keyboard

The Keychron Q13 Pro is a full size keyboard that has wired and wireless capabilities, featuring 106 keys including 5 macro keys and a number pad.

The keyboard features an Alice layout, which means that the board is essentially split into two sections, with each section curved towards the lower middle of the board. The idea behind this is to give the keys a more natural position for the user to type on, preventing wrist stretching.

In a drive to keep typing as much as I do, whilst also not suffering from RSI, I was looking for Alice keyboards, and the Q13 Pro stood out. I have tried split keyboards in the past and didn't really get on with them, so I was curious to know if the sloped design would cause me problems with typing.

When I bought my Keychron K2 in 2020 I was happy with it for a couple of years before I wondered what other options were available. During that time Keychron lunched quite a few different keyboards, including updates to the K2. The K2 I have is version 1, and whilst it is a good keyboard I was looking for a keyboard with more features and hot swappable switches so I could experiment a little.

Whilst looking at the Keychron site I found the Q3 Pro, which is a TKL keyboard that has a wheel and 4 macro keys. I actually went for the special edition of this board, in olive green.

Somewhat recently, I was introduced to the concept of customisable mechanical keyboards. I do a lot of typing, mainly writing/story work, so the tool I use is quite important, I’ve just never given it much thought before.

My old keyboard was a Topmate K22, which is a pretty basic keyboard. I’ve recently been gifted a mechanical one that uses a Weikav Lucky65 V2 as a frame.

It turns out mechanical keyboards are pretty neat. Though they’re better than normal keyboards in almost every way, they also have their own, rather unique, problems.

In this article I will look at the Weikav Lucky65 V2 keyboard, the switch and keycaps selection used and a look at using VIA to configure the keyboard.

I got into mechanical keyboards a few years ago, around the same time that I started to work from home. Since then I have collected a number of different keyboards of different sizes and orientations, mostly in a drive to have a nice feeling keyboard, increase productivity and reduce my RSI.

Whilst keyboards look similar to the uninitiated there are quite a lot of different factors that go into the mechanical keyboard. In fact, there are so many different terms used in the mechanical keyboard world that might need some explaining before you get into things.

In this article I will look into some of the different types of keyboards available by breaking down some of the terms used. I'll then give some recommendations on where to get started, and what to avoid.

This is an introduction and is by no means a complete picture of every sort of keyboard available.

Last year I was looking through the shop at Mechboards and saw that they had a number of Lily58 R2G (ready to go) kits available. These are kits that have all of the soldering done and are pretty much complete, they just need some switches, keycaps and assembly.

My trusty Keychron K2 has been my daily driver for about 3 years now, so I was looking for something a bit different to type on. I have found that if I try to swap to a keyboard that is similar to the K2 I end up hitting the wrong keys.

I've been doing some research into mechanical keyboards recently and I've realised that re-built keyboards are not the only keyboards available. You can buy keyboard kits from companies that contain all the needed components for you to put together your dream keyboard.

Most of these kits involve the use of a soldering iron to solder the components to the circuit board (aka PCB). Since my soldering experience is minimal (at best) I decided that I would look for something cheap that I could have a go at before embarking on something more serious.

Vissles recently sent me their new LP85 keyboard to review, and I've spent a few weeks giving the keyboard a go. I have already reviewed the V84 mechanical keyboard from Vissles just a few months ago and that keyboard has been my daily driver ever since. I was therefore very interested in testing out this new product. The LP85 is a low profile keyboard with optical switches that come in a sleek aluminium chassis. Instead of the usual mechanical switches that make a physical connection, optical switches break a beam of infrared light to activate the key press. As there is no physical switch being clicked this means that optical switches last longer than mechanical ones.

I recently acquired a Vissles V84 mechanical keyboard and I have spent some time giving it a go. Vissles was founded in 2018 and have a selection of decent looking accessories and devices including wireless chargers, headphones and monitors. The V84 is the second of keyboard that Vissles have created, iterating on the previous design.

The keyboard itself has 84 keys and is a 75% ANSI layout, this is also called tenkeyless as it is a normal keyboard without the keypad. This keyboard moves a few of the keys around in order to fill the entire surface of the board with keys, rather than separate out the arrow and home/end keys. The compact design gives the keyboard a slim look, but it doesn't feel cramped or small to use.