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Framboise posted:Hey all. Been on the look out for a fullsize board/one with a numpad and my fiancee sent me this tiktok she saw. The Monsgeek is probably the best price:performance of the bunch, with the Keychrons also being a good recommendation if you buy them from Amazon. I repeat, ONLY BUY KEYCHRONS FROM AMAZON. You'll also need to build all of those with foams to get that deep sound. Linear and tactile switches will both get you similar acoustics if you build with foams and a PC plate. Switches with Nylon housings will typically get you a deeper sound as well.
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Sep 26, 2023 23:40
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OK that's good to hear; thanks both!
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Sep 27, 2023 00:02
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Gearman posted:The Monsgeek is probably the best price:performance of the bunch, with the Keychrons also being a good recommendation if you buy them from Amazon. I repeat, ONLY BUY KEYCHRONS FROM AMAZON. Noted! Why Amazon, specifically, though? (Also if you've got any other recommendations I'm all ears)
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Sep 27, 2023 01:43
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Framboise posted:Noted! Why Amazon, specifically, though? Keychron's own customer service is legendarily poor, so Amazon's easy returns are nice to have.
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Sep 27, 2023 02:16
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Framboise posted:Noted! Why Amazon, specifically, though? If you have an issue with your keyboard and go to Keychron, they will essentially say "first of all, go gently caress yourself, you're not entitled to a working keyboard, and second, if you bother us again about this, we'll show up at your house and shove the keyboard up your rear end." If you bought it from Amazon, though, Amazon will just, y'know, replace it.
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Sep 27, 2023 04:02
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Framboise posted:Hey all. Been on the look out for a fullsize board/one with a numpad and my fiancee sent me this tiktok she saw. if you can find an Austin, I highly recommend it. https://www.driftmechanics.com/austin otherwise, Clara sounds very nice https://www.driftmechanics.com/clara
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Sep 27, 2023 04:39
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Goons, how much am I asking for when I am looking for a bulletproof mechanical keyboard? edit: not like, will stop 9mm bulletproof, I mean like, guaranteed to not stop working bulletproof.
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Sep 27, 2023 06:34
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SwissArmyDruid posted:Goons, how much am I asking for when I am looking for a bulletproof mechanical keyboard? stopping 9mm is probably easier than the other thing
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Sep 27, 2023 06:59
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SwissArmyDruid posted:Goons, how much am I asking for when I am looking for a bulletproof mechanical keyboard? I don't know, what keyboards have stopped working for you and why? Some of my old ALPS boards would get double keypresses and often needed switch cleaning or replacement as a result but you could move the click leafs into a linear switch and stuff with those so repairing switches was pretty easy. I have a 1990s Model M that has had enough plastic rivets break so that some of the keys aren't working but I plan to bolt mod it eventually. I have a couple of other ones that are still working perfectly after 30 years. One omnikey ultra ended up with like garlic dipping sauce dumped into it by accident and stopped working in like 1999, but whenever I find it I'm going to disassemble and clean it and try to get it working again. All of my cherry mx and clone switch boards are okay. That's maybe 20-30 keyboards in 25 years or so with just a couple of the notable failures and one food accident. I don't eat or drink at my desk any more. If you're really typing a ton then go with a unicomp model m or like a leopold or something. If you're gaming a ton then I'd grab what looks like your favorite gamer brand with low latency based on the rtings ratings for that. If you want a fancy custom board I doubt there's a lot that are bad but others will have better recs in that department. If you spill a lot of drinks there's drain holes in model m's but there's also some keyboards made to handle spills, they're often just not mechanical or have a plastic membrane under the keycaps that feels bad like the TG3 cop car boards. I have one that shipped with basically thick saran wrap over the switches (took that off) and another one with a molded plastic tray that went on top of the switches but under the keycaps so that liquids wouldn't get past it.
