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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Clickey on Tue, 23 August 2011, 21:25:34
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I took a chance and bid on an old everex keyboard which had almost no info and only one picture. It turns out it had space invaders as I hoped and it feels so good.
I have tried 3 space invaders thus far, 2 NMB and this one, and this one seems a lot better than the other two. It is plate mounted and solid as a rock, no flex whatsoever. It has really nice dye sub keys with RGB writing on the bottom row. NKRO! Unlike the NMB boards it has NKRO (NMB has a really good layout of 2kro that went up to 8kro max, and you would probably never have a conflict with 1 hand usage but NKRO is still nice).
Compared to the NMB boards the keys are softer and quieter (smoother too). It feels better than the Razer black widow (cherry mx blues) I tried, probably because in space invaders the keycaps are mounted on a much higher surface area than cherry + shaped mounts, so there is way less flex.
This is my new favorite board, even like it better than the model m (partly because you can spam keys better in SC2 and it has NKRO). I prefer the louder click of the NMB but those are also pretty high friction (especially if you dont hit the keys right in the middle). Will post pics when I can get my camera working again.
On a side note, if you have an NMB board DO NOT TOUCH THE LEAVES, they are soooooo much harder to fix (near impossible) than cherry MX leaves if you mess them up by accident. Also they use a double sided spring that likes to jump out when you take the switch top off so do it slowly. Will make a short guide on taking NMB switches apart if anyone is interested.
Mechanical rankings so far (still need to try some ALPS)
Space Invader > Buckling Spring > Cherry ergo clear > Cherry blue > Cherry brown > Cherry clear > Cherry black > Cherry MY
[ATTACH=CONFIG]25080[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25081[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25082[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]25083[/ATTACH]
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please post pics. i have 2 nmb w/ space invaders. dont have converters so i cant use them, but i do love the feel.
do you have the problem where the key wont click on the down stroke and up stroke if u dont fully let the key come back up before tapping again.
i think that could potentially be really annoying.
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Yes, but it only happens if you dont depress the key enough. I find that if you depress the key only slight you can actuate without even clicking on some keys, but if you press it a bit more you get one click and more you get the full down and up clicks.
This doesn't bother me at all because I bottom out. It only takes about 1/3 way pressed to get full 2 clicks though.
The clicking is a seperate mechanism than the leaf actuation (its a little plastic rod that moves diagonally over a bump as the key is pressed), so it makes sense that they are not completely in sync.
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I wouldn't say that that's a problem. If you're one of the people that says browns are better for SC2, for spamming of keys, it would allow you to activate while not having to make the click happen again.
I call the thing that makes the tactile bump and click the click arm. If you pull them out, you get a linear board.
I don't think the leaves are all that fragile, I missed once when putting a switch top half back on and it crunched them both to one side. I thought it was ruined. But I just pushed the one that was leaning the wrong way exaggeratedly the other and put the top half on again. Once it's back on, you could make all sorts of fine tuning adjustments if you want to. All I did at that point was have the switch depressed and you can see where the bend is supposed to be on the leaves, so I just pushed down right at that spot and got it all back into position. I also did that to some other ones that weren't coming into contact quite as soon as I'd like, so I did it to those too. I'm sure you could do something similar to get the opposite result if you want it activating way later for some reason.
@Touch_It
AT adapters are dirt cheap though.
But yeah, back to the topic, I'd like to see more about that board, wouldn't mind having an NKRO one of these. I also wonder if its better feeling is just a result of how worn out used or mistreated the others may have been before you got them.
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I wouldn't say that that's a problem. If you're one of the people that says browns are better for SC2, for spamming of keys, it would allow you to activate while not having to make the click happen again.
I call the thing that makes the tactile bump and click the click arm. If you pull them out, you get a linear board.
I don't think the leaves are all that fragile, I missed once when putting a switch top half back on and it crunched them both to one side. I thought it was ruined. But I just pushed the one that was leaning the wrong way exaggeratedly the other and put the top half on again. Once it's back on, you could make all sorts of fine tuning adjustments if you want to. All I did at that point was have the switch depressed and you can see where the bend is supposed to be on the leaves, so I just pushed down right at that spot and got it all back into position. I also did that to some other ones that weren't coming into contact quite as soon as I'd like, so I did it to those too. I'm sure you could do something similar to get the opposite result if you want it activating way later for some reason.
@Touch_It
AT adapters are dirt cheap though.
But yeah, back to the topic, I'd like to see more about that board, wouldn't mind having an NKRO one of these. I also wonder if its better feeling is just a result of how worn out used or mistreated the others may have been before you got them.
YEP. only 2 reasons i havnt purchased an adapter are 1. lazy. 2. for w/e reason i dont like buying online except for steam and newegg lol. idk why, im just weird.
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"I also wonder if its better feeling is just a result of how worn out used or mistreated the others may have been before you got them. "
Yeah this is one thing I considered. I saw a NIB NMB with SI on ebay but it went all the way up to $150, which was too much for me. So I gotta just try what I can find (in wahtever condition it comes).
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Updated with pics, also forgot to mention it was used for a printer, so it probably barely had any keypresses before I got it :).
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Actually it's amazing how similar that case is to the ones on mine.
What do you mean it was used for a printer?
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I pulled apart the inards of the everex space invader and the NMB, put them side by side for comparison. The main difference seems to be in the type of plastic used and the clicky arm. The NMB has a slightly textured plastic that makes up the switch housing, and the everex has a more glossy/smooth casing. The clicky arm of the NMB is thicker (which is why they are more tactile/clicky) but I find the everex feels much nicer to use. Everex ~55g, NMB ~75-85g. [ATTACH=CONFIG]25377[/ATTACH]
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Actually it looks to me like the part the arm travels in is shaped differently on those two.
I also really didn't think they were that heavy.
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I just ripometered several times and have updated the numbers to be more accurate. Without the tactile/clicky arm, the Everex is only 50g. The NMB had such huge variation dependent on exactly where the pressure was put on the key (try hitting it at the bottom edge and it will not go down). I got 80g for my model M, so I think my readings are accurate.
Three things I learn from playing with these two keyboards, 1) gun cleaning tools are good for cleaning keyboards (little brushes), 2) lubricating space invaders only seems to make them worse, 3) swiss army knife has a question mark shaped tool which is great for taking off the caps of the space invader switches without losing the springs.
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"Space Invaders" are the one switch I still haven't tried. One of these days, I'm going to have to get around to it.
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Btw I have a bunch of keyboards I can send you ripometer info for but your PM is turned off, where should I post them?
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I saw you have 70g/78g on the database for model M, maybe my desk is not completely flat and it is adding 5-10g.
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Ok, you were right, I was not getting good numbers. I tried using a rubber cylinder to heighten the stack and tapped the keys next to it so it would jiggle a bit, and it made a huge difference. I will update the info on tthis page and msg you the other boards I tested using the new and improved data.