HPE 87 Keyboard

[osxoep]

I just saw this on qtan's website, has anyone had any use of this board?

I was looking at buying a Race, but after tax and stuff to the UK, the HPE is going to be half the price :O

And £60 is a lot of money for a poor student 

[MissMurd3r84]

Hey. Not used one personally, but here are some links that might help you a bit.

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=32069.0
https://www.wsgf.org/blog/viciousxusmc/2012/09/11/review-hpe-87-affordable-tkl-mechanical-keyboard

[Cindori]

And £60 is a lot of money for a poor student 

For your own good... Leave this place while you can... Soon you will be paying that amount for caps...

[osxoep]

Hey. Not used one personally, but here are some links that might help you a bit.

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=32069.0
https://www.wsgf.org/blog/viciousxusmc/2012/09/11/review-hpe-87-affordable-tkl-mechanical-keyboard

Thanks! I had a search around but I couldn't find anything.

For your own good... Leave this place while you can... Soon you will be paying that amount for caps...

I'm very good at lusting after things, most of the fun (for me) is researching new toys anyways

[tp4tissue]

And £60 is a lot of money for a poor student 

For your own good... Leave this place while you can... Soon you will be paying that amount for caps...

Nah.. this is one of the most inexpensive hobbies out there. The most you can spend is a thousand, maybe two thousand. At that point you have nearly all the novelty stuff, and most boards.

I've spent way more than 8 thousand over the years on computers, new one ever year for the past 6 years. little over a grand each time.

Even then that's a little over a grand per year. ALSO a cheap hobby.

It's honestly still way way cheaper than my food bill.

[FoxWolf1]

Aye, could be worse. You could be into sports cars, for instance, or boats.

[osxoep]

Okay I managed to get one of these at a good price with browns.

And oh boy. It is good

A few things:

• It's pretty heavy :O Did not expect mechanical keyboards to be so heavy.
• They text on the white keys seems a bit.... off. Probably getting what I paid for, but I was thinging about getting new keys anyway
• IS there any way to change the app launched by the media key?
• It's a US layout, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.
• It is a joy to type on. The noise is wonderful, not sure how everyone else living here will feel though[\li]
  

Finally, where are these for?

[alaricljs]

Those are replacement parts for the stabilizers.

and #3 is a Windows setting (or really any other OS)

[Lu_e]

Nice that they include the parts... more important than the key printing; how is the spacing between keys? thats what turned me off of them.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

What difference in the 19 mm centre-to-centre spacing were you imagining it might have? The rash of complaints lately about alleged differences in spacing is confusing. Pretty much all keyboards have keys spaced at 19 mm with 12/12.5/13 mm keycap surface widths. I don't get why so many people perceive otherwise.

[tp4tissue]

The HPE and Keycool keyboards seem like a good bargain, but by time you factor in shipping from China you might as well wait until a CM Storm is on sale.

If you live in the USA, CM quickfire rapid is the best choice for TKL. 

[Lu_e]

What difference in the 19 mm centre-to-centre spacing were you imagining it might have?

Uh. Are we talking about the same thing? I (and perhaps others you misunderstood) am just talking about the actual gap between two key caps... proably measured in millimeters... but aesthetically or mechanically could be quite displeasing.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Uh. Are we talking about the same thing? I (and perhaps others you misunderstood) am just talking about the actual gap between two key caps... proably measured in millimeters...

The switches are spaced 19 mm apart centre to centre, be this your FILCO keyboard or your laptop keyboard. The top surfaces of keycaps are generally 12.0, 12.5 or 13.0 mm wide (except probably island keys). Therefore the gaps between the top surfaces of keycaps will be 6–7 mm. Even my laptop has 13 mm keycap surfaces with its flat-topped, non-chiclet keys: the sloping sides of the keycaps are of course shallow instead of steep as the caps are short.

Keycap dimensions are pretty standard. I accept that there are differences (for example, cylindrical curvature, row profiles, spacing between key blocks etc) but the spacing isn't as varied as people seem to be perceiving. Any keyboards that have noticeably different spacing will be an exception to the rule.

