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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: awhitedev on Mon, 06 October 2014, 09:46:31
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I've seen quite a few custom keyboards on this site... and most of them seem to use the same MX switches throughout the whole keyboard... ex: using all mx clear or all mx green for all 87 keys.
Are there any advantages to mixing it up? Let's say... putting slightly stiffer switches for the modifier keys and using lighter ones for your numbers and letters?
My two favorite switches are green and clear... between one being clicky and the other being tactile bump... I'm wondering how that would play out.
Thoughts?
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Cherry used to offer keyboards with mixed switches, e.g. an all Cherry MX blue board with a Cherry MX green switch for the spacebar.
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Yeah a lot of keyboards use a certain switch for all of the keys, then a heavier version of the space bar e.g. all browns with a clear space bar or blues with a green spacebar. Some people have tactile or click switches on everythjng, then line are on WASD for gaming. Some people have also out tactile or click on the alphas and linear on the mods and vice-versa
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I've seen quite a few custom keyboards on this site... and most of them seem to use the same MX switches throughout the whole keyboard... ex: using all mx clear or all mx green for all 87 keys.
Are there any advantages to mixing it up? Let's say... putting slightly stiffer switches for the modifier keys and using lighter ones for your numbers and letters?
My two favorite switches are green and clear... between one being clicky and the other being tactile bump... I'm wondering how that would play out.
Thoughts?
It's an interesting idea, but it sounds like what you're describing can be found in mechanical keyboards that use Cherry MX Whites. They tend to be inconsistent across the board, some providing a click-sound when others don't, while still providing the tactile feedback.
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Are there any advantages to mixing it up? Let's say... putting slightly stiffer switches for the modifier keys and using lighter ones for your numbers and letters?
I recommend against putting stiffer switches on the pinky finger keys and softer switches on the index finger keys. Depending on your hands’ health and strength, you could probably put stiffer switches on thumb keys.
Often spacebars have stiffer switches than the other keys to make sure that the switch can easily return the keycap up: especially when a spacebar gets long, like 8+ units, softer switches don’t always pop it up as well as they should. Also the thumb tends to be strong enough to handle a stiffer switch.
On some old keyboards, a “break” key, or a “stop” key, or even an “escape” key will have a stiffer switch, to help prevent unintentional keypresses. I wouldn’t recommend that on an escape key in modern operating systems though, because the escape key is frequently used for other purposes.
Some folks around here have mentioned enjoying modifier keys with linear switches, with the rest of the keys getting tactile/clicky switches. If you do a google search you might be able to find the thread(s) about that.
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I bought a Ducky G2Pro Tactile mix board with Browns on the alphas, Clears on the mods. After using it a while I realised it was the wrong way around except for the spacebar since I press most of the mods, Enter, backspace, etc with my pinkies so they should actually be lighter. I always make my spacebar heavier than the others, for instance my board with ErgoClears has a stock Clear spacebar.
When I tested with heavier main switches and lighter mods it felt okay, but the stock Clears I used were too heavy and the small bumps on the Browns weren't quite tactile enough for nice feeling of actuation on the mods. So now I use all ErgoClears with stock Clear on spacebar as I mentioned before. I'd probably enjoy Browns on mods more with the lighter ErgoClears I have on the Alphas now, but there's not a big difference in force between them, so.... All the same feels fine if the switches are light enough.
Brown alphas with ErgoClear mods would also be nice, maybe the best combo since the extra tactility distinguishes the mod keys nicely by touch and they're light enough for pinkie actuation. Now that I think about it, just swapping the springs in the Clear mods (except space) would have transformed the board and made it feel really good.
For my ergo design board I use Browns on the main fingers, ErgoClears on the thumbs, arrows, edit keys, Esc and Del since I don't press them with my pinkies on that board and it's nice to have the added tactility on those keys to distinguish them.
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I've mixed switches plenty of times. Almost always put a blue or some modded blue as my escape key.
Usually mixed switches is bad (imo). If you do mix them up, keep a theme going (blues on numpad, clears everywhere else, linear on F-row, something like that).
I tried mixing linear and tactile on alphas + modifiers and found its better to keep typing areas homogeneous
Watermelon with Blue Escape (http://imgur.com/a/O3w39)
Ducky made for friend (http://m.imgur.com/a/he7jS)
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For a gaming-specific board you could definitely mix it up nicely. Put some browns/clears as your WASD/D-pad, maybe some blues/greens for your skills...But typing will generally be ****.
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i wouldn't do it unless you literally never type anything ever
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Interesting. Thanks for the notes guys. I guess that makes sense about making the mods lighter.
The more I look at my typing habits the more I see a need for different switches. Maybe not a drastic change... but I think I could benefit from a few changes.
For instance... I always find myself holding the shift keys, ctrl keys, and fn key all the way down... no matter what switch I'm using. I think maybe it's because those keys are always used in unison with another key. For these I'm thinking about using browns / reds... If it's going down all the way I might as well make it easier for my pinkies. I'lll then probably go for something slightly heavier like grey or green for the spacebar. Then, for everything else I'll probably just opt to use the clear switches.
Anywho, enough rambling I guess. Thanks for the help!
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Wasn't there some special ducky that came with over 10 switches? I'm not tooo sure how you would be able to adapt to reds to browns but you can definitely do browns and clears on the stabs or just the space bar.