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Sep 27, 2023 07:28
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SwissArmyDruid posted:Goons, how much am I asking for when I am looking for a bulletproof mechanical keyboard? That really depends on your operating environment? If you're just looking for something that sits on a desk all day and gets pecked and poked by your fingers, it's a pretty low bar. If you live on a fishing boat and type like Andre the Giant, the challenge is going to be much higher. If this is for a public kiosk, I'd work with a dedicated kiosk manufacturer or someone like an arcade cabinet maker. Really, short of catastrophe like spilling a drink or knocking it off your desk, most wired keyboards under normal usage conditions will be fine for years?  Like most computer equipment, it's generally going to follow a bathtub curve for failure: It's either bad out of the box, or it'll last for years. If you're really concerned about avoiding downtime, get an extra low-end board or two to have on hand. Nothing is perfect.
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Sep 27, 2023 07:32
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SwissArmyDruid posted:Goons, how much am I asking for when I am looking for a bulletproof mechanical keyboard? SteelSeries 6gv2.
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Sep 27, 2023 08:09
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SwissArmyDruid posted:Goons, how much am I asking for when I am looking for a bulletproof mechanical keyboard? You're asking for a Model M.
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Sep 27, 2023 11:48
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SwissArmyDruid posted:Goons, how much am I asking for when I am looking for a bulletproof mechanical keyboard? One time I did spill coffee on it. I probably should've just let it drain naturally, dry, and then open it up to clean. Instead though I tried to pour it out which got a bit of coffee stuck near the top of the membrane layer and some of the key matrix stopped working at that point. I thought it might need a decent repair, but it turned out that cleaning the affected area with alcohol and letting the whole thing dry thoroughly for a day brought it back to life and no problems since.
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Sep 27, 2023 17:31
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I feel the need to ask what you need a keyboard that strong for... as said by other people, a wired keyboard will last you a long time, unless you like hit it with a hammer or something. What is the use case you're looking at?
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Sep 27, 2023 18:24
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SwissArmyDruid posted:Goons, how much am I asking for when I am looking for a bulletproof mechanical keyboard? What are your wants/needs (besides being reliable) and what caused your previous keyboards to fail? Going by the sheer amount of times I've seen people asking how to rescue their keyboard after they accidentally spilled their beverage on it, I'm going to suggest picking up a plastic membrane to cover it (either that, or keep your beverages away from the keyboard). In fact, they make one for the Model M.
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Sep 27, 2023 18:33
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TWBalls posted:Going by the sheer amount of times I've seen people asking how to rescue their keyboard after they accidentally spilled their beverage on it, I'm going to suggest picking up a plastic membrane to cover it (either that, or keep your beverages away from the keyboard). In fact, they make one for the Model M. Or, if they are insistent that they continue to drink at/above their keyboard, get an adult sippy cup.
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Sep 27, 2023 19:04
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Wizard of the Deep posted:That really depends on your operating environment? If you're just looking for something that sits on a desk all day and gets pecked and poked by your fingers, it's a pretty low bar. If you live on a fishing boat and type like Andre the Giant, the challenge is going to be much higher. If this is for a public kiosk, I'd work with a dedicated kiosk manufacturer or someone like an arcade cabinet maker. I mean, my first keyboard was an absolute workhorse from WASD, almost ten years ago now. Figured I'd give them my money since they're a local company. But it was Cherry Reds, and a TKL, and it turns that I have hands that are too heavy for Reds, and I use the numpad more than I realized. That keyboard is now ten years old, having been subjected to a combination of heavy gaming transitioning to office work/light gaming, still chugging along, and has outlasted two Filco numpads and is working alongside a third cheapo chinese numpad off aliexpress. This and the Model Ms of my youth are the standard to which modern keyboards are being held to. Since then, about five years ago, I have gone through: * Another WASD which lasted about three years before it would just start to hang every so often without a disconnect, necessitating unplugging and replugging to get working again. * A Corsair board that I very quickly passed off to stepbrothers that think RGB is a feature instead of a blight. Had zero settings persistence, and required that the Corsair software be running in the background at all times. No thank you. * A Roccat board that would intermittently not register keypresses after a year of use, or sometimes hold down a key long after being released. The RMA replacement is sitting in the box it came in, gonna flip it. * A Keychron Q6 with terrible QA, there was a significant burr along the top outside edge of case * A Keychron V6 which was really expensive for not significantly better than the Corsair. * A GMMK that I found on deep discount. There's a reason why it was on deep discount. The switches were scratchy, and the plate tolerances ginormous, making the hotswap mounting wobbly as poo poo, pulling out with the keycaps, and I know to wiggle keycaps, I have been using mechanical keyboards at least that long. None of these keyboards except the very first WASD TKL have received liquid damage. That one, I disassembled, cleaned with 99% iso, relubed, and dried, and still continues to work flawlessly. I dunno. Did I get lucky with the very first mechanical keyboard I bought? I'm tired of looking for a new keyboard every few years. I already put up with enough of that poo poo with mice.
