Mechanical keyboards with the least amount of pinging?

[variant]

I have been trying to decide if I should look into other mechanical keyboards that don't ping nearly as loudly as the one I currently have. So I was wondering if there are specific keyboards or brands that don't ping has much. I can't invest in a $200 keyboard, so it has to be reasonably priced.

[Reptile]

What do you have now?

[IvanIvanovich]

Get any PCB mount board. I've never heard pings from any of my G80 or Pokers. No plate, no resonance.

[variant]

What do you have now?

CM Storm Trigger. It's really loud with the pinging both when I press the key and release it. I am not sure if it just an issue with the one I own or the CM Storm Trigger keyboard design. If I knew it was just my keyboard, I would RMA it for a replacement.

[alaricljs]

What switches?  Blue switches have an almost imperceptible spring ring when they are actuated on their own (not attached to a pcb/plate/keyboard)  move up to green and it gets a little more pronounced, and to white more pronounced still.  Note that I am holding these switches *in* my ear to hear this, although the environment is a tad noisy as well.  I am not shutting off my AC for any reason.

So switch definitely is a factor.

Then there is the question of how a plate changes things and then again how a good solder job changes them yet again.

[variant]

Well, the one I currently have is brown switches, though I get the pinging whether I actuate them or not. If I bottom out, and slightly release the key before it resets and then push back down, I get a ping. Also, if I slightly lower the key and then release it before it actuates, it pings. Both are loud, but the latter is the loudest.

[birthdaymonkey]

I never noticed ping with the Das "silent" (browns) I used to own. I notice it a bit with my current blue keyboards (CM and WASD), and of course Topre has no chance of making pings!

[Maarten]

If you do not want any noise dont get a mechanical board.

I do get how pinging and stuff can be annoying but i do think some people take this to the extreme, they seem to make up in their mind how something should work, feel and sound and they read alot about what would be undesirable and the mix this up to something that simply will not happen.

All my boards (all plate mounted) do have some ring, how bad it is depends on typing style and some other things. I just live with it, theres way worse things that can happen.

[urbanus]

If you do not want any noise dont get a mechanical board.

How dare you make a sane, reasonable reply in a thread about MX switch ping?  :smile:

[Gupux]

Looking at your posts OP (on multiple forums) it seems like you're taking this whole pinging thing WAY too far. If you really want to use a mechanical and are unable to deal with the ring/ping noise I suggest you either check your medication or buy a Topre (however Topres may "thock" or "fart" as some people call it).

[variant]

Looking at your posts OP (on multiple forums) it seems like you're taking this whole pinging thing WAY too far. If you really want to use a mechanical and are unable to deal with the ring/ping noise I suggest you either check your medication or buy a Topre (however Topres may "thock" or "fart" as some people call it).

Why act like an ass?

[Djuzuh]

Why are you overreacting xD.

You just probably placed your expectation too high for you mech kb .

See Ripster's McRip effect, if the page is still here.

But I don't have your kb. Maybe your pinging is effectively a big problem. But as we rarely have such complaints, it seems unlikely.

[variant]

Why are you overreacting xD.

You just probably placed your expectation too high for you mech kb .

See Ripster's McRip effect, if the page is still here.

I didn't have any expectations for a mechanical keyboard outside of it feeling better than a rubber dome keyboard. What I don't want in a keyboard is a high frequency sound that can be heard 10 feet away that induces headaches.

[Djuzuh]

I didn't have any expectations for a mechanical keyboard outside of it feeling better than a rubber dome keyboard. What I don't want in a keyboard is a high frequency sound that can be heard 10 feet away that induces headaches.

Well, are you sure your problem is pinging, and not just the basic sound of a a switch?

Mech keyboards are A*LOT louder than rubber domes.

And if you want a silent mech kb, It seems Matias will sell one in the next month, see his subforum.

But for now we have no idea how silent it'll be.

[variant]

Well, are you sure your problem is pinging, and not just the basic sound of a a switch?

Mech keyboards are A*LOT louder than rubber domes.

And if you want a silent mech kb, It seems Matias will sell one in the next month, see his subforum.

But for now we have no idea how silent it'll be.

