I always say that a keyboard is like shoes for your hands.
And I always thought that was the job of gloves...
I am going to look into the brands/models that have been recommended because it's always a struggle being in Canada, reading stuff written in the US about this or that device you can get for a good price, only to find it is 2x or 6x the price, or not available at all. And these devices in particular for some reason have had very unusual market strutures, where you have to be in discord chats to get a chance to pre order for a component that does not yet exist... I haven't participated in any of that stuff.
I'm certainly not hardcore enough to get into waiting for kickstarter-style or other elite keyboard gear. In the past few weeks as I've gone down a few rabbit holes, Since there seems to be interest in doing something at GTALUG I've started to gel a presentation comparing keyboard culture to coffee culture -- far more similarities than one might think.
As for the struggles of doing this from Canada, boy do I hear ya. It seems like many of the more interesting vendors in this space either avoid the Canadian market or treat it as an afterthought. The one suggestion I would make is to consider shopping at US Amazon (
amazon.com instead of
amazon.ca) and have them ship to Canada.
Examples:
- The popular Kisnt K85 sells for CAD$82 at Amazon Canada but USD$43 at Amazon USA. If you buy it from the States there's USD$11 shipping meaning that cost at current exchange is CAD$75. If you have a friend or relative in the States it can get shipped to them for free.
- And that's when it's available at all. My daily driver, the Elecfox Linky87 sells at Amazon US for USD$39 but isn't on the Canadian site at all. Even after paying the shipping I consider it a bargain.
Requiring TKL really reduces the options as many budget models go for a smaller layout. But I want a full sized shift, navpad, Fkeys and all that.
Initially I wanted LEDs but eventually I realized the nice keycaps are all opaque anyway so I never used the lights. I do NOT like kbs with rainbow lights, flashing lights etc. I would only ever use solid white anyway, which is actually difficult to obtain. Wireless I almost never use. It's also nice to get one that comes with good internal insulation (foam/silicone mat under the curcuit board) because the sound is a lot less obnoxious. You can DIY stuffing full of foam but it takes a lot of time and is not as good. I do not fool around with more elaborate customizations although I would like to learn how to make the Space Bar behave, feel and sound more like the other keys instead of so loud and loose,
Have a look at some of the videos by HipyoTech and others to get a feel for what's available and possible.
Best switches for typing are box white kalih.
Like shoes, switches are VERY much a matter of personal preference. Based on the various reviews and videos, I'm looking to get a set of Gateron Milky Yellow Pro V3s
I wish there was a good keyboard store in the GTA at which I could test. No such luck. Closest decent brick-and-mortar KB place I can see
is in Ottawa.
Before I made decisions about switches I got a little sample kit of different basic switches because reading or watching youtubes about these things is very abstract.
I'm having a hard time finding decent sample packs. Any pointers?
Only problem with the QMK is the configuration software has shit support for linux. VIA really want you to use this web app that only runs on Chrome, which I don't typically keep around.
Brave Origin is a recently-released browser that is a good way to handle anything that needs Chromium.
- Evan