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Sep 27, 2023 19:59
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Hey friends, I have Microsoft Keyboard from probably 2017 or so. During the last reboot it has started to be strange as well. Like, the A key will open up display settings in Windows 10, D will type stuff like /`D, and so on. Restarted, replaced batteries, reinstalled drivers, no luck. It's not like I'm married to this set, and it has been through a lot. Any other things to try before biting the bullet?
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Sep 28, 2023 01:20
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Chieves posted:Hey friends, I have Microsoft Keyboard from probably 2017 or so. During the last reboot it has started to be strange as well. Like, the A key will open up display settings in Windows 10, D will type stuff like /`D, and so on. Restarted, replaced batteries, reinstalled drivers, no luck. Since I don't think Microsoft ever made a mechanical, and it is a membrane keyboard, it could be that the traces are crossing paths. They are in layered sheets under the actual membrane. One can re-trace them, but it's itty bitty little wires you have to trace (which isn't the difficult part, usually they are on clear sheets and easy to follow) and solder in new paths (the very difficult part). There are also pens that can be used to re-make the trace I've seen somewhere. It could also be that the trace sheets shifted and you are getting crossings on keypresses. Taking it apart and re-aligning those sheets might work, and you can see if there is any dust, hair, wear marks, on it. Might even try taping them together if you are sure they are perfectly aligned.
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Sep 28, 2023 01:47
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SwissArmyDruid posted:I mean, my first keyboard was an absolute workhorse from WASD, almost ten years ago now. Figured I'd give them my money since they're a local company. But it was Cherry Reds, and a TKL, and it turns that I have hands that are too heavy for Reds, and I use the numpad more than I realized. That keyboard is now ten years old, having been subjected to a combination of heavy gaming transitioning to office work/light gaming, still chugging along, and has outlasted two Filco numpads and is working alongside a third cheapo chinese numpad off aliexpress. Honestly at this point just build a handwired or non hand wired one. Then if anything fails you can just replace those parts.
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Sep 28, 2023 03:41
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ziasquinn posted:Honestly at this point just build a handwired or non hand wired one. Then if anything fails you can just replace those parts. My previous posts in this thread were asking about doing that but building a Mixbox arcade controller, I'm like, 50% of the learning process there.
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Sep 28, 2023 05:58
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hand wiring a full layout with tenkey is not my idea of fun and I enjoy that sort of thing. your mixbox knowledge does get you halfway there but diode matrices are somewhat more pain in the rear end and not that practical past 60% or so
Dr. Fishopolis fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Sep 28, 2023 |
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Sep 28, 2023 06:16
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I just checked the OP and couldn't find any big resources for building your own keyboard. Anyone have a good link for me or youtube series or anything? I'm beginning to feel like if I want what I want in the 100% category I might be going down that path. Thanks in advance. e: if OP is reading this, massdrop is still named as such in the OP. Thanks!
