<story><title>Atreus – kit to build your own mechanical keyboard</title><url>http://technomancy.us/173</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Animats</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s still an electrical keyboard; it just has switches that click.&lt;p&gt;As I&amp;#x27;ve mentioned previously, I restore pre-WWII Teletype machines, so I often type on real mechanical keyboards with electrical outputs.  A Teletype keyboard is a motor-driven mechanism where, when you push a key, a clutch is released, a shaft revolves one turn, and, via levers and cams, contacts close and open and the bits are encoded and sent.  During this time, which is about 200ms on the older machines, you cannot press another key - the keys won&amp;#x27;t move. You can&amp;#x27;t press two keys at once.  Everything is mechanically interlocked.  The best way to use one is to type at a steady 5 characters per second, like playing a piano.&lt;p&gt;Key travel is about half an inch, and the newer (1930 and later) models have spring-loaded green keytops with a nice cushioned spring mechanism.  This provides about 0.100 inch of travel before the key lever starts to move. So if you type a little too fast, you don&amp;#x27;t blunt your fingers.  The 1924 model doesn&amp;#x27;t have that; it has hard Underwood typewriter keys.&lt;p&gt;That huge key travel, combined with a low key pressure (the motor is doing all the work, unlike a manual typewriter) is rather relaxing.  Teletype operators were expected to type with few errors; there is no way to backspace or correct.   Full-time Western Union operators often typed &amp;quot;blind&amp;quot; on a machine with a keyboard and tape punch, but no printer or display.  That&amp;#x27;s a lost art today.</text></comment>
<story><title>Atreus – kit to build your own mechanical keyboard</title><url>http://technomancy.us/173</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>O____________O</author><text>I like the hacking&amp;#x2F;DIY aspect, but IMO there is still no keyboard that has anything on the Kinesis Advantage (or the older Classic, same layout):&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage-lf-for-pc-mac/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.kinesis-ergo.com&amp;#x2F;shop&amp;#x2F;advantage-lf-for-pc-mac&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;i&gt;only&lt;/i&gt; flaw is the row of horrible, rubbery, membrane function keys.  I don&amp;#x27;t know why, but they just won&amp;#x27;t fix them.  That said, I just remap my common F-keys (Visual Studio user) to other key chords and get on with my life.  The firmware allows on-keyboard remapping and macros, by the way, so my Caps Lock ==&amp;gt; Esc remap follows my wherever I go.&lt;p&gt;If anything, I&amp;#x27;d rather that the separate key wells were even a bit further apart.  I don&amp;#x27;t know how people can type with their wrists jammed so close together, even with the Atreus&amp;#x27;s angled halves.&lt;p&gt;By the way, on the Kinesis, the hand wells are actually dished.  They achieve this using a flexible PCB that&amp;#x27;s split into separate &amp;#x27;fingers&amp;#x27; for each row of keys.  To my knowledge none of the &amp;#x27;hacker&amp;#x27; keyboards are dished like this.</text></comment>