9mo ago

Magnets are switching up the keyboard game with an additional keystroke setting

techcrunch.com Magnets are switching up the keyboard game | TechCrunch

The next big thing in mechanical keyboards is magnetic switches. Mechanical keyboards quickly went from a niche product to mainstream during the pandemic,

These keyboards rely on magnets and springs and activate by sensing changes in the magnetic field. Popularized by Dutch keyboard startup Wooting, these switches rely on the Hall Effect and have actually been around since the 1960s.

You can change how far you need to press down to register the keystroke, as well as for the release point.

The one thing you can’t change, though, is the switch’s resistance. Despite all the talk of magnets, that’s still handled by the spring inside the switch, after all (for the moment, until the xyz is released).

But interestingly, this also means with temperature differences, you may also have to "calibrate" your keyboard. The price point for the Akko MOD007B PC Santorini keyboard at around US$110 to $150 is certainly not more expensive than many mechanical keyboards.

See https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/07/magnets-are-switching-up-the-keyboard-game/

#technology #keyboards

23 comments

So, like... Pressure sensitive keys? Inputs on varying levels of depression of the key? Or would it still be binary, you can just adjust how far you press before it goes from 0 to 1?
- Wooting has options for emulating controller inputs, like joystick axis and triggers. The default is a binary toggle for which the actuation can be changed, though. Makes sense in regard to typing and such.
- I've never tried one, but I tdid look at them last time I got a new kb (2 years ago?). IIRC you can do pressure sensitivity, but meaningfully mapping that to game/software controls is often difficult. You can also adjust the trigger point if you're using "standard" mode, and I think you can even set a different action for passing the trigger point and bottoming out the key.
- If you want to go overboard, you can even create something akin to a macro by assigning multiple actions to the same key, so that a single keypress registers a different action when you’ve pressed half-way down, as you bottom out and when the switch pushes the keycap up again — and maybe another one somewhere in-between. I haven’t quite found a personal use case for this yet, but somebody surely will.
  From the article. Cool stuff!
  I'll be over here with my 1/64 keyboard.
  
  Article writer must not play games. WASD being able to walk slowly would be dope.
  
  QMK etc do something similar, where holding the key doesn't keep spamming it, it does a different keystroke, Miryoku is a pretty extreme example.
- All that yes. The Wooting One (original that uses IR light) let you use buttons to simulate controller axes, change how hard you need to press to activate, and add second functions to keys. It was an interesting idea but I found the gaming part the original keyboard to be only usable in a limited set of games as it’s not as sensitive as a controller stick, and as a keyboard it wasn’t great either. Hopefully V1 problems, I know they had through another version of the IR keyboard, and then came out with the Hall effect keyboard. I like the idea but never could get used to it, and when the spacebar was loose I retired it after fixing it.
- Sort of in a way, yes, if you count there is some increasing pressure from the spring. But in reality, no, it is really based on the travel distance that can be adjusted. But you raise an interesting point for a future innovation, being more around actual pressure/resistance per key setting.

This probably has a use in gaming. Being able to run faster or slower depending on how deep or hard you press would be nice.
- It's great for racing games where you have gradual steering but also quicker response times than with a controller

How about haptic feedback combined with spellcheck so it's literally harder to typo.
- Night, peellcheck is awesom (writen on my honor with spellchek enlaced, justo pickin the first suggesrion).

I feel like you could totally change the switch resistance with magnets. Electromagnetism goes both ways... apply a variable current to a coil in each key that repels it from or pulls it towards the base?
- You could do that, but would there be any advantage over springs? That seems like a very expensive, over-engineered solution.
  
  That sounds like an Apple product to me.
  
  ... isn't that the point of mechanical keyboards?
- Not sure how much resistance you'd get on a 5v rail over 104 magnets
- Yes it is an excellent idea. I'd be interested to see tests done around how this travel distance maybe actually increases or decreases any key pressure at all.

Sounds interesting. I'd imagine it would make it easier to seal off the electronics and have a drink-proof keyboard.

I have one of these, and while the switch tech is certainly neat, I haven't really come up with many good ways to use it.
Their implementation doesn't seem to support changing resistance or being sensitive to multiple levels of pressure on the key, but one way I do use it is by changing the activation distance for certain keys that I tend to press by mistake when gaming, like caps lock, so that you really need to bottom out the key to activate it. This seems to help a bit but I suspect that if I wanted to get the most out of it, I would probably need to be a much more intense gamer.
- Wow nice!! Yes my issue seems to be touching a key next to where I should be hitting. So if I could even increase travel to register, I'm wondering if that would at least make my typing a bit better. Of course, there is no easy cure for dyslexic typing ;-)

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles: ::: spoiler Click here to see the summary Brands like Akko, Drop, Ducky, Epomaker and Keychron became household names and today’s enthusiasts can choose between dozens of different layouts and buy parts from even more vendors.
A few years ago, a gasket-mounted keyboard, which gives you a softer, bouncier typing feel, was something enthusiasts could only find on high-end boards, but now everybody essentially does the same.
On a standard mechanical keyboard switch, you physically close an electrical circuit to register a key press.
There is, however, a permanent magnet in the stem and as you press down, the sensor on the keyboard’s PCB precisely registers what position the switch is.
Priced at just under $150 (though you can usually get it for around $110 on Amazon), the gasket-mount MOD007B PC comes pre-built with Kailh’s linear Sakura Pink magnetic switches.
What matters most here, though, is that this board allows gamers and non-gamers alike to dip their feet into the magnetic switch market without a major upcharge.
Saved 89% of original text. :::
- Bot, why would you summarise something that I already summarised as a human?

23 comments