and jamming between the key
and the stabilizer or the switch housing. So, I bought some new
stabilizer inserts from WASD. I also preemptively bought a tube of
silicone grease just in case lubrication was part of the problem. I
put the new inserts in and greased the stabilizer bars and the sta-
bilizer inserts. I tested the key. It still got stuck.
_OK, Google: PBT keycap stabilizer problem_
This time, I hit gold. My Cooler Master XT keyboards came with ABS
key caps. ABS is a plastic that is cheap to produce, has a shiny
finish, and can be made pretty thin. PBT key caps are typically
thicker than ABS key caps. The increased thickness of the PBT key
cap reduced the clearance available to the stabilizer bar. When the
key went down, the lower run of the stabilizer bar would come up
and grind against the inner wall of the key cap. If this was really
the problem, then all the keys on stabilizers should be affected. I
tested each key and, while the problem didn't present itself as
acutely on all of them, it was still there. On my right shift and
enter keys, it felt like a hitch in the action of the key relative
to keys without stabilizers.
The cure for this is to create clearance by removing material from
the inside wall of the key cap. This can be done with sandpaper, a
rotary tool, or a hobby knife. I looked over some of my ABS caps
and I could actually see where the inner wall of the key had been
beveled to create extra clearance for the stabilizer bar. Those ge-
niuses knew what they were doing! I sanded down the inside of the
key caps with some 200 grit sandpaper wrapped around a bamboo skew-
er. Now they work flawlessly.
I Wish I Knew
* Get a couple keyboards that you will probably like.
* I like full-size keyboards, but there are other sizes
* Learn about switch options. If you want a variety of key cap
options, get switches with Cherry MX compatible stems.
* Learn to spot ANSI and ISO layouts and non-standard key layouts
* Just buy a bunch of supplies from WASD.
* key pullers, at least two
* O-rings, at least two sets
* stabilizer inserts (for Costar stabs)
* silicone grease
* maybe sandpaper
The Rabbit Hole
1. Purchase and use an entry-level mechanical keyboard
2. Purchase and use an imported or top-shelf mechanical keyboard
3. Purchase and install a set of key caps, o-rings optional
4. Customize a programmable keyboard
5. Commission a custom keyboard build
6. Build your own keyboard
7. Make your own key caps
Resources
[1]: https://www.keychatter.com/mech-101/
[2]: https://www.massdrop.com/article/eiiti-wada-interview
[3]: http://reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards
[4]: http://geekhack.org/
[5]: http://deskthority.net/
[6]: http://keychatter.com/