Keyboard Survey

[Slinthn]

Hi guys,

I'm doing a bit of research into what people enjoy about mechanical keyboards and what people dislike. I created a survey which takes all of 5 minutes, most of the questions being multiple choice. Every question is optional, so you can answer what you know. It would be of great help if anyone seeing this could take the time to fill it out and maybe share it around a little.

https://forms.gle/ZL7LDXdkFcREJPEa8

Thank you very much

[simplycanada]

hi newcomer :-)

I might had been interested in such poll but it refuses to let me proceed without having to sign up and mm well yeah I'm not the only one who probably don't even want a google account sorry? :-s

[Slinthn]

Hey simplycanada, I have fixed this issue. Thank you for letting me know! I didn't realise that I had it enabled. It should make the form more accessable to people now.

I look forward to chatting more on these forums. I'm just getting into creating keyboards and I want to make a good stab at it, so this poll will help guide what I should be doing.

[simplycanada]

answered a few of the seven pages, hope you'll like what you eventually can compile soon polls-wise silnthn :-)

[Leslieann]

Props for not asking irrelevant personal questions and making everything optional. 

[Slinthn]

answered a few of the seven pages, hope you'll like what you eventually can compile soon polls-wise silnthn :-)

Props for not asking irrelevant personal questions and making everything optional. 

Thank you both very much for responding. Your inputs are truly valuable!

I'm looking to get into the mechanical keyboard business. I'll be honest, I actually have the PCB and plate all designed (and almost the case) but I'm doing a bit of research just to make sure I'm on the right track. If I'm not, then I'll do a bit of redesigning and go from there.

I'm not really looking to sell my keyboards at extraordinary prices, as I'm just starting out, but I do hope to make them as high quality as possible and as enjoyable to use as possible. This research will really help me in that, I think. Plus, I hope to make one for myself to use! I've had the same boring, dull Dell keyboard for the past like, 6 years, so it's probably time for a change...

Again, thank you.

[PlayBox]

sadly for you the keyboard is gonna be expensive just saying you can't small scale manufacture something cheaply, especially cnc keyboards

[Slinthn]

sadly for you the keyboard is gonna be expensive just saying you can't small scale manufacture something cheaply, especially cnc keyboards

No I agree, I have come to figure that out slowly but surely. With my current setup (10 keyboards, 60%, aluminium plate, red switches), all the components for the keyboard comes out to be €40.26 per keyboard, but this cost does not include the case. I am still struggling with that, as plastic is not so high quality, but regardless it is still very expensive! The cheapest I found was €30 per case. That price also does not include keycaps - I'm looking to see what kind of keycaps are generally liked, so I can buy those. Furthermore, shipping (if the costs are divided per keyboard) is €6 per keyboard at the moment.

My main issue right now is the case. I have no idea how people buy keyboards with aluminium cases for like €70 (for the whole thing). 3D printing aluminium is extraordinarily expensive; I don't think I'm looking in the right place. If yourself or anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

[Leslieann]

My main issue right now is the case. I have no idea how people buy keyboards with aluminium cases for like €70 (for the whole thing). 3D printing aluminium is extraordinarily expensive; I don't think I'm looking in the right place. If yourself or anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

You won't find cheaper, plain and simple.
Okay, you can, but you need to change how you design/make things and requires a massive up front investment of time and money and then buying in massive bulk (for aluminum or plastic). You aren't going to go to the local machine shop and get what you're after, you need a company who does either high speed injection molding or for aluminum, casting, then light, clean up milling and in both instances it's going to be overseas. And just to be clear, there's probably a 20% chance if you find one that they'll take your money and disappear, but if they don't, odds are your part will have problems due to communication problems, your skill and their lack of oversight. I'm not joking when I say it could take you 3 or 4 purchases (and losing your money) before you get what you're after. Working overseas is not easy, it's easy to get started but far harder to actually deliver.

This is why you don't see small boutiques doing custom low priced boards, low volume manufacturing is expensive, Logitech can afford that investment and warehousing, they already have a well tuned supply chain, the guy running out of his closet or garage doesn't and can't. The only way to avoid some of this problem is having your own manufacturing. As it is you have to pay someone to source material, make the product, store, package and ship it to you and they also want their share of the profit.

If you think you'll be the exception, you're wrong, this happens to everyone and even Disney and Apple have trouble navigating overseas problems, you lack the contacts and the knowledge and the only way to get that is to go through the trouble. You can minimize your risk but that means using higher end vendors and a trusted liaison, but that ruins a lot of the savings.

[Slinthn]

You won't find cheaper, plain and simple.
Okay, you can, but you need to change how you design/make things and requires a massive up front investment of time and money and then buying in massive bulk (for aluminum or plastic). You aren't going to go to the local machine shop and get what you're after, you need a company who does either high speed injection molding or for aluminum, casting, then light, clean up milling and in both instances it's going to be overseas. And just to be clear, there's probably a 20% chance if you find one that they'll take your money and disappear, but if they don't, odds are your part will have problems due to communication problems, your skill and their lack of oversight. I'm not joking when I say it could take you 3 or 4 purchases (and losing your money) before you get what you're after. Working overseas is not easy, it's easy to get started but far harder to actually deliver.

This is why you don't see small boutiques doing custom low priced boards, low volume manufacturing is expensive, Logitech can afford that investment and warehousing, they already have a well tuned supply chain, the guy running out of his closet or garage doesn't and can't. The only way to avoid some of this problem is having your own manufacturing. As it is you have to pay someone to source material, make the product, store, package and ship it to you and they also want their share of the profit.

If you think you'll be the exception, you're wrong, this happens to everyone and even Disney and Apple have trouble navigating overseas problems, you lack the contacts and the knowledge and the only way to get that is to go through the trouble. You can minimize your risk but that means using higher end vendors and a trusted liaison, but that ruins a lot of the savings.

Ah, I see. Thank you for the insight. I never really thought about that unfortunately. I'll see what I'll do from here.

[Leopard223]

I've answered the survery but I think the first 2 page (switches and keycaps) are a bit far from getting an opinion on the keyboard community preference.

Cherry switches are fine for their own, but are not so common and are not the first choice or recommendation people will have.
I think some better question for switches would be housing material, stem type (standard, dust-proof), pole length, travel and sound profile, as well as list some common switch choices (for example Ink Blacks, Gateron Yellows, Gazzew U4Ts, Aqua Kings, etc).

As for keycaps, you could have also asked about:
1. Typing profile, Cherry, OEM, SA, XDA, MT3, KAT, etc.
2. Material (PBT vs ABS).
3. Budget or high-end.
4. English only or with sub-legends

An example for my unrelated personal profile, I personally prefer the mods to only have symbols, for example ' <-- Backspace' should only be the arrow without the actual word.

Also a more common color pallete is 1 color for mods and a different color for alphas.

Good luck!