It's a loud metallic ping that happens regardless if I actuate the switch or not.

[Lighthouse1]

How hard are you typing on it? Just wondering as I don't find its particularly loud or pinging on either of the boards I have just got.

At work the new mechanical is actually a bit quieter than my old one as I had to give the cheap rubber dome they issued us with quite a whack and it was really loud when typing very fast.

Mechanical boards do sound very different though, perhaps you just need time to adjust to it.

[variant]

How hard are you typing on it? Just wondering as I don't find its particularly loud or pinging on either of the boards I have just got.

At work the new mechanical is actually a bit quieter than my old one as I had to give the cheap rubber dome they issued us with quite a whack and it was really loud when typing very fast.

Mechanical boards do sound very different though, perhaps you just need time to adjust to it.

I can push the offending keys very slightly so they don't actuate and then release them and they give a ping. If I take the key slightly lower to just the point of actuation and let go, it's really loud.

[Gupux]

Why act like an ass?

Just saying your obsession with this is not healthy.

[Maarten]

I didn't have any expectations for a mechanical keyboard outside of it feeling better than a rubber dome keyboard. What I don't want in a keyboard is a high frequency sound that can be heard 10 feet away that induces headaches.

Well then the feeling better parts isnt your only expectation now is it?

It's a loud metallic ping that happens regardless if I actuate the switch or not.

Wait, so even when you do not press any buttons it still pings? Well yeah, i can see how that can be annoying.

But seriously, sorry if i come over a bit like an 'ass' its nothing personal. Its just that everybody has different demands and expectations. It could very well be that theres something 'wrong' with your board thats making it a bit noisier than it should be but the fact remains that all MX switches will always make some noise and that 'ping' that you find so incredibly annoying might not even be noticeable to people who are used to mechanical boards in general.

My suggestion would be to give another MX board a try for some sound comparison and if you also think that thats too noisy as well, just go topre or any other rubber dome board for that matter because MXes are apparently just not your thing. I myself have quite a few MX boards, some noisier than others but the general consensus for me is that the typing experience outweighs as good as any noise the boards can produce. If for you this is not the case then dont try finding a mechanical board just cuz everybody tells you its cool or anything like that because for you the pros obviously do not weigh up against the cons.

May i ask what the main reason for you was to try mechanical boards in the first place?

[mkawa]

heavily consider a topre switched board. topre switches can make kind of a "thwock" or farting noise if you pound away at them, but they're by far the quietest and lowest pitch mechanicals. pcb mount cherries are good too, but can definitely be hit or miss.

[variant]

heavily consider a topre switched board. topre switches can make kind of a "thwock" or farting noise if you pound away at them, but they're by far the quietest and lowest pitch mechanicals. pcb mount cherries are good too, but can definitely be hit or miss.

I would get a topre if they weren't $235 for a plain keyboard, even more for a 45g version.

[didjamatic]

It's still debatable whether Topre is mechanical.  In my opinion they are not.  And I'm not an anti-topre price whiner either, I've owned 4 and use one for a daily driver.  I just don't consider it mechanical, it's the king of rubber domes and is the only one that's capacitive.

[variant]

It's still debatable whether Topre is mechanical.  In my opinion they are not.  And I'm not an anti-topre price whiner either, I've owned 4 and use one for a daily driver.  I just don't consider it mechanical, it's the king of rubber domes and is the only one that's capacitive.

Well, I don't care if something is mechanical or not as long as the typing is decent and it doesn't inhibit my gaming. From what I gather a Topre is a rubber dome attached to a mechanical switch. Couldn't something similar be ghetto rigged using rubber domes and a mechanical switch? If say you remove the spring from a Cherry switch and attach a rubber dome onto the key cap, you would get rubber dome tactile feedback, but would be able to actuate it like a mechanical keyboard.

[mkawa]

no, topres are very high quality rubber domes with a capacitive electrical switch to ensure that the electrical actuation happens before the key bottoms out. the domes are also carefully designed to provide a solid but still very smooth tactility around the point of electrical actuation. if you were very careful, you could design your own capacitive switch to sit under a supermarket rubber dome sheet, but in total you'd spend far more money working out how to do this than to just pay for a topre board.

for topre deals, our own classifieds are a good place to watch for heavy discounts. hashbaz and i both recently sold topre tenkeyless boards at the 200$ mark.

