Nordic/de layout and brown switches.

[Frederikjd]

Hi geekhack people!
I just joined this forum after reading a lot of awesome posts and I have decided to get my first mech keyboard.

I have decided that I want brown switches. My issue here is that I find it difficult to find a keyboard with the right layout. I live in Denmark and it seems like only razer and steelseries are available, and I hate Razer in general and I dislike Steelseries' black switches.

I have only found these with nordic/de layout.

- Zowie Celeritas - but I hate the fact that it comes with "half" a wrist rest. It look like you can't even put a 3rd party wrist rest in front of it.
- Qpad MK-80 - looks like an awesome keyboard with media keys, lights etc, but comes with blue switches!!!
- Swedish/Finnish Filco Majestouch-2 - great reviews on this one, but doesnt even come with media controls nor wrist rest -.-


Keyboard that I dream of with nordic layout:
- Tesoro m7 LED
- XArmor U9BL-S
- Ducky shine

Do you know any other mech keyboards that I havent mentioned that comes with nordic/de layout? (Preferably with brown switches) Tenkeyless or not doesnt matter.

[Johannes]

You can simulate media keys with eg. autohotkey. You don't need a board to come with a wrist rest when you can make or buy one separately.

[keyboardlover]

Welcome to GeekHack!

[sinis]

Hi,

I am shure keyboardco.com and keybo.de ship to Denmark.

brownMX boards with DE Layout:

Filco Majestouch 2 DE @ keyboardco.com just klick on the pisture of the "tactile action" board
Filco Majestouch 2 tenkeyless DE @ keyboardco.com just klick on the pisture of the "tactile action" board
Cherry G80-3000 DE @ keybo.de

On this page keybo.de says, they will ship also Denmark layouts for almost every board. Maybe geting in contact with them brings some more info.

keyboardco.com also has Swedish/Finnish layouts Filcos: 105keys and tenkeyless.  Just choose the "tactile action" for brownMX board again.

Another posibility is to buy a used anycolorMX board with the keycaps you want for cheap and stick it on the EU layout board of any language layout. Should work.

Also wristrests that are stuck to the board are useless in my humble opinion. When you lay your wrist on it you cant type because you can only reach the F1... keys. My wristrest has some 10cm distance from the keyboard.

Media controls should be possible to do with "autohotkey".


Have fun watching. Greets to Denmark.

[The Solutor]

I'm afraid that you have two options

 buy a qpad (fantastic keyboard) and mod it with the switch you want

 close your nose and get a filco

[Wihl]

I switched from swedish iso to US ansi. It really isn't a big deal after you've used it for a little while.

[~Blood~]

I don't see the benefits of ansi. Do you semi americans even realize that the layout is only suited for programming?

Apart from that you have a bigger choice of keyboards - for whichever reason.

Just get a filco, you can map media keys (foobar 2000) without a problem.

[Agiel]

I don't see the benefits of ansi.

Yeah, other than the more comfortable enter button there are none.

Do you semi americans even realize that the layout is only suited for programming?

wat

[nrd]

- Zowie Celeritas - but I hate the fact that it comes with "half" a wrist rest. It look like you can't even put a 3rd party wrist rest in front of it.

You can use any wrist rest together with the Celeritas just fine. The part you're talking about isn't even 3 cm long (measured from the edge of the lowest key to the end of the board) and angled downwards - that's in no way a wrist rest, not even half of one :wink:

[~Blood~]

more comfortable enter key? lol maybe if you have chinese hands

[The Solutor]

Yeah, other than the more comfortable enter button there are none.

:twitch:

[~Blood~]

the layout is really great aswell! []{}() HOW OFTEN I USE THESE KEYS WHEN CHATTING WITH PEOPLE DAILY

i couldnt live without it

[Mooby]

Das Keyboard Professional Silent could also be interesting for you. It comes with brown switches and ist available with german layout.

It's sold by GetDigital. And as far as I remember shipping to Denmark was pretty cheap.

[bpiphany]

the layout is really great aswell! []{}() HOW OFTEN I USE THESE KEYS WHEN CHATTING WITH PEOPLE DAILY

i couldnt live without it

Just buy an otaku board and noone will hear your babble at all...

[Agiel]

Oh yeah, I forgot there are people out there who actually look at their keyboards when typing

[~Blood~]

I actually will buy a otaku board next week

[The Solutor]

Oh yeah, I forgot there are people out there who actually look at their keyboards when typing

Yes and what about the ones unable to roll the spagetti around a fork ? :biggrin:

Incredibly there are also people unable to swim, or people unable to use a car w/o the automatic gears.


The world is a choking place, isn't it ?

[N8N]

I don't understand any of those people!  (I still occasionally try to find the clutch pedal and am disappointed... apparently company cars don't offer manual transmissions as an option...)

[~Blood~]

IMO you should at least learn it before being awarded a drivers license.. for flexibility

[zrrbite]

Hey Frederik,

Dane here aswell. Unfortunately it's hard for us to find any boards with pure danish layout. What i did was order a swedish layout Filco from keyboardco.com, and switched the ö and ä keys. There are a few other keys that aren't right, but as long as you get a 105 key ISO layout it's not hard to adapt, unless you really feel the need to look at your keyboard to find symbol keys.

I'm bringing home a G80-3000 German layout board for work atm. Affraid we'll have to make due : )

[Frederikjd]

Thank you for all the great posts. Especially for the post about autohotkey! awesome stuff that I didnt' know about.

Yes I'm just fine with a ISO 105 layout as I dont care about æøå. I'd love to get used to the ANSI, but I used one for a year, and I feel that ISO is way superior due to smaller shift button the left ><\ key that I use a ton when gaming mmos and the larger enter key, which is used all the time.

The fact that autohotkey is available changes the situation! Now the zowie is definitely out of the question as I'd rather get a filco.

As far as I can tell my decision is between the Filco brown switch finish/swedish and the QPAD with awesome features, but blue switches!

I heard that blue switches are difficult to doubleclick as in "duck jump" cs stuff, selfcast HoN etc. Is that really true or just a rumor?

[zrrbite]

I heard that blue switches are difficult to doubleclick as in "duck jump" cs stuff, selfcast HoN etc. Is that really true or just a rumor?

Both. But it comes down to technique in my oppinion. I had problems initially when i switched to mechanical boards because of the traveldistance of the keys before actuation that i wasn't used to.

[Frederikjd]

I'm afraid that you have two options

 buy a qpad (fantastic keyboard) and mod it with the switch you want

 close your nose and get a filco

How would I do that? Do you know a guide, and where do you buy separate brown switches?

[The Solutor]

Those are links about the ergo clear, but you can get the idea about the work needed.

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?17357-U9BL-Beige-edition-(clear-switches-brown-springs)

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:17248

http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:15658

and where do you buy separate brown switches?

In europe, usually the cheapest way is to buy a cheap cherry donor board, but the brown switches are less common than clear, blue and blacks.

Btw In case I have some brown stems

You can also follow "poorman" way: buy an Xarmor U9 BL-s  and a Qpad MK-80, swap just the keycaps.

You will end with a brown ANSI-Nordic keyboard and a blue ISO-US one, then you can sell the latter. the result is non 100% perfect but way simpler than the switch swap.

[Frederikjd]

Ty the solutor I'll think about it and get back when I make my decision.