Hey comrades, I’ve found myself over the past four months or so becoming a huge mechanical keyboard nerd. It’s an expensive hobby but it’s so much fun and I want to know if anybody else here has also fallen into this money black hole.
I’m currently exploring different keyboard sizes, my new 75% is about to arrive but I think my favorite so far has been my 65%. Judging from my personal experience, I’m pretty sure I’ll be a 75% guy mostly. I have no interest in trying a 60%, because I love the convenience of having arrow keys.
I used to think I needed a numpad, but nowadays I find full-size to be way too large and unwieldy. My GMK104 is gathering dust, probably soon to be sold, and my F108 Pro (the keyboard that got me hooked on this hobby) is up for sale. My goal is to make my own keyboards, and I’m probably going to start by making a DIY numpad that I can use alongside my 65% or 75%.
I’ve been exploring switches and I find that the whole thing about thocky keyboards is way overblown. I want loud clack with a sharp bottom-out, and I can’t really make up my mind as to whether I prefer tactiles or linears. I’ve tried excellent switches of both types. I might lean a bit towards tactile, but not by much really.
Although I’m okay with burning through the disposable fraction of my income on this stuff, I’m not made of money. I won’t be trying high-end switches, or any switches that are not available with affordable shipping from Aliexpress. I’m very happy with my experience so far with affordable ones, like Akko, HMX (my favorites), MMD, KTT, Outemu and Gateron.
Regarding keyboards, I don’t see myself ever buying anything that costs more than about $60 or $70. Duty fees are extremely high in my country and my currency is very undervalued right now. I’m happy with my GMK67 and GMK87, and I have a QK81 on its way right now. I found a Loop 65 for a ridiculously low price on Aliexpress recently, so I got myself one as well, but that’s as far as I’ll go with buying keyboards. From now on all my new keyboards will be homemade!
In fact, having this goal of making my own keyboards has been incredibly rewarding and motivating. I’m currently relearning how to work with electronics a decade after dropping out of engineering school, learning how to use a CNC (I have a cheap 3018 that I’m still figuring out), refining my 3D printing and modeling skills and, since I’m a woodworker, I’m thinking my DIY keyboards will have wooden cases.
I don’t really have a community or many friends with whom I can nerd out over this kind of thing. There’s an insane amount of gatekeeping in this hobby, more so than in other hobbies I’ve explored in the past, and I think that if any of my fellow Hexbears are into this stuff, I’m sure you’d be the coolest people to talk about this stuff with!
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I’ve personally never understood the obsession with minimalism in keyboards. One of the cool things about a keyboard is that it can do literally anything I could possibly want it to do. There is no program that includes a function that my keyboard can’t handle.
Why would I want to chop off 30% of the keys to save like a couple inches of desk space that’s reserved for a keyboard anyway?
One of the big reasons is to reduce finger movement actually! If you go really small with multiple layers you can have all the functionality of a full size board without ever moving your fingers more than one key from their home positions.
That being said, I personally go back and forth on whether I prefer that or not. It feels more efficient but also I feel like moving my whole hands actually kind of helps with RSI more than reducing movement but locking my hands in place. Still trying different things on that front though
My minimalist keyboard can also do anything I could possibly want it to do, I can remap the keys on the fly in a browser window, program hotkeys and macros to make my job easier, etc. I forget how many layers it supports, more than I’d ever need for sure. Of course there are full size keyboards with that shit too, but people like me with RSI can really benefit from a compact layout that minimizes finger reach. In my case it made a huge difference.
Same. I understand going down from full-size to something smaller, but in my personal opinion there’s not much benefit to going below 65%. I like having more desk space and I like the aesthetics of a 65/75% without that gap between the arrow keys and the nav cluster. Below that size, I think there’s diminishing returns and I don’t feel very comfortable having to make heavy use of Fn-layers in order to do basic things like navigating text, for example. The function keys are the most I’m willing to sacrifice for a more compact keyboard.
I just grabbed myself a Logitech G710 Blue a decade ago and right now I have a Corsair K68 RGB also with the Cherry MX Blue switches.