[variant]

no, topres are very high quality rubber domes with a capacitive electrical switch to ensure that the electrical actuation happens before the key bottoms out. the domes are also carefully designed to provide a solid but still very smooth tactility around the point of electrical actuation. if you were very careful, you could design your own capacitive switch to sit under a supermarket rubber dome sheet, but in total you'd spend far more money working out how to do this than to just pay for a topre board.

for topre deals, our own classifieds are a good place to watch for heavy discounts. hashbaz and i both recently sold topre tenkeyless boards at the 200$ mark.

Still, all you would technically need is the right type of rubber dome and some way to actuate it before it bottoms out. How it actuates should be relatively irrelevant.

I found this keyboard from Thermaltake that seems to go by that premise.

Has anyone considered putting plastic springs in Cherry switches?

[mkawa]

Still, all you would technically need is the right type of rubber dome and some way to actuate it before it bottoms out. How it actuates should be relatively irrelevant.

I found this keyboard from Thermaltake that seems to go by that premise.

the problem that a capacitive switch solves is the need to not disrupt the mechanical travel of the dome while still triggering an electrical event. standard rubber domes have a contact point on the inside of the top of the dome that triggers the electrical event, which is why the switch can only actuate when the dome bottoms out. i can't tell at all what this thermaltake switch looks like internally or how it works, but you can't just put a slider on top of a standard dome and call it a day. i can imagine a switch type in which there's a slider that's a makeshift spring of some kind that bottoms out the dome before the key has reached the bottom of the slider, but getting the tactility and force curve of this kind of switch right probably requires that you basically duplicate the buckling spring patent.

Has anyone considered putting plastic springs in Cherry switches?

i've idly thought about it. if you can source some (3d printing might be the way forward), please try it. super curious to see what would happen.

[variant]

the problem that a capacitive switch solves is the need to not disrupt the mechanical travel of the dome while still triggering an electrical event. standard rubber domes have a contact point on the inside of the top of the dome that triggers the electrical event, which is why the switch can only actuate when the dome bottoms out. i can't tell at all what this thermaltake switch looks like internally or how it works, but you can't just put a slider on top of a standard dome and call it a day. i can imagine a switch type in which there's a slider that's a makeshift spring of some kind that bottoms out the dome before the key has reached the bottom of the slider, but getting the tactility and force curve of this kind of switch right probably requires that you basically duplicate the buckling spring patent.

Why not just utilize what already exists in the Cherry switches to ghetto it? To add a rubber dome you would take a rubber dome, cut a hole in the top to have it tightly fit on the key cap similar to an o-ring or onto the switch part that depresses  (maybe glued) and remove the spring from the switch.

 

i've idly thought about it. if you can source some (3d printing might be the way forward), please try it. super curious to see what would happen.

Anyone have the dimensions and resistance ratings for the various Cherry springs?

[didjamatic]

If your criteria is A) Mechanical and B) Not $200 per the OP, then Topres are out of the question.

Go for PCB mounted Cherry MX.

[mkawa]

Why not just utilize what already exists in the Cherry switches to ghetto it? To add a rubber dome you would take a rubber dome, cut a hole in the top to have it tightly fit on the key cap similar to o-rings? You would need a very low resistance spring, maybe plastic to replace the original spring

Anyone have the dimensions and resistance ratings for the various Cherry springs?

yes, limmy has very nice force measurements. if you're serious about this i can help with dimensions. i have bags of springs and a micrometer around here... somewhere.

if you take the spring out of a cherry switch i _believe_, but can't find a screwdriver to test this right now, the switch won't be able to support the slider, which will just fall to the bottom of the housing. but these aren't bad ideas at all. by all means please experiment. some combination of a very light plastic "spring" (which may not even be a coil-spring) plus a rubber top might dampen cherries to the point where ping is a thing of the past .

