Nice! That'll look great on a shelf!
this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
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Mechanical Keyboards
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Are you addicted to the clicking sounds of your beautiful and impressive mechanical keyboard?
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...oh, that's pretty!..reminds me of when i redecorated my bedroom the summer of `83...
How do you know you're pressin' the right keys?
Askin' for a different guy.
The little bumps on the F and J keys
I see them now!! Okay, that probably helps with staying centered and knowing where your hands are when typing!
Man, the human mind is something else. Not my human mind, but other people's minds.
Thank you!
The only reason most keyboards are not ortholinear is because of tradition and typewriters.
Typing is probably the most useful course (elective) that I took in high school. I honestly cannot even comprehend how I'm able to type as fast as I do.
Despite trying to learn I STILL have to occasionally loom at the keyboard when typing. Not as much as I used to but still.
Gaming is a different story. 100% locked in on the screen.
@SharkEatingBreakfast @alex the right thing shows up on your computer?
Okay, so.. trial & error?
The first few days, yes, but there's nothing better than blank keycaps when it comes to learning how to type without looking at the keyboard all the time.
It's adapt or die, basically.
OH! Y'all memorize the keys?? That's amazing!!
What does the Ortho moniker actually mean? ( Yes I am embarrassed I don't know). This looks extra cool to me because I am terrible at soldering, and would like to improve. Can you post some pics of your switch recepticle solders?
Ortho linear means all the keys are arranged vertically and straight, with no key offset like you'd find in regular keyboards. The idea is you can type faster (after getting used to it), and offset keys are no longer necessary since we don't use typewriters anymore.
Just to expand a little,
ortho-, as a prefix, means:
Right angle, perpendicular.
As in orthogonal, or orthographic.
Or sometimes just "straight", or "corrective"(?), like in "orthodontist" or "orthopedic", I suppose.
https://www.rctech.net/forum/radio-electronics/336870-how-solder-correctly-not-so-brief-lesson.html
This is the guide I read when I first got into building fpv drones and it helped me a lot
What kind of iron are you working with? What kind of solder are you using? Those 2 things alone can make a big difference. Practice is necessary too, of course--but if you're trying to work with inferior equipment and/or solder, it may be harder than it should be...
It has more been an issue of my not understanding exactly where and how the solder is supposed to go on hotswap sockets
Ooh, i see. Unfortunately i don't have any experience soldering these...just pcbs, wires, etc. Hopefully someone else here can help out!
@Reverendender @mechanicalkeyboards Funnily enough, I haven't got round to soldering in the mill-max sockets I'm using yet. I put them in the PCB and they're a tight enough fit that all the keys work purely through the contact the socket makes with the PCB. When I get it soldered I'll send a photo though.
Wow that looks cool.
Looks great! I love the choice of keycaps!
I always wonder, what is the purpose of two space bars? It looks amazing BTW the keycaps a beautiful.
Well originally I intended to bind the left spacebar to space and the right spacebar to escape for when I'm using Helix editor (similar keybindings to Vim) to make escape faster to press. But I've found having the escape key in the first column second row beside my pinky to be very comfortable, so right now I have both of the keys set to space. But I am still editing what keys are where so this may well change.
I'm glad you like the keycaps by the way, I'm very happy with how they turned out.
Thanks for the explanation, what are your thoughts of an otholinear keyboard does it feel more ergonomic that a traditional layout?
I'm enjoying it so far, I've had to adjust a few cases where I was using the wrong finger for a key and had to fix that when switching to this keyboard. My typing speed has improved but that may just be the lighter switches. As for any ergonomic benefit, this smaller board is more comfortable to type on and I feel like the ortholinear layout makes it better as well but that second one could be placebo. Also I just enjoy typing on this keyboard more which certainly helps.
That sounds pretty cool, i might like to try one at some point.
Love it! Preonic style layout is my fave