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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: NimbleRabit on Tue, 11 January 2011, 09:56:28
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When I was browsing these forums doing research, trying to figure out which board to buy, I was confronted with quite a few posts talking about cherry brown switches and bottoming out. One of the concerns for me (and many others it seems) was noise level, and if you listen to recordings or read posts around here, you quickly learn that not bottoming out is essential to making the cherry browns have a reasonable level of volume. It won't be a super quiet keyboard by any means, but it's not especially loud (like it is when you bottom out, especially if you are typing somewhat furiously).
What I never really learned, or at least something I didn't see many people really talking about, was exactly how difficult (or easy) it was to type without bottoming out on cherry browns. So I'd like to give my thoughts, and also ask anybody else to share how difficult it is (or was to learn) for them.
For me, it's ridiculously easy to type without bottoming out on Cherry Browns. I thought it was going to take a lot of practice and effort, especially considering I've never had a mechanical keyboard before, but after only a couple days of using this thing, I can type without bottoming out conistently with only a bit of effort put in. I can't type at my normal speed by any means, and I can't really do it while gaming (haven't tried), but for me the concern was more with typing at work or early morning/late night. In those situations I can type quietly enough for my purposes if I don't bottom out, and as I said it requires minimal effort on my part and a sacrifice in speed. I can live with that in the situations where I need quiet, and as time goes on I'm getting faster and faster, approaching my average of 100 wpm (right now I can do about 50-60 without bottom out).
So if you're considering the cherry browns and this is a concern to you, that's my personal experience. It wasn't hard to learn, but I'm a pretty light typer by nature so that probably had a lot to do with it. I'm curious to hear others experiences, maybe we can get some more posts that could help others make a decision in the future.
P.S. I typed this at work while not bottoming out my keystrokes, with the possible exception of spacebar which is a bit strange compared to the other keys. I haven't quite gotten the hang of spacebar yet.
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I don't bottom out very often on my BS keyboards, except for specific keys (modifiers, basically), but my Cherry board is absurdly light. There's just no weight at all to the keys, and I can't help but bottom out.
It isn't like the topre switch, which is hard to bottom out simply because after the tactile point, there is almost no resistance. It's more that it's just so damn light, and I frankly can't feel the tactile point, at all. This is why I prefer clears.
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I've been typing for 15 years on rubber domes and I can't help but bottom out when I type at full speed (130 wpm) but I can do casual typing without bottoming out for the most part. Starcraft is another story though.
I don't really see a problem with bottoming out aside from the noise.
Oh and I type on a brown filco at the moment. I didn't even know about bottoming out until recently.
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I bottom out all the time on mine. It is possible to avoid, but I have to think about it.
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I don't bottom out on browns. It took me a little while, but I am of the school of thought that it doesn't matter much either way, and that one shouldn't "try" not to bottom out (in other words, it should just come naturally over time). I think browns (and other Cherry switches) are easy to not bottom out since they have a soft tactile point and the spring resistance increases over the stroke.
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I don't bottom out on browns. It took me a little while, but I am of the school of thought that it doesn't matter much either way, and that one shouldn't "try" not to bottom out (in other words, it should just come naturally over time). I think browns (and other Cherry switches) are easy to not bottom out since they have a soft tactile point and the spring resistance increases over the stroke.
I don't think it matters either, except for times when noise is an issue, and in that case I do have to to consciously think about it, but it's not difficult. It's starting to become quite natural to me. I also think it's easy because of the feel of the keys - much easier than I imagined from other posts around here.
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Browns are too easy to bottom out and when I don't bottom out it's probably by accident. I honestly can't tell when it happens or not or mind either way. I can be quiet when I want to but I have to slow down typing significantly to do that. Deliberate effort is taxing so I wouldn't naturally do that. It doesn't matter when actuations work, and since clacks are still loud compared to low-profile keyboards, I can't complain much about bottoming-out noise (when I got a new keycap set I was too lazy to reinstall ringed dampeners, and can hardly tell that an extra travel distance was freed). I'm not particularly sensitive to any "jarring" as a result of bottoming out. In the end it seems I only care that a keyboard is comfortable to use and works consistently.
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My first mechanical keyboard was a cherry brown, and I found it very hard to type on without bottoming out all the time. The switch itself felt so much better than my crappy dome keyboard that I did not care about it much. My last two keyboards have been a Unicomp Spacesaver and a Blackwidow Ultimate. These two keyboards helped me to stop bottoming out so much. The blue cherries in the Blackwidow in particular helped me to be able to appreciate the tactile bump in a switch more. I can type for hours on the Blackwidow and never bottom out much. It is a very nice feeling.
Now that I have been using the blue cherries, now I don't bottom out on the browns as much because I can identify the bump very easily now.