Tesoro Excalibur SE Spectrum -- new optical switches

[ohaimark]

I suppose this is an official announcement -- I'm a reviewer now! If anyone has keyboard related products that they'd like to publicize, hit me up.

I'm impressed by the bind resistance of Tesoro's new blue optical switches. They don't sound amazing, but when the red linears are released I think they'll have something remarkable.

The chassis is mediocre at best, unfortunately.

Read more at the following link...

http://gomechanicalkeyboard.com/tesoro- ... um-review/

Edit: mods -- if there's a problem with this short blurb + external link format, let me know how I can promote the reviews here without running afoul of policy.

[seebart]

I suppose this is an official announcement -- I'm a reviewer now! If anyone has keyboard related products that they'd like to publicize, hit me up.

Elaborate please! Does this mean you are reviewing this keyboard for the manufacturer commercially?

[EDIT]: OK after following your link...it is a commercial review...Alec!

[ohaimark]

Commercial, yes. Biased? Nope. I'm tough on the keyboard.

And yep, that's my IRL name.

[seebart]

Commercial, yes. Biased? Nope.

That was not implied!

I'm tough on the keyboard.

Good.

And yep, that's my IRL name.

I knew that before. But with this new position I believe your signature needs to be changed again?!

[ohaimark]

And what do you suggest the change should be?

[seebart]

And what do you suggest the change should be?

Any of the following:

"Ex-Kingpin"

"Kingpin gone commercial"

"Ex-DTA Commander"

"I'm tough on the keyboard"

"I'm a reviewer now"

"Commercial, yes. Biased? Nope"

The last one being my personal favorite. Give me a couple of days and I'll come up with better ones.

[TuxKey]

Hi ohaimark,

i saw this post a while back and looked at your site.
Have to say “looks good”

i glanced over your review. Because i knew about the keyboard and more so the Wooting
guys and their keyboard (fellow dutch guys)..

Although i really like the Wooting guys and met them a couple of times talking about keyboards and so on..

They did not come up with the optical switch.
As many other companies that use Cherry they got the switches from a third party.
Adomax makes the Flaretech switch (just a bit of optical switch history)..

Again like your website keep up the good work.

in my humble opinion keyboard innovation is lik many other things moving in a snail’s pace.
Granted Topre came out with a dazzling LED carnaval show. and added sum features that i liked.
Overall the outside look of keyboards changes a bit , adding sum LED show here and there.

But now manufactures are actually working on giving us something new.
The most important thing to me in a keyboard is the feel i get typing.

A couple manufactures are playing around with actuation distance and making a so called “fast switch” nonsense.
But no one makes something that feels and behaves different.

like a new linne of cherry switches. Cherry already stated they are willing to experiment with switches if the batch is big enough.
Perhaps a lighter cherry mx-clear something tactile but lighter not just a different spring but real innovation.

Also wanted to mention in your keyboard list of manufactures.
you failed to mention a couple of big brands like Ducky and Vortex. And not to forget Leopold.
i know the list of manufactures would be as long as my arm but a couple of not so well known big brands in the list would look nice.


Good luck with the site look forward to reading your views on keyboards coming out.
Let’s hope we see more innovation and less disco lighting aka back to the 70’s hahah..

[Daniel Beardsmore]

But no one makes something that feels and behaves different.

That's one of the things I wanted the wiki (the "keyboard technology encyclopaedia" as I think of it¹) to offer — details of all the different switch types out there, serving as a basis to help present day switch engineers learn from the lessons of the past and create great new switches. Once all the force curves are added to the wiki, this will bring this notion much closer to completion, as it will be possible to objectively assess the different switch types from a usability perspective. (Reliability is another matter of course, something I wish Brian from EK had the time to weigh in on.)

¹ Aside from this name excluding the tiny sections on pointing devices and other hardware, I feel that we can only use such a description when pages exist describing accurately and in detail how Hall effect, magnetic valve and capacitive keyboards work. This is the primary stumbling block now to Phase Zero completion: being able to look up how keyboards actually work, regardless of type. (Phase One is coverage of all the comparatively well-known keyboards, assuming I remember my mental notes correctly.)

[belowgeek]

So I've read the TS' post and he said something about an "optical" switch? Can someone enlighten me on what this is?

[ohaimark]

Tesoro's optical IR switches use beams of light that hit photovoltaic sensors to determine whether a key is pressed or not. Whenever the light gets "turned off" by the switch stem moving down, a key press is registered.