Re: quality keyboards

[Petter Adsen]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 02:09:23 -0500
rlhar...@oplink.net wrote:

> On Sun, August 30, 2015 8:49 pm, Martin Read wrote:
> > Cherry still *are* (or at some point resumed) making mechanical
> > keyswitches with a rated life in the tens of millions, and the Internet is
> > full of mail-order vendors selling keyboards (from several different
> > manufacturers) built with those Cherry keyswitches.
> 
> How much do those things cost?  Now that a keyboard can be had for $10 or
> $15, is it better to pay $150 or even $250 for a quality keyboard, or
> replace a $15 keyboard every year or even every six months?

I while back I bought a Razer Black Widow mechanical keyboard, and it
cost about $100. They claim[1] that the switches will last up to 60
million keystrokes, and sell both silent and clicky types. It's a
really nicely built keyboard, and IMO good for typing. It also has USB
and audio pass-through.

(You need a small Python script to enable the macro keys under Linux,
as Razer themselves seem quite uninterested in supporting that.)

Is it worth the money? I can't comment on the durability, as it's not
that long ago since I bought it, but IMO it's comfortable enough that
I'll buy another one if something happens to it.

Petter

[1] http://www.razerzone.com/razer-mechanical-switches

-- 
"I'm ionized"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive."


pgpijq8RjdhHb.pgp
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

Re: quality keyboards

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

Petter Adsen writes:

 > No, it doesn't. But it has 5 macro keys, intended to be used in
 > Windows games for sending series of keystrokes. Under Linux, they
 > simply send normal keycodes, but I believe the Windows drivers and
 > software do more than that.

Once upon a long ago there was a daemon used to respond to the
"special keys" (audio up, down, mail, browser and such) of a Logitech
keyboard.

I dismissed it with the Logitech keyboard once I purchased my Cherry
one.

But it could be hacked... It could be interesting to have the
old Qume terminals...

-- 
 /\   ___Ubuntu: ancient
/___/\_|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_   African word
  //--\| | \|  |   Integralista GNUslamicomeaning "I can
\/ coltivatore diretto di software   not install
 già sistemista a tempo (altrui) perso...Debian"

Warning: gnome-config-daemon considered more dangerous than GOTO

Re: quality keyboards

[David Wright]

Quoting rlhar...@oplink.net (rlhar...@oplink.net):
> On Sun, August 30, 2015 8:49 pm, Martin Read wrote:
> > Cherry still *are* (or at some point resumed) making mechanical
> > keyswitches with a rated life in the tens of millions, and the Internet is
> > full of mail-order vendors selling keyboards (from several different
> > manufacturers) built with those Cherry keyswitches.
> 
> How much do those things cost?  Now that a keyboard can be had for $10 or
> $15, is it better to pay $150 or even $250 for a quality keyboard, or
> replace a $15 keyboard every year or even every six months?

Well it's not really possible to buy my favourite keyboard any more.

My second favourite is the IBM clicky which I still use, but with
greater headaches as it has a PS/2 connector. I'm not a blind-typing
person; I type mainly with four fingers and the left thumb (it
appears, when I try to watch myself at the same time as typing).
So the truncated LShift doesn't bother me.
As it's a UK keyboard, it would be difficult to replace. I like the
positive feel, and no keyboard had a longer cable. I do not like the
US placement of # and ~.

My favourite keyboard of all time was the VT220 (which was attached to
a mighty VT241 display). The incomparable feature was the key-click
because it was not passively generated. The click came back with the
character reflection, so it gave you *truly* active feedback.
With my EVE (Extensible Vax Editor) redefining the numeric keypad, it
was my most comfortable editing platform.

My wife (who is a true touch-typist) was also a VT220/EVE addict; so
much so that when she went to sea one time, I had to use the crude
shore-ship email system to get my 1150-line customisation file out to
her. (This was the days of Greybook Mail over X25 with gateways to
Bitnet and Arpanet, but fortunately post- the time when I could only
email ships through BT Gold, which cost real money.)

> And in our present Window$-dominated, rodent-oriented, game-addicted and
> generally-lliterate society, is there anyone who types more than a few
> dozen keystrokes a day for the purpose of intelligent conversation --
> other than subscribers to a mail list such as this, and the authors of
> pulp fiction?  (And no, I do not consider messages transmitted by
> "texting" or "twitter" to be intelligent conversation.)

