Let me ask haha, that mechanical keyboard, about how much price can be! And what axis is better? I've been told that the green shaft is good. And then is to help recommend a

Features Editor

Advantages

1, the mechanical keyboard is the most important axis, mechanical keyboards than ordinary membrane keyboards with a long life, a good mechanical keyboard life of more than 10 years or even more than 20 years

2, mechanical keyboards used for a long time after the keys feel very little change, while the film can not be achieved

3, mechanical keyboards with different axis keys are different, membrane is a single sense of touch feel different, film is a single touch

4, mechanical keyboards can do more than 6 keys without impact, some mechanical keyboards can be all keys without conflict, and more than 6 keys without conflict film keyboard less

5, you can replace the keycaps, easy to personalize the DIY

Disadvantages

1, the price is high because of the high cost of most of the market in the 400-800 yuan, more thousands of dollars is not surprising

2, although the keyboard has a long life, but the waterproof ability is poor, the use of the need to be more careful

Structural editing

Keycaps

ABS

Chemical name: Chemical name? Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene plastic

English name: Acrylonitrile?Butadiene?Styrene?plastic

ABS plastic (resin) is a ternary ****polymer of acrylonitrile, butadiene, and styrene (A stands for acrylonitrile, B for butadiene, and S for styrene). It should be the most widely used material in the PC industry, chassis panels, monitor shells, keyboards and mice, etc., almost everywhere you can see its figure. It has no taste and non-toxic characteristics, can be used in very low minus 40 degrees Celsius, melting temperature of up to 217 degrees Celsius (heat distortion temperature of 93-118 degrees Celsius), the ability to withstand the impact of a strong deformation is not easy to deform, and good insulation, is not susceptible to humidity and frequency.

The ABS material keycaps are the most numerous of all materials, of course, the main reason is that the process is mature and inexpensive, from dozens of dollars of ordinary keyboards to thousands of dollars of high-end goods can be seen in the ABS material keycaps. ABS keycaps are available in a variety of colors, and can be made into a semi-transparent to adapt to the needs of the backlight, which is not available in other materials. The keycaps made of this material are relatively soft compared to other materials, not very hard and gentle to the touch, there is a certain resistance to oil, but not as good as POM and PBT.

POM

Chemical name: Polyoxymethylene

English name: Polyoxymethylene

POM material is also known as Sai Steel or Trane, which can be seen in its hard texture. It can work stably at minus 40 degrees Celsius to 100 degrees Celsius between, relative to ABS is not stable enough to reach 240 degrees Celsius will decompose, but for the keyboard keycap is impossible to more than 100 degrees Celsius, don't worry about it as long as you don't take the cigarette burns.POM material is a high-density, highly crystalline linear polymer, so there is an excellent resistance to abrasion, high strength, high insulation and wear-resistant. Strong resistance to oxidation and corrosion. Resistant to hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ethers, gasoline, lubricants and weak alkalis and other organic solvents.

The keycaps made of POM material are relatively fewer than those made of ABS, so they are most commonly seen in original keyboards. It is a durable and plain material. Whether it is durability or firmness POM is better than ABS, anti-oil ability is also exponentially increased, at least with two or three years will not appear oiling problems (oiling appears to vary from person to person). Feel between PBT and ABS.

PBT

Chemical name: polybutylene terephthalate

English name: Polybutylene?terephthalate

PBT plastic is a much better material, it is compared to the POM is also hard, the whole piece of the material such as stone. High strength, fatigue resistance, should not be deformed, high temperature is not easy to change, anti-aging effect is very ideal, so it can be said that it is the most stable keycap material. Insulation is excellent.

PBT is relatively rare, but it is often mentioned in the mechanical keyboard circle, it should be the most reliable and excellent keycap material at present, whether it is the resistance to oiling, hardness is first-class, corrosion and oxidation resistance is also very good, claiming that it is never oiled. In addition, it is easy to decompose in the presence of water under high temperature environment, it is because of this characteristic so special stores use water boiling to PBT keycap coloring, dyeing after the keycap color does not fall off naturally beautiful. Of course the price is also very expensive, a set of 37 main key area of the rainbow-colored keycaps to be sold to about one hundred dollars.

Nylon

Nylon this material in automobiles, electrical equipment, mechanical components, transportation equipment, textile, paper machinery and other aspects of a wide range of applications. The most common is stockings, whether it is a slender beauty or tough robbers are used. This material is not the mainstream of the keycap, but in the mechanical keyboard is also sold, feel warm and moist especially like the feeling of jade.

