Magnets Are Switching Up the Keyboard Game 82
Magnetic switches are emerging as a potential game-changer for mechanical keyboards. By using magnets instead of physical contacts, these switches allow users to adjust the actuation point of each key. While still a nascent technology lacking standardization, magnetic switches could bring a new level of customization to keyboards, TechCrunch writes.
Careful, though (Score:3, Funny)
Just don't spill your drink into it. [yahoo.com]
Re:Careful, though (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, as ICP once said, "Fucking magnets, how do they work?"
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Magnets: This shit'll blow your motherfucking mind
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Have... you taken your meds lately?
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Well, as ICP once said, "Fucking magnets, how do they work?"
"Magic all up in dis bitch!"
I'm saddened that I know that.
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While I'm sure Trump's vast experience with stuff like that and, well, everything will help, but once the Navy gets some, even marginal, experience working with water, electricity, nuclear propulsion, planes, jet fuel, ships, etc... I'm sure they'll get up to speed quickly and figure things out. The US Navy has only been around since the mid 1700s, but they'll have take the training wheels off sooner or later and learn to solve problems on their own.
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What we really need are leaders like the Kims in North Korea. Gotta visit the manufacturing facilities and offer advice because leaders are just WaySmarterThanYou(TM)
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Exactly. We need leaders who don't ever ask questions of experts and just tell them how to do their jobs.
Like the border patrol the last 3 years.
I'm totally with you.
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I prefer a president who trusts the experts around him to make all the decisions, never ask any questions or show curiosity about anything. He should just blindly sign off on whatever his experts tell him.
I didn't even remotely imply that. But one of Trump's problems is that he thinks (or wants people to think) he's the smartest person in the room and that anything that pops into his head is insightful. Neither of those are true and he lacks the humility to realize that.
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but i think we are thinking of permanent magnets, where as he is referring to the electromagnets likely used in the things being spoken about- "electric catapults and magnetic elevator systems for U.S. aircraft carriers"
Which is why he said they should use John Deere [newsweek.com]. The complete quote:
"Think of it, magnets," Trump said. "Now all I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that's the end of the magnets. Why didn't they use John Deere? Why didn't they bring in the John Deere people? Do you like John Deere? I like John Deere."
But yeah, Biden is the one who has coherency problems.
Hans Kristian Graebener = StoneToss
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but i think we are thinking of permanent magnets, where as he is referring to the electromagnets likely used in the things being spoken about- "electric catapults and magnetic elevator systems for U.S. aircraft carriers"
Which is why he said they should use John Deere [newsweek.com]. The complete quote:
"Think of it, magnets," Trump said. "Now all I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that's the end of the magnets. Why didn't they use John Deere? Why didn't they bring in the John Deere people? Do you like John Deere? I like John Deere."
But yeah, Biden is the one who has coherency problems.
Hans Kristian Graebener = StoneToss
I think that State of the Union address took the MAGA faithful by surprise. So they had to claim old demented Joe was on speed. Or Joe was just being mean. Republican drug effects. Generally when you give a demented person amphetamines, you get a wide awake demented person.
Differential analysis - the Republicans have been listening to a guy who thinks Nicky Haley, Nicky Haley, Nicky Haley, was running Capital security on Jan 6, that he beat Obama in the election, that Joe Biden would lead us into World Wa
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i truly do hate to be in this position, and defend the orange haired buffoon... but i think we are thinking of permanent magnets, where as he is referring to the electromagnets likely used in the things being spoken about- "electric catapults and magnetic elevator systems for U.S. aircraft carriers"...
Well, as he'll tell ya, no one knows more about ship catapults than he does. To my own thinking a railgun type launcher would be more reliable and even safer than a steam catapult. In the end less expensive.
On the topic of keyboards, WHY? what problem is this solving other than marketing wank?
Half wanking, half reliability. Amateur Radio operators sometimes use Morse Keys that have magnets controlling the weighting of the keys. Which has a side effect of providing tactile feedback. It takes a bit of getting used to, but after you do, it's kinda cool.
Different water leaks? (Score:1)
> one would imagine [electrical systems of electromagnets] to be more susceptible to damage from water than a steam driven catapult.
I may be mistaken, but I don't believe that's the main reason for the technical difficulties they've had with the electromagnet-based launchers. I don't see why electromagnetic launchers would have more problems with water getting into their systems than all the other electrical stuff needed by military ships.
If there is a "special flaw" that such launchers have with regard
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They are unreliable for reasons NOT related to water squelching magnets. He said dumb shit there.