Plenty of people originate and edit material with their keyboards.
(I assume you don't class scientific literature as pulp fiction!)

Cheers,
David.

Re: quality keyboards

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights

Ah. That's the original version of
"Gnebbsche drigge derfe nur mir, die expedde."
Frankfurt hassian for
"Button pressing is reserved to us, the experts."


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Re: quality keyboards

[Glenn English]

Yet another vote for Cherry. They are lovely.

The 'clicks' on mine come from the key hitting the bottom, not from something 
in the switch. You select how loud the clicks are.

And 'most everything is made for Winders these days -- just ignore the key with 
the little flag on it. It never occurred to me that a Winders keyboard might 
not work with Debian.

Cherry makes about a thousand different keyboards. Some of them have toasters 
on them :-)

I got a really simple one with good switches; no back lighted keys, no mouse 
touchpad, no number pad, nothing extra. Just a compact USB qwerty with good 
switches. Well, one extra: it has USB ports on the back, for the mouse. And 
maybe an external USB disk. One less thing to plug into the scarce USB ports on 
your Raspberry Pi.

There's another model that looks like mine, but with not as cool switches, but 
still a good keyboard. I've got a couple of those in the junk box, with PS-2 
connectors, that you can have if you like. (Cherry's last a long time.)

Mine has a couple model numbers on it: D-91275 and MX 1800 USB-2D. It was 
expensive, but not as bad as I've seen in this thread (~$80 from DigiKey, 
IIRC). I'd definitely go with a good one and type happily and noisily, without 
failures, for a long time.

-- 
Glenn English

Re: quality keyboards

[Don Armstrong]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2015, rlhar...@oplink.net wrote:

> On Sun, August 30, 2015 8:49 pm, Martin Read wrote:
> > Cherry still *are* (or at some point resumed) making mechanical
> > keyswitches with a rated life in the tens of millions, and the Internet is
> > full of mail-order vendors selling keyboards (from several different
> > manufacturers) built with those Cherry keyswitches.
> 
> How much do those things cost? Now that a keyboard can be had for $10
> or $15, is it better to pay $150 or even $250 for a quality keyboard,
> or replace a $15 keyboard every year or even every six months?

There's really no comparison between a rubber dome keyboard and a
quality cherry MX or gateron-based keyboard.

I've been using a kinesis advantage pro with for about 13 years now, and
I've recently picked up an ergodox;[2] both with cherry MX brown
switches.

Some of the newer mechanical keyboards coming out of the threads here:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=44940.1700 are also worth checking
out if you've got the keyboard bug hard.


1: http://gallery.donarmstrong.com/don_lab/017_even_more_lab_desk_10232003.jpg
2: http://www.donarmstrong.com/posts/ergodox_keyboard/
-- 
Don Armstrong  http://www.donarmstrong.com

I'd sign up in a hot second for any cellular company whose motto was:
"We're less horrible than a root canal with a cold chisel."
 -- Cory Doctorow

Re: quality keyboards

[Anthony Maples]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA256

On 08/31/2015 10:06 AM, Petter Adsen wrote:
> On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 22:40:22 +0900
> Joel Rees  wrote:
> 
>> On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 9:38 PM, Gian Uberto Lauri  wrote:
>>> Joel Rees writes:
>>>  >
>>>  > Say what? Since when does a keyboard need a firmware update?
>>>  >
>>>  > Hmm. Maybe the USB controller stuff, but still, ...
>>>
>>> Nope. Check the item before engaging the fingers :).
>>
>> Well, actually, I was responding to Petter, I think, whose keyboard
>> does not have the colored lights?
> 
> No, it doesn't. But it has 5 macro keys, intended to be used in
> Windows games for sending series of keystrokes. Under Linux, they
> simply send normal keycodes, but I believe the Windows drivers and
> software do more than that. There are also a couple of other keys that
> I do not know the intended use of - maybe there is some magic that needs
> firmware there.
> 
>>>  > Can you tell what the micro-controller is? Maybe try re-programming it?
>>>
>>> They are working on reverse-engineering the communication protocol and
>>> re-programming instructions.
>>
>> Do tell: Who are _they_? And do they have a website?
> 
> And if this concerns Razer keyboards, I'd also be very interested.
> 
> Petter
> 

A related article that I found a while ago:
https://spritesmods.com/?art=rapidisnake
It doesn't sound like it's for any of your keyboards, but it proves that
it is definitely possible to re-write keyboard firmware.