Keycap classification

Computers are constantly evolving and progressing. Similarly, as consumables, peripheral products and the user's relationship is also increasingly close. Especially the keyboard has become our most contact and most commonly used input devices. The structure of the keyboard has gone through a mechanical, plastic film type, no contact electrostatic capacitive type, conductive rubber type of development process, and the keyboard on the character printing method has also made great progress and improvement.

A group of U.S. enthusiasts of unmarked keyboards specifically sought out Cherry's customized product and asked Cherry not to allow it to be sold to other regions for a year. This keyboard has a fatal attraction to many knowledgeable IT media editors, but many buyers who don't know much about keyboards are baffled by the unmarked keyboard. If you know about the history of the unmarked keyboards and like the solid color feel, then he must be your best choice.

Representative: Cherry?G80-3000LPCXY-2

Laser-etched

The so-called laser-etched is just a black notch burned into the keycaps using laser-engraving technology. Because of the linear nature of the marks it etches, common laser-etched keyboards have hollow arrows and the like.

Numerous white keyboards on the market are basically the use of this keycap technology, mainly manufacturers look at its low cost, despite the high price of its production line, but its daily output is more than ten times that of other printing methods, and because it is burned engraved lettering, so do not need any other measures to have a very clear and solid lettering.? Another reason for its large-scale is more environmentally friendly, there will be no harmful generators produced.

But laser etching also has several fatal flaws, which also determines that it can not be used in the production of high-grade keyboard. First of all, because the laser etching belongs to etching, without the use of ink, so can only print a single black font, so that in the high-grade keyboards often have a multi-color overprint design can not be done; Secondly, high-grade keyboards out of the appearance of the design and durability of the needs of most of the use of the non-white color design, and in the keycap material added to the abrasion-resistant filler, but due to the characteristics of the laser etching of its own, so that it is in the However, due to the characteristics of laser etching itself, it is not possible to etch the ideal clear lettering on the keyboards with non-white color and other fillers; finally, the structural design and programming of the laser etching machine make it best to be used for manufacturing keyboards with standard key designs, and non-standard structures such as ergonomics are very difficult to be printed out on ordinary laser etching machines. Because of this, laser etching is only used in low and mid-range product lines to take advantage of its fast production speed and low cost; while in high-end product lines, due to higher print quality requirements, the traditional high-cost ink printing method can only continue to be used.

Representative: Cherry?L labeled keyboards and most white keyboards on the market

Pad Printing Method

Pad Printing Method is a fairly old way of printing keycaps, which has been discarded and no longer in use due to its less practicality and lower efficiency.

The pad printing method is to use a set of letters as the original mold, through the automatic machine will be brushed with ink on it, and then a set of soft rubber blocks pressed on it, so that when you lift the rubber blocks, the ink will be transferred to the rubber blocks, and then move the rubber blocks to a blank keyboard, the rubber blocks, a press, the ink will be printed on the keyboard.

Before the advent of phototypesetting, books, newspapers and magazines were printed in this way. In contrast to laser etching and screen printing, the pad printing method does not have any restrictions on printing conditions and can be used to print any kind of keyboard in any form. But the disadvantage of pad printing method is also obvious, it is extremely slow printing, the time to print one keyboard can almost make more than 10 laser-etched keyboards go down the assembly line. Therefore, in addition to those who can not afford to buy a laser etching machine of small factories have no choice but to use this kind of printing without any technical requirements, keyboard production of large factories generally only use it to print those cost-neutral high-grade products. Secondly, due to its printing process, laminating the keyboard printed on pad printing method is much more difficult than screen printing, so a lot of keyboards printed using pad printing method are not laminating, but enhancing the life of the keyboard by researching the composition of the ink to improve the firmness of the printing.

Representative: Microsoft OFFICE Keyboard

Screen Printing

The principle is to cover a blank keyboard with a special screen, in which the area where there is writing is skeletonized, and then the ink is scraped over it so that the writing is printed on the skeletonized part.

Screen printing is characterized by the printing of the words and then use a special screen brush on a layer of plastic, in the dry after the formation of a layer of plastic covering the printed words on the protective film, which can prevent the wear and tear of the words for a long time, which is also commonly referred to as the keyboard lamination technology. The English term for this plastic is: Coating

Compared with laser etching, screen printing can be repeated through a number of screen overprinting freedom to print out a variety of colors, and there is no restriction on the requirements of the keyboard material. However, due to the limitations of the printing method, it is still not possible to print keyboards with overly complex shapes.

Representative: DELL 81XX Series Keyboard

Imersion Printing

Imersion printing (also known as thermal sublimation) is a very different printing method from ordinary ink printing, which uses solid resin-based inks instead of the usual liquid pigment-based inks. This ink at high temperatures will sublimate into a gaseous state, in the form of gaseous molecules penetrate the permeability of the printed surface after condensation, so that the printing surface and the printing surface in the physical layer of the surface as a whole, not just like the ordinary pigment ink as "sticky" in the printing surface, so the firmness of its printing is very high. Moreover, resin ink is inherently better in terms of gloss and form.

The most common type of impregnation printing is the service of "baking" photos on ceramic mugs. Immersion printing for keyboard printing, the ink will be completely "penetrate" the keys of the PBT and ABS plastic inner layer, so it is almost impossible to be worn off, and immersion printing text is very three-dimensional and glossy. However, the immersion printing process is much more complex and expensive than regular pigment ink printing, so only RealForce keyboards use this method of printing.

Representative: TopreRealforce?101

Laser filler method

The principle of laser filler method is a bit similar to "tattooing", which is to use a needle to tattoo fine lines on the skin, and then fill in the pigment, so that the color will be penetrated into the lines of the skin, and will not be washed away by water or rubbed off later. The color will penetrate into the lines of the skin and will not be washed away or rubbed off by water later. The same is true of laser filling technology, where the text is first printed once with laser etching (but shallower than the usual laser etching to ensure a flat surface), and then printed a second time using an ink printing method, so that the cured ink will penetrate and remain in the indentation left by the laser, and thereafter it will not be easily rubbed off.

Keyboards printed using laser priming technology make up for the defects of bad laser-etched fonts and the inability to print in color because of the secondary printing with ink, and are far more robust than simple ink printing because of the laser's indentations as a foundation. Personally believe that this keycap processing method is a combination of laser etching and ink printing

Representative: LogitechELITE? (BTC? OEM)

Skeleton printing method

First of all, this method in the cell phone's keyboard is almost all printed in this way. And only some of Apple's laptop keyboards have used this printing method.

This printing method is very simple to say, is the use of transparent materials to create keys, and then opaque paint to cover the surface of the keys, in accordance with the appearance of the text will be hollowed out into the surface of the "Yinwen". If the opaque paint is applied to the inside of the key, where it does not touch the fingers, the text will naturally never wear out. In fact, the main purpose of Apple's use of this printing method is not for strong handwriting, but for aesthetic purposes. Because of this hollow out the font because it is "carved" out, so it is more clear than ink printing, and like a cell phone keyboard, hollow out the text of the keys can be installed under the backlight circuitry, so that the laptop keyboard like a cell phone keyboard with excellent backlighting effect.

But the flaws of the skeleton printing method are also very obvious, this transparent material is used in the manufacture of keyboards, its elasticity, hardness, wear-resistant are inherently less than ordinary keycap material. In fact, no transparent keycap material has ever matched the tactile qualities of traditional black-and-white ABS plastic, regardless of whether or not it was printed using openwork text.

Representative: APPLE Notebook Keyboard?Logitech?G15

Dichroic molding

Dichroic molding is the use of molds to combine two different colors of plastic, using the difference in the color of the two plastics to display the font.

The advantages of dichroic molding are that the colors of the fonts are vivid, the durability is high, the fonts don't fall off easily, and the keycaps are very tactile to the touch if the manufacturing technology is good. The disadvantage is that it is difficult to show fine text, monotonous color, low complexity of strokes, and the fixed cost of its manufacture is expensive.

Mechanical Shaft

As the core component of a mechanical keyboard, the Cherry?MX mechanical shaft is just a representative of mechanical shafts, in addition to other types of mechanical shafts such as Cherry?ML mechanical shafts, Cherry?MY mechanical shafts, ALPS mechanical shafts, and the Taiwan White Shaft (which is very rare). However, since the Cherry?MX shaft is widely recognized, if you don't specifically mention the type of shaft, you usually refer to the Cherry?MX mechanical shaft. Let's start by giving you an overview of the origins and characteristics of each of these axes.

