Why is it so hard to find the right keyboard? I found mine finally and LOVE it.

[aceO07]

http://aramedia.com/U9W.jpg

Armor Wireless Mechanical Keyboard. Brown cherry MX. It's the only wireless mechanical KB I found.

 

[destrekor]

Incorrect, the das keyboard 4 supports full n-key rollover and its usb.

[TIL - Today I Learned]

I should have googled NKRO over USB. I guess there are a few keyboards that actually support it over USB. Nuts, I had never seen these before.

With some research, it seems like the most likely explanation is that many keyboards still use USB Low Speed, even if they are USB 2.0 compliant, they use the lower bandwidth mode. Makes sense, because on the face of things, using a controller with the Full Speed mode is unnecessary in terms of bandwidth for general keyboarding.

It sounds as if any keyboard that actually supports USB Full Speed (can even be USB 1.1), can fully support NKRO. Of course, the keyboard still has to be designed properly for such, most membrane keyboards definitely cannot support that due to the way the keyboard logic is designed. Good mechanical boards tend to have direct traces from key to controller (or whatever they link up to).

 

[destrekor]

More information here:

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Rollover,_blocking_and_ghosting

In short, the PS2 interface supports N key rollover, provided the keyboard itself is wired for it, but the USB interface only supports 6 key rollover + modifiers, even if the keyboard itself is wired to support NKRO.

I have a model M and it registers as few as 2KRO depending on the combination. This is using a PS2 to USB adapter, but as it says in the article above USB supports up to 6KRO + modifiers.

This is the information I had previously understood, and it is basically correct.

I think any PS/2 to USB adapter forces the USB Low Speed mode, or it may be default but can be toggled by the user with trickery (possible in Windows? no idea on that one).
Only USB Low Speed mode forces the max 6KRO, all faster modes support NKRO, providing, as Ichinisan said, the underlying matrix is designed properly.


I don't know if the Model M, specifically, supports full NKRO or not, it is older so perhaps the matrix was not designed for such. Once you introduce adapters, it doesn't matter.

Also, 6KRO doesn't always mean that 6 keys can be pressed, it typically depends on what specific key combinations you are pressing, because different keys will share different contacts on the matrix, some some combos will only register as 2 different electrical signals. I believe most of the modifiers tend to be wired separately, but this is not a guarantee either. I remember not seeing the same KRO stats when measuring with the right-side modifiers on one keyboard, when compared to using the left-side modifiers.

 

[Puppies04]

I'm not a keyboard snob. At home all I need is a backlit keypad and a FULL SIZE BACKSPACE BUTTON. I will never understand not having a full size backspace key.

Sometimes I wish your whole keyboard was a backspace key....


JKs :awe:

 

[destrekor]

I'm not a keyboard snob. At home all I need is a backlit keypad and a FULL SIZE BACKSPACE BUTTON. I will never understand not having a full size backspace key.

At work I use a MS Ergo keyboard since I'm on it so much and my wrists are so bad. I also use a MS egg mouse which is great for bad wrists.

You talking about the kind that takes the space of where the backslash and pipe key are? A two-row backspace key?

Unnecessary

 

[rudeguy]

You talking about the kind that takes the space of where the backslash and pipe key are? A two-row backspace key?

Unnecessary

I'm talking this:

vs this:

The latter should be illegal.

 

[Anubis]

I use a Corasir K70 at home (Cherry MX Reds) and a Monoprice Mech at work (Blacks)

 

[destrekor]

I'm talking this:

vs this:

The latter should be illegal.

I also may have been confusing the double-height Enter key with a double-height backspace key. Does the latter even exist? Come to think of it, I don't believe I have seen a double-height backspace key.


I do agree, a backspace key must always be double-width!

 

[chitwood]

I use this freaking thing:

It will probably outlive us all.

windows key is the most useless button on a keyboard.

translation: I use my computer for warcraft and porn

 

[chitwood]

dp

 

[bradly1101]

I still have one of these around here somewhere I used to use as a second keyboard in games just for the macro keys stacked on it that was backlit.

Was one of the only straight keyboards I ever liked.

I like my G15 for a different reason:

 

[MongGrel]

I like my G15 for a different reason:

Yeah, those things are full of fun things to do.

Surprises me Logitech stopped making that exact model.

Just to make the bigger ones I guess, hadn't even looked at em in a long time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...01A5-_-Product

 

[CZroe]

Yeah, those things are full of fun things to do.

Surprises me Logitech stopped making that exact model.

Just to make the bigger ones I guess, hadn't even looked at em in a long time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...01A5-_-Product

Actually, the G15 version 2 got smaller with less macro keys. It also switched to red backlighting and a USB1.1 hub (!) where the G15 version 1 had blue backlighting and a USB2.0 hub. Inexplicable. The human eye sucks at blue so it is less distracting to have in your peripheral vision.

I still use a G15v1 and Ichinisan uses a G15v2. Thank God mine has the standard Enter/Return key, unlike that monstrosity Mongrel posted.

 

[Ichinisan]

I still have one of these around here somewhere I used to use as a second keyboard in games just for the macro keys stacked on it that was backlit.

Was one of the only straight keyboards I ever liked.

Where is the Pipe/Backslash key on an AZERTY layout?

 

[MongGrel]

Haven't used that one in many years. No clue honestly.

It's in a closet atm.

 

[corkyg]

Overall, this is an informative thread, and I have edited out all unnecessary profanity. No infractions are given, but be advised - keep it civil or that could happen.

 

[CZroe]

Overall, this is an informative thread, and I have edited out all unnecessary profanity. No infractions are given, but be advised - keep it civil or that could happen.

