At the End of the Day, Which Keyboard do You Actually Use?

[berserkfan]

I have devoted at least 500 hours to this hobby and modded god knows how many boards.

Eventually after spending/ wasting all that time, I found that I like Matrix POS boards best with my jailhoused switches. These were pretty inexpensive also.

You won't believe how many clears and modded clears boards I tried out in the meantime, and how much time wasted in floss modding and teensy modding my Model Fs. My family thought I was mad to hole up in my room, soldering and desoldering, every weekend.

Lesson learned? Form your own conclusions of stupidity on my part.

[XMIT]

I'm still coming to decisions regarding key caps and switches. For example, the other day I put SA Retro on one of my MX Clear boards and now I like it. I couldn't stand it on the Novatouch. So odd.

But I have come to one important decision: TKL is the form factor for me. I like for the arrow keys and nav cluster to always be in the same place and I like function keys. I can maybe tolerate a slightly different bottom row. Maybe.

[Hypersphere]

@XMIT: I still switch back to a TKL once in a while, but my main board has become the HHKB Pro 2. I really like the 60% form factor, both for size and symmetry, and I love the HHKB layout for its intuitive efficiency. The main lessons I have learned from my keyboard odyssey thus far is that I no longer like full-size keyboards, and I don't like the various keyboards that occupy the twilight zone between 60% and TKL.

[vivalarevolución]

Displaywriter beam spring at home. A custom 60% Matias Quiet switch at work. The work keyboard preference might change if Topre wins me over, because finding caps for Alps/Matias keyboards is slightly annoying.

[Hak Foo]

20-key pad off AliExpress

need a link for that one.

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... 05401.html looks like the one I bought, but you can't find them for sale anymore :/


They used to come in a few variations-- standard numpad layout and with various reductions of the 2x keys into two 1x keys. The keycaps have terrible lasering and random legends, and a weird profile.

I swapped the switches and gouged apart the original PCB traces, manually jumpering all the switches to drive it off a Pro Micro. This let me use the PCB to anchor the switches without having to fight its arcane matrix and epoxied-on controller.

Some alternatives to consider that you can actually buy today--

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... dition=new (some of the third-party sellers have them for pretty cheap, even if you have to toss the trackpad)

http://www.dsi-keyboards.com/shop/keypa ... ic-keypad/

Edit: Apparently they're still there under a different listing.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/STB-20A- ... 05401.html but I can't see all the details right now-- their JavaScript is having a fit.

[suclearnub]

I just use my FC660C outside and at home I use my Model M or the SSK, depending on how much desk space I have on that day. Those half a dozen Cherry boards? I haven't touched them in quite some time now.

[lootbag]

My daily keyboards are constantly changing.

HHKB has been relegated to studio use, too lazy to bring it back and forth.
Was recently using the 55g 87u at home but it has been shelved for this:

Duck Viper with lubed 68g gold spring vintage blacks


After using Topre exclusively for 5 years, this cherry mx variant is a welcome change.
I could just never bother to buy a vintage black board, desolder and resolder in the past.
Realized I do not really need the tenkleyless form factor and do not miss dedicated arrow keys at all.
Now I do not know what to do with my 55g 87u even though I quite like the switch feel.
Maybe save it for the office later and bring the HHKB home; or sell it haha.

Very excited to receive my Zealios and Gateron switches in the next couple months.
It is quite nice to see all the new development (copying, improvement, options) in the cherry mx market after returning to the forums from a longgg hiatus.

[vivalarevolución]

My daily keyboards are constantly changing.
Very excited to receive my Zealios and Gateron switches in the next couple months.
It is quite nice to see all the new development (copying, improvement, options) in the cherry mx market after returning to the forums from a longgg hiatus.

Regardless, good to see you back!

[Hypersphere]

@lootbag: Nice Viper! How do you like the Logitech mouse?

[lootbag]

@lootbag: Nice Viper! How do you like the Logitech mouse?

