[vhaarr]

Hai guise!

This all started this summer when my last keyboard broke because I spilled some wine in it (I say wine, obviously, I mean Coca Cola). I had to get a new keyboard.

I started looking around and figured "bah, I'll just get a standard one", but then I suddenly bumped into geekhack.org on some strange coincidence.

Long story short, I ended up buying a Happy Hacking Pro 2 keyboard with no key labels printed for myself, which you can see here;

Happy Hacking! on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

For those of you wondering "can a keyboard really make that much difference", the answer is yes. The keyboards bundled with retail computers are just crap. You can read all about keyboards and different key switches on the geekhack.org wiki. Think of it as head-fi.org for keyboards

And then I started thinking. It's christmas soon. My 2 younger brothers are full time gamers (Counter-Strike, WoW, etc), and also computer geeks to a certain extent. Would they appreciate a new keyboard with some real keys? Would they care?

After trying out my new HHKBPro2, I was not in doubt any more. Since I had not visited my parents or brothers (who still live at home) for like 10 months, I phoned home and asked my dad to observe them when typing at their computers - did they look at the keyboard while typing or not?

He called back the next day and confirmed that they did not.

I bought 2x Filco tenkeyless Cherry Brown MX (FKBN87M/NPEK) keyboards from elitekeyboards.com for them. They don't have printed labels and are all black;

Birds eye view on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

And after looking around more on geekhack.org and thinking about christmas and what to get for my dad, I suddenly put 2 and 2 together; he is a car painter. We could do a custom paint job on these keyboards!

So we have today!

Here's the flickr stream (my first one ever

in all its glory, it also links to the geekhack.org thread in the set description;
Keyboard Project - a set on Flickr

And a shot of the finished product for those of you who don't care for the whole set of project photos;

We will also be making a set of blue gradient keys for them in case they don't particularly like green (who doesn't like green?!).

I must say this is probably the most awesome christmas present I've ever done, and I am quite sure they will appreciate it a lot, considering the crap Logitech bundled keyboards they are using now that provide no tactile feedback or pleasant clicking noises when typing.

Anyway, hopefully some people found the project interesting, and maybe - just maybe - I've given some people an idea for what to do for christmas next year? It's always a problem, at least for me, I just got lucky this year

If anyone wants to follow up this post with pictures of their own keyboard setup, that would be cool! Also, next year, if you decide to do anything similar, please send me a PM or post here, I'd love to see others get inspired from it!

 

[MomijiTMO]

Interesting colours there

 

[deltaspirit]

Wow, what an awesome present. I really love my IBM model M at work but use a g15 at home for gaming. How do you feel about the Filco tenkeyless Cherry Brown MX's? compared to the happy hacking pro 2 for gaming?

 

[DanielCox]

Cool. Always wanted a model M but could never be bothered to get one.

 

[vhaarr]

In reply to deltaspirit;

IBM Model M, mmm, that's an awesome keyboard for typing

I've never tried the G15, but I'm fairly certain it uses a standard membrane for registering keypresses and not individual switches like the Filco, HHKB or IBMs, for example.

The HHKB is very similar to a IBM Model M from my experience. They both use springs, but the IBM ones buckle, thus giving you a bit more feedback when the key has actually been pressed, and they also bounce back up faster, leading your fingers to the next stroke.

The HHKB registers the keypress only 2mm down, so you don't have to press them all the way down - I still do though, because I enjoy the click, it's an old habit, and I enjoy feeling my fingers "dancing" from the spring feedback.

The Cherry Brown MX Filco switches are awesome. If I were to compare them to the topre switches on my HHKB, I'd say there are a few differences;
1. Cherries provide noticable tactical feedback earlier in the press than the topre ones.
2. Cherries sound "lighter" while the topre ones are more "thumping" in their audible feedback.
3. The Topre switches on my HHKB definetely provide more bounceback after the key is pressed all the way down (which is really not necessary, but I still do) than the Cherries do.

So it really depends on your preference. I definetely prefer the HHKB Topre switches, but my brothers (who are younger and who have not used the IBM Model M while growing up, like I did, for example) will probably - and I hope

- prefer the Cherry Brown MX ones.

 

[vhaarr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanielCox /img/forum/go_quote.gif Cool. Always wanted a model M but could never be bothered to get one.

If you're lucky you can find them on ebay and the sorts, and also you can visit ClickyKeyboards and see if they have some available.

The company that took over IBMs keyboard division is Unicomp/Lexmark, they have a store at Online Store Home Page and I believe they still make keyboards with the buckling spring switch, although I haven't really investigated this.

I got the HHKB Pro 2 instead because I really like the formfactor of it, and the Topre switches are amazing as well.

