Minimum Syntaxing posted:

Can I get some guidance on this hobby? Because I've spent dozens of hours researching the switch/board/keycaps I'd want, spent $25 on a switch sampler, and I'm already kind of sick of all this.

The switch I have my eyes on is the 62g Zilent V2, and all I can really do is hope that I'd like a board full of them. But since it's a niche switch, nobody sells boards with it pre-assembled. Also I don't own or know anyone with a soldering iron/pump; and even if I knew how to use them, it seems like a lot of money to get them just to assemble a keyboard.

So with that, I've kinda felt limited to pre-built hotswap boards, though the 1800 layout/KBD 19X pretty much looks ideal to me (even with its pricetag, and having to further dig into the can of worms that is keycap profiles).
So anyway I'm left with:
- The Kira 96 which looks nice and the PCB has holes for switch dongles, so all I have to do is plug the zilents in; but it has misaligned keys, firmware issues, and I fear that the function keys being flush to the numbers would lead to accidental inputs.
...So anyone with experience, is the firmware and function keys really an issue?

- The GMMK which is the cheapest and also hotswap; but to swap I'd have to permanently clip the dongles off of the Zilents to make them fit, and I'm not a huge fan of the floating-key look. ...Then again as far as the dongles are concerned, I'd probably never want a PCB mount keyboard anyway, so maybe clipping is a non issue.


But kinda scratch all this stuff I wrote because in these past 30 days I've been getting some RSI pain in my hands out of the blue, which kinda makes me question whether I should even bother getting a decked-out keyboard if it looks like I can't even use it a whole lot anymore. Maybe I just need to do some stretches and give my hands a rest, pretty frustrating that this happens as I'm looking into treating myself though.

net cafe scandal posted:

Would anyone be willing to write a post like this but for 75% keyboards instead? This is such an insane and intimidating yet overall pretty cool world.

EDIT: Actually.. There's no way there's really a meaningful difference between TKL and 75%, is what I'm starting to realize. Don't mind me...

Minimum Syntaxing posted:

But kinda scratch all this stuff I wrote because in these past 30 days I've been getting some RSI pain in my hands out of the blue, which kinda makes me question whether I should even bother getting a decked-out keyboard if it looks like I can't even use it a whole lot anymore. Maybe I just need to do some stretches and give my hands a rest, pretty frustrating that this happens as I'm looking into treating myself though.

G-Prime posted:

Switching from a rubber dome keyboard to one with mechanical switches started to ease that, and moving to heavier switches down the line has seemingly eliminated the problem.

mewse posted:

Get a cherry g80-1800 and swap the stems for outemu silent 2.2 from the guy on reddit. Since there's no plate you can use these guys to pop the top off the cherry switches. If you end up loving the keyboard + layout, "the keyboard company" is selling custom pcbs and plates

Lord Stimperor posted:

Soldering is piss easy and the least thing that should hold you back. It's also relaxing. Don't breathe in the fumes.

If you like 1800 I heartily recommend the Leopold 980m that I've posted above. I know that there are custom kits where you can put your own switches in, but the 980m has insanely good build quality and caps and feels very good out of the box. Don't have to assemble anything, and it's cheaper than any custom build you can do. I guess you could buy the board and replace the switches and it'd still be cheaper than a custom kit.

foutre posted:

Tbh this could be an excuse to get a fancy split keyboard for ergonomics.

Minimum Syntaxing posted:

What kind of switches/weight do you use now? Was bottoming out on the rubber domes a contributing factor to your RSI?

G-Prime posted:

My work keyboard is Cherry MX Black (60g), only because I don't want to desolder the entire drat thing right now, and my home is Kailh BOX Heavy Dark Yellow (70g actuation, 80g bottom out). I still bottom out if I get going really fast, and did on the rubber domes (obviously, that's how they function) as well, but the extra resistance is really what I'd credit the reduction of RSI to. I'm a developer/sysadmin by trade, so I spend the majority of my workday typing, every day, and I'd say an additional hour or two each night at home, totally ignoring weekends. It's a hell of a lot of typing. First noticed RSI problems when I got back into MMORPGs again about 3-4 years ago. Started on Cherry MX Red (45g) when I went mechanical, and moved up to Black about 6 months later at work, while still using Red at home. After about a year on the Blacks, I started using the Dark Yellow at home. I started seeing a reduction in both wrist and hand pain within about a month after going mechanical, and after I switched to the Blacks it went away entirely. Dark Yellow was just a preference thing, but it's made me want to see just how far I can push it and start getting crazy with really heavy springs somewhere down the line.

Minimum Syntaxing posted:

What kind of switches/weight do you use now? Was bottoming out on the rubber domes a contributing factor to your RSI?

...Ahhh, I figured that plate-mounted was a straight improvement due to the increased heftiness and durability; I didn't know it interfered with popping open and modifying switches. Assuming this is the guy you're talking about, those stems sound promising given that they're a quarter the price of Zilents, and that they also claim to have no pretravel...
But argh, looks like the only ANSI g80-1800 I see comes with Cherry blacks, whose springs look to be a good deal heavier than the Zilent springs. I might have to buy some different springs in that case, maybe Cherry blues or browns.


It's not so much the learning to solder that I'm iffy about, just the initial cost for a more-or-less one time thing. I think the figure I saw for a recommended set cost like $80 bucks, but maybe that person's recommendation was overkill?
And yeah I've been keeping my eye on the FC980M, and definitely like it more than the usual 1800s (function space is massive, too many buttons I don't use). Apparently the plate for it doesn't have extra clearance to open the switches, and there's no way to get clownshoes RGB on it; but oh well. I guess I can get that and see how I'll like a board of browns, before I delve into other switches.
Also I've been thinking that installing some sort of Mill-Max hotswap sockets would be good if I'm indecisive about switches. Got any experience with that?

