Confused about Cherry g80-3000LQC

[symphonic1985]

Hey guys,

I'm living in Germany so it's a good opportunity to try out a Cherry mechanical keyboard. (Upgrading from Logitech Illuminated.)

I do a lot of gaming. Since the reds are so hard to get, I guess that means Cherry brown is a good option. Some people say that the g80-3000LQC has brown switches, some say it has clear.  Does anyone know the full story here? Does anyone have a g80-3000LQC with brown switches?

My favourite price search website (geizhals.at) has g80s with the endings
LQM, LPC (black?), LSC (blue?), LQC, LPM, LSM.  If the LQC does not have browns inside, do any of these others?

I promise that I've been searching, but this is confusing stuff!

[JBert]

Cherry has very few models with browns. The G80-3000LQC has clears, I have one sitting in front of me.

Some known models with browns were made for third-party companies like Compaq, or for some Point-Of-Sale keyboards. So most keyboards you'll find either have clears, blacks or blues, and the difference in letters only gives an indication of the type of connector and type of switches used.

You could get browns, if you were willing to buy a large number of keyboards (somewhere in between 10 and 100).

[zmurf]

As said:
Clears.







But you can find specially made G80-3000s from Asia with brown. The have the suffix LXC. These aren't ISO layout though... and I believe that it will be quite expensive to import them to Europe....

Google G80-3000LXC ...
http://product.pcpop.com/000108009/Index.html


----------------------------------------------------------

[CeeSA]

i contact cherry and their distributor - no boards with browns are selling in germany
sad but true.
a good buy in germany is LSC with blue. it's a worth buy but no brown.

[PRISONER 24601]

it's a shame cherry isn't very willing to support us lowly retail consumers. They do realize that they have a growing enthusiast fanbase, right?

[symphonic1985]

Wow, glad I posted instead of trying to work this out by myself.

It's disappointing to hear about the lack of browns. If i liked the keyboard (for home use) I'd buy another for my office which has 4 PhD students crammed inside.  I don't want to subject everyone to a noisy keyboard...

So it seems that I have 3 choices: black, blue, clear. The high force of the blacks are not too inviting. 80 grams is like a king sized snickers bar. I measured the force on my Logitech with Euro coins and it seems to be 55-60 grams. I wouldn't want any firmer.

I'm actually working on left handed WASD replacement with Sanwa switches (that are normally in the 24 mm and 30 mm arcade push buttons). They need perhaps 75% of the force of my Logitech. So of course I drool a little at the awesome Nostromo mod that you made.  If my pad works out, it means that I'd game a bit less with the keyboard. But that's not guaranteed.
 
Blues or clears........

Hell... I know I'll probably end up with 2 or 3 keyboards.... this is like when I started reading the forums at Headfi.

[sixty]

Self-quote from older topic on the same subject:

Cherry never officially made any G80-3000 with MX Browns in any country.
The Datacal ones are special orders and therefore have the X code.. the same is used for some red switch boards and some other special orders (such as the DAS2).

LQC is clears.

"soft-tactile pressure" is clears.
"ergonomic soft tactile pressure" is browns.

That should be all.

[sixty]

Some more thoughts:

The "stiffness" and "high required pressure" of MX black is way overrated, imo. The switch triggers much earlier since the 80g is the total force required to bottom out. Of course you will trigger much earlier.. somewhere in the 40 to 50g range. If you are coming from stiff rubber domes you will likely find the MX black to be actually quite smooth and relaxing.

MX Blacks by now are my favourite switch. Most people give up on them too early or don't even give them a chance. If you are in Germany, boards with MX Black commonly pop up on eBay for a few Euros. I have a truck load full of g80-1800s with Blacks if you wanna try one I can offer one at shipping costs.

[symphonic1985]

Interest peaked! I was looking at the g80-1800 this morning online. If the blacks really are nice as well, after all, that's a great option since I like the form factor more. I would be tempted to cut the numpad off of the g80-3000.

I'd never expect to get a keyboard at shipping cost, but I'd be very happy to buy one from you at a price that you think is reasonable.

[sixty]

Interest peaked! I was looking at the g80-1800 this morning online. If the blacks really are nice as well, after all, that's a great option since I like the form factor more. I would be tempted to cut the numpad off of the g80-3000.