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You don't have a point, do you?
Everything old... (Score:2)
Re:Everything old... (Score:5, Informative)
Granted, the best keyboards I have ever used were Hall Effect, but they were also extremely expensive.
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though as always the devil is in de details to get it working appropriately.
Quite the hilarious struggle when your customer base was dumpster-diving for a Model M just last month.
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Those details you so casually blow off -are- the patentable parts. If it was so obvious then it would already be state of the art and everyone would be doing it. SMH
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Lots of people have done it. The article links a couple. Magnetic reed keyboards are from the 70s, but weren't used much past the 80s. Hall effect keyboards were made in the 60s. They were breathtakingly expensive though, so they were only used in high reliability cost-is-no-object applications.
Now you can buy one off Amazon for $150. Gamer magazines seem to write an article titled "What are Hall Effect Keyboards?" every five years or so.
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I haven't looked into their patents but I'm replying to someone who said there are new things which someone in the art could do if they thought about it plus some other unspecific "stuff" to get something new.
That's what patents are about.
And to be clear, a patent doesn't have to be some dramatic life changing improvement. Just something a tiny bit better than what everyone has been doing is sufficient. Is that true in this case? Without examining the specific claims of their patent and comparing to what
Re: Everything old... (Score:2)
technology rewind (Score:3)
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Yep. Cheap hall-effect sensors are now $0.1 or less per piece, so within reach to put one into each key.
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I have this "MX Anywhere 3" mouse and the scrolling wheel has electronically adjustable resistance (can be toggled completely off and then the wheel says wheee).
Pretty damn nice and convenient.
A Keyboard? (Score:4, Funny)
How quaint!
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How quaint!
At least we aren't making keyboards to hang on the wall as art instead of being used (cough, vinyl), so there’s that. Just sayin.
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At least we aren't making keyboards to hang on the wall as art instead of being used (cough, vinyl), so there's that. Just sayin.
We were doing that back in the 1970s when vinyl was still king. Records wear out, and when they are worn out, they might as well be hung on the wall, if that's your thing.
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Hello, computer!
What about adjusting actuation force? (Score:3)
Could each key be on top of an electromagnet whose magnetic force you can adjust? I'd enjoy having harder to hit letters that my index fingers press, but easier to hit keys that my pinkies reach for.
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I'm just glad those crumby rubber dome keyboards can finally be ignored. With the early ones inevitably one of the domes would develop a crack and now you have a weak and soon to be stuck dead key.
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You can do that now by just buying different keyswitches and putting them into the same keyboard. For around $60 you can get a halfway decent RGB keyboard with hotswap switches.
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You can get aftermarket springs for Cherry and compatible keys (e.g. gateron, Khail) if you want to make them harder. Search for "Mechanical Keyboard Shaft Spring" on AliExpress, for example. These go up to 150g actuation force. You have to open the switches though to install them and that seems to require desoldering them or use of some special tool or careful application of force.
Re:What about adjusting actuation force? (Score:5, Informative)
Or at least, there's a DIY project for that. Look up the AHEK95 Void Keyboard.
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Could each key be on top of an electromagnet whose magnetic force you can adjust? I'd enjoy having harder to hit letters that my index fingers press, but easier to hit keys that my pinkies reach for.
Could have sworn someone came out with a keyboard a few years ago that had programmable levels of actuation for each key depending on your preference. Did it with light switches I believe.
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Realforce make keyboards that are like that already. Different resistances on different keys. They are rather expensive but seem to have a loyal following.
That seems more practical. While being able to adjust each key from software would be cool, you would probably just set it once and then never change it again.
Primary to make them more expensive (Score:2)
For example Cherry and Kahil offer pretty much anything you could want. Hence I think this is primarily about making them more expensive. A hall-sensor in each key will do that.
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I came here to say pretty much the same thing, another gimmick to make them expensive. Bring back the model M with included LED backlighting. THAT would be something worth looking into.
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I have a few model Ms and model Fs. Nothing beats those steel beasts. I had a Unicomp a few years back but was one of the unlucky ones that purchased one during their faulty USB controller phase and they refused to honor their warranty. It's a shame, because I really did like that keyboard but they lost me as a customer forever. There's a company offering modern model Fs too: https://www.modelfkeyboards.co... [modelfkeyboards.com]
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I heard the magnets stop working... (Score:4, Funny)
.. when placed in the water. So this keyboard will be useless on submarines, which are also in the water..., no?
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So those magnet fishing video on Youtube are fake then, right ... RIGHT? LOL, can't tell if you were joking or not. (Hopefully you were otherwise STEM has failed).
