10 years to today I joined GH and this happens to be my
1337th post. I thought I'd share what I ended up with. I had mechanical keyboards and tinkered long before GH but really got into it when I joined this forum.
I started out with a vintage keyboard focus as a long time user, collector of vintage computers and electronics. The original draw to mechanical keyboards was that I was tired of wearing out rubber domes (I type so much they'd get mushy within a month, and I have had some arthritis issues on and off in hands and wrists. The mechanical keyboards came from an era where they attempted to reproduce the typing experience of the highly evolved IBM selectric typewriters. To this day, few will ever hit the sheer volume of typing that was done on selectrics in their prime era. We just don't do that kind of transfer of information now - we cut/paste and use OCR and other methods. So it was Buckling Springs from IBM, and ALPS or Cherries in the other keyboards made. Can't tell you how many I disassembled and repaired in my garage and cap sets and cases I soaked in our kitchen sink.
Some of you may know that I did the GHSS (Geek Hack Space Saver) with Imav's permission and encouragement and worked with Signature Plastics to create the caps for it. It was a NOS Siig Minitouch with a few green caps, puller and came in a canvas bag wrapped with a lime green yo-yo string. Initially SP was not interested in doing anything but basic lettering in their existing formats and fonts but I got them to tell me the graphics format their system used which was .svg and provided them a star graphic in that format and convinced them to at least try it. They did and successfully created a doubleshot cap from a star shaped graphic file. No big deal by today's standards but at the time it was pretty cool, to me. Sixty made some Red Esc keys and Geek Hack keys from them at the same time. I think he beat me to getting his done first. I kind of miss those days where it was a lot about re-discovery of long forgotten tech. As the years went on, you guys took it to new places with custom controllers, protocol translators, relays, machined cases and artisan caps. So cool.
Anyway, after buying and selling a few thousand keyboards (literally) - vintage, NOS and modern, I whittled those down to about 100 which I kept for several years. Then last year I decided to simplify and sold off all but 3. I even sold my collection of terminal boards and beam springs. What 3 did I end up keeping?
Northgate OmnikeyPS/2 and ADB ports. Thick steel backplate White ALPS but these particular ones are indestinguishable from any of the best blue alps I've had. Inverted T arrow cluster rather than the omnikey cluster which some have. This keyboard is so heavy and well made, it has to be handled to be appreciated. They come with spare caps to convert to DVORAK if you wish and can do so with the flip of a dip swtich. Programmable macros. Even a tunable key repeat rate. They include a keyboard dust cover and cap puller as well as detachable cable. This is a keyboard I truly appreciate for it's own sake. If it had cherry browns I'd use it as a daily driver.
IBM PC AT Model F w/model M key layout The fastest I've ever consistently typed is on this keyboard. A few key swaps and you have a Model M layout. The only downside is the noise level which isn't ideal for all environments. This one was stripped and detailed by Scheng who was a member on here years ago and i'll never part with it.
Das Keyboard Professional 4 w/blank PBT caps For me, this is the pinnacle of input achievement thus far. The full layout with inverted T cluster, dedicated numpad, media keys and the excellent volume knob placement make this a true winner. I think it's far better than the newer Das they just released. The cherry brown switches are still my favorite daily drivers after all of these years. The only downside to the Das4 is it's terrible key caps. The lettered versions wear out fast for my coworkers. I use the professional model with blank keys and the caps shine very fast and aren't the greatest sounding either. A set of textured, blank PBT caps solves this entirely. I've been running this setup at work and at home for 5 years now and love them. I personally feel you give up a lot when going to smaller layouts. I tried separate numpads and nothing worked as well for me as a full original Model M style layout. Do not underestimate the usefulness of the mute key and volume knob.
LayoutsI tried ISO, Dvorak, Colemak and did a lot of experimentation with AHK but in the end, I only do one layout mod - Map the caps lock key to left ctrl on an ANSI Qwerty keyboard.
This is such a huge increase in efficiency to have control there at your left pinky. Once you do that for a couple of weeks, you'll never want to go back to anything else. I use SharpKeys from RandyRants to do the key mapping. (Northgates do it automatically with a dip switch and include caps to swap)
For me, I get all of the nostalgia and history from the model F and the Northgate and all of the modern input capability from the DAS4. So I'm pretty happy with those. But I lurk often and am sure something will catch my eye soon enough.