keeb-notes

keyboards-intro.md

Introduction to the world of mechanical keyboards

Dramatic intro

Motivation

Why care about keyboards?

• an input device you interact with for many hours a day

• choose your weapon tools! personalize your equipment

• think about clothes/shoes: different people care about different aspects

  • appearance: how it looks, subjective taste, design, style, fashion, trends, etc.
  • comfort: how it fits, ergonomics, fit for use-case
  • quality: how well it is made, how long will it last, how sturdy or versatile it is
  • money: how much it costs, cost efficiency, showing off
  • origin: brands, mass-produced vs. custom and hand made

  All of these aspects apply to keyboards as well.

If you type a lot, why not enjoy it as well?

General knowledge

Types of keyboards

Wikipedia: Keyboard technology:

1. Membrane keyboard
2. Dome-switch keyboard
3. Scissor-switch keyboard
4. Capacitive keyboard
5. Mechanical-switch keyboard
6. Buckling-spring keyboard
7. Hall-effect keyboard
8. Laser projection keyboard
9. Roll-up keyboard
10. Optical keyboard technology

When is a keyboard "mechanical"?

What makes a keyboard "mechanical"? Are "mecha-membrane" keyboards mechanical? How about optoelectric, Hall effect, dome with slider, etc.?

There are many definitions, some are more valid that others, but none of them is good enough for everyone to agree on.

From the video comments:

We could start delineating by "enthusiast" keyboards vs "non-enthusiast" keyboards. That's really what "mechanical keyboards" effectively indicates.

Mechanical keyboards as a hobby

• buying 🛒 💸
• typing 👐 and enjoing 🤤
• customizing: changing case, keycaps, switches ⚙️ 💸
• learning: community 🙌 knowledge exchange 📚 🤓
• "building": assembling 🔩 soldering etc. 🛠️
• designing: from engineering 🧠 to aesthetics 🔮
• selling: group buys, exchange, indie vendors 🤑

KU: Intro to Mechanical Keyboards

Diving in

Sizes and layouts

• sizes:
  • 100%, 75%, 65%, 60%, 50%, 40%, ...
  • TKL (ten-key-less), winkeyless, 1800, HHKB, etc.
• layouts by stagger:
  • row-staggered (most common)
  • ortholinear (no stagger): Planck
  • column-staggered: Atreus
• ergonomic:
  • hands orientation: tilting, tenting, angle
  • split
    • awesome-split-keyboards
    • Split keyboards gallery
  • concave: Kinesis, Dactyl, et al.
• steno:
  • Plover wiki

Keycaps

• profiles
• materials: ABS, PBT
• keysets & sizes
• design
• artisans

Mechanical switches

• type & feel: linear, tactile, clicky

  • Input Club: The Comparative Guide to Mechanical Switches

    

• sound: clicky, clacky, pingy, thocc-y, silent

• weight: different springs

• modding: lubing, filming, springs-swapping, frankenswitches

How many types of switches are there?

Hundreds... ThereminGoat mentioned having ~730 in his collection.

Switch testers

Other interesting switch designs

• Rubber dome (Topre):

  

• Optical (Razer):

  

• Buckling spring (IBM):

  

• Beam spring (Silo):

  

More resources

Community

• Tapad: #mech_keyboards Slack channel
• KU: brief overview
• Geekhack
• Reddit:
  • r/MechanicalKeyboards a.k.a r/mk
  • r/ErgoMechKeyboards
  • r/olkb
  • r/crkbd
  • r/CustomKeyboards
• KeebTalk
• Discord
• Meetups 😞

Market

• Retailers / Shops / Stores / Vendors

• Group Buys (GB)

  • MechGroupBuys
  • Drop

• Exchange, peer-to-peer:

  • r/mechmarket
  • Keebswap