UX upgrade 2: mechanical keyboard (and trackball)
05-11-2020, 01:13 AM (This post was last modified: 05-11-2020, 02:15 AM by classicdrogn.)
05-11-2020, 01:13 AM (This post was last modified: 05-11-2020, 02:15 AM by classicdrogn.)
And in a bit of late-breaking news on the computer front, I got a mechanical keyboard (basically the cheapest 104-key model from Redragon, but the backlight LEDs are plain white and you can turn the unicorn vomit along either side off) and a Kensington Orbit trackball, and both of those are living up to the HID-enthusiast hype. I'd used a trackball before circa the early 90s but the scroll ring on the new one is really nice for working in 3D software or on long web pages because you can just stick a fingertip on it and go around and around if you want, and on Manjaro Linux with XFCE and kernel 5.6.10-3 it works with L+R for middle click right out of the box. Even on the older Ubuntu 18.04LTS XFCE system I set up for my father last year all the physical controls work as expected right away, with no messing around in config files or even a GUI settings manager. I did turn the pointer speed down, though, because you can just keep spinning a trackball when a mouse would run out of space and it gives better fine control that way.
Inspired by Lynn's posts here about her projects I'd had some vague thoughts of getting one of those DIY arcade cabinet trackballs that have PS/2 and USB output right from the wiring harness and adding mouse button switches of my own with latches like an old typewriter's caps lock for click-and-hold (the mechanism for this would have been simple but quite elegant, I might still make a 3d model just for fun) but I'm satisfied enough with the Kensington even lacking click-and--hold functionality, which I think the scroll ring more than makes up for in normal use. I'm still getting used to where the buttons actually are on it, but like it quite a bit so far.
The keyboard, though, that's the big scoop. Like I said, it's basically the cheapest backlit mechanical one I could find that still had a number pad, but I really, really like this thing. It's got cherry MX blue "equivalent" switch bodies with some kind of optical sensor for the actual switch operation, but the clicky is real and the feel is verra nize. It also came with two each extra blue, brown, red, and black switch bodies, I guess to let you get a feel for which switch you like best, though arriving after you've bought it seems a little pointless for that. The brown ones are much quieter but almost as clicky feeling, which is as designed and what various other reviewers said but very hard to judge without trying them for yourself - I would say that if you've never used a mechanical keyboard, browns will give you just as many fingergasms while being much less of a sonic shock./ The red and black switches just moosh silently like a normal membrane or rubber dome keyboard, so while reputed to give superior positive action for fast-twitch gaming I don't see a point to them for my purposes. I would have liked to try green switches too, supposedly the stiffer-sprung black to blue switches' red, but those were not included. Honestly though, I've seen like one keyboard being offered with browns, a few red, and all the rest blue, until you get up to the $100 price point rather than the cheap-out stuff I was looking at. Sadly, I'm no better as typist on it than I was before and the taller keys are even throwing that off a little having just switched, but that much is to be expected.
As for the lighting effects, I looked at them but honestly the only one I'm even considering using instead of always-on is the one that turns the back light off for each key when you hit them and then fades it back in, as everything else either spends most of the time off and therefore defeats the point of having them backlit in the first place, to see the damn things in low light or high glare conditions, or has an obnoxious amount of blinking and motion going on, distracting me from actually doing whatever I've got going on the computer. Even if the one that turns them on in an expanding ripple outward from the key you just pressed does look really cool when you're just pushing one key at a time to demonstrate it.
The images on Amazon have the glow artificially exaggerated, I think, which made it look obnoxious to me, but even at the brightest setting it's not glaring, and the leak between keys is actually quite minimal, unlike the neon outlines the pictures left me dreading. You can also change the unicorn vomit side lights to the various solid colors if you don't just want them off entirely. Turned down to the lowest setting the key caps are still easily readable even in direct light (which is not so much the case with them off entirely due to the translucent plastic used for them unless the ambient light is photography-studio bright) and more of a gentle glow than a source of ambient illumination in darker conditions. The nominally white ones I got are also more of a cream than the hash blue-white that was shown, as well, which is probably entirely attributable to that translucent plastic again - what little does bleed around the edges is much bluer as you'd expect of white LEDs.
