Mechanical Keyboards - Anyone here a fan? Can anyone recommend a good 75% keyboard?

Off-topic Chatter
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My first was the Magicforce68 which I got in 2017. Now I’m hunting for an upgrade. Are any of you keyboard connoisseurs?

My preferences (updated 4/22/24):

I’m actually planning for two keyboards now. One will be for night use and gaming, the other will be for productivity and day use. For the productivity board, north facing switches are not a requirement, all other preferences are the same.

  • 75% form factor, preferably with at least 4 keys above UP key (no wasted space)
  • backlit I favor plain white backlight over RGB, but would take RGB
  • north facing switches for lighting up shine-through key legends on the top of the keys and probably pudding keycaps
  • assembled with screws and for disassembly to allow cleaning and modding
  • hot-swap switch sockets to customize feel and function
  • user-replaceable switch stabilizers
  • metal case or at least metal top case for rigidity, durability and feel
  • if the price exceeds $100, I’d prefer it have a wireless mode for flexibility

So far I’ve tried:
Epomaker TH80 SE eliminated for screwless construction
FiiO KB3 eliminated for faulty RGB implementation (firmware unstable)

I looked at Reddit and found a thread or two on this, the problem is they have a habit of listing limited-run products that are not available to buy anywhere. I’d like to just buy a keyboard and be done with it.

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Thats a tall order. No clue.

I only use mechanical keyboards. Corsair is my preference.

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It doesn’t help that search engines have become ruined in the past decade or so. I search for mechanical keyboards with white backlights and I get white keyboards with RGB backlights. Most frustrating.

I think Corsair is alright. TBH, not married to any brand. I’d buy a keyboard from Joe Schmoe if it checked most of my boxes.

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There are a ton of good options. Almost anything should be decent, as long as it has upstream QMK support and hotswap switch sockets.

For tactile switches, I recommend the Durock T1 or T1 Silent (a.k.a. “shrimp”). They’re a “top bump” style which feels similar to a scissor switch or Topre, and I find them quite a bit nicer than Cherry style mid-bump switches (brown, blue, etc). Other good tactile switches include Boba U4 (I prefer the 62g variety, not 68g), TTC Silent Bluish White, Akko Jelly Purple / Lavender Purple, or even some Pandas. There are others too, so be sure to look up the force curve graphs online to make sure it has the right shape and pressure. For example, I’ve seen a new “Gateron Jupiter Banana” which says it’s “similar to Panda”, but I haven’t tried it.

For reference, here’s the Durock T1 I like so much:

… and the Cherry MX blue, which I really don’t like:

… and the Box Jade, which I think is really terrible. Each keystroke feels like using a paper hole puncher, causing the key to get stuck on both downstroke and upstroke:

For keycaps, really just use whatever tickles your fancy. Maybe that means shine-through, maybe something else. It’s hard to find decent keyboards with north-facing LEDs though, and hard to find shine-through caps with south-compatible labels.

I’ve enjoyed DSA profile caps made of PBT, or some black+purple MT3 profile caps I got on clearance, or some cheap “AF SA” profile sets which are a clone of MG Monster. But there are a ton of caps, and it really depends on what you like.

For the base keyboard, I’d generally get something barebones (i.e. no switches or caps) unless you find a rare unicorn which actually has good caps and switches included. Some I’ve been using are the Keychron V1, Keychron Q65, and Novelkeys NK65… but the 65% to 75% market is pretty saturated with good models.

Here’s the NK65 with some DSA PBT caps:

A relatively poor quality pic of the V1, with some cheap AF SA profile caps. I’ve since switched to a different color scheme.

… and the Q65, with MT3 caps. I’ve moved some things around since this pic was taken, and replaced all the macro keys on the left.

A close-up of the caps.

As you might expect, I’ve customized the firmware quite a bit. I added a few things upstream, like better MouseKeys algorithms, but mostly I’ve just customized the layout extensively. Here’s the keymap for that Q65:

I make use of the per-key RGB to show layers and modifiers and stuff. Hold down the Moon or Star key, for example, or activate MouseLock, and it’ll light up each key which uses that layer, in a color-coded way which matches the keymap diagram. Or press both shift keys to activate CapsWord, and they’ll stay lit until caps are deactivated (it turns off at the end of the current word). RGB isn’t just for gamer bling.

I definitely recommend diving in and making a keymap optimized for your personal needs. You probably don’t need 12 layers like what I’m doing… but still. No stock keymap will ever be as good as one you customized yourself.

Anyway… hotswap and decent upstream QMK support. Get a board with those, and it’s pretty much guaranteed to be good.