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Sep 28, 2023 06:18
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VelociBacon posted:I just checked the OP and couldn't find any big resources for building your own keyboard. Anyone have a good link for me or youtube series or anything? I'm beginning to feel like if I want what I want in the 100% category I might be going down that path. Thanks in advance. Here are some resources that I found useful. 1. https://www.youtube.com/@joe_scotto - Joe Scotto makes a lot of hand wired keyboards and his guides are pretty good 2. https://www.youtube.com/@MadModLabs - 3D printed keyboards and stuff 3. https://www.youtube.com/@BenVallack Ben Vallack has some interesting guides and ideas on custom keyboards 4. https://www.youtube.com/@noahkiser This was the video series that helped me a lot when i designed my first PCB 5. https://github.com/help-14/mechanical-keyboard/blob/master/README.md Shitton of mechanical keyboard projects in github I got a bunch more resources so point me in the right direction if you want more 
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Sep 28, 2023 07:06
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adary posted:Here are some resources that I found useful. Thank you for a very informative post. I was thinking more about buying the case and the components and assembling everything - not literally doing any manufacturing or designing. Maybe I used the wrong term for it?
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Sep 28, 2023 08:25
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VelociBacon posted:Thank you for a very informative post. I was thinking more about buying the case and the components and assembling everything - not literally doing any manufacturing or designing. Maybe I used the wrong term for it? In that case you might want to look at https://www.monsgeek.com/ M series. They sell very decent and affordable kits (I have two of their keyboards and I love them). Both kits I got from them needed to have the stabilizers lubed and installed, and then just add switches and keycaps and you are good to go. https://en.akkogear.com/store/diy-kit/ also have some decent DIY kits that seem to be in stock but for those you will most likely just have to install switches and keycaps, unless you wanna take them apart for mods.
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Sep 28, 2023 10:34
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If you are near a Microcenter, they may have a section for DiY keyboards. The one in Dallas does, at least.
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Sep 28, 2023 15:40
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VelociBacon posted:Thank you for a very informative post. I was thinking more about buying the case and the components and assembling everything - not literally doing any manufacturing or designing. Maybe I used the wrong term for it? FWIW most custom keyboard kits have build guides posted online.
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Sep 28, 2023 15:54
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VelociBacon posted:Thank you for a very informative post. I was thinking more about buying the case and the components and assembling everything - not literally doing any manufacturing or designing. Maybe I used the wrong term for it? Just buying parts and putting them together is pretty easy if that includes a PCB. If you get one that has hotswap sockets already installed you don't even need to solder. If not, it's just a bunch of relatively easy thru-hole soldering anyway.
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Sep 28, 2023 16:17
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VelociBacon posted:Thank you for a very informative post. I was thinking more about buying the case and the components and assembling everything - not literally doing any manufacturing or designing. Maybe I used the wrong term for it? If your interest is making sure you have all the "standard" keys and have some flexibility in the actual layout, I daily-drive a Boston 120 and have for over a year now. I'm real happy with the layout (even if finding a fully compatible cap set is a pain in the rear end), and the 3D-printed case isn't terrible once you've got some good foam in it. They've even got a hotswap version on the page now. With a hotswap PCB, it's literally just connecting components together like a Lego kit. I think assembling mine required a phillips-head and allen key (included).
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Sep 28, 2023 16:20
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Thanks for all the great posts. I'm one of the dozens of people who don't live in the states so no microcenter near me. I had guessed it wouldn't be a challenging thing to assemble from a kit, going to click those links and learn more.
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Sep 28, 2023 19:18
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The hardest part for hotswap kits might be having the correct screwdrivers on hand, if you don't usually do DIY stuff - the rest is fairly easy, usually.
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Sep 28, 2023 19:26
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Reoxygenation posted:The hardest part for hotswap kits might be having the correct screwdrivers on hand, if you don't usually do DIY stuff - the rest is fairly easy, usually. I do a ton of DIY stuff and have a bunch of driver kits and stuff like that. Good to know though!