I think that the problem is that this got moved from OT and those of use from OT didn't realize it once we were already subscribed. Note: I doubt I used any profanity.

 

[soccerballtux]

Well you have arthritis so.... :awe:

yeah. because I was using one of these

no key travel, finger hits bottom during excited typing like when arguing with anandtech forums clowns or hammering WASD in FPS

 

[soccerballtux]

Pretty sure almost all the ones posted in this thread I would consider "better". Even though it has mechanical switches the layout of that..."thing" is so unnatural to anything I have spent time typing on I would just want to kill myself.

it's actually the most natural I've ever seen due to the curvature. I'm really glad I found it. I need to use double squishy-palm-pads to elevate my wrists to the proper height but after that modification it's golden. Unfortunately no one can be told what a Kinesis feels like. You have to feel it for yourself.

 

[soccerballtux]

windows key is the most useless button on a keyboard.

It has it's uses, im just glad my keyboard comes with a Win-lock key so I can disable it when i am gaming so I dont accidentally force myself to desktop in the middle of a 1v3 clutch situation.

I use it 'extensively' (I get to sound important if I use a term like that) in 'my' AutoHotKey 'scripts'.

 

[soccerballtux]

I cringe at the thought of using a computer that way.

Back in my A+ certification classes in '99, they forced you to install and use operating systems without the mouse so you could learn to navigate with the keyboard. DOS, Win3.1, Win95/98, ...

Life would be much less efficient if I never learned to use computers that way.

Even when I use the mouse, the other hand stays on the keyboard. Right-click the title bars or taskbar buttons for numerous windows and minimize, maximize, close, or restore (n, x, c, r) with no need to zero-in on those tiny corner buttons.

it wasn't a problem in XP days, but since 7 (and maybe Vista) the focus for cursor in Windows Explorer behaves very ... confusingly and you have to utilize both a combination of ctrl+F4, and F6 (and I never know which to use when) to put the cursor focus where it belongs. Also ctrl+left/right (or maybe home/end) in the directory-URL-bar-thing (whatever it's called that you can type C:/Program Files into and it goes there for you) doesn't move the cursor between backslashes but instead changes the autocomplete box to suggested directories for you, so it's basically impossible to make a change to a folder (for example, to modify 'Program Files (x86)' to remove the '(x86)') without retyping the entire destination that you want to navigate to. So, unless you have memorized which programs go into '(x86)' and which don't, you're never going to be able to predictably utilize it.

Things like this are why I don't understand why anyone liked 7 so much. I actually preferred Vista-- it had all the newer tech but less of the destroyed user experience. Shake to minimize all the other windows? Really? Who uses that?

Contrast this with XP where all you need is F6 to move focus between the panes, and they even make it pass by the directory-URL-bar back to back (with the folder window in between) so that when you miss it the first time and lift your finger off the key, you press it once more and it goes to it.

 

[XiandreX]

My wife loves simple straight keyboards.

I got hooked on the MS Ergos long ago, at least they are pretty cheap and I love em.

My big fingers just love the things.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-148-_-Product

Yeah, it's nothing fancy, and wired.

I have owned 2 of these keyboards (moved Countries) and its hands down the most comfortable keyboard I have ever used.
Its especially easy on the wrists.

 

[Muse]

Dunno, I used to be a little fussy about keyboards but have been using a cheap Microsoft ergonomic I picked up at a computer show for ~$20 for gosh, must be nearly 20 years now. So cheap that I got an extra at a subsequent show just in case. I am using that one now because I spilled coffee on the first one a couple months ago. Cleaned it but it didn't work, maybe will try again to get it working.

These have that rolling hills kind of configuration that's easier on the wrists. The action is OK by me, I used to be very fussy about the feeling of key presses, but these have always seemed OK to me. I type fairly fast, close to 60WPM.

They are PS/2 wired. I run mine into a KVM, I have two PCs to choose from, rarely use the second, but sometimes do.

They don't have volume keys, but I don't game. I do HDTV with my main PC and its app using the right and left arrow keys to control volume, or I use the card's remote, especially if using the projector instead of the desktop LCD.

Edit: Just read the first 30 or so posts in this thread. I didn't even know there were membrane and mechanical keyboards. I guess mine is a membrane? Suppose I don't know what I'm missing. Get an IBM M?

DasKeyboard

/thread

What? Is that for blind people? No painted keys?

I have two model Ms and two of the first microsoft natural keyboards (the one without all the useless buttons http://www.inf.ufrgs.br/~cabral/NaturalMicrosoftKeyboard.jpg ).

I don't torture my coworkers with the model M, but they are my favorite.

Yes! That's the one I have (2 of them, but only one's working right now after the coffee spill). I'm using it right now! Once I started using this keyboard I never wanted another. Of course, with my laptops I'm stuck with what they are.

Actually, on close inspection, mine are a bit different, but I think essentially the same. Mine look exactly like this:

 

[Muse]

100 wpm on 5-10 minute tests with 97-99% accuracy (depends if the test let's you backspace). 1 or 2 minute tests about the same. If it's an easy test (no caps, just random words) I can get to like 130ish on a good day. Tests that have numbers, lots of uncommon words and such I'll drop to around 95 or so depending on length.

I've never met anyone IRL who could type faster than me :\

Sounds like fun. I've always enjoyed typing. I learned on manual typewriters in 8th grade, got to around 40WPM in those two classes. Those machines were a bitch compared to electrics. Still fun, though.

 

[DigDog]

It will probably outlive us all.

no it won't.

i work in the place that once used to make these, and the model M as well. that piece of garbage is what half my office works with. give it a bit of time, and the keys will become so stiff it will be like pounding nails in with your fingers.
seriously, it's shit.