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I’ve always like the Keychron Q series. They use VIA to control key mapping and lights so you can have any color you want, and any kind of reactive pattern you desire. Have keys for Mac/Windows. Pedestrian, but turnkey. Would suggest a decent retailer rather than Keychron themselves, their CS isn’t that great. You’ll have to switch keycaps to get shine through, that’s not really a common feature.

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Nice boards TK! That Black Panther set was the best of the Marvel series. I tried MT3 and was hooked once I felt it.

Which program are you using for key mapping or is it one of yours?

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Wow, thanks for the extensive writeup!

In particular your notes about using RGB to signify hot-key layouts is very interesting and something I did not consider. I guess if I can’t find a white backlight there is at least a good use for the RGB after all.

I’ll respond to more of your post as I re-read it.

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It’s QMK. I just edit my keymap.c file and flash the new layout to the keyboard. I don’t have VIA enabled, because I don’t need or want it. VIA takes up a lot of space, restricts the available features, and doesn’t support a lot of what I’m doing.

I haven’t updated to the new user overlay system in the current version of QMK yet, but if it helps, here’s the code I’m using… and a lot more information about it:

For example, here’s the keymap.c in my Q65:

One of these days, I really should get the code updated for compatibility with the current version.

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I’ll definitely check out the top-bump category of switches. Didn’t know that was a thing. Not sure about the bottom-out actuation force I’m seeing but maybe there is a lighter version.

I see your keyboards are different % layouts. Do you use each for something different, or are they all pretty much set up the same way?

Those purple keys look amazing!

I wasn’t sure what software to prioritize but it sounds like you have a strong preference for QMK. Do you think it is superior for all applications, or specifically better for your own programming-heavy needs?

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I’m fairly happy with my Keychron K3 pro with brown switches, my list of priorities selecting it was

  • open source firmware
  • RGB backlight (since white is usually high CCT, RGB can go red to preserve night vision, and I like pretty rainbows)
  • compact to take with me to plug into stuff that needs controlling
  • bluetooth (encrypted as opposed to usual 2.4g protocols)
  • low profile

Tradeoffs so far have been hitting the up arrow instead of right shift, learning to use the oddly placed pg up/ dn, home and end keys, the ANSI layout and the keycaps not being shine-through. Aside from that the typing experience is superb.

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I use an Ergodox EZ Shine keyboard with my desktop computer at home. The keys have an ortholinear arrangement. The EZ has two halves which may be separated and tilted. It has 6 keys per thumb. My EZ discourages strangers from using my computer.

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I just found out there are officially licensed LotR elvish keycaps :exploding_head:

Totally useless, and totally awesome.

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I just found this fantastic product on Amazon. I think the product info must have been generated by AI based on the results of google translate…

https://www.amazon.com/XYLXJ-Computer-Mechanical-Keyboard-Floating/dp/B09MMG4HSR

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I’m sure VIA isn’t the best, but coming from someone who it took 2 weeks to learn how to add reactive lighting to keystrokes, it sure makes it easier.

Have you ever thought about a visual interface for flashing Anduril (in all of your free time ;))

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Wait for the sales. They are on sale like half the time and the LOTR stuff seems to get good discounts.

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Yea, I’m not one to pay a 100% markup based on brand recognition alone. Do the sales follow any kind of pattern?

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They just had a BOGO sale but their sales are very frequent. They ownthe rights to the MT3 profile. Their MCU rights ran out and they cleared them out. IDK about LOTR.

The Lord keycaps are NOT shine through just so you know.

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Yea I figured. But if the price was right, I’d do a themed keyboard and just use it on special occasions.

It would be sick to have glowing elvish script though

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I’m definitely enjoying it. In part because they’re nice caps, and in part because I got them brand new for about $40 instead of the original $150 to $200…

… but also because they give me a joke that I’ll probably never actually get to use:

“Wha’ kinda keycaps are those?”, a hypothetical person asks me.
“Yes, they are!”, I reply. “They are, indeed, Wakanda keycaps.”

Ba-dum, tsh!

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Off the shelf - pretty much only Keychron. V1, I’d say.

All the random amazon stuff with proprietary firmwares sucks, pretty much all the big gaming brand stuff sucks.

Keychron has the best quality of all “mainstream” and widely available brands by far, and most of them come with QMK. 100% open source and community driven. Has RGB, but can obviously be set to plain white, easiest is using VIA (again, fully open-source, and a web-client, so no install of anything needed).

Lightweight tactiles… Hm. If you like Gateron brown, get it with Brown. Should be Gateron Pro v3 in keychrons by default (or keychrons weird Keychron Pro switches, that are some Gateron relabel anyway). Either way, solid switches.

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