What makes a mechanical keyboard ‘clicky’?
In our latest video for the newly rebranded Raspberry Pi Press YouTube channel, Custom PC’s Edward Chester explains what mechanical keyboards are, and why they’re so clicky.
Custom PC is one of the many magazines produced by Raspberry Pi Press, the publishing imprint of Raspberry Pi Trading Ltd; it does exactly what it says on the tin cover: provide everything you need to know about the ins and outs of custom PC building and all the processes that make the topic so fascinating.
Be sure to subscribe to the Raspberry Pi Press YouTube channel, because we’ll be offering more videos from Custom PC, alongside content from The MagPi magazine, HackSpace magazine, Wireframe, and our future standalone book publications, such as The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide and An Introduction to C & GUI Programming (the latter of which is currently on sale with free worldwide shipping!), on that channel very soon.
10 comments
Shannon K Spurling
I wonder when there will be an official RPI mechanical keyboard. :-)
whheydt
If there is, I hope they have it made by Unicomp.
cspan
I ponied up for a Unicomp with the hopes that it would be as good as those IBM ones from when I started work in 1989 and the years thereafter. It felt pretty good, nice and clicky, good typing speed … but lasted only 4 years or so. I’m not sure of the lifespan of the original IBMs but I thought they were a bit better than that.
Gavin McIntosh
With room inside for a 3A+(4A+), SSD and SD writer?
StevenP
And looking like a BBC micro model B too – for those of us old enough to remember feeling the Beeb’s great keyboard for the first time… (so much better than all its competitors at the time)
John Bolton
I cannot use most modern keyboards because they are too slow… I used to be a telegraph operator with a speed of 80 words per minute on a tape perforator machine… I found the best computer keyboards to come from CHERRY… They have a good clicking action and you can get a fair speed but not so fast as I had with the telegraph machine…
Charlie Greenwood
I’m still using my first keyboard. I’ve replaced computers several times but never thought about the keyboard. It just keeps on working and as long as it does I’ll keep using it. But when it does fail I’ve got several spares. Every computer came with one.
Charlie Greenwood
We have had a local keyboard manufacturer in Spokane, Washington, USA, since 1969. Keytronic started out as a local business but has since expanded worldwide. They are still in business and their headquarters are still located here.
Sean Parry
I have used them and they would appear to be a very good upgrade option I for one would look forward to an RPI mechanical keyboard. I am not keen on the current option for the pi 4, and this would in my view certainly appear to be a great improvement for the Pi 4 and any latter models of Pi.
Dan
I prefer a low profile, silent keyboard. I hate all that clicking.