Bought it on a whim because my G700 died after 5 years and it has the dual mode scroll wheel which I like.
The "G-Shift" button is pretty cool to get more utility out of all the mouse buttons (except the left and right click, it does not work with them; why logitech, why?)

I do not really like the scroll wheel, it is clunky and heavy.
So I will buy a G500/G700 scroll wheel assembly and swap it in.
It is a direct swap and easy mod.

Back to keyboards, I plan to overhaul the Viper in the near future.
Need to convert the 2x backspace to 1x,1x and the caps lock back to centered.
Need to troubleshoot a couple LEDs that are not working but I want to add SIP sockets and change the color anyways.
Maybe try some different switches but vintage blacks are ok for now I suppose.

[Crossfire]

Great looking board you have there, man! Vintage blacks are my favorite mx switch atm, I've lubed some for the sake of science and they feel even more awesome...just so smooth on the downstroke, way better than lubed gateron blacks. TA looks like a dream with that viper case, just a proper cable and you're golden.

Now we just need to start customizing mices just like we did with boards...that would be great, imatine lubed scroll wheels, different microswitches or mx switches, leds, and custom mouse bodies...oh well

[Hypersphere]

@Crossfire: I am coming to a similar conclusion about mice -- that I might need to custom-build one in order to get what I want. In order to keep this thread focused on keyboards, I am going to start a similar thread about mice. Thanks for the inspiration for this idea.

Here is the link to my newly created mouse thread:

other-devices-f3/does-your-ideal-mouse- ... ml#p286343

[1deeg]

I tend to use my Plum 96 (reds) more than any other boards I've owned. The layout is so nice (and I prefer the PCB-mount feels). It would be perfect except that the spacebar stabs don't have standard spacing. I either have to use the stock POM one or add some stems to my spacebars with epoxy (haven't done this yet).
I bought an 1800 thinking that it would be the ideal layout for me since it is more compact than fullsize while still having dedicated arrow keys.. But I use Home/End/etc frequently and having them positioned at the very top of the keyboard is pretty inconvenient. Been meaning to look into an RS96/LZ-CP or something like that, might work better? I'll probably just stick with the Plum

[Muirium]

This one:


post286468.html#p286468

[lootbag]

Great looking board you have there, man! Vintage blacks are my favorite mx switch atm, I've lubed some for the sake of science and they feel even more awesome...just so smooth on the downstroke, way better than lubed gateron blacks. TA looks like a dream with that viper case, just a proper cable and you're golden.

Vintage blacks feel very smooth indeed.
I have never tried Gaterons but was thinking of ordering some yellows to try.
Currently trying to do more research on Gaterons and trying to figure out what exactly is the difference between the blacks and yellows. TA is a dream to type on and looks great until... I turn on the LEDs; crazy light bleed

@Muirium: Now I regret buying a black 87u

[Muirium]

Actually, those bright mods would work well on the black model too. But yeah, white alphas forever!

[Madhias]

Oh wow Muirium, the best keyboard of the world! Perfect picture and great color splash too, I always think I would like it for a day or two, and than go back to my boring beige setup...

[Crossfire]

Vintage blacks feel very smooth indeed.
I have never tried Gaterons but was thinking of ordering some yellows to try.
Currently trying to do more research on Gaterons and trying to figure out what exactly is the difference between the blacks and yellows. TA is a dream to type on and looks great until... I turn on the LEDs; crazy light bleed

Yeah, GMK's TA and CYMW have this uncharacteristical bleed...one just can't justify a price tag that they have, really.
OG Cherry would look nice on that viper too...and would have no bleed with leds on - tested and approved

[lootbag]

Oh wow Muirium, the best keyboard of the world! Perfect picture and great color splash too, I always think I would like it for a day or two, and than go back to my boring beige setup...

