geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: gerry on Sat, 03 May 2014, 18:56:43
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Hello everyone.
I recently purchased a Leopold FC200RT/AB Keyboard (tenkeyless with Cherry MX Brown switches ) and I'm having a problem that is absolutely baffling me.
Basically, I'm getting seemingly random bouncing/chattering with a whole bunch of keys.. Sometimes, I push a key once and get two inputs from it. In a very short time of use, I have seen it happen with at least the Q, W, E, R, S, Enter, and Left shift keys. Sometimes it seems like it happens about every ten presses, while other times it seems to go hundreds without doing it once, but it keeps on doing it. This is my first keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches (actually, my first with any Cherry switches) but I don't think this has anything to do with me hitting the keys wrong. I type at about 100 WPM and I have a rather hard typing style. I push the keys quick and bottom them out and I'm certainly not making them hover at the actuation point.
I use both OS X and Windows and have experienced the bouncing in both operating systems. I've tried both USB ports on my laptop and tried making the key repeat very long and still experience the random bouncing. I do not experience any bouncing whatsoever with the laptop's built-in keyboard or my old external keyboard, nor have I ever experienced a single key bounce with any of the dozens of other keyboards I've used over the years. It's hard for me to believe anything I'm doing or anything with my setup is causing the problem, but it's also hard to believe so many switches of a brand new keyboard could be defective. Is there something else other than the keyswitches themselves that could cause this?
I downloaded the "Switch Hitter" software and it seems to detect the problem easily. I got these results in a few minutes of pressing various keys.
14:47.0281 LShift (0x10, BIOS 0x2A) DOWN
14:47.0390 LShift (0x10, BIOS 0x2A) UP -> 105ms
14:47.0406 LShift (0x10, BIOS 0x2A) DOWN
14:47.0406 LShift (0x10, BIOS 0x2A) CHATTER DETECTED -> 7ms
14:47.0406 LShift (0x10, BIOS 0x2A) UP -> 8ms
21:15.0893 S (0x53, BIOS 0x1F) DOWN
21:15.0987 S (0x53, BIOS 0x1F) UP -> 104ms
21:16.0002 S (0x53, BIOS 0x1F) DOWN
21:16.0002 S (0x53, BIOS 0x1F) CHATTER DETECTED -> 8ms
21:16.0002 S (0x53, BIOS 0x1F) UP -> 8ms
21:16.0252 S (0x53, BIOS 0x1F) DOWN
21:16.0361 S (0x53, BIOS 0x1F) UP -> 121ms
21:29.0652 Q (0x51, BIOS 0x10) DOWN
21:29.0793 Q (0x51, BIOS 0x10) UP -> 144ms
21:30.0214 Q (0x51, BIOS 0x10) DOWN
21:30.0308 Q (0x51, BIOS 0x10) UP -> 104ms
21:30.0323 Q (0x51, BIOS 0x10) DOWN
21:30.0323 Q (0x51, BIOS 0x10) CHATTER DETECTED -> 7ms
21:30.0323 Q (0x51, BIOS 0x10) UP -> 8ms
21:54.0925 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) DOWN
21:55.0034 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) UP -> 103ms
21:55.0237 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) DOWN
21:55.0361 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) UP -> 135ms
21:55.0377 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) DOWN
21:55.0377 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) CHATTER DETECTED -> 8ms
21:55.0377 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) UP -> 8ms
21:55.0549 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) DOWN
21:55.0689 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) UP -> 153ms
21:55.0705 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) DOWN
21:55.0705 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) CHATTER DETECTED -> 7ms
21:55.0720 E (0x45, BIOS 0x12) UP -> 16ms
22:08.0216 R (0x52, BIOS 0x13) DOWN
22:08.0356 R (0x52, BIOS 0x13) UP -> 136ms
22:08.0731 R (0x52, BIOS 0x13) DOWN
22:08.0871 R (0x52, BIOS 0x13) UP -> 128ms
22:08.0871 R (0x52, BIOS 0x13) DOWN
22:08.0871 R (0x52, BIOS 0x13) CHATTER DETECTED -> 7ms
22:08.0887 R (0x52, BIOS 0x13) UP -> 9ms
Has anyone ever experienced such a problem or have any ideas as to what could be causing this? I've read posts about key chattering but it seems to be something that usually happens over time, not something that affects many keys on a brand new keyboard. I've been offered an exchange or return for a full refund by the seller, and I'm leaning towards just returning it after this experience, but I do really like everything else about the keyboard.
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I have had two keyboards w/ a single key chattering so far, both were caused by bad solder joints. One developed the problem after a year or so (joint failed over time), the other came that way out of the box (bad soldering.) I fixed both by resoldering the affected switches joints. Your board clearly shows some form of systematic failure; I could imagine that there was a problem w/ the soldering stage when your board was assembled. I would suggest to ask for a replacement, this kind of behavior is definitely a defect.