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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: hvontres on Thu, 16 July 2020, 00:20:41
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I'm trying to plan a more office friendly alternative to a buckling spring keyboard. Playing with some Cherry and Kalih switches, the Burnt orange and copper speed switches seem to be an interesting possiblity.
Has anybody tried these primarily for typing and not so much for gaming?
Alternatively, are there any other tactile switches with an early switching point that I might want to look at instead?
Thanks
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Burnt Orange is BOX Brown with a heavier spring. Personally, I prefer BOX Brown as the tactility is more easily felt. I think in some respects, BOX Brown resembles a buckling-spring.
Burnt Orange feels like a BOX Brown that is going through molasses. At least to me. Others prefer it because of the weight. Again, I think the weight undermines the tactility.
I have used Speed Copper for typing, and it is do-able but weird. First, it feels kind of like how I imagine a Jailhouse Blue would. It wants to click, there's a tactility that kind of feels like it's coming from a click. But it's quiet, there's no click there.
The tactility is very front-loaded. There is a definite tactile ceiling that has to be overcome, and once you do, there's just nothing there. So if you type by getting the feedback right from the top of the switch, you're fine, but otherwise it's like your foot smashing through ice into a lake.
I ended up combining Speed Copper with Pro Purples. I used the Speed Copper for switches where you just want to press a little bit, feel a definite crash through a tactile barrier, and the switch activates. Like on PageDown, where you just want to flex a muscle and the key activates. So I ended up using Speed Copper on some nav keys, arrow keys, and some modifiers. And the alpha keys were Pro Purples. I ended up making a personal typing speed record with this 'ergo' setup.
Speed Copper seems to have been designed as a gaming switch, and it seemed fine for that, using it on gaming keys. But I never ended up going with it for the alphas, as it was just too awkward.
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comparing browns to buckling spring is kinda far fetched, my main problem with brown is that i got used to the weighting of the M and browns are way too light, my favorite when it comes to mx-like is the box royal. although if you want a more office friendly M you could either floss mod it (add a piece of floss or something similar in the springs) or use the "quiet touch" approach of packing the springs with lube.
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Yes, comparing browns to buckling spring is far-fetched. I just think that BOX Brown has a slight 'buckling' feel in comparison to non-BOX Browns.
I wouldn't say either BOX Browns or Speed Copper are particularly office-friendly, although Speed Copper is probably a little quieter. BOX Browns tend to turn clicky.
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Yeah, I have an M2 that I will try out a floss mod on later, once I get the membrane fixed.... The reason I was thinking of the speed coppers or the speed burnt orange (heavy spring version of the copper) was the fact that there is a bit more room after actuation before they bottom out, which in theory is a bit easier on the fingers. But the more I play with the samples, maybe the purple/plum might be the way to go. It seems to have a "rounder" bump than the brown/copper series that just feels more luxurious for lack of a better term.
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Yes, the bump on the Speed Coppers feels "thin" and stingy in comparison to the Pro Purple, which is indeed richer.
I just received some lubed Pro Purples, so I'll try to discover if that mod is worthwhile.