New Ducky Zero's are now available

[rootwyrm]

Light tunnels? ... did you look at all the pictures?

Other caps; cant see LED? it will still underglow. although my qfr has a red plate which probably helps.

Uh, no, it won't.
Do you know why the CM Storm looks like that? Because they use an insanely high mcd lamp with about a 120deg spread. In fact, it's so bright, it shines through the stock keycaps.
By comparison, the photos of the Ducky Zero appear to show that it is a narrow angle, low mcd green - the visible 'bleed' appears to be point reflection and not direct illumination. It's most definitely nowhere near bright enough to be reasonably visible sans window. Low mcd green with narrow angle's also the cheapest choice. Figure CM Storm's reds in the QFR are red clear T1's at we'll say probably around 100mcd and a 90-120 angle so probably OSRAMs which are around $0.80/ea as I recall. Even going with lower mcd, clear means around $0.50/ea. Greens with low mcd narrow angle? $0.34 each for the expensive ones.

[lazerpointer]

People have different lighting situations in their keyboarding environments. In fact the lowest brightness levels will work fine for most users, in a functionality sense - raising the brightness even more would just be for show.

[tauburn]

Two big downsides I see to this keyboard. One, it's ABS keycaps. I hate ABS. I destroy ABS. Took me less than 3 days to develop an insane amount of shine on my QF Rapid's spacebar. (It's like a damn mirror. Grrgh. I demand more PBT.)
Number two is the big one that's going to bite everyone. Those LED windows are hawt, oh yes. But they indicate two things. One, the LED's external to the switch. No big. Two, there are no existing molds with that type of windowing. Meaning any replacement keycap set is going to require two new molds to handle caps lock and num/scroll lock. And that's presuming they aren't using light pipe - now that would be an expensive keycap.

Otherwise looks pretty solid. Especially when you consider it's essentially an improved Vortex ONE ($110) with ABS instead of PBT.

what are your fingers made of?

[SmallFry]

Sweat apparently.

[jabar]

My hands aren't corrosive unlike others here, so it takes years for ABS keycaps to rub out (as they finally did on my laptop).

[rootwyrm]

what are your fingers made of?

<--- See left.
Well and I generally run around 450 keystrokes per minute, 12-16 hours per day, 7 days a week. Possibly something with certain ABS mixes doesn't react well, but PBT doesn't wear out in a matter of months. Other than the spacebar.

[sicaine]

Mh there is no information about the weight. I do love the feeling of a sturdy and heavy board.

[XTF]

Well and I generally run around 450 keystrokes per minute, 12-16 hours per day, 7 days a week.

Damn, what do you do?

[tp4tissue]

Well and I generally run around 450 keystrokes per minute, 12-16 hours per day, 7 days a week.

Damn, what do you do?

Yea this doesn't make sense.. 450 isn't fast, but "ALL DAY" that's alot of material... certainly impossible that's all self generated.

Idk, training to beat arenasnow?

450*60*12*7 =  2.3 million characters

King James with spaces 4.xx million characters

[rknize]

Light tunnels? ... did you look at all the pictures?

Other caps; cant see LED? it will still underglow. although my qfr has a red plate which probably helps.

Uh, no, it won't.
Do you know why the CM Storm looks like that? Because they use an insanely high mcd lamp with about a 120deg spread. In fact, it's so bright, it shines through the stock keycaps.
By comparison, the photos of the Ducky Zero appear to show that it is a narrow angle, low mcd green - the visible 'bleed' appears to be point reflection and not direct illumination. It's most definitely nowhere near bright enough to be reasonably visible sans window. Low mcd green with narrow angle's also the cheapest choice. Figure CM Storm's reds in the QFR are red clear T1's at we'll say probably around 100mcd and a 90-120 angle so probably OSRAMs which are around $0.80/ea as I recall. Even going with lower mcd, clear means around $0.50/ea. Greens with low mcd narrow angle? $0.34 each for the expensive ones.