It's worth a note that this thing weighs more than my chromebook, but I also count that a positive - the metal frame and thick plastic shell that gives it that heft means it's rock solid without a trace of flex or springing in the body of the keyboard to throw off the feel, whether it's on a desk or just sitting on your lap, and combined with the rubber feet it sticks to a desk like it was nailed down. The cord is not detachable, but at least on this model it does have a nylon weave outer cover for a nice feel and reduced tangling. Plus if I'm lugging it along somewhere and suddenly need an improvised weapon, it'll probably do the trick while being much less suspicious before and after the fact than just happening to have a hiking stick with me, or as Camwyn once suggested in her blog a giant dildo
Like an SSD for your OS install, a mechanical keyboard is now on my short list for cheap things you can add to an existing computer to drastically improve the daily-driver user experience, in other words, and the trackball gets a strong honorable mention. I am very impressed with these Human Interface Device peripherals.
Inspired by Lynn's posts here about her projects I'd had some vague thoughts of getting one of those DIY arcade cabinet trackballs that have PS/2 and USB output right from the wiring harness and adding mouse button switches of my own with latches like an old typewriter's caps lock for click-and-hold (the mechanism for this would have been simple but quite elegant, I might still make a 3d model just for fun) but I'm satisfied enough with the Kensington even lacking click-and--hold functionality, which I think the scroll ring more than makes up for in normal use. I'm still getting used to where the buttons actually are on it, but like it quite a bit so far.
The keyboard, though, that's the big scoop. Like I said, it's basically the cheapest backlit mechanical one I could find that still had a number pad, but I really, really like this thing. It's got cherry MX blue "equivalent" switch bodies with some kind of optical sensor for the actual switch operation, but the clicky is real and the feel is verra nize. It also came with two each extra blue, brown, red, and black switch bodies, I guess to let you get a feel for which switch you like best, though arriving after you've bought it seems a little pointless for that. The brown ones are much quieter but almost as clicky feeling, which is as designed and what various other reviewers said but very hard to judge without trying them for yourself - I would say that if you've never used a mechanical keyboard, browns will give you just as many fingergasms while being much less of a sonic shock./ The red and black switches just moosh silently like a normal membrane or rubber dome keyboard, so while reputed to give superior positive action for fast-twitch gaming I don't see a point to them for my purposes. I would have liked to try green switches too, supposedly the stiffer-sprung black to blue switches' red, but those were not included. Honestly though, I've seen like one keyboard being offered with browns, a few red, and all the rest blue, until you get up to the $100 price point rather than the cheap-out stuff I was looking at. Sadly, I'm no better as typist on it than I was before and the taller keys are even throwing that off a little having just switched, but that much is to be expected.
As for the lighting effects, I looked at them but honestly the only one I'm even considering using instead of always-on is the one that turns the back light off for each key when you hit them and then fades it back in, as everything else either spends most of the time off and therefore defeats the point of having them backlit in the first place, to see the damn things in low light or high glare conditions, or has an obnoxious amount of blinking and motion going on, distracting me from actually doing whatever I've got going on the computer. Even if the one that turns them on in an expanding ripple outward from the key you just pressed does look really cool when you're just pushing one key at a time to demonstrate it.
The images on Amazon have the glow artificially exaggerated, I think, which made it look obnoxious to me, but even at the brightest setting it's not glaring, and the leak between keys is actually quite minimal, unlike the neon outlines the pictures left me dreading. You can also change the unicorn vomit side lights to the various solid colors if you don't just want them off entirely. Turned down to the lowest setting the key caps are still easily readable even in direct light (which is not so much the case with them off entirely due to the translucent plastic used for them unless the ambient light is photography-studio bright) and more of a gentle glow than a source of ambient illumination in darker conditions. The nominally white ones I got are also more of a cream than the hash blue-white that was shown, as well, which is probably entirely attributable to that translucent plastic again - what little does bleed around the edges is much bluer as you'd expect of white LEDs.
It's worth a note that this thing weighs more than my chromebook, but I also count that a positive - the metal frame and thick plastic shell that gives it that heft means it's rock solid without a trace of flex or springing in the body of the keyboard to throw off the feel, whether it's on a desk or just sitting on your lap, and combined with the rubber feet it sticks to a desk like it was nailed down. The cord is not detachable, but at least on this model it does have a nylon weave outer cover for a nice feel and reduced tangling. Plus if I'm lugging it along somewhere and suddenly need an improvised weapon, it'll probably do the trick while being much less suspicious before and after the fact than just happening to have a hiking stick with me, or as Camwyn once suggested in her blog a giant dildo
Like an SSD for your OS install, a mechanical keyboard is now on my short list for cheap things you can add to an existing computer to drastically improve the daily-driver user experience, in other words, and the trackball gets a strong honorable mention. I am very impressed with these Human Interface Device peripherals.
--
‎noli esse culus
‎noli esse culus