When HN users recommended it
2 HN users recommended this between 2020 and 2023, in 3 comments.
20072026
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
2 HN users recommended this between 2020 and 2023, in 3 comments.
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
As gumby says, the Space Cadet keyboards, being Microswitch Hall effect-based, were a bit spongy due to the big plastic case, but the switches themselves were dreamy.
But the whole experience was still not as satisfying as the original Knight keyboards, I suspect because the Knight boards used the original, larger switches, while the Space Cadets used the smaller. Chyrosran22 on Youtube explains all this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcdN4Vzg6_g and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDozftThFMw).
By the way, after 40 years of despairing over the loss of Hall effect switches (I nursed a Space Cadet Livermore Labs clone from a group buy for some years into the mid-80's), there are now two keyboards using this technology, and I'm loving the one that's actually available.
Steelseries Apex Pro is what's now shipping, and it's a dream. (https://www.amazon.com/SteelSeries-Apex-Mechanical-Gaming-Ke...)
The Input Club Keystone is still coming, slowly (https://kono.store/products/keystone-analog-mechanical-keybo...), but I'm also really looking forward to trying it.
I have an extremely loud keyboard[1] and a decent quality Blue Snowball[2] microphone (right next to each other, at that), and it can't predict anything reliably. This is quite surprising, as the spacebar I could probably guess by ear myself.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/SteelSeries-Apex-Mechanical-Gaming-Ke...
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Snowball-Condenser-Microphone-Ca...
Because I found just about the perfect keyboard and it's not wireless:
Steelseries Apex Pro (https://www.amazon.com/SteelSeries-Apex-Mechanical-Gaming-Ke...)
With some lube, this Hall effect keyboard comes as close as I've found since the Tom Knight MIT AI lab Microswitch keyboards of yore. What it still lacks is the perfect "heft" of the TK keyboards, balanced key weight & springs which gave it a certain "je ne sais quoi" I've never found in 40+ years. (And I've tried dozens of mechanical keyboards.) But it's damned close.
I've tried adding weight to the keys with magnetic putty to mimic the original TK "heft," but the switches aren't up to the weight, nor do they have enough throw. So I gave up and am still very very happy with the lubed Apex Pros.