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You obviously didn't look at the very first post of this story.
Just don't spill your drink into it. [yahoo.com]
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I am dead serious - I trust our elected officials, esp to the highest office, don't you?
“Now all I know about magnets is this. Give me a glass of water. Let me drop it on the magnets. That’s the end of the magnets.”
LOL
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Oh, I am regretting not stating clearly my comment was not serious.
I have one of those keyboards (Score:4, Informative)
A Wooting Two HE [wooting.io] and I love it.
I'm not even a gamer: I'm a bit of an old school terminal kind of guy and I bought it to see if I could type faster with it. And I sure can!
It is a bit light for my taste, but it's nice to define different actuation depths for it. For example, I set the spacebar to work only at the very bottom, so I can rest my thumbs on it while I type (bad habit, I know). And HJKL are set to trigger higher for faster navigation in VI.
The absolute lack of friction feels nice too. And while it's noisy, it's not overwhelming like a Model M.
I'm also hoping the contactless action will make it last a long time. But I've had it for 8 months now and I can see it's getting clogged up with lint, what with the switches being exposed and all. That's a bit concerning.
Lastly, it's eye-wateringly expensive. But I reckon it's worth it if you're a heavy keyboard user like me. And I want to support them for making a configuration utility that works well in Linux. So I guess it's money well spent.
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The issue I have is the lack of friction, specifically the lack of tactile feedback when you reach the actuation point.
If they could make it so that an electromagnet engages when the key is activated to simulate that feeling, that would be great.
You can dampen a Model M a bit, but I'm willing to put up with the noise to get that unmatched tactility.
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The issue I have is the lack of friction, specifically the lack of tactile feedback when you reach the actuation point.
To each his own. Personally I don't really like clicky keyboards. The feeling annoys me. I much prefer linear keys.
This is not new (Score:3, Informative)
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Came to say this, this feature has literally been around for years. This isn't a thing that "is emerging," it has emerged and is purchasable off the shelf, and I'm pretty sure the concept of using hall sensors in buttons is decades old.
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All new long-travel clacky keyboards! (Score:2)
Given that LPs and watches are part of some weird retro trend, I'm sure the retro hipsters will be eager to spend heavily on ghastly keyboards with their choice of cheaply-printed colored plastic key tops. They have to economize by leaving half the keys off, nonetheless. It's not like they ever figured out how to use a numeric keypad anyway.
Be sure to buy gel-pack wrist supports to reduce the carpal tunnel syndrome, and earplugs to block out the key noise. Your roomies will also need their own.
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It's not that weird. I wear a watch (and have for decades) because it's useful to know the time. I specifically like not having to check my phone because being always alert to random notifications sucks.
I like records for much the same reason.
Hipsters are already buying mechanical keyboards with no numeric keypad. They look cool, but I like the modern style soft type.
But goodness you're not superior by hating things.
XMIT (Score:3)
My friend designed [tomshardware.com] a hall-effect keyboard, the XMIT. I still have mine and it works great still (after several years of use). But it didn't have any fancy configuration features like to control the activation press. Still a pretty cool technology.
Magnetic keyboard, with new and improved... (Score:2)
I'm sure that will bring a whole new set of vulnerabilities. Remote typing with powerful magnets, anyone?
why not energy harvesting? (Score:3)
Rediscover optical switches next (Score:3)
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Optical switches are more complex so they will just have other kinds of failures.
Hotswap n-key-rollover mech rgb keyboards are now under a hundred bucks for decent quality, and there are many different keyswitches available that you can drop in that have different feels to them. Cherry, gateron, outemu each have multiple colors which are nominally copies of one another's switches but which are subtly different so you can do some pretty fine tweaking. The only thing you don't get that way is the variable act
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A flaw in capitalism that keeps us from some nice futures.
Indeed; however, every other economic system has performed worse in this regard. Ask the Soviets what kinds of electronics they got to play with versus the kinds of electronics that Americans got to play with. How is the selection in North Korea this time of year?
Capitalism is a fantastic economic system. The only issue I have with it is that some people seem to think Capitalism is a Social System too. It is explicitly NOT a social system and any social system built with the concepts of Capitalism is going
Both stupid and out of date (Score:2)
Light-based keyboard switches are a thing.
This is nothing new (Score:3)
This is nothing new, in fact quite old. Hall effect switches were used in keyboards at least as far back as the 1970's. I have an Intel MDS-II (Circa 1978) system that has one. I've already replaced a few of it's switches.