Cherry?MX mechanical shaft is recognized as the most classic mechanical keyboard switches, special feel and gold contacts to multiply its quality, and the MX series of mechanical shafts applied to the keyboard there are mainly four kinds, through the shaft cap color can be identified, respectively, green, tea, black, red, white (the market has been rare), the feel of the hand varies greatly to meet the needs of different users of a variety of needs. From the structural point of view, the MX shaft is divided into a single column base structure and three column base structure, that is, at the bottom of the shaft, some shafts are single column structure, some shafts are three column structure. The latter can ensure more stability on the PCB circuit board. From the shaft of the internal wire to points, some shaft internal wire with diodes, while some shaft internal wire does not, such as Cherry?1965 on the use of a secondary tube wire tea axis, this type of shaft cost is higher. And then from whether the design of the LED lights can be divided into two categories of MX shaft with lights and no lights, colorful DECK light-emitting keyboards and some of the special light-emitting keys is the use of this mechanical shaft. After disassembling the Cherry MX mechanical shaft, you can see its structure and components, the base, the shaft cap (with its color to distinguish the type of shaft), the shaft cap fixing card, springs, metal feet and contacts metal plate. In case of shafts with LED lights, there are also LED lights. The difference between MX mechanical shafts comes mainly from the construction of the shaft cap and the length and number of turns of the spring. The caps on the Green and Green shafts are a unique double-layer construction, which is one of the factors that gives these two shafts their most mechanical character. All of the remaining caps are one-piece, but the raised portion of the switch cap that contacts the metal plate is not the same, which is the other major factor affecting feel in addition to the spring.

Cherry?MX Series Mechanical Shaft Explained

Mechanical keyboards have a special feel, but what exactly is special about them? Can you use language to describe the feel of the four common Cherry green, black, tea, white mechanical shaft? In fact, the feel of the hand is originally a very subjective factor, due to the use of each person's habits, understanding of the hand, personal preference, use of experience and other factors, everyone will have a different understanding of the feel of the keyboard. The main factors affecting the feel of a mechanical keyboard include the type of mechanical shaft, the material and craftsmanship of the keycaps, and the overall workmanship of the three aspects, and the most direct factor affecting the feel is the difference in the mechanical shaft.

If you have experienced the Cherry green, black, tea, white four kinds of mechanical axis of the keyboard, the difference in the feel of the hand in the sense of the paragraph, the trigger key range, the pressure grams on the three aspects of the most easy to feel the difference, the sense of the paragraph is the keyboard keys down the process of the "Click" sound as a judgment standard, the trigger key range is the key to trigger the switch when pressing down the keys, the trigger switch is the key to trigger the switch. Trigger range is the minimum distance needed to trigger a switch when pressing down a key, and pressure grams is the amount of force needed to press a key. The difference between these two factors is determined by the different internal structure of the mechanical shaft and the spring, which is described in the introduction of the mechanical shaft above. So, we can describe the feel of the keyboard by the feel of the different mechanical shafts.

From the point of view of the pressure gram index, the green shaft = tea shaft & lt; black shaft & lt; white shaft, from the introduction of the mechanical shaft above can be more directly through the pressure gram index to see this, so in the key feeling, tea shaft and green shaft keyboard is the most relaxing, while the black shaft keyboard keys need to be the strength is to become bigger, and the white shaft will be bigger.

CHERRY various axis press process illustration (black axis, red axis, tea axis, green axis, white axis):

CHERRY various axis press process illustration

The application of different axes

Types of application of different mechanical keyboard axis

Difference between mechanical keyboards and membrane keyboardsFor the general public, the so-called mechanical keyboards is a keyboard that clatters and has a clicking sound sensation when you play it. In fact, this is not entirely true. The reason is that a keyboard that makes a lot of noise when you type is not necessarily a mechanical keyboard, and vice versa, a membrane keyboard is not necessarily a keyboard that doesn't make any noise when you type. How to feel, the size of the sound, in fact, not entirely by the principle of the keyboard to decide, is dependent on the manufacturer to do what kind of mechanism and settings, just as the downward pressure grams to be light to heavy, is also the same reason. As a practical matter, mechanical keyboards do have a huge percentage of sound, while membrane keyboards have a huge percentage of no sound. （

The reason why membrane keyboards are called membrane keyboards and mechanical keyboards are called mechanical keyboards is not based on the feeling of typing, but rather on the Switch principle within the keyboard to do the categorization. The so-called mechanical keyboard, at the bottom of the PCB board, the top is by more than 100 independent Switch to carry out the signal triggering action. The so-called membrane keyboard, switch is composed of three layers of film, and the mechanical keyboard structure is completely different.