Mechanical Keyboards

Nice. Looks good - were there not any suitable shift keys for that size?

It’s mad, Only the Ducky one SF has a 2u right shift key rather than the 1.75u key that is found on ALL other keyboards. Right alt and fn keys are also 1u so I used blanks. I knew about all this beforehand but I’m really impressed with the extra options on the Ducky keyboards and didn’t want the extra footprint of a TKL so had to compromise.

Thanks @Ordinata, I wanted something fun

Looks really nice @freddo 👌

Idk why, but I expected keys on top.

Annoyingly if I was in the office I'd probably be able to scavenge something, but don't have anything at home.

Will have to do some Google imaging to work out which switches are which.

Still a fun thing to play with.

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Well that was fucking pointless.

Just got the notification email that the Keychron K3 Ultra-slim was back in stock having had no time to play with the sample pad and by the time I tried to order most of the options were sold out. I think brown Keychron would be the ideal so ordered both the red Low Profile Gateron and the blue Keychron Optical and will prob cancel the red Gateron as the Keychron are Hot-swappable. Although fuck knows when they're available.

Some o-rings on the space bar switches should help dampen the sound.

Googling "cherry mx o-rings" gives loads of links, I have no specific one to recommend.

..one month later, cheep and cheerful o-rings from China have arrived 🙂

Installed them yesterday and really like them. They are the clear silicone ones.
Not that big of a different sound-wise (bit more dampened), but typing feels less "airy" and more "cushioned" obviously.

Spacebar still is very loud and clanky though, even with the o-rings and some (quite lightweight) foam inside, will experiment with other materials.

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Overall quite happy with the Vortex!
Still, if Apple would offer a space grey external magic keyboard with proper (inverted T-shape) arrow keys I would probably get that.
I just like typing on the new magic keyboards, and as nice as the mechanical one is - not having to adjust back and forth from shallow chiclet-style to mechanical would be more valuable to me than being able to type on a mechanical one 50% of the time (I really need to switch setups / keybards multiple times a day usually).

That being said I can recommend the TAB75.
Looks and feels great, bluetooth is flawless for me (with 16" mbp and Catalina).
Only keep in mind while it's wireless it still is quite heavy (822g with batteries) so not that portable I'd say.

Really glad I opted for that size of keyboard, for me this works nicely with a magic trackpad next to it.

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Both good to hear.

I've got my K3 still sitting in it's cellophane. Some how my msg got lost in translation and they cancelled my order for the hotswapable blue optical switches and sent me the red Gateron ones.

Just waiting to hear back on what to do.

Half tempted to say fuck it. I seem to be having continual bad luck with e-commerce at the moment.

Hi all, I'm a wannabe nerd (i.e. I don't know much about computers etc.)
I work with a Mac at work (at home atm), and after years of not really getting on with the fancy expensive Mac keyboard I'd like something more functional. Budget £60/70 max.
I tend to use keyboard shortcuts whenever possible. When I work on CAD, I've got an icon free screen... and I tend to brutalize the space bar (enter / repeat last function, etc.) which makes me a pain to my colleagues in office context...

I've just did a quick search and the Logitech G413 seems to fit the bill (apart from the backlit keys which I hope can be turned off... Design isn't amazing but simple enough), but would welcome recommendations...

On another not, the only mouse I like to work with is a 15 years old Microsoft Intellimouse, nothing else suits me. I bought a couple in eBay over the years but wonder if I should still stock them or hope for a better model that's similar and that I should get used to... Thoughts welcome!

Thank you!

[ edit ] crap, looking a bit though the pages a bit it's quite niche/purist/high end stuff! Now I feel like I've come to an NJS thread asking about a Create fixie...

For the spacebar, it's the stabilisation bar that is causing the ping that you're hearing. Some people apply dielectric grease to the board, case and bar to dampen the sound.

This is a good explanation of what to do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7gRnpe7oyw

Thanks man, was hoping I wouldn't not need to do surgery like this though 😅

It's not a "ping" I'm hearing, it's more like a clanky, hollow "thump".
Tried to record the sound..

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• clank.m4a

That still sounds like the ‘thunk’ is on the return. That would be the stabiliser bar hitting the underside of the switches / case.

Same process should resolve that.

Ok cool, thank you for the feedback!

Finally got around to unwrapping my Keychron K3 Ultra-slim. Keychron gave me some money back for cancelling the wrong order, which should cover the cost of postage if I decide to sell this and reorder.

Initial thoughts are;

1. I think I'm too old for tech. I'm genuinely struggling to sum up the
   motivation to sort out the MS keys and settings to stop the stupid
   pulsing of the backlight.

2. keyboard is nice - plastics, weight, etc.

3. Red Gateron switches have more resistance than I expected and the noise is has a more quality feel, but could be a bit noisy when my OH goes back to work (in the dinning room with me). On reflection I think I should have left this wrapped and reordered with the blue optical switches - although I think brown optical would be my preference, so maybe it's best to live with it for a while and keep subscribed to the mailshots.

4. I'm used to more elevation on my keyboards, but overall the slim design is good and mitigates my concerns of the height of most of the common mechanical keyboards.

5. Keys layout is a good balance. Not convinced by the mini Return key and the backspace feels further away for some reason. But on the +ive there are F-keys, delete and backspace, plus the home/page/etc. keys

Does anyone know where is good for replacement keys for Keychron keyboards?

This will sound incredibly stupid, but it hadn't occurred to me that the K3 is a US layout. I'm generally fine with a US layout. But in this case it's used with a laptop which has a UK keyboard and as the K3 is a 75% layout I am not always spot on. Passwords in particular seem to be a pain.

Cheers.

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What about the cherry g3000? Probably not NJS approved, but (in black especially) it looks like the sort of thing Dieter Rams would approve of - quite often show up for cheap on eBay too

Thank you for talking to a neophyte like me!
Just googled it, I assume you mean the G80-3000? Love the look, may be too big for my desk but still tempting...

That’s the one - and yes if space is at a premium, the case is on the large size (especially compared to the ten keyless or even sparser arrangements most people are using in this thread.... full disclosure I went from a g80 to a vortex race 3 and don’t regret it ... nice, but pricey ... and the g80 still has that Rams appeal)

What do you need? I have a spare Keychron set somewhere - can't remember if 'extra' sets are localised or not.

Cheers. I'll check. But it's converting a US keyboard to a UK.

Tricky to do with the different shaped return key?
I think most UK keyboards need the larger L shaped return key.

I’m not sure you can do this. The US and ISO layouts are quite different in terms of key shape and switch position. Plus you need to find low profile keycaps.

You could change the keyboard type to US in your OS when you’re using the Keychron.

You're both right. I hadn't really thought it through properly.

The small Enter and large Left Shift keys fuck things up a bit. I checked under the Enter Key and there is just one switch.

So I guess swapping 2/@ and '/" seems like the only option.

I think I need to stop shopping online. Thinking about recent purchases gone wrong and I'm probably around a 30% fail rate.

I'm after a Keychron k4 when they bring one out in UK layout.
Can't be dealing with a small enter key!

I think a slim version of that would be my perfect keyboard.

Really liking the height of the K3.

Also if anyone wants to borrow the sample keypad let me know. I think there was someone who already asked. So I'll search the thread for them.