I always go back to boring beige too

Yeah, GMK's TA and CYMW have this uncharacteristical bleed...one just can't justify a price tag that they have, really.
OG Cherry would look nice on that viper too...and would have no bleed with leds on - tested and approved

I ordered a couple sets of enjoypbt dyesub recently: OG black and OG black with orange cyrillics.
Should not have any light bleed issues with those.
Will most likely sell the GMK TA set after but cherry profile ABS will always be my preference.

On another note, went back to my HHKB today after a week with the vintage blacks, and the HHKB just feels oh so natural. Sometimes I feel like it could be the only keyboard I need, especially with BT and TMK.

[berserkfan]

At work I use an IBM SSK
The RoyalKludge Topre clone with 55g is a very nice keyboard. It is definitley no RealForce 55g. On the other hand you can dress it up with some nice SA key caps and it is not as noisy as the Novatouch.

Just to speak up for the Kludge. I borrowed it from someone for a week and used it, and liked it more than the Topres I have ever tried.

The programmability really makes a big difference.

[TacticalCoder]

With this in mind, I am curious about what people here actually use most of the time.

HHKB Pro JP daily since two years or so. Before that I used an HHKB Pro 2.

[amospalla]

Just to speak up for the Kludge. I borrowed it from someone for a week and used it, and liked it more than the Topres I have ever tried.

The programmability really makes a big difference.

Oh, I am quite curious about that keyboard. How does it feel compared to Topre? What did you liked about it more than with a Topre?

[Muirium]

The contrarian potential, turns out…

[toxicdrift]

this is the only one i use.

[Muirium]

Nnngh: those domed Windows keys. The Realforce's second Achilles Heel. The first being the ABS spacebar that you've apparently already fixed!

[toxicdrift]

hahaha ya matteo's pbt space bar was the reason i ordered from massdrop, looking to get some orange caps like u did (awesome build btw)... and maybe the hhkb or some customs ones later on.. for now very happy with the 55g 87u

[Muirium]

Keyboard brothers! Mine's a 55g 87U too. I got the spare HHKB keyset (imported together with my HHKB Type-S from Japan) before I planned to have a Realforce. Couldn't put up with the bubble keys at all, so I popped the HHKB mods straight on. The orange mods are a new addition. The set includes Alt keys but I'm not sure about putting on so much splash, with gret in the middle of it! So I kept it for the edges.

Naturally, my 87U has a Matteo spacebar too. I got the red and blue ones, but white's the one for me.

[Moufinure]

For work I use a Das Keyboard w/Cherry blues, and they take a pounding.

Oh my god, my co-workers would kill me!
All MX switches were deemed "too loud" for them.

The Topre RealForce is the only keyboard I can bring at work without my colleagues complaining about loudness, but I'm a bit nervous about leaving a € 200+ keyboard behind at work. (So I type with a crappy MS Wired Keyboard 200.)

Besides, at home, I can't really do without rotating between my little collection. Even as short as 15 minutes!
For example, I'm typing this message with a Filco Majestouch MX Blue FR ISO 105 keys, but yesterday, I got a SteelSeries 6GV2 MX Black.

The rotation includes:

• 2x SteelSeries 6GV2 MX Black (the 2 times was an order mistake)
• Filco Majestouch MX Blue
• Filco Majestouch MX Brown
• Unicomp Classic 105 BS
• Topre RealForce 105U
• KBC Poker II MX Red
• Cherry G80-3000 MX Black

Well, that's all...

[Hypersphere]

@Moufinure: That's quite a rotation you have there. I like to pull keyboards off the shelves for a change of pace once in a while. After using my silenced HHKB Pro 2 steadily for months, yesterday I switched to my V60 with Matias Click switches -- this thing has plenty of tactile feedback and it is LOUD! I think it rivals or exceeds the decibels emitted by my buckling spring boards, but it is quite fun to type on.

[JinzoDefiler]

On my eletronics work station I use an old Model M. But my day to day driver is this azio mgk1-k with kalih brown switches.