 

[smrtby123]

I have to say I was a big proponent of the keyboards/mice don't matter until I actually bought a nice set. Got a Saitek Eclipse II and a Cyber Snipa Stinger mouse and holy cow I could never go back to regular. Even surfing the web I have crazy macros set up on my mouse to switch tabs, close, save, etc that make my life 10x easier.

My dream keyboard is the Das Keyboard. All blank, with specifically weighted keys for stronger/weaker fingers.

 

[ricksome]

Sweet Christmas Gifts!!!!!

 

[vhaarr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smrtby123 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have to say I was a big proponent of the keyboards/mice don't matter until I actually bought a nice set. Got a Saitek Eclipse II and a Cyber Snipa Stinger mouse and holy cow I could never go back to regular. Even surfing the web I have crazy macros set up on my mouse to switch tabs, close, save, etc that make my life 10x easier. My dream keyboard is the Das Keyboard. All blank, with specifically weighted keys for stronger/weaker fingers.

I think you would really enjoy a Cherry Brown MX-based keyboard (like the two boards I got for my brothers are).

The "Das Keyboard Model S Professional" uses Cherry Blue MX switches, and the "Das Keyboard Model S Professional Silent" uses the Cherry Brown MX switches.

The Blue switches produce a loud click sound upon keypress (which is not the same as the sound your key makes when it hits the bottom of its travel path), while the Brown switches do not produce this sound. Otherwise they are remarkably similar except for a slight difference in the amount of force necessary to press them (5 gram difference or something, almost nothing).

But I don't think they are weighted for stronger/weaker fingers. However it may seem like they are, because they will register the keypress after just a few millimeters. Basically like I said in an earlier post, they provide the tactile feedback a lot sooner than the Topre switches (however, obviously, the tactile feedback is not really tied to the actual registering of a keypress), so you feel that you can stop pressing the keys a lot earlier on a Cherry board than on others.

Generally the Cherry Brown MX switches are considered the kings of gaming for this reason. You want to be fast on to the next keystroke.

There's a reason people have recommended the Das Keyboard to you and that you really want it.

Cherry Brown MX switches would be that reason

 

[Planar_head]

Nice keyboards!

Now, all we need is a keyboard-fi thread, and we can get all the cool mechanical keyboard folks together!

I have a Cherry G81-1800LUMUS-2 which is fantastic to type on. It's a little heavy at first, but it registers at a very minimal stroke height. It's good for someone like me who came from a rubber dome and hammered keys to get a quick response. It's also not clicky at all, which is fortunate because I bet it would make everyone around me go mad.

 

[vhaarr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Planar_head /img/forum/go_quote.gif Now, all we need is a keyboard-fi thread, and we can get all the cool mechanical keyboard folks together! I have a Cherry G81-1800LUMUS-2 which is fantastic to type on. It's a little heavy at first, but it registers at a very minimal stroke height. It's good for someone like me who came from a rubber dome and hammered keys to get a quick response. It's also not clicky at all, which is fortunate because I bet it would make everyone around me go mad.

This can be that thread!

The Cherry G81 is a weird keyboard. It's sort of a mixture between Topre switches with cheap Logitech bundled membrane-based keyboards.

From what I've heard before about these MY-switches, as they are called, they back up what you say about being very hard to press down. I'm not sure why someone would prefer these switches instead of Topre or Cherry Brown MX, to be honest.

Perhaps I'll have to get me a CherryCorp board and try it

 

[smrtby123]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vhaarr /img/forum/go_quote.gif But I don't think they are weighted for stronger/weaker fingers.

I am thinking of the very first Das Keyboard that came out in like 2005. It had a chart showing the weighted keys, where the pinkies took less force.

 

[vhaarr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smrtby123 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am thinking of the very first Das Keyboard that came out in like 2005. It had a chart showing the weighted keys, where the pinkies took less force.

Oooh, that's pretty cool!

The Cherry keys only need to be pressed down 2 millimeters or so to register the keypress. The rest of the travel is just for tactile and audible feedback.

The grams of pressure needed on the different Das keys is for the rest of the travel time - not the pressure you need to register the keypress.

The Cherry Brown MX switches are 45g, like most of the Das keys seem to be.

 

[Arainach]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Planar_head /img/forum/go_quote.gif Now, all we need is a keyboard-fi thread, and we can get all the cool mechanical keyboard folks together!

There's already been like 2 or 3. Off the top of my head, I found these:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f90/keyboards-305369/
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f90/mo...thread-421452/

 

[Meliboeus]

Those mechanical keyboards must be great, i've been reading something about them lately and i'd love to have one, but unfortunately they are almost unavailable in my country...my only option is to go with a US layout one, but they lack these characters "è é à ò ì", which i absolutely need for typing.

I'd have to customize the layout via operating system, which is a non-issue under linux, but still i'm not convinced it will be handy to use...