Penna – Vintage Typewriter-Inspired Bluetooth Keyboard
elretron.com
elretron.com
Interesting that the domain name is elretron.com...someone with username "elretron" posted a youtube video to a review of the qwerkywriter on Jan 10, 2017 ( https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=86879.0 , http://i.imgur.com/hecpAgx.png)
Is the qwerkywriter creator behind this second upcoming kickstarter campaign, or is "elretron" just ripping off the entire thing and selling for cheaper with a cheaper case? Or is the original creator just hoping for another round of kickstarter funding and making no mention of qwerkywriter on their website (which has prominent spelling errors, as if it had been thrown together quickly)?
Either way, pretty shady
"Hello.
We are different company. It is our prototype model. You can see our key layout on our Kickstarter Page. www.elretron.net
Regards, Elretron"
My Response: "I noticed that you posted a review to the qwerkywriter on geekhack in January (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=86879.0). Are you using qwerkywriters with a different case in your prototype videos and photos?"
No response yet. I expect that they have no product, and will manufacture a cheaper qwertywriter clone should their kickstarter go through (or just take your money, who knows!)
On the plus side, I like the squared-off keycaps, and the price is right for a knockoff version.
It makes a lot of noise, although obviously not as much as a typewriter would. It has an enormous amount of key travel, and the spacing between keys is huge compared to modern keyboards. The aluminum body makes it solid and heavy, although metal keycaps would have been nicer than plastic ones.
If you like enjoy typing on a typewriter, it's a related experience. If you have extensive mechanical typewriter experience and really want the full throw and noise, you probably want conversion kit instead: https://www.usbtypewriter.com/#gs.9tDxQ0Q
The red switch is the one with linear force and no tactile feedback and is usually considered more appropriate for gaming[1], not "specially designed for fast and quick typing".
Wouldn't the brown switch be more appropriate? Blue and brown are the ones that actually have been designed for typing and provide tactile feedback. (The difference between them being that the brown doesn't have the audible click.)
However, browns and blues do have other differences in how they operate - the sound is due to a mechanical piece moving independently of the key itself, which means that the activation behavior is different from that of browns. Also, the deactivation point is higher (relative to the keyboard's baseplate) than the activation point on the keystroke. Not a big deal for most people, but it is noticeable.
It has the brass edges. I think the round key caps might be a bit difficult to get used to.
As someone who restores old Teletype machines, I'm used to typing on real mechanical keyboards, where pressing a key releases a clutch and a shaft makes one turn as the encoding takes place. You can't press a second key until the first has been processed, which takes about 200ms. You have to type at the machine's speed, or slower.
Probably the best computer keyboard - the original Xerox Alto.
Worst keyboard ever - the Enigma crypto machine. Huge key travel, more than half an inch. Huge key force, because you're advancing the code wheels, and the friction of the 26 contacts on each wheel is huge. That's why they didn't add more code wheels; beyond three, it's too hard to push the keys. Bigger machines used motor drive but were not portable.
[1] https://datamancer.com/product/the-sojourner-keyboarddisplay...
The right hand is angled and ergonomic by default, but for some reason the standard left-hand layout that everyone learns uses a terrible wrist and finger position. Angle both hands toward the middle of the keyboard and you're much better off.
Honestly, laptop’s built-in keyboard is probably the worst choice to type on with, it wears out fast and is terrible for posture. I often use K480 with my laptop just to have the screen at eye level and keyboard at elbow level, huge win ergonomics-wise.
Edit: Now I think the S is wrong too.
No idea if the people behind the product are from the Nordics, sometimes using words from Swedish seems popular in general.
Perhaps it is just me, but couldn't you use a normal laptop (even a cheap one!) and turn Wifi off if you don't want distractions?
Am I missing the market?
I have got used to using laptop keys after using them for so long that my main keyboard at work is a laptop-sized one, even for a desktop machine (much to the chagrin of my colleagues). Stops them using it though!
Either all kinds of fancy nonsense like backlights, shitty fonts, shitty ergonomic shapes, shitty colors. Or. Insanely outrageous prices (and the accompanying hipster elitism).
An amazon basics non-mech costs under $15. A mech shouldn't cost more than $30, and yet you can't find one even at $70. (Mayby Amazon basics should offer one, I'll buy it right away).
In the US at least you can still find the older IBM PC and IBM PC/AT keyboards at thrift shops and swap meets. They range in price from $1 to $100. And you'll want to find a way of adapting the interface to your computer (easy if its PS/2, a bit harder if its the old AT round connector).
I'm typing this on the Cooler Master Masterkeys Pro S, its a full size mechanical but it leaves off the number pad (which I don't use) but keeps the arrow keys and edit cluster (which I do). It is backlit but generally I just leave it on a low backlight. I've got a hack that blinks the F11 key when a meeting is coming up. Like you said it was $125 but I expect to use it for at least 5 years so $25/year isn't particularly bad given that non-mechanical keyboards last me 18 months if I'm lucky. My previous daily driver was a full sized Thinkpad mechanical from the 90's with a track pad in it. After 20 years it started missing keys, and its huge, and I started losing keystrokes.
But they put on too much fancy bells and whistles. Removing them doesn't cost them a dime (probably will save them on the cost per keyboard).
You can't buy a set of switches for that. Building a mechanical keyboard is inherently expensive, before you even get into economies of scale. Adjusted for inflation, mechanical keyboards are far cheaper than they used to be.
The amortized cost of a quality keyboard is tiny, because it will have a lifespan measured in decades rather than years.
There are tons of non-hipster keyboards available. Filco, Leopold and Cherry have been around since well before the current trend. Unicomp still make buckling-spring keyboards based on the old IBM designs.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/11/why-i-use-a-20-year-...
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016MAK38U
I'd disagree with the pricing though. Even a good non-mech one should cