Is anyone here into the mechanical keyboards? I figure as a hobby, it is very similar to what we have here
(why would you need a flashlight, you have a phone / why would you spend more than $10 on a keyboard).
Anyways, here is my humble collection:
Vortex Pok3r - Cherry MX Blues
cable that is sticking out is soldered to swd header, I want to play with custom firmware
Magicforce 68 - Outemu Blues
got it for almost free since it was key chattering, couple of solder bridges on the controler
happened to be the culprit, I prefer these switches to original Cherry ones
Since I will be left with parts to build a couple more of them due to MOQs, I will probably do
a micro group buy, just to cover the cost of leftover parts and my time. If anyone is interested,
please send me a message, I don’t want to risk this sounding like an advertisement.
So people go ahead and post your babies! I hope to see bunch of different boards,
as unneeded as most of the lights here!
Nothing beats them old cherrys, I love them old styles , hit it with a hammer and all’s good
I’ll get a mech on day , I’m in a iMac so I’ve got Apple keyboard
I use laptops for almost everything, but I do insist on it being a Thinkpad T-series (looks like I have the same one as vulpes), because I believe they have the best keyboards for a laptop by a long shot.
They really are built like tanks and the precision of the molding is impressive. I felt really dumb when I tried to open it and realised it has no screws, it is held together only by plastic clips. Even though I don’t like linear switches, I sometimes use this one since it is an important part of computing history, at least for me (and we were born the same year!)
Mine is actually a X230 and their keyboards really are great. Same goes for newer series, sister has T440p and it is pleasure to type on.
Once upon a time I took home a retired terminal… think it was an ADM42… and it had the most beautiful mechanical keyboard. Spring-switches fitted with tiny magnets that’d activate individual Hall-effect devices. A keypress would let the cap drop down a well ’til it silently bottomed out, juuuuuuuuust the perfect amount of springiness. Absolutely perfect. All were individual Cherry switches.
Some SOB in my so-called “family” threw it out as “junk”.
Also had a few ADM11s (amber- and green phosphor) “disappear” over time. Those keyboards were a bit more lower-profile, but still had a really nice keyfeel and “clack”.
If you are a big collector of IBM clickies, your going to hate me. Before my oldest was born, I sold about a dozen, new in box, IBM M15 ergo clicky keyboards on eBay. I only paid $8 each so I was happy to get $50 - $75 each. I had no clue collectors in Japan were offering $1,000 each. I was inundated with requests for month afterwards.
I have a Ducky One 2 Mini with Cherry Browns. I love it but I might go to a TKL.
I dipped my toe into the artisan key cap waters and bought a Dwarf Factory The 4 Veggies KIN.
They make beautiful caps and lucky for me one was enough to satisfy my curiosity.
Built a TADA68 using Aliaz silents (basically Gateron silent browns that are a bit more tactile due to different stem) and have been loving it. Do kinda miss having dedicated function keys for gaming, but there were basically zero 70/75% boards available when I bought it other than a few prebuilt.
If I did get another board I would definitely look into something with better stabilizers. Even after a bit of lubing the ones on the TADA still have a bit of rattle to them.
That’s really sad to hear, but you never know if you might get lucky and find one in the wild.
(At least that is what I tell my self when I see an average Reddit dumpster find keyboard that I probably couldn’t buy even if I had those couple of thousands it seems to be worth)
Fair enough.
People in Japan and Korea are crazy. Japanesee have Topre keyboards, on paper very similar to conventional membrane keyboards, but arguably nicer to use than real mechanical ones, very expensive and well built. Koreans have this crazy custom scene. They basically invented custom keyboard with excessive amounts of metal, that can cost even thousands.
Artisans are fortunately out of my price range given there are some really beautiful keycaps out there. Though there are so called Taobao artisans, mass produced injection molded plastic caps. I might get some since they are cheap and interesting novelty items.
How do you feel about Aliaz switches? I want to get them for this Helix project. On paper, they sound perfect; heavier and more tactile than (gateron) browns and as silent as a mechanical switch can get. Both properties are important to me, since blue switch variants I currently have are too light and my sister is not to fond of the sound. And they wouldn’t set me back more than $30, considerably less when compared to other tactile silents such as $1 a piece Zilents.
I am an OLD (ish) gamer and have used a great arrayof mech/non mech kb’s over the years.
I am massively surprised at the quality of this - EG Carbon
I picked it up a bit cheaper than this £27, and for a mech/rgb kb it is a bargain - hasn’t missed a beat in over a year now with regular use/hammering lol. frame is aluminium.
Best bit is the software is built in, so no extra rubbish running in the tray - sure you can’t make your own patterns, but there are plenty to choose from and they are all adjustable in speed etc.
I think that’s a different one. The Shinobi was just released AFAIK and the Lenovo model is several years old (using membrane / scissors keys like normal ThinkPad keyboard). Just search for “ThinkPad Compact Keyboard”.
PS: The Shinobi seems to be awesome, but too expensive. Even as a professional software developer I can’t write enough to justify it in addition to all my other mechanical keyboards. Also I love my trackballs and don’t need a trackpoint in a desktop keyboard.
I was thinking of Tex Yoda (standard 60% layout), but can’t find anything linking it to Lenovo. I could swear it was released on some official event a few years ago.
