Blau's Blog

Blau's Keyboard Adventures

Date: [21st Nov 2024]
Categories: [Computers], [Blau's Adventures]
Tags: [keyboards]

Back in 2018, my ex gave me a hand-me-down keyboard, his old Coolermaster Quickfire Rapid from about 2012. He'd just replaced it with a newer keyboard for his daily driver, and I don't think he vibed with my keyboard being some old cheap thing with a snapped spacebar (from a failed cleaning attempt, oops). That was my first mechanical keyboard, and I fell in love with the Cherry MX Blue switches - the tactile/audible feedback clicked with my brain, both practically as a way to tell the key had actuated and also just because I liked the clicky clacky keyboard (sorry to everyone I've voice chatted with who had to deal with my heavy typing, lol).

I used that keyboard nonstop for just about 6 years. I feel like I might have gotten a few more years out of it. However, just about a year ago now in January 2024, my cat, mad that I was scratching his butt, reached up onto my desk, hooked his paw onto the full mug of coffee that I'd just sat down, and dumped it all over my desk, my lap, himself, and down into the keyboard tray. The Quickfire was not spill resistant, it had no drains on the bottom, so it just held nearly a full cup of coffee until I could remove the cat from my lap and unplug it. I disassembled, deep cleaned, dried, and reassembled the board, and it did work again, sort of, just long enough for me to acquire a replacement. But now, whenever I plug it in, Windows says it can't recognize it as a keyboard, none of the keys work, and none of the lights light up. The USB port works fine with other peripherals, so I'm pretty sure something fried in the keyboard itself. If I had more electrical knowledge and better tools, I feel like I might be able to repair it, or at least further diagnose what's happening. Unfortunately, I have neither. My favorite keyboard now lives in a box under my bed. Either I'll be able to repair it someday, or it'll get scrapped for recycling.

I can't really stay mad at my cat over this, but man that was heartbreaking. That was a great keyboard! And I'm not exactly in a financial position to replace it with a comparable mechanical board. But I did need to replace it. My only spare keyboard at the time was a small little bluetooth guy that I'd gotten to use with my phone¹, since I'm Fumblethumbs McGee with phone keyboards and it was just easier to type long things that way. But using it as a daily driver keyboard on a desktop computer? Nope. nah. not great! do not recommend!

My first shot at a replacement keyboard was a Redragon Sindri K671. Honestly, for the price, it's a good little keyboard. It's got hot-swappable mechanical switches, it's spill resistant(!!), and it has Gamer LEDs, lol. And it had a numpad! A proper attached numpad! I could use alt codes again!! I don't use them as often as I did in the past, but I was so happy to be able to use my shifty eyes again (¬¬, two "logic negation" symbols, but two together looks like a set of half closed eyes looking off to the side), and to have quicker access to the ™ alt code, which I almost never use for its intended purpose, instead for Verbal Emphasis that's hard to come across in text. Kind of like sarcasm? It's hard to put into words.

Anyway, very good little keyboard, minus one issue: The keys bounce. By that I mean, if I press a key once, it will send two signals. I'd constantly have to correct my typing. As someone who types fairly fast, that drove me absolutely bonkers. I did find a cool little tool that intercepts those key bounces and removes them, but there is the chance that anti-cheats would see it as keyboard manipulation and take action. Given I was playing Warframe pretty heavily at the time, and I Do Not want to lose that account, I'd have to make sure that the tool wasn't running when I wanted to play the game, which also meant that the double presses would happen in the game, which meant I'd fuck up on skills and interactions pretty regularly. Not a fan!

An aside: I have since learned that Red switches, which the Redragon Sindri uses, are sometimes just bouncy. It wouldn't surprise me if the switches then are just being sketchy, coupled with that I type very heavy, which I don't think they like very much. However, I don't have any spare hot-swap switches other than the ones Redragon sent with this keyboard - the blues in my Quickfire are soldered in - so I can't test that hypothesis right now. Would be very cool if it was just sketchy switches and the board itself is fine!

I did try to contact support about this. It seems that Redragon has literally no support in the States. The folks I was able to contact were just the US resellers and couldn't offer support, nor could they point me towards folks who could offer it. Filing for an RMA via Amazon where I bought the keyboard just vanished into the void, no response. Makes it really hard to recommend these guys to anyone, honestly. Which sucks, because I do like the idea of more affordable mechanical boards (assuming they work right!).

My very short-lived second attempt was with a Dell KB216p that some folks I know were going to throw away, even though it was brand new, because they didn't like it. Needing a spare keyboard and not wanting something brand new to get thrown out, I took it off their hands. Unfortunately, I don't like it either. It's a short key membrane thing, the membrane is uncomfortably stiff and hard to type on, and the scroll lock key requires a Fn combo to use (I use Scroll Lock as my Discord toggle mute button, so it was kind of important that that be easily accessible). I used it for about a day and went back to the Redragon Sindri.

Third attempt was with a nondescript $12 onn wired keyboard. Also membrane, also flat keys, the little block with Home, Insert etc was laid out really stupid, but the keys didn't feel awful to use. I swapped out the Redragon Sindri for this one for a while and it was such a relief to be able to type without having to constantly correct myself from the bouncing. Playing Warframe with it was pretty awkward though, because I use the upper part of my palm to hit ctrl to bullet jump, and that's hard to do on low profile keys. Also had just a broad issue with those that I kept completely missing the keys with my fingers because I couldn't tell where they were. But at least I didn't have to correct myself every two seconds. The tradeoff was acceptable.

Earlier this week, I picked up another cheap onn keyboard, but this time, one of their "gamer" keyboards, the one I'm using right now. It's... I mean, for $20, it's not bad! The keys are laid out as I expect them to be, they're tall, it's got tenkey, and even though it's membrane, it's one of the ones that's tweaked to feel mechanical-esque - it's got an approximation of the Blue switch clacks I'm used to, which I appreciate a lot. The driver software was a pain in the ass - the driver still won't properly run; Windows is blocking it on memory integrity grounds and I don't trust a $20 keyboard's drivers enough to let it through - but I literally only needed the software to adjust the key repeat speed, which for some reason was really low by default (I could probably adjust in Windows, but then if I get a different keyboard, I'd have to revert it; doing it this way is one less thing I need to remember later). The keys are a bit stiff, but I think with use they'll get a bit easier. If not, I can see if keyboard lubricant would be safe for this kind of board. The Gamer LEDs™ are eye searing at Medium brightness, even with an overhead light on, which is honestly impressive, but at Minimum brightness it's actually a nice backlight effect. The key labels are supposed to be translucent, but the backlight behind the keys overpowers them, which is a lil unfortunate. Only thing is the brightness controls don't affect the numlock / scroll lock / caps lock status bar, which is super bright green, but I can deal with that with some tape.

Ultimately, I want to pick up a Logitech K845 with Blue switches. I feel like that's going to be my best shot at a permanent replacement for the Quickfire. Blue switches, laid out the way I'm used to, and has tenkey. Of course, it's lacking the Gamer LEDs™, just plain white backlight as far as I can tell, but you can't get everything, lol

I suppose at least I'll never want for a replacement keyboard again. I've got like five now! I'm sure I could do something cool with that many keyboards. Some cool Hackerman shit or something, i dunno