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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: vvv850 on Thu, 07 June 2012, 17:22:17
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Hey All,
I have just received my first mechanical keyboard (QPad MK-85) and I really like the feel of it. I have opted for the cherry brown switches without testing them physically, but I made the right choice for my needs (some gaming and some typing). My decision was also based on the fact that I have tested my brothers Razer BlackWidow which has blue clicky switches. I like those too but the noise was annoying for me after a while.
Unfortunately the keyboard is not perfect (I expected it to be for the high price). I am experiencing a high pitched sound coming through the mic jack. I have discovered this when my friends, on skype, informed me of this sound. I have then tried to pin-point the problem and it seems that it is only present when the LEDs are on low, medium and pulsating intensity, but not on off or max.
Here is a link to the recording to better understand my issue http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18351299/Untitled%20(4).wma (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18351299/Untitled%20(4).wma)
If someone has any idea on what I should try to fix this, please let me know because I really need your help.
Regards
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That noise is quite common, it's interference being picked up somewhere, probably the power circuitry for the L.E.D's.
I'm a bit rusty on my electronics but IIRC pwm circuits are often to blame for that.
Usually the less circuitry between your mic and your sound card the better, or interference is practically unavoidable.
EDIT: Maybe if you opened it up and placed shielding around the mic cable it might help a bit?
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hi, i got same issue. it happens when LEDS are enabled
in my own case, i'm using LED on medium and some mic chating softwares
it also does when you start / re-start ur computer, a noisy sound comes on the beginning of computer boot
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Thanks guys for your input.
So the audio jacks in this situation are useless. Isn't there anything I could do? Maybe remake some solder joints or check for bad ones?
Thanks
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it's a common issue with this keyboard.
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Possibly pulse width modulation to control LED brightness? As I understand it, LEDs are dimmed by switching them on and off very rapidly, presumably at the frequency you're hearing.
Computer audio is prone to suckage. My PC's front (but not rear) headphone jack picks up interference from either the CPU or GPU (mostly heard during scrolling, so not sure which it is), as did one of my old Macs, and my BBC Micro, both of which played the CPU activity out over the speaker. My laptop has the same fault.
I reinstalled a Dell Latitude earlier that loses the attack phase of any sound that's played, and you can get clicks as laptop sound hardware is powered back up to play audio … And even modern PCs can skip audio under load, such as logging in :-P (Like how Windows 7's log in/out fade displays tearing on most computers, which is truly pathetic.)
(My 486 had a really nice C-Media sound card where there were no audio failures, just that the headphone jack came apart and came loose from the PCB ;-) I've got a SB16 in there now and either the General MIDI patch set or the OPL3 circuitry is nowhere near as good as the C-Media CMI8330, and the drivers are a memory hog and broken. C-Media managed to write drivers that consumed no memory at all, they just seemed to configure the card and exit. C-Media were the Chicony of sound cards – good quality wrapped up in flimsy.)
Sound sucks :P