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Sep 28, 2023 19:31
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VelociBacon posted:Thanks for all the great posts. I'm one of the dozens of people who don't live in the states so no microcenter near me. I had guessed it wouldn't be a challenging thing to assemble from a kit, going to click those links and learn more. I'm one of those few dozens as well. And some vendors seem to dislike my country and won't ship here to begin with. Fuggin Antisemites!
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Sep 28, 2023 20:19
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I’m still buying keyboards but like, mode is my overall endgame. I love my sonnet, and I’ve bought back up PCB so if I did spill on it (and I don’t eat or drink around it) it should in theory last a long, long time. The best tactile switches in the world (boba u4t 62 gram) I’ve also bought back ups of. Maybe the hot swap could go bad in ten years, hence my back up parts. Did I just buy the zoom 65 special addition in orange? Of course I did, because I need a coffee shop keyboard that has wireless lol. And while I don’t love 60% the Mode Tempo is very, very tempting. Ugh. LionArcher fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Sep 28, 2023 |
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Sep 28, 2023 20:38
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LionArcher posted:The best tactile switches in the world (boba u4t 62 gram) How do they compare to holy pandas?
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Sep 28, 2023 21:04
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adary posted:How do they compare to holy pandas? Both the Boba U4 (silent) and the U4T line are better than pandas in my opinion.
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Sep 28, 2023 21:08
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Gearman posted:The Monsgeek is probably the best price:performance of the bunch, with the Keychrons also being a good recommendation if you buy them from Amazon. I repeat, ONLY BUY KEYCHRONS FROM AMAZON. After looking at these, I think the Monsgeek M5 is the one I kinda have my eye on as I like the full numpad. I used to really want a Melody96 but I never liked how everything was bunched together. That, and the M5 comes in purple which I think will go nicely with my GMK Daifuku keycap set once it arrives (finally got a shipping notification!), or my osume dusk set should I want to swap it away from my Mode65. That said, what are some good deep knocky-sounding nylon-housed switches? I remember seeing these get mentioned in a different video (Vertex V1, https://clickclack.io/pages/vertex-v-one-switch), but I have no idea what's good and what's not anymore. I generally prefer tactiles (Boba U4T is my favorite I've used so far), but I'm going for sound over anything here, but if I can get a good sounding switch in tactile, that's ideal. I could also probably handle a linear switch if it had a stronger spring-- I really don't like ones that barely take any pressure because I end up mistyping way more. My Bobas generally require some deliberate force to be pressed down. GnarlyCharlie4u posted:if you can find an Austin, I highly recommend it. drat those are pretty. But I think the ship's sailed for me in terms of buying the ultra-high-end boards; I'm just not that invested anymore. I got my Mode65 and love it but I don't think I want to ever build anything as or more expensive than that was. Framboise fucked around with this message at 12:30 on Sep 29, 2023 |
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Sep 28, 2023 21:27
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Alright thanks for all the help, ended up finding the Keydous NJ98, an 1800 wireless/wired board with a volume knob (love that) and a little OLED screen that I'll probably put something pretty stupid on. I looked at the barebones options but decided to just order a built one since they had it basically how I'd want it - side-lit keycaps, gateron milky yellow pro switches, brass plate. Here's the variant I picked up. Only $15 shipping to me in Canada also which is kinda strange but I'll take it. Total cost was $163USD. Reviews look and sound good and I'm excited to try something new.
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Sep 29, 2023 04:38
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I put together a GMK67 with Akko Blue Jelly switches and a spare set of GMK laser keycaps that I had laying around. I paid $70 for the keyboard on Amazon and $40 for the switches, both from Amazon. It seems like a really good bang for the buck DIY kit. Anyone else pleasantly surprised with the GMK67?
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Sep 29, 2023 06:45
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