A simple workaround is what I did to the black PBT caps on my Poker: shoot some white paint into the back of the key caps.  This diffuses even the most narrow-angle LED light pretty well.

[rootwyrm]

Well and I generally run around 450 keystrokes per minute, 12-16 hours per day, 7 days a week.

Damn, what do you do?

Software development. But I'm also stuck with responsibility for all the business matters and the social media stuff and I game as well. Plus a lot of email and so on. So I'm pretty much constantly in conversation with someone or cranking out code. End result is around that average. Burst is around 900 keystrokes and low is around 100 keystrokes per minute. So, only works out to about 150WPM peaks with 1-2WPM lows.
I'm also used to Model M's and extremely heavy MX Blacks - so around 70-80cN - and I bottom those out. So MX Blues? Yeah. Lots of bottoming out on a regular basis.

[jabar]

Have you tried MX Greens? Those are tough to consistently bottom out on.

[x2o]

Have you tried MX Greens? Those are tough to consistently bottom out on.

I wish MX Greens were an option on more keyboards... Seems to be a very hard thing to come by.

I spent a while trying to hunt down a Ducky 9008 g2 pro with MX Greens but they were sold out everywhere .

I wish this Ducky Zero was available with MX greens  I guess there's always the QFR..

[jabar]

I wish MX Greens were an option on more keyboards... Seems to be a very hard thing to come by.

I spent a while trying to hunt down a Ducky 9008 g2 pro with MX Greens but they were sold out everywhere .

I wish this Ducky Zero was available with MX greens  I guess there's always the QFR..

I have a feeling at least another Ducky MX Green board might show up in the classifieds...

[rootwyrm]

Have you tried MX Greens? Those are tough to consistently bottom out on.

I have. I bottom them out as well. Bear in mind, I bottom out Model M's and old Alps as well. It's just the way I type. (I also type extremely fast, no surprise there.) The bottoming out is just normal for me, and really bad with ABS keycaps. They just don't handle friction wear well at all - usually takes me a matter of days at most to shine a spacebar, even PBT. (I rest my thumbs there.)

Still trying to find Fn layer info on the Ducky Zero but no luck.. looks like it doesn't have media controls at all other than mute and volume. I am a sad panda.

[jabar]

Still trying to find Fn layer info on the Ducky Zero but no luck.. looks like it doesn't have media controls at all other than mute and volume. I am a sad panda.

I think the Fn key only toggles NKRO mode and the winkey lock. No other media functions that I've seen across promotional materials.

Also, I wonder how a Topre board would fare under your hands (not well I imagine).

[jlewisnj]

Have you tried MX Greens? Those are tough to consistently bottom out on.

Still trying to find Fn layer info on the Ducky Zero but no luck.. looks like it doesn't have media controls at all other than mute and volume. I am a sad panda.

Got my Zero i today.. I can confirm only Fn-F10 (win key lock) & Fn-12 (NK toggle)..

I tried Fn-F1 to Fn-F12 to look for hidden functions and didn't find any.

Also Mute, Vol Down, Vol Up and Calculator

Nice solid board, very happy with it so far!

[missalaire]

Any word on a TKL version?

[Fandom]

Ey guys. Anyone that could do a quick comparison between the Ducky Zero and Ducky Shine 2?

Thank you kindly

[missalaire]

Ey guys. Anyone that could do a quick comparison between the Ducky Zero and Ducky Shine 2?

Thank you kindly

LED backlit vs no backlighting
TKL and full size versions vs only full size

[kelske]

So do these Zero's not have the 4 dip switches on the back? use function layer instead?

That would explain the non-mac compatability descriptor, beacuse even though it probably works fine on Mac, you can't use a dipswictch to swap the Windows and Alt key (to alt + command) at a hardware level like you can with the G2Pro or Shine II.

That price is awesome, if the build quality is comparible to the G2Pro that's rad

[ShakeR]

I think MechanicalKeyboards has reported keyboards not being Mac compatible while they actually are.