[Lu_e]

Ok oops im a little turned around here. I still cant find the exact post but I think it was a keycool... so my bad i get mixed up between; kbtalking, keycool, and hpe...

But Ill show you what i mean on this keycool compliments of: marodox http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=34692.0

In this picture look at the gap between keys 'T' & 'Y'... or 'Y' & 'U'

Now look at the gap on 'H' & 'J' or 'G' & 'H' ...  best viewed fullsize as well...




... ... this is why I went Costar. & were we talking about the same thing? xD perhaps it is just the mold centering of the keycap stem? idk I've never looked at one in person but I dont like what I see in pictures.

Do the same thing here as well;

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Oh you mean evenness of spacing. When I swapped out my Realforce's arrow keys with lavender blank WASD keys, I couldn't get them to go straight. Not sure whether the caps were warped or what. Never noticed since.

H/J are too close, sure, but that's the sort of thing you fret over for five minutes and promptly forget thereafter. I've seen it with other keyboards, and it's really not a big deal.

Nice looking keyboard, especially the shaded arrow keys. Not sure what's with Asians and writing "CapsLock" as one word – Diatec have never fixed that mistake. "Back space" as two words is a new one though The trouble with all these nice compact boards is that no-one ever makes them in ISO :°(

[dorkvader]

It's probably the cherry switches, actually. You can move them back and forth a rather large amount.

[kinruan]

I do have one though. it has a similar case with Filco tkl and ML-87. however the design of the bottom case is awsome. BTW, it is very white. whiter >= the A4 paper.

[JoeC]

I do have one though. it has a similar case with Filco tkl and ML-87. however the design of the bottom case is awsome. BTW, it is very white. whiter >= the A4 paper.

I prefer to use paper rated at 94 brightness for most of my work.  Most offices I come across usually use a brightness rating in the mid - high 80's.  The difference from 86 to 94 is very noticeable.

[kinruan]

i usually describe it in the form of color code which is ffffff. i like hpe more than keycool. the quality of the bottom case is passing me while i was opening it. PCBs are fine. .  it doesn't works well with MX blue but others(i tried all four of them) the little blacks are for the large keys such as enter and space. u attach them on the balanced steel.

[kinruan]

one more thing. the keycaps style is totally standard, i mean as same as filco tkl and most of the KBs. no center off , no incapable keyscaps.

[TotalChaos]

@Daniel Beardsmore

You said standard key spacing is 19mm.  I have read that lots of places.

But this website http://szhcct.en.made-in-china.com/product/WXhJsktAsnVf/China-Mechanical-Keyboard-HPE-87-.html
says that the key spacing is 20mm  !!!!

Since when does anybody use 20mm spacing?!?

That means my pinky has to reach an extra 3mm for some keys.
I am 6'3" and have long fingers but ....  I don't want extra spacing between the keys.

Can someone who has an HPE 87 please measure the distance for us?

Please please please we need to know if the website is wrong or the keyboard is wrong.  Do it for keyboard science! 

[dorkvader]

@Daniel Beardsmore

You said standard key spacing is 19mm.  I have read that lots of places.

But this website http://szhcct.en.made-in-china.com/product/WXhJsktAsnVf/China-Mechanical-Keyboard-HPE-87-.html
says that the key spacing is 20mm  !!!!

Since when does anybody use 20mm spacing?!?

That means my pinky has to reach an extra 3mm for some keys.
I am 6'3" and have long fingers but ....  I don't want extra spacing between the keys.

Can someone who has an HPE 87 please measure the distance for us?

Please please please we need to know if the website is wrong or the keyboard is wrong.  Do it for keyboard science! 

I believe keyspacing is actually 0.75 inches, which is exactly 19mm. I would assume the 20mm measure is actually erroneous, and due to a poll measurement or poor conversion from the 0.75 inches measure.

I don't have an HPE, but I'm reasonably sure it's the same 0.75 inches as most other keyboards.