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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: typo on Thu, 23 December 2010, 11:08:30

Title: please put per thousand keystrokes into perspective
Post by: typo on Thu, 23 December 2010, 11:08:30

say a keyboard lasts 10k,50,k,100k keystrokes. how many times do you hit each key on average per hour of typing? in other words how many years is 1,000 keystrokes good for on average? can this even be averaged?

honestly i am worried about wearing out my beloved boards like realforce and model m,f. should i even be worried?

thanks

Title: please put per thousand keystrokes into perspective
Post by: msiegel on Thu, 23 December 2010, 11:14:01

if you type 120 wpm, with a space after each word, then the space bar will be hit 120 times per minute or 7200 times per hour :)

Title: please put per thousand keystrokes into perspective
Post by: Ekaros on Thu, 23 December 2010, 11:17:27

There was some nifty program to count these, per key and overall, can't remember the name...

Title: please put per thousand keystrokes into perspective
Post by: sixty on Thu, 23 December 2010, 11:20:56

I remember that folklore story about Japanese bankers wearing out Topre keypads in under a month.

Title: please put per thousand keystrokes into perspective
Post by: msiegel on Thu, 23 December 2010, 11:24:33

if you typed 8 hours a day nonstop every day at 120 wpm, then the space bar switch would go through 20M cycles a year.

realistically i'd expect 20M cycles to last at least 5 years, but probably much longer.

Title: please put per thousand keystrokes into perspective
Post by: msiegel on Thu, 23 December 2010, 11:25:14

Quote from: ripster;267817

you'll spill something on your keyboard first

+1

or at least, that's what happened to me XD

Title: please put per thousand keystrokes into perspective
Post by: Ekaros on Thu, 23 December 2010, 11:31:42

Quote from: sixty;267819

I remember that folklore story about Japanese bankers wearing out Topre keypads in under a month.

Wasn't the pro inserting somewhere around 10-30k numbers on pad in one hour period so 2k per hour 16k per day 320k in month 3,84M in one year... Hmm, so about 5 years?

Okay, might need to scale that down to half... Requirements are around 8-10k...

Title: please put per thousand keystrokes into perspective
Post by: typo on Thu, 23 December 2010, 16:32:33

thanks guys. go figure geeks would be good at math lol.
there is sort of no arguing with math. except of course there are some variables involved. so, i guess i need to use algebra to figure it out.

seriously though, i have used model m's that saw hundreds of hours before i even got them. then i put on hundreds more. they still work fine. the controller went on one but i repaired it. it might be that particular keyboard though. i mean just on paper cherry,topre,alps etc. don't have as many cycles as a model m. i am not sure but i don't think unicomp does either.

you guys are right though. i always trash them with an "accident" while they are still plenty good. which, i must mention sucks when your topre has pizza and beer for dinner. trust me i have been there :)

Title: please put per thousand keystrokes into perspective
Post by: msiegel on Thu, 23 December 2010, 16:48:05

Quote from: typo;268012

hundreds of hours

it should be good for more than 10000 hours :)