I went with Cherry MX Blue because it’s the closest modern equivalent to the mythical IBM Model M keyboard (which you could also use as a very effective blunt weapon).
Yeah I got a logitech ten keyless G413 and I like it, been pretty good to me so far. I just use it for typing and gaming and I’ve been satisfied.
That’s cool! I was watching some videos about the Model M earlier today and it’s insane that there’s some examples of 30-year old keyboards out there that are still working to this day. They just don’t make things that reliable nowadays. I’m personally not a fan of clicky switches at all, so I haven’t tried any.
Unicomp produces modernized Model M keyboards after purchasing the patent to the buckling spring switch from IBM.
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I use a 60% at both work and home. They’re both just budget ones with gateron red switches. The arrow keys work without the function layer just fine on both of my boards. My normal posture I have my hands pretty close together on my desk so I wanted the smallest KB I could get away with so my mouse wouldn’t hit it.
I thought all 60% keyboards had no arrow keys! That’s pretty cool, I enjoy smaller boards!
I printed and handwired my own to help with RSI and postural issues. I wouldn’t say I’m “into” keyboards though, and I hate collecting stuff. I just want to use the lightbox less hurty.
That looks great, I’ve never tried ergonomic keyboards. I’m still trying to figure out what my best options would be when DIYing a hot-swappable board.
If you know how to design PCBs or want to learn then you can follow this guide: https://flatfootfox.com/ergogen-introduction/
If you want to put up with hand wiring (it’s worse and less bad than you think) then you could use anything that’ll host the sockets, there are some PCBs designed to twist into place for each key in a 3d printed chassis for example. Or flexible PCBs for standard dactyl forms.
TBH I can’t see the point in buying expensive keyboards in a bad form factor and having switched to split now hate every other design for causing strained posture and not supporting adjusting positions.
No, just a nerd for the musical kind of keyboard. However, there is a crossover: the Vongon Replay:
Balancing scope, style and function - Replay has a slim footprint with 22 dedicated sound controls and a 2½-octave keyboard of genuine Cherry MX keys. The intuitive format and sleek design encourages an immersive, hands-on approach to creating your sonic palette.
I wouldn’t recommend it, though. It’s overpriced for what it is, and the layout makes playing in a key other than C, maybe F or G, a PITA.
That’s exactly the kind of impractical oddity that I love lmao making something like that also sounds like a great DIY project to tackle if you know how to play around with electronics.
Yeah there’s a strong DIY synth scene, especially as the chips needed are relatively cheap these days if you’re building for a small scope instrument. Never tried it though, as my one attempt at soldiering did not go well.
i used a 65% with fixed firmware for many years and recently moved to a 60% with programable firmware and i am surprised at how much being able to configure your keys makes a difference. i used to find it barely ok and today i feel i have too much keys to the point that i could totally use a smaller one without problems.
my main reason for going mech was ergonomics so a split keyboard and the smaller hand travel possible are a must (60% being my current preference but i’m sure a smaller one would be more comfortable). there are many open designs that fit this requirements into different form factors (from memory: aurora58, sofle, corne) so it’s possible to build something like this for not so much (that said, split ones are quite niche so they usually go for more than regular ones) but i’m not good at electronics so a new one will have to wait
I have a Ducky 2 with cherry blacks that I’ve used daily for like 6 years and I left a Varmilo flare star with box jades at my Mom’s that she loves because it reminds her of a typewriter. The only real mechanical adventure I went on was making a 10 key with husky switches and cool Lord of the Rings keys.
Oh hell yeah this is what I’m looking for, posts that would make absolutely zero sense to someone who’s not in the hobby lol
I can totally see why she would enjoy box jades if she enjoys the typewriter feel. How did you make your 10-key? My idea for my DIY boards is to have a 65 or 75% with a numpad satellite that connects to it.
I didn’t really do anything myself other than assemble the 10 key. The keys I got from Drop, and the switches from Kinetic’s site. I don’t remember where I found the 10 key body, but all the guts were already soldered together.
Looks really nice!
I’m more in the layout space due to RSI. Currently running Colemak-DH on a split Corne.