There are different levels of compatibility: having all the function keys present, and that NKRO hack which doesn't work well with non-Windows systems. I don't think Ducky has the NKRO hack enabled on this keyboard though (unlike the Choc Mini).

This.  We typically say 'No' unless it's 100% confirmed that everything works exactly like you bought the keyboard from Apple.  We're adjusting this though, as many Ducky models are more compatible than some brands who list 'Mac compatible!!!' in their descriptions.   I'm verifying with Ducky again on this now for the Zero.

Regarding Dual PCB: This is just a 'quality / dependability' thing.  I believe it mostly relates to a thicker PCB / deeper electrical connections in the PCB.  It certainly costs more than Single PCB, so they didn't skimp here.

Regarding Price: We had to make special arrangements with Ducky to even carry these models at the MSRP they wanted.  The Zeros are basically being given away at current prices.  The value (imo) can't be beat for a full size board - great entry bang for your buck!

[VesperSAINT]

Ey guys. Anyone that could do a quick comparison between the Ducky Zero and Ducky Shine 2?

Thank you kindly

Glad to see you actually found this thread which I mentioned in the other thread

The only difference is the backlighting. Dual-sided PCB and USB NKRO through dip switch. $78-79... I'm telling you, brother... For that price, you can't go wrong. I don't know of any other mechanical keyboard that has those features for that price.

[Fandom]

Could I possibly inquire about the quality of the keycaps on the Ducky Zero?

And one last thing: any idea where to buy a couple of these bad boys in Europe?

[VesperSAINT]

The Ducky Zero is fairly new and I haven't had the opportunity to own one just yet but I believe they are laser etched ABS and the windowed ones are double layered ABS. My experience with Ducky ABS keycaps have been awesome. They are sturdy and the durability on them are much better than that of ones on some other brands. In regards to Europe, I don't know of any European vendors that sell these but mechanicalkeyboards.com does international shipping.

[Fandom]

Thanks for all the replies. Is there anyone here that owns one these Zeros and can give us a word or two about the experience?

I think I read somewhere that they keys on a Zero might not be interchangeable. Could that be true?

I hate to yank my own chain, but the reason I'm turning to Ducky after Filco has been the very loud keyboard pinging on some keys.. if anyone has a point about the Ducky Zero not sharing this "phenomenon", it would ease my mind (and my wallet of 100$).

[ShakeR]

Just to follow up: Ducky tells me the Zero is 90% Mac compatible. Unfortunately, that's as specific as they would get. Even though I own a Mac mini, it hasn't been turned on in 3 years and I wouldn't know what to test.

[nsrexler]

I haven't used the Ducky Zero so I'm kind of talking out of my ass, but my experience with keyboard Mac compatibility is that nearly all USB keyboards will work just fine on a Mac. Sometimes media/extra keys won't work, and of course the command/option keys position will be swapped, but everything else will work just fine. Some boards use tricks to achieve NKRO and these usually do NOT work on Macs, but it can be turned off on this Ducky so it shouldn't be a problem.

[jlewisnj]

Thanks for all the replies. Is there anyone here that owns one these Zeros and can give us a word or two about the experience?

I think I read somewhere that they keys on a Zero might not be interchangeable. Could that be true?

I hate to yank my own chain, but the reason I'm turning to Ducky after Filco has been the very loud keyboard pinging on some keys.. if anyone has a point about the Ducky Zero not sharing this "phenomenon", it would ease my mind (and my wallet of 100$).

I have had my Ducky Zero since end of January and have nothing to say but great things about it..

I do have a small bit of key shine on my left Alt key, but that can happen with and ABS keycaps and its very very minor. Worst case i will buy a new keycaps..

As for the pinging noise, I don't hear it TBH..  I did a quick recording of me typing at different speeds and pressures, the gain is boosted some and with the mic real close the sound louder than they really are..