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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: ClarusWorks on Thu, 13 February 2014, 09:43:10

Title: My vote for the worst keyboard ever...
Post by: ClarusWorks on Thu, 13 February 2014, 09:43:10
Would have to go to the DEC LK201 (the original keyboard for the DEC VT220 text terminal, and a slew of 80s DEC hardware).  The VT220 itself is a cool piece of hardware, but the keyboard is incredibly disappointing.   At first glance this keyboard seems like it would have a lot to offer:

*  It's as big, heavy, and sturdy as an IBM 1391401.  I've seen dozens of these and never found a bad one (plenty of bad cables, though.  They use a phone handset cord, and the plastic retention clips get broken off all the time).
*  At least on the older ones (Mine is from '86) it has beautiful doubleshot spherical top keycaps.  Later ones look like dye sub to me.
*  Linear, mechanical keyswitches.  (I've seen some people claiming these are rubberdome, I've never seen a rubberdome 201 but maybe later production was.  The LK401 and other 4xx boards like the DEC layout PS/2 keyboards were incredibly stiff rubberdomes with laser-engraved keycaps.).

However, those keyswitches are terrible.  The 'switch' looks like a spring steel tab inside the plastic housings that the keycaps snap onto.  They're very stiff, very low-travel, and quite bouncy.  I like my VT220 but rarely use it because of that atrocious keyboard.
Title: Re: My vote for the worst keyboard ever...
Post by: SpAmRaY on Thu, 13 February 2014, 09:54:31
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=53616.0

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=4521.0

^^ You might find those helpful :D
Title: Re: My vote for the worst keyboard ever...
Post by: pbtforever on Thu, 13 February 2014, 13:44:06
Apple wireless.  Hate that thing.
Title: Re: My vote for the worst keyboard ever...
Post by: intelli78 on Thu, 13 February 2014, 14:03:08
Quote from: pbtforever on Thu, 13 February 2014, 13:44:06
Apple wireless.  Hate that thing.

It's keyboard nirvana compared to the white rubber dome keyboards that came with some of the eMacs/iMacs.

(http://www.powerbookmedic.com/xcart1/images/D/apple-keyboard.jpg)

 :-X
Title: Re: My vote for the worst keyboard ever...
Post by: luis911 on Thu, 13 February 2014, 14:21:41
Na man, it has to be my first keyboard.

(http://www.qwertykeyboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Keyboard-My-First.jpg)
Title: Re: My vote for the worst keyboard ever...
Post by: aref on Thu, 13 February 2014, 17:05:57
Sony Vaio wireless. Had one about five years ago and it was the worst keyboard ever: frequently lost its wireless connection and had incredible lag; you could depress a key, have lunch, shower, shave, wax your car, paint your house... and by that time the key might have registered.
Title: Re: My vote for the worst keyboard ever...
Post by: Shikarikato on Thu, 13 February 2014, 18:43:57
Quote from: intelli78 on Thu, 13 February 2014, 14:03:08
Quote from: pbtforever on Thu, 13 February 2014, 13:44:06
Apple wireless.  Hate that thing.

It's keyboard nirvana compared to the white rubber dome keyboards that came with some of the eMacs/iMacs.

Show Image
(http://www.powerbookmedic.com/xcart1/images/D/apple-keyboard.jpg)


 :-X
My school has a few of those scattered around and every time I'm stuck with one I literally shed a tear. I don't really know how to describe the typing experience other than saying that it's painful. I haven't touched a keyboard that has felt so terrible before in my life.
Title: Re: My vote for the worst keyboard ever...
Post by: ClarusWorks on Fri, 14 February 2014, 10:08:47
OK, I think the actual worst keyboard I can ever remember was on one of those silly precomputer things when I was a little kid.  The keys themselves weren't *that* terrible, cheap rubberdomes, but no worse than your average "free" keyboard you'd get with a PC from Dell or HP or something.  The problem was more with the machine itself - every single keypress took a second or two to register, and there didn't appear to be much of a buffer, so dropped characters were a very common occurrence.  I don't know what kind of bad engineering led up to this - even if they decided that little kids wouldn't be able to type fast enough to overload the thing, how could they not think that the kid's parents might use it or something.  And to me, this had to be caused by bad programming - I have HP calculators where the CPU clock frequency is measured in kilohertz, and I can pound keys as fast as possible on those without dropping keypresses.

In that vein I could also mention my Apple IIe Platinum.  The keyswitches themselves are fine but the matrix has some ghosting issues - typing "then" at high speed gets you "thjen" - highly infuriating for BASIC programming.  The IIe is a machine I had fond memories of, but once again I was 4 or 5 years old and in elementary school when I remembered using them.  At this point my input devices of choice are a Unicomp EnduraPro and an old Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer.  As a right-handed person with big hands that's one of the few mice I can use without feeling like I'm using one of these:  (http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/img_2107.png)