Mechanical Keyboard Sound Isn't That Simple
Figure 1: I couldn't think of a more literal way to represent this article if I tried... Looking back just a few years ago, there’s no doubt that the huge influx of people that joined the hobby at the peak of the COVID pandemic were drawn to keyboards by way of YouTube, TikTok, and other audio-visual content platforms. Even as the output from these content creators has waned in recent months, their collective impact and legacy on the keyboard hobby is rather firmly etched in the history books. As a result of all of their sound tests, build logs, and opinion videos, the message is clear to any new person joining the hobby: mechanical keyboards are all about the sound. Thock this, clack that. Whether it’s keyboards, keycaps, or even singular switches, seemingly everyone new to the hobby meticulously pores over each component of their keyboard not in an attempt to figure out how it will feel in hand, but how it will sound as they’re furiously grinding their way out from...
Mar 27, 2024
Very excited for the launch of the ALT to followup the CTRL launch. 65% keyboards have always been one of my favorite form factors. It allows me to take advantage of the smaller footprint on a compact keyboard and still give me to easily access the arrow cluster and navigation cluster which I use daily - from spreadsheets to video games.
The ALT will ship with the same features that made the CTRL awesome - the firmware will be based on QMK and we will be adding it to our keyboard configurator for easy reprogramming. The same RGB lighting and customization. The keyboard also has dual USB C connections that functions as an USB hub and the PCB will ship with Kaihua hotswap sockets to allow for easy switch swapping.
This keyboard is another step in our eventual goal to make custom keyboard design more accessible to the community. We will continue to work on this line and add more offerings in the future - for example a matching numpad - since there were a lot of request for those in the CTRL drop.
For community members, this simplifies the experience of owning a custom keyboard, for community designers, this solves the hardest parts of your technical back end. This solution for designers means more projects will make the leap from concept to production, increasing the diversity of designs available to the community at large.
Thanks for your interest and support, none of this would be possible without you and the continued support of the mech keys community at large.
Last, a few administrative notes on this drop: The drop is set to end on May 24th. However, we will be doing a payment capture on April 30 so we can initiate tooling for some of the components in the ALT.
Based on the trend, smaller version of CTRL and ALT, so likely a 40% keyboard layout. Same design, dual USB-C, aluminum case, RGB, hot swap, etc.
In an ideal world for me, I would have liked to see a 75% with a similar layout to the Magicforce82, as I like my F1-F12 for gaming and don't really like the cramped nature of a true 75%. Plus, with nav keys, I don't really need a pause, scroll, insert key, so getting rid of those isn't that big of a deal anyway and I can just throw them on a sub layer if I do need them. But really those keyboards are only 2 columns wider than a TKL. Why I was OK with picking up a CTRL.
@pepelephew You'll want to either buy a replacement set of caps with a Dvorak kit or buy a set of DSA/XDA caps that have the same profile across all rows to allow you to move caps around as needed. I've never seen a set of Dvorak-compatible PBT backlit caps so you may need to forego the shine-through lettering if you want the keycap legends to match your Dvorak layout.
I'm on Pok3rs setup with the Yoda layout so anything more than a 60% is left unused for me. I also added a Yoda Fn layer to my laptop Kb so no matter where I type, it's the same layout. So: Fn + r = backspace Fn + f = delete Fn + t = home Fn + g = end Fn + y = page up Fn + h = page down Arrows on Fn + w/a/s/d and Fn + i/j/k/l
So that whole strip up the side and the arrows would be extra.
I do like the Alt for the hot swap switches and the case though, so I'm having a little trouble holding back.
When you play RPGs and MMOs you get crazy into keyboard binds. Then stuff like PUBG has crazy amounts of binds as well. I've got individual grenade selections, consumables, car seat selection, shadow play macros, push to talk, mark the map, etc bound to F keys and q w e r a s d f g z x c b m g t y tab shift ctrl alt space pgup pgdown del ins.
Just wanted to ask you about the Quality Control and I asked the same question in the CTRL Drop. Can you please verify with the development/engineering team if they will pay attention to the Coil Whine, which the K-Type suffers from.
Thanks and really looking forward to the keyboards :)
The earliest keyboard I can remember with two USB ports was the Apple Pro keyboard which came out around 2000. It allowed you to have a shorter mouse cable because your mouse could be plugged in to the USB port on the keyboard instead of using up a port on the back of the machine (also cut down on desk clutter).
If you want, you can even further back (to 1968) to what came to be know as "The Mother of All Demos" where Douglas Engelbart used a lap keyboard with places to plug in a mouse (which he had recently invented) and a small corded keyboard ("corded" in the sense that it has a cord but also in that depressing combinations of keys at the same time had a different effect, think piano cords).
I am not well-versed in the technical details of mechanical keyboards but from what I understand, the RGB LEDs are on the board itself and shine through the switch casings. Light pipe is some diffuser casing built into certain Kaihua switches but do not carry over from switch to switch.
The other benefit is that I have a better "homing" with them as F1, F4, F5, F8 are easy to find the edges of the function keys, so those are my most used. I'll do something like F1-F4 as grenade selections in a game, F5-F8 would be consumables. That's why I really liked the Sentraq S65-Plus and had been 99% on getting it. Sure, I lose 2 F keys (3 if I end up using one of them as a dedicated ESC) but I have a homing to each row and it gives me 10 buttons within reach of my hand and I have an easy way to home row find them. I was actually considering it over buying the CTRL, but when I started pricing it out I was getting a hot swap switch and RGB backlit keyboard for a lower cost than the S65 Plus.