Also, if you find yourself with an excessive amount of free time, you
might want to take a look at some of the other projects that he's done;
they are really interesting.



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Re: quality keyboards

[Petter Adsen]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 09:45:03 +0200
"Gian Uberto Lauri"   wrote:

> Petter Adsen writes:
>  > On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 02:09:23 -0500
>  > rlhar...@oplink.net wrote:
>  > > How much do those things cost?  Now that a keyboard can be had for $10 or
>  > > $15, is it better to pay $150 or even $250 for a quality keyboard, or
>  > > replace a $15 keyboard every year or even every six months?
>  > 
>  > I while back I bought a Razer Black Widow mechanical keyboard, and it
>  > cost about $100. They claim[1] that the switches will last up to 60
>  > million keystrokes, and sell both silent and clicky types. It's a
>  > really nicely built keyboard, and IMO good for typing. It also has USB
>  > and audio pass-through.
> 
> I have a Cherry keyboard under my fingers. After some years of
> continuous usage (it's my office keyboard) the original caps lost the
> marking and I got the chance to make a custom coloured key-set.
> 
> The keyboard is still the most comfortable I ever used.
> 
> I'm planning giving Razer a try, I am willing to buy a K95 with all the left
> keys - they recall me the old Sun keyboards I used as a student.
>
> The RGB version could let me emulate the colors of my custom keyset
> (black fo alphanumeric keys, blue for "shifts", green "non printable",
> yellow for cursor movement, gray for function, red for esc and 'system
> requests' and orange for insert). But this is just to make a geek happy.

I do not know if that will work under Linux, you might want to check out
how the colors-thingy is set up. The keyboard I've got is the one with
no colored lights, so I can't test it, but all the other extra features
of this keyboard are configured via Windows-only "cloud" software and
require an initialization sequence to be sent. The Python script that
is available for Linux only enables the macro keys and the Fn + media
key combinations, AFAIK.

The Windows software will also auto-update the firmware in the
keyboard, and some people have had problems with initializing the extra
keys under Linux after updating the firmware. I've never run the Windows
software, and my keyboard works fine.

The keyboard model with no lights is also quite a bit cheaper, so you
might want to do some research before you get one with lights. You
could of course ask Razer for the information necessary to enable that
functionality yourself, but they seem quite uninterested in Linux.

> The Cherry microswitches will make your fingers happy!

So will the Razer mechanical switches, they are really nice for typing.
AFAIK all the keyboards they make except the BlackWidow series use
membranes, and I have no experience with those.

All in all, there are reasons for not choosing Razer if you run Linux,
but IMO they had the most comfortable keyboards that were readily
available in local shops when I needed one, and I'm very happy with it.

Petter

-- 
"I'm ionized"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive."


pgpTRlFTHSdlp.pgp
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

Re: quality keyboards

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

Petter Adsen writes:
 > On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 02:09:23 -0500
 > rlhar...@oplink.net wrote:
 > 
 > > On Sun, August 30, 2015 8:49 pm, Martin Read wrote:
 > > > Cherry still *are* (or at some point resumed) making mechanical
 > > > keyswitches with a rated life in the tens of millions, and the Internet 
 > > > is
 > > > full of mail-order vendors selling keyboards (from several different
 > > > manufacturers) built with those Cherry keyswitches.
 > > 
 > > How much do those things cost?  Now that a keyboard can be had for $10 or
 > > $15, is it better to pay $150 or even $250 for a quality keyboard, or
 > > replace a $15 keyboard every year or even every six months?
 > 
 > I while back I bought a Razer Black Widow mechanical keyboard, and it
 > cost about $100. They claim[1] that the switches will last up to 60
 > million keystrokes, and sell both silent and clicky types. It's a
 > really nicely built keyboard, and IMO good for typing. It also has USB
 > and audio pass-through.

I have a Cherry keyboard under my fingers. After some years of
continuous usage (it's my office keyboard) the original caps lost the
marking and I got the chance to make a custom coloured key-set.

The keyboard is still the most comfortable I ever used.

I'm planning giving Razer a try, I am willing to buy a K95 with all the left
keys - they recall me the old Sun keyboards I used as a student.