I'd never expect to get a keyboard at shipping cost, but I'd be very happy to buy one from you at a price that you think is reasonable.

I originally had over a hundred of the g80-1800s for resale in a bigger deal with some Koreans. Sadly something happened and the keyboards are stuck in my dads garage and another place since. So I'll gladly send you one at shipping costs. PM me your address and I'll take care of it within a few days.

[bilbo3000]

Perhaps you can also get a "Das Keyboard" from getdigital.de

Unfortunatelly the version with cherry browns is only available without lettering...
http://www.getdigital.de/products/Das_Keyboard_Model_S

The versions with "Silent" in their name are the browns.

Just an idea (no advertising anyways).

[JBert]

Some more thoughts:

The "stiffness" and "high required pressure" of MX black is way overrated, imo. The switch triggers much earlier since the 80g is the total force required to bottom out. Of course you will trigger much earlier.. somewhere in the 40 to 50g range. If you are coming from stiff rubber domes you will likely find the MX black to be actually quite smooth and relaxing.

How do they compare again with clears?
Slightly smoother because they need no extra friction for the tactile bump?

[zmurf]

@JBert:
I experience the clears as much heavier then blacks to write on if I concentrate to stop pushing the blacks when they have been activated... but I find the blacks quite useless to write on since if I stop concentrating I go WAY past the activation point when there isn't any tactile to tell me where it is... so I almost bottom out... and then it feels really heavy to write on.

Imo the clears only feel heavy at the tactile bump and right before bottom out... so you can rest the fingers on the key and the tactile bump will prevent the key from being pressed. But as soon as you gone over the bump the key is quite light... and after the "light area" it immediately becomes heavy again.. preventing you from bottom out.

[symphonic1985]

Thanks for the link Bilbo.  I suppose I need to get a feel for the different key types before I go for one of the upper tier models. Blank keys might not be so bad.  A bit of a change of philosophy from my Logi Illuminated, but I have to kill my bad touch typing habits one day...

I'm curious about the difference of the clears and blacks and well, since they seem to be most available in Germany (at least right now).  It's strange that Cherry don't focus more on the browns and reds, since it would let them emphasis how light and ergonomic the keys are.  They market the clears as 'soft druckpunkt' right? Their force v travel graph didn't really look that way.

EDIT: thanks for the post zmurf! It appeared just as I was typing.

[bilbo3000]

Its really a shame, but in Germany you won't get used / cheaper keyboards (<60 EUR) with browns or reds. I tried, but failed.

[CeeSA]

maybe we should sent cherry an "open letter" with our wishes

[lowpoly]

Its really a shame, but in Germany you won't get used / cheaper keyboards (<60 EUR) with browns or reds. I tried, but failed.

Reds are ultra-rare but you can get browns on ebay Germany for cheap from time to time (unless you think of a specific 'board).

[keyb_gr]

I am under the impression that keyboards have rather low priority at Cherry right now and things just continue as-is (think Unicomp). Quite understandable since sales and margins have been low for years (though it seems demand in the consumer sector has increased quite a bit lately). That being said, they were looking for a microcontroller programmer for their Czech factory recently, so maybe there's hope for the better.

Concerning clears, I like to compare them to scissor switch type mechanics with some more key travel tacked on. Almost like a scissor switch board with a soft rubber mat underneath that keeps you from bottoming out. Very bouncy, good for fast typing. Subjective force levels are in the Model M vicinity (mid-high), definitely lighter than blacks. They're definitely good switches, even though I prefer the lighter and crisper blues when noise is no object.

BTW, everything you (n)ever wanted to know about Cherry board nomenclature and history is here.

[symphonic1985]

Thanks again for all the comments.

The only thing holding me back from buying every goddamn g80-3000 right now is that I'm working on my custom WASD controller with Sanwa switches.  How do these compare, btw, to Cherry linear switches? These Sanwa switches are the premium ones used in Japanese arcade machines (and, e.g. the Madkatz TE stick). I think they need about 40-50 grams of force to activate. No tactile feedback, just straight up and down.

Once my gamepad is ready to be seen, I'll post about it in the mods section.  

The Nostromo mod has me thinking about doing the same to my Saitek command unit.... neeeeeeeeeed.....mooooore.......switches.............