[mkawa]

i have a pcb-mounted brown MX board here (actually, only the pcb), and a 55g topre. between the two i would say the brown MXs are a bit louder but have a similar sound signature to the topre. however, my 45g topre was definitely quieter than the brown MX pcb. PCBs can definitely resonate, they just do so at a lower frequency than metal plates

[variant]

yes, limmy has very nice force measurements. if you're serious about this i can help with dimensions. i have bags of springs and a micrometer around here... somewhere.

if you take the spring out of a cherry switch i _believe_, but can't find a screwdriver to test this right now, the switch won't be able to support the slider, which will just fall to the bottom of the housing. but these aren't bad ideas at all. by all means please experiment. some combination of a very light plastic "spring" (which may not even be a coil-spring) plus a rubber top might dampen cherries to the point where ping is a thing of the past .

The object would be to have the rubber dome support the key cap, not the switch. The switch itself would have zero resistance from a spring. So the rubber dome holds up the key cap, the key cap holds up the slider. Press on the key, it pushes down the rubber dome like any other rubber dome, only this actuates part way down like a Cherry MX switch.

[mkawa]

i'm not sure what you mean by "the keycap holds up the slider". i would highly encourage you to prototype your idea though, as it sounds like it could be pretty cool

[variant]

i'm not sure what you mean by "the keycap holds up the slider". i would highly encourage you to prototype your idea though, as it sounds like it could be pretty cool

I amended my previous post with the option of using glue.

To experiment I'll need to get a hold of a cheap Cherry MX device.

[variant]

Nevermind.

[mkawa]

cherry MX switches can be ordered in small quantities from wasd keyboards, mouser and digikey. you can also post a wtb in our classifieds section and see if anyone has a spare switch they would part with for cost of shipping (i will have a bunch soon probably, but most of them will be broken in some way)

[variant]

cherry MX switches can be ordered in small quantities from wasd keyboards, mouser and digikey. you can also post a wtb in our classifieds section and see if anyone has a spare switch they would part with for cost of shipping (i will have a bunch soon probably, but most of them will be broken in some way)

I think I would still need the rest of the stuff as well to test it properly, especially if I try using rubber domes. Let me know when you can get the diameter, length, and force resistance of the springs. I think I'll need its compressed height as well.

[rknize]

FWIW, the two keyboards where I notice ping the most are the Poker (blues) and the Cherry G80 (ergo-clears).  The Filco pinged a tiny bit when it had blues, but not anymore with ergo-clears.  None of the others have any ping that I can detect.

[Loligagger]

Has anyone tried something like the floss mod for buckling springs to get rid of the ping?

[rknize]

A very light coat of grease would probably also kill it.  It works on the Model M.  The ping didn't bother me for the most part, except for maybe the Poker.  I don't like blues to begin with, so that may be a factor in my dislike.

[variant]

Another option for springs would be a rubber spring or replace the spring with a small plunger (if you could find one that small). A painted metal spring might also not have the reverb a normal spring does.

[Tony]

Rubber domes never ping.

Topre switches ping a bit because of the metallic spring.

Cherry switches ping a lot because there are metallic components everywhere.

From what I eavesdropped.

[Chris_F]

Model Fs ping like there is no tomorrow, and I love them for it.

[variant]

How is the Cherry G80-3800? They are pcb mounted with half-height key caps which I'd  prefer. Downside it is not backlit.

[mkawa]

perception of noise is highly individual. the only way for you to really know is to try it. this is one of the reasons we all have so many keyboards and the classifieds forum here is so active.

[variant]

Is there any full sized keyboard with Cherry ML switches that have normal sized keys?

[IvanIvanovich]

Closest I have seen like that with ML is the g84-5200.

[mbc]

Get any PCB mount board. I've never heard pings from any of my G80 or Pokers. No plate, no resonance.

So wrong. I have several g80-1000 that ping like crazy

[IvanIvanovich]

I have had maybe 12 Cherry G80, and 2 Poker all ping free. I have had 4 plate mount, 2 Leopold, a Wyse and a Chicony half of which had with loud ring/ping and one with a little. I only have my personal experience.

[Paulie]

Both my Das and Noppoo don't ping.

[stingrae]

Both my Das and Noppoo don't ping.

My noppoo pings basicly only on the far side keys not really an issue or even noticeable really...