The RGB version could let me emulate the colors of my custom keyset
(black fo alphanumeric keys, blue for "shifts", green "non printable",
yellow for cursor movement, gray for function, red for esc and 'system
requests' and orange for insert). But this is just to make a geek happy.

The Cherry microswitches will make your fingers happy!

-- 
Gian
   Friends will be friends
  right to the end!

Re: quality keyboards

[Martin Read]

On 31/08/15 08:09, rlhar...@oplink.net wrote:

How much do those things cost?  Now that a keyboard can be had for $10 or
$15, is it better to pay $150 or even $250 for a quality keyboard, or
replace a $15 keyboard every year or even every six months?


Well, I'm typing this on a Das Keyboard (Cherry MX Brown keyswitches), 
which I bought after having to return the genuine IBM keyboard I'd had 
on extremely-long-term loan from a friend, so I think my position on 
that one is pretty clear :)



And in our present Window$-dominated, rodent-oriented, game-addicted and
generally-lliterate society,


Funnily enough, the single biggest market for keyboards with 
high-quality keyswitches today is almost certainly PC video game 
enthusiasts. Video games on the PC make heavy use of the keyboard, and 
having a keyboard with high reliability and good tactile characteristics 
makes it easier to play them well.

Re: quality keyboards

[Haines Brown]

Back in the 1990s I purchased several IBM M-5 keyboards for about $5
each. The only one that died was the one I poured alcohol into in order
to clean it out. Perhaps some are still around at a reasonable price.

Re: quality keyboards

[Curt]

On 2015-08-31, Haines Brown  wrote:

> Back in the 1990s I purchased several IBM M-5 keyboards for about $5
> each. The only one that died was the one I poured alcohol into in order
> to clean it out. Perhaps some are still around at a reasonable price.
>
>

Well, at least it died drunk so it didn't suffer.

Re: quality keyboards

[Petter Adsen]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 08:25:25 -0400
Gene Heskett  wrote:

> On Monday 31 August 2015 07:04:22 Joel Rees wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 4:09 PM,   wrote:
> > > On Sun, August 30, 2015 8:49 pm, Martin Read wrote:
> > >> Cherry still *are* (or at some point resumed) making mechanical
> > >> keyswitches with a rated life in the tens of millions, and the
> > >> Internet is full of mail-order vendors selling keyboards (from
> > >> several different manufacturers) built with those Cherry
> > >> keyswitches.
> > >
> > > How much do those things cost?  Now that a keyboard can be had for
> > > $10 or $15, is it better to pay $150 or even $250 for a quality
> > > keyboard, or replace a $15 keyboard every year or even every six
> > > months?
> > >
> > > And in our present Window$-dominated, rodent-oriented, game-addicted
> > > and generally-lliterate society, is there anyone who types more than
> > > a few dozen keystrokes a day for the purpose of intelligent
> > > conversation -- other than subscribers to a mail list such as this,
> > > and the authors of pulp fiction?  (And no, I do not consider
> > > messages transmitted by "texting" or "twitter" to be intelligent
> > > conversation.)
> >
> > Petter points out the comfort benefits. For some, however, it's not
> > just comfort.
> 
> Correct.
> 
> There is another aspect of what I call a usable keyboard. My retirement 
> hobbies include cnc'ing the usual machine shop stuff, like mills and 
> lathes.  Thats a "dirty" environment, where a cut chip of metal can fly 
> several feet, depending on method of keeping the cutting tools workspace 
> reasonably clear of these chips, which will adversely effect the smooth 
> surface of the cut if allowed to just lay there and be recut by the 
> passage of the tools next cutting edge.  So keyboards need to be both 
> protected from this debris, but also built to ignore it as much as 
> possible.  The net result is a tendency to, when keyboard shopping, to 
> stay well away from keyboards whose keycaps are molded with tapered 
> sides surrounded by a close fitting plastic molding.  I have an ACER 
> keyboard with vertical sided keys and no surrounding mask, keycaps are 
> directly on the stem of the key that if buried in this "swarf" might not 
> go down and register a keypress because there is something under the 
> keycap.  That would be the much preferable failure mode, whereas the 
> taper sided keycap, with the usual overlay mask, allows this materiel to 
> follow the key down, then wedge it down.

Have you seen the Apple keyboards? They have keys that are barely
raised from the keyboard itself, completely flat, and are AFAIK
wireless. Sandstrøm, among others, makes clones of these that are dirt
cheap. If I understand your problem correctly, they might work well for
you.