Yeah, like this? Which also happens to be hot-swappable... But I don't really know how bad my RSI is right now.

Constellation I posted:

Lol trust me, if you ever do get actually started on soldering a board, it won't be a one-time thing.

The Mill-Max sockets are great but you need to be decent with soldering before you attempt those. Though with the way I do it (electrical tape on top first to keep them flush to the PCB), it's pretty straightforward. I have them on all my boards and they're great, really. Previously, even with a plate, you can still get slightly crooked switches soldered on. With the sockets, they center the switch pins nicely through the PCB through-holes. They've also prevented me from building brand new boards every time I wanted to try new switches.

shovelbum posted:

What are my options for a maximalist keyboard?

Llamadeus posted:

foutre posted:

Also look at 65% imo, once you're going TKL you may as well commit! It still has arrow keys and four little page up/down etc. keys in a cluster (or two as the case may be), but is still real fuckin' small. You do lose dedicated function keys, however.

I have and really like the Varmilo VA68M, but it's expensive -- it does take standard keycaps though.
The Leopold FC660M is also great, but has one or two weird size keys.

The Vortex Race 3 is also a solid 75%, fwiw. It's smaller than most TKL's, I think.


Tbh this could be an excuse to get a fancy split keyboard for ergonomics.

Minimum Syntaxing posted:

Ahh okay so linears... When I chose the switches for my sampler, I chose all tactiles because I tried some Razer greens and I hated their pre-travel, as well as being able to click it and go past the bump without actuating. So I completely glossed over even trying any linear switches, and doubled down on looking for the snappiest switches possible with no pre-travel. Now I wonder if all my fiddling with these things has caused this sudden RSI flair up...

Well guess I'll just get a few linear switches from novelkeys then, maybe Cherry red black and grey, and a Kailh speed dark yellow. Will be pretty ambiguous to tell where actuation is though.

Lord Stimperor posted:

gently caress me, that's not the original, right? Plate and plug look like someone build that himself. The original space cadet is supposedly a bit terrible to type with, but this once looks real nice.

e: i kind of want the plans

HappyCapybaraFamily posted:

This was a new build from last year: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=94017.0

G-Prime posted:

For what it's worth, if you prefer tactiles, a roughly equivalent progression to what I did would be Cherry Brown -> Cherry Clear -> Kailh Burnt Orange. I just don't care for the tactile bump, personally.

HappyCapybaraFamily posted:

This was a new build from last year: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=94017.0

KingKapalone posted:

I have a Das Keyboard S with Brown switches. I pretty much only game on this thing now so I'm thinking about getting a new keyboard. I'm thinking of going TKL or MAYBE even 60% and getting Red switches this time. I would like to have backlighting but full RGB isn't a requirement. Anyone have recommendations? I get a corporate discount at Best Buy, so that's at least where I'm starting but I know options are limited.

Don Lapre posted:

GMMK if you want TKL

KingKapalone posted:

With the Gateron Reds then? I saw on reddit that those are similar to Cherry Red.

Seems a bit expensive with a Corsair Cherry Red TKL being $80.

The Modern Sky posted:

if you get into this, then you'll end up spending quite a lot more.

From what I've seen two good 60% boards are the Vortex Pok3r and the Ducky One 2 Mini. You should have choices on what kinds of switches to go for those.

Browsing the best buy offerings, that Hyper X TKL on their website that has Cherry Reds on it. Can't tell you anything about them though.

AnimeIsTrash posted:

Is there any easy way to replace a stabilizer on a pok3r keyboard? I seem to have lost one on my keyboard and now my spacebar wobbles around. I imagine this happened when I was replacing my keycaps a while back.

I don't have a picture of it on me right now but i'm talking about these things:

garfield hentai posted:

I have a Mac at work now and the keyboard they gave me is a piece of poo poo that has the page up key RIGHT next to the enter key and i keep hitting it accidentally all the time and I hate it. What's the good Mac keyboard to get I don't really care much as long as it's pretty good and doesn't have the loving PAGEUP KEY RIGHT NEXT TO THE ENTER KEY

garfield hentai posted:

I have a Mac at work now and the keyboard they gave me is a piece of poo poo that has the page up key RIGHT next to the enter key and i keep hitting it accidentally all the time and I hate it. What's the good Mac keyboard to get I don't really care much as long as it's pretty good and doesn't have the loving PAGEUP KEY RIGHT NEXT TO THE ENTER KEY

spasticColon posted:

I got to feel some red switches on a keyboard at a Best Buy and now I'm tempted to get one but I don't want to spend a lot of money. My Redragon keyboard with blue switches has been working great so far (but it's a bit noisy and key presses feel "crunchy") and they sell a keyboard on Amazon with red switches. It would be for gaming and typing. This is the one I'm looking at:

https://www.amazon.com/Redragon-Mec...ps%2C158&sr=8-7

Meldonox posted:

Is there a particularly good switch or keyboard type for someone who types really hard?

I grew up learning to type with and playing computer games on one of those classic IBM keyboards, so I'm a super hard key presser. I've been wanting a new keyboard for work so I'm not stuck using a laptop keyboard, but I can really make a keyboard sing. I messed with a Cherry sampler someone brought to the office, but it was pretty immediately apparent that red, blue, green, it didn't matter what switch or whether I use dampening rings, I bottom keys out hard enough that you're gonna hear my typing loud and clear.