Mechanical Keyboards- Justify this please?????

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Mechanical Keyboards- Justify this please?????

Malcolm XML: Aug 8, 2009; I always knew it would end like ｔｈｉｓ．

Wasabi the J posted:

Yeah it's a feeling of oneness with cup rubber

nah that's some garbage knockoff. unless ur paying for the primo Nippon cup rubber, not worth it

e: https://www.nizkeyboard.com/products/niz-2019-new-atom-68-ec-bluetooth-keyboard-rgb-or-non-rgb?variant=30346364059719 drat if this sucker was programmable with qmk i'd finally replace my aging hhkb pro 2, the greatest of all keyboards

# ¿ Dec 31, 2019 04:19

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 12:38

Malcolm XML: Aug 8, 2009; I always knew it would end like ｔｈｉｓ．

redeyes posted:

Yeah thats what this is but the non-rgb one. I think im in love actually. It's less janky than anything else I've used. Smooooth action.

topre/EC are basically rubber domes, but good

no switches. just smooth af

# ¿ Dec 31, 2019 04:55

Malcolm XML: Aug 8, 2009; I always knew it would end like ｔｈｉｓ．

v1ld posted:

Google the Hasu USB-USB converter. It's TMK, but you can flash QMK onto it - it's explicitly supported in the QMK tree.

It's a little USB to USB adapter that you plug any keyboard into to make it a QMK keyboard. Very nifty. I've used it with QMK to program an Atom 66, works great. No reason for it not to work with the Atom 68.

Hasu started the whole thing with TMK which was later forked to QMK, which is why QMK will run on most TMK devices.

E: For anyone who wants a function row with the exact same layout and width, check out the Niz Micro 82.

E2: If you want to buy it directly from Hasu: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=72052.0

I did and they ship quickly. They're doing all kinds of cool things for HHKBs and Leopolds and reverse engineered a bunch of stuff, so it's kinda nice to support them.

Yeah my hhkb has the og has bt tmk mod

I don't see how the usb converter would work tho, how would it deal with fn

# ¿ Dec 31, 2019 19:13

Malcolm XML: Aug 8, 2009; I always knew it would end like ｔｈｉｓ．

v1ld posted:

Nice on the modded hhkb. I was very tempted to go with a Leopold FC660C with Hasu's mod for it to run QMK with electrocapacitative switches. Ended up buying a bunch of Niz boards instead: Atom 66 and then later two Micro 82s.

The usb converter doesn't see Fn as you'd expect, but you can do anything else you want with the keys you press. For eg, the Atom 66 has a shared right shift/up arrow key which the onboard firmware handles. But I disabled that in its firmware and got QMK to do the shared shift/up arrow much better.

So it depends on what you're going to do with QMK - I just treated the Atom 66 as a dumb keyboard with no Fn key and did all I wanted with the USB-USB converter.

Here's the QMK code for the converter: https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/tree/master/keyboards/converter/usb_usb

As it says, NKRO isn't supported but 6KRO is. This wasn't a big deal for me even with doing all kinds of stuff in QMK (I was playing with having shift/control/alt/win on the home row at the time for eg).

Hmm does the niz software let u setup fn key combos? That's basically all I use qmk for, to get another layer of media keys and shortcuts

# ¿ Dec 31, 2019 19:45

Malcolm XML: Aug 8, 2009; I always knew it would end like ｔｈｉｓ．

someone talk me out of dropping $400 on an alu niz atom68, the HHKB we need, but do not deserve

# ¿ Jan 3, 2020 00:41

Malcolm XML: Aug 8, 2009; I always knew it would end like ｔｈｉｓ．

GRINDCORE MEGGIDO posted:

Can you sell $400 of older boards?

Anyone want a Realforce RGB? O.G., mostly unused. Plus I'll throw in some PBT keycaps.

v1ld posted:

I missed that announcement. Not going to talk you out of it. Good thing they're not doing a Micro 82 version of the case or I may be 2x $240 lighter. Err, or maybe I'll be $400 lighter, who knows. I still have an Atom 66 to sell first.

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=103669.msg2843928#msg2843928 has their responses.

This bit is very interesting: "In fact, we've invested much more money than what we expect to earn in this Group buy. We are a for-profit company but we're willing to invest in advance. This keyboard is the first attempt for a new market from a capacitive keyboard company."

Sounds like they're consciously trying to enter the DIY/customer/enthusiast market. I hope they do well.

$240 is really expensive for an alu case. I think they could have done it cheaper if they optimized. Still,,,,,,

taqueso posted:

If you've got that kind of money to drop on a keyboard, you should just give me some. Like I'd be happy with $350, saving you $50, plus you'd be happy knowing you helped out a fellow human. You could probably even afford both things, that's only $750, why thats cheaper than a 2080ti

I will exchange $ for aluminum keyboards,,

# ¿ Jan 3, 2020 01:39

Malcolm XML: Aug 8, 2009; I always knew it would end like ｔｈｉｓ．

v1ld posted:

For sure. I'm quite happy with the Micro 82 with its plastic case and nice POM keys (on the black version). The case is quite small and unobtrusive, enough so that shelling out the extra for the alu case is probably too much even for the person that bought 3 Niz boards in less than a year.

I hope to see EC tech get into the DIY market. Would love to have a Corne with EC switches for eg. Niz has been selling their switches for a while now, what's lacking is the PCB tech and QMK support. There are a couple of attempts at an open source EC PCB on the net, but nothing that went all the way. I suspect the QMK support will follow quite soon if the EC PCB is understood well.

Niz getting involved in this market is an exciting step. They make quality products and prices are quite reasonable for what you get, aluminium cases notwithstanding. They also iterate quite rapidly - they went from the dual Fn keys in the Atom 66 and Micro 84 that meant non-standard keys to the Micro 82 and Atom 68 with standard key sizes in 6-8 months, which was quite quick. And now less than another 6 months later, here they are with assemble-your-own keyboards. So hopefully they keep iterating on that side of things.

E: Recommend getting the 35g membrane, by the way. I got an extra 45g membrane to swap into the Atom 66 and ended up never using it since the 35g is so smooth once you get used to it.

based on looking inside QMK support is unlikely. Their software happens to do all I care about from QMK, so I can configure it once and forget it.

Constellation I posted:

Really underwhelming alu case for $240. That beveled edge design looks like any other Chinese aluminium case in the DIY market except it looks like it's high profile. For that price just for the case, I'd expect something a little more eye-catching. (a RAMA M60-A is $360 right now for a full kit for example)

Agreed. But Niz is the only alternative to topre, and EC switches are the best.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2020 06:11