Help diagnosing keypress glitches

[abhibeckert]

I have a Leopold FC700R with Cherry Red switches, which I've been using ~50 hours/week for about a year.

A few times a day one of my key presses will trigger three times. So I press "a" and it types "aaa" or I paste and it pastes three times. It seems to happen more often with things like copy/paste than general typing, basically anything where my hands aren't in their "normal" resting position.

The worst thing is, sometimes I'll hit return in a dialog box, and it will send three return keypress events - doing god knows what in any follow-up dialog boxes.

It's rare, but also extremely annoying and dangerous.

I need to decide if I should buy the same keyboard again with different switches (cherry brown probably), or buy a completely different keyboard. What do you guys think? Is the problem the switches or something else?

It always fires exactly three times, and happens with all the keys, so that makes me suspicious it might be a bug with leopold's keyboard firmware?

[002]

At first I thought you had a chattering problem, but if it's happening with every key and it's always thrice then I doubt it's your problem.

Does the same problem occur if you try the keyboard on another computer? If it's still under warranty, I'd be returning it. Get a Realforce

[abhibeckert]

Does the same problem occur if you try the keyboard on another computer? If it's still under warranty, I'd be returning it.

I can't reproduce it reliably enough to test it. It only happens once or twice in two hours of typing. I'd have to use someone else's computer for a few days... which isn't going to happen.

I don't plan to return it, I'm still happy with the keyboard, just going to stop using it every day/all day.

[002]

How many keys have you noticed it on? Are you sure it's not just a few switches? When it happens does the USB connection drop out and reinitialise or do the LEDs flicker?

[abhibeckert]

It either happens on all switches or on many of them. The only pattern I've noticed is it happens more often when I don't press them properly, but I could be imagining that.

The keyboard isn't dropping out or any LEDs flashing. I'm pretty sure I'd notice that, this keyboard takes a few seconds to initialise.

[002]

Hmm well it doesn't sound good. You don't really have many options unless you want to try replacing the switches but that might not even fix your problem. If you bought your keyboard here in Aus I'm guessing it was at PCCG? I have a friend who has a spare FC700 with a broken caps-lock LED otherwise brand new, he might sell it to you if you're interested. It has brown switches I think. We're in QLD btw. If you wanna have a go at replacing the switches, I have some spare blue switches I could send you.

Edit: Sorry it's an FC200 he has, not an FC700, and it's Otaku

[abhibeckert]

Hmm well it doesn't sound good. You don't really have many options unless you want to try replacing the switches but that might not even fix your problem. If you bought your keyboard here in Aus I'm guessing it was at PCCG? I have a friend who has a spare FC700 with a broken caps-lock LED otherwise brand new, he might sell it to you if you're interested. It has brown switches I think. We're in QLD btw. If you wanna have a go at replacing the switches, I have some spare blue switches I could send you.

Edit: Sorry it's an FC200 he has, not an FC700, and it's Otaku

Hmmm I have caps lock mapped to control, so the light is useless, and I use dvorak so being Otaku is not a problem at all. I actually have all my keycaps swapped around anyway, just to mess with anyone who tries to use my keyboard at the office.

I'm in cairns/qld and would like to buy it, can you ask him?

It was PCCG but I think it's too much effort to try and get a warranty replacement... it would be (just) inside warranty but it's taken me a long time to even be sure there's something wrong with it. Are they going to believe my story? Sounds like too much effort/hassle for a keyboard that is almost flawless. I'm happy to use it at home.

[002]

Just messaged him - he's happy to sell to you.
He's gonna PM you some pics, etc.

[jeffkoch]

Kinda' sounds like a ground fault; the electrical ground in the keyboard circuitry is not solidly connected to the electrical ground in the computer. This allows the logic signals to float around as the ground bounces in response to data signals. Alternatively, the termination on the data lines might be faulty.

If so, you could isolate the problem; 1) try a different USB port on the computer, 2) try a different USB cable, 3) try a different keyboard. The problem should "follow" one of these three components.

If the problem is in the keyboard, then you might find it with a visual inspection; tug on wires a tiny bit, look for "cold" solder joints. Verify the connector is not bent.

If that does not locate the problem, try re-flowing the solder joints - just touch an iron and re-melt the solder - inspect the connections. You might also try strapping the grounds together with a second, redundant piece of wire.

If none of that fixes the problem, sell it to a gamer on E-bay for a premium; "Faster shooting with Triple-Tap Technology(R); when a double-tap to the head is just not enough...."

[abhibeckert]

Kinda' sounds like a ground fault; the electrical ground in the keyboard circuitry is not solidly connected to the electrical ground in the computer. This allows the logic signals to float around as the ground bounces in response to data signals. Alternatively, the termination on the data lines might be faulty.

If so, you could isolate the problem; 1) try a different USB port on the computer, 2) try a different USB cable, 3) try a different keyboard. The problem should "follow" one of these three components.

Hmm that sounds sensible.

I have bought that keyboard off 002's mate and when it arrives I will try swapping stuff around and opening it up for inspection. The USB connection on the keyboard end feels a tad dodgy.