[Official] Mechanical Keyboard Guide - Page 1233

To be sure take a nickel off the stack and tap the table a bit.

In engineering this is called "dithering".

Webwit doesn't like to dither around.
Edited by ripster - 6/27/11 at 11:37am

It depresses slightly with 15 and wiggling the table a bit, though it doesn't bottom out. No movement whatsoever with 14. Tested it on multiple keys with the same results.

I have no idea how much use this things gotten, been in storage for well over a decade.
Edited by Paradox me - 6/27/11 at 11:52am

Thanks, adding it to the Switch Peak Force Database. It's filling out nicely.
Edited by ripster - 6/27/11 at 11:54am

Tator Tot: Can the Key Rollover explanation section of the guide be cleaned up, at the moment it's rather misleading and in places just wrong. I'll even throw together something short if you want.

I expect to get some work in on the Guide this week. To update multiple section, include more keyboards, etc.

The only section I think I will really need help with is the Keyboard by switch type list. As there are a lot of cherry keyboards; but I'd like to get as much of detailed list as possible.

By *cough* "dithering" measurements one could actually increase the inaccuracy while simultaneously introducing a false sense of accuracy. I could explain it to ripster, but when I used high school mathematics before he just ignored it, so I'll let him live in his fantasy world. In some way it's it is a form of art to collect a database of useless data from people who are ignoring that fact.

What is the reason for companies only manufacturing low force switches?

Even my blacks are too light for my taste.

Give me 110g blues and I'll be happy.

Find yourself some stiff springs and go crazy.

Well technically I currently only have blacks and would require the purchase of a blues board to do that. But I'm going to buy blues anyway at some point.


How much effort would it take to individually replace each spring of each key of my keyboard? And where would I find springs that are stiffer than blacks springs, yet compatible with the cherry switch?
Edited by De-Zant - 6/27/11 at 2:16pm

Here's something I put together. May need tweaking, but a good place to start off.

Ghosting

Ghosting is a potential issue where certain combinations of three or more keys can cause an additional key to be registered. Ghosting is a rare problem, and is a sign of a serious design flaw in the keyboard.

Many manufacturers misuse the term ghosting to refer to Blocking, or use the term 'anti-ghosting' to refer to a gaming optimized matrix.

Blocking

Blocking is when certain combinations of three or more keys result in one or more of the keys not being registered. Rather than being a design problem, blocking is deliberately implemented to prevent ghosting. The combinations of keys that block are dependent on the design of the keyboard.

Game Optimized Matrix

This term, and others like it, are used by manufacturers to describe a keyboard whose switching matrix has been designed in such a way to prevent blocking occuring on certain commonly used gaming combinations. It does not eliminate blocking, it merely tries to avoid it. In many instances, it is little more than marketing hype, and does not provide a tangible benefit over a regular keyboard. However, on some keyboards such as the Microsoft Sidewinder X4, the quality of optimiziation means that it is almost as good as a NKRO keyboard for most usage.

n-Key Rollover

n-Key Rollover, usually called NKRO, refers to a keyboard that suffers from neither blocking nor ghosting. In a true NKRO keyboard, any number and or combination of keys can be pressed simultaneously, and all will be registered correctly.

Interface-limited NKRO

Certain peripheral interfaces such as USB are not designed to support true NKRO. This, a USB NKRO keyboard will not suffer from blocking or ghosting, but is only capable of sending a limited number of keys over the interface at once. Additional keys pressed beyond the limit will generally cause some of the other keys to be dropped. USB is usually limited to 6 regular keys and 4 modifier keys. Some keyboards are able to cheat this limit, but sometimes at the expense of quirky behavior or incompatibility with certain operating systems.

2KRO, 6KRO and others

Sometimes, key rollover is measured using a number. This practise is somewhat confusing because it means different things in different contexts. 2KRO is often used to describe a keyboard with blocking, and is meant to be read as "any combination of two keys are guaranteed to work, and some combinations of three or more keys will work, but others will not". 6KRO is often used to describe an interface-limited NKRO keyboard, and is meant to be read as "any combination of up to six keys are guaranteed, but no combinations of seven or more will work".

Some rollover quantities greater than 6, such as 12KRO, 18KRO or 22KRO are used to refer to heavily optimized matrices, or interface-limited NKRO keyboards that have got around the 6 key limit.

Transposition Errors

Transposition errors are when a number of keys entered in rapid succession are registered in the wrong order. For example, typing A then B then C, and the keyboard registering ACB or BAC. As with ghosting, this is the result of a design flaw in the controller, and is not considered acceptable failure. These errors have been spotted in certain low quality mechanical keyboards.

Even if the coins were accurate, the weights tell you so little about the switches, even in terms of how tiring they are to use. By Cherry's own official force graphs, the peak force of the Blue Cherry is 60g. Also by Cherry's graphs, the actuation force is 60g. If we were to take the force rating as a meaningful indicator of how stiff the switches are, one might conclude that they are equally tiring to type on. Yet, this is not the case. Ho-hum.
Edited by ch_123 - 6/28/11 at 5:19am