Just a thought, I have no idea how they are for actual work.

You can also get keyboards with a plastic coating that are intended for
industrial use, but I haven't seen any for some time.

Petter

-- 
"I'm ionized"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive."


pgpuvUzIKvLAf.pgp
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

Re: quality keyboards

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 31 August 2015 07:04:22 Joel Rees wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 4:09 PM,   wrote:
> > On Sun, August 30, 2015 8:49 pm, Martin Read wrote:
> >> Cherry still *are* (or at some point resumed) making mechanical
> >> keyswitches with a rated life in the tens of millions, and the
> >> Internet is full of mail-order vendors selling keyboards (from
> >> several different manufacturers) built with those Cherry
> >> keyswitches.
> >
> > How much do those things cost?  Now that a keyboard can be had for
> > $10 or $15, is it better to pay $150 or even $250 for a quality
> > keyboard, or replace a $15 keyboard every year or even every six
> > months?
> >
> > And in our present Window$-dominated, rodent-oriented, game-addicted
> > and generally-lliterate society, is there anyone who types more than
> > a few dozen keystrokes a day for the purpose of intelligent
> > conversation -- other than subscribers to a mail list such as this,
> > and the authors of pulp fiction?  (And no, I do not consider
> > messages transmitted by "texting" or "twitter" to be intelligent
> > conversation.)
>
> Petter points out the comfort benefits. For some, however, it's not
> just comfort.

Correct.

There is another aspect of what I call a usable keyboard. My retirement 
hobbies include cnc'ing the usual machine shop stuff, like mills and 
lathes.  Thats a "dirty" environment, where a cut chip of metal can fly 
several feet, depending on method of keeping the cutting tools workspace 
reasonably clear of these chips, which will adversely effect the smooth 
surface of the cut if allowed to just lay there and be recut by the 
passage of the tools next cutting edge.  So keyboards need to be both 
protected from this debris, but also built to ignore it as much as 
possible.  The net result is a tendency to, when keyboard shopping, to 
stay well away from keyboards whose keycaps are molded with tapered 
sides surrounded by a close fitting plastic molding.  I have an ACER 
keyboard with vertical sided keys and no surrounding mask, keycaps are 
directly on the stem of the key that if buried in this "swarf" might not 
go down and register a keypress because there is something under the 
keycap.  That would be the much preferable failure mode, whereas the 
taper sided keycap, with the usual overlay mask, allows this materiel to 
follow the key down, then wedge it down.

Thats a very bad dog and can cost dearly in broken tooling or machinery.

Unforch, while the ACER is good in that regard, it has about a half a 
dozen multimedia related keys right at the top edge, and there is no way 
to pick it up and take it to the machine as its impossible to pick it up 
without pressing these kays, plus its a corded ps2 board with too short 
a cord.  So at the present time, I have the wireless Logitech K360 on 
all 4 machines. Vertical sided keycaps that don't easily jam, and a 
clear area on the back edge, well centered that can be used to pick it 
up and take it to the machine using its long range wireless.  The layout 
is not ideal by any stretch, but its the most usable keyboard for me.  
And its relatively cheap.  And about 6" narrower than most of 
the "comfort" keyboards, leaving room to keep a rodent handy to its 
right on a 20" wide shelf.

Speaking of rodents, who, in posession of a brain cell, thinks the finger 
keys need to register a house fly landing on them?  I don't own one that 
I haven't had to take apart and add additional springs under the buttons 
so I have to consciously press the button.  Having to consciously hold 
the fingers away from the buttons so an accidental click isn't 
registered is extremely tiring, and half a ball point pen spring in the 
right place makes them a pleasure to use.  Most mice have a handy place 
molded in to put the spring into, so why the heck don't they put it in 
and raise the price a buck?  Boggles my mind.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page 

Re: quality keyboards

[Petter Adsen]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 20:15:44 +0900
Joel Rees  wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 6:52 PM, Petter Adsen  wrote:
> > The Windows software will also auto-update the firmware in the
> > keyboard,
> 
> Say what? Since when does a keyboard need a firmware update?
> 
> Hmm. Maybe the USB controller stuff, but still, ...

I have absolutely no idea, other than reading reports of people having
a working keyboard until the Windows software updated the firmware. The
website says:

"Razer Synapse 2.0 downloads driver and firmware updates for your Razer
devices automatically, so your products are always in optimum condition for 
winning."

Whatever that means.

> > The keyboard model with no lights is also quite a bit cheaper, so you
> > might want to do some research before you get one with lights. You
> > could of course ask Razer for the information necessary to enable that
> > functionality yourself, but they seem quite uninterested in Linux.
> 
> Can you tell what the micro-controller is? Maybe try re-programming it?

Sorry. I know naaathing. For some reason it also registers as a mouse,
just as my new Logitech mouse also thinks it's a keyboard. Before
running the Python script I mentioned earlier, some keys don't send any
events at all. AFAIK the script sends some sort of initialization
sequence that enables them.

If you can tell me how to find out in a way that doesn't involve
ripping the keyboard apart, I'd be happy to tell you.

Petter

-- 
"I'm ionized"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive."


pgpJGeQjSlZRj.pgp
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

Re: quality keyboards

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

Petter Adsen writes:
 > Have you seen the Apple keyboards? They have keys that are barely
 > raised from the keyboard itself, completely flat, and are AFAIK
 > wireless.

Wired or wireless. Personally I still prefer a keyboard with Cherry
switches.

Should I get rich enough to buy a fully featured "black dustbin" I
would nevertheless go for a Logitech trackball and a keyboard with
Cherry switches.

Maybe the Apple Mac II keyboard clone, if I am going to use OS X.

-- 
 /\   ___Ubuntu: ancient
/___/\_|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_   African word
  //--\| | \|  |   Integralista GNUslamicomeaning "I can
\/ coltivatore diretto di software   not install
 già sistemista a tempo (altrui) perso...Debian"

Warning: gnome-config-daemon considered more dangerous than GOTO

Re: quality keyboards

[Thomas Schmitt]

Hi,

Gian Uberto Lauri wrote:
> "Das computermachineboot ist gestaren, relaxen und watchen das 
> blinkenlichten."

Che bella macchina.


Have a nice day :)

Thomas

Re: quality keyboards

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

Joel Rees writes:
 > 
 > Say what? Since when does a keyboard need a firmware update?
 > 
 > Hmm. Maybe the USB controller stuff, but still, ...

Nope. Check the item before engaging the fingers :).

These keyboard have some on board controller that is responsible to
controlling the color of each key according to a fixed or dynamic
pattern. "Very useful things" [1] like color pattern changing with
time or keys that change the color when you type them - was not it
easy enough to peek a secret password watching the fingers typing it?

Furthermore they should allow some form of "macro". I am not sure of
what they are, but they smell like the programmable keys of the
venerable Qume 102 I used hooked to an AT 3B2, a long time ago.

 > Can you tell what the micro-controller is? Maybe try re-programming it?

They are working on reverse-engineering the communication protocol and
re-programming instructions.

[1] they could be used for some blinkenlights at boot time.
"Das computermachineboot ist gestaren, relaxen und watchen das
blinkenlichten."

-- 
 /\   ___Ubuntu: ancient
/___/\_|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_   African word
  //--\| | \|  |   Integralista GNUslamicomeaning "I can
\/ coltivatore diretto di software   not install
 già sistemista a tempo (altrui) perso...Debian"

Warning: gnome-config-daemon considered more dangerous than GOTO

Re: quality keyboards

[Petter Adsen]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 22:40:22 +0900
Joel Rees  wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 9:38 PM, Gian Uberto Lauri  wrote:
> > Joel Rees writes:
> >  >
> >  > Say what? Since when does a keyboard need a firmware update?
> >  >
> >  > Hmm. Maybe the USB controller stuff, but still, ...
> >
> > Nope. Check the item before engaging the fingers :).
> 
> Well, actually, I was responding to Petter, I think, whose keyboard
> does not have the colored lights?

No, it doesn't. But it has 5 macro keys, intended to be used in
Windows games for sending series of keystrokes. Under Linux, they
simply send normal keycodes, but I believe the Windows drivers and
software do more than that. There are also a couple of other keys that
I do not know the intended use of - maybe there is some magic that needs
firmware there.

> >  > Can you tell what the micro-controller is? Maybe try re-programming it?
> >
> > They are working on reverse-engineering the communication protocol and
> > re-programming instructions.
> 
> Do tell: Who are _they_? And do they have a website?

And if this concerns Razer keyboards, I'd also be very interested.

Petter

-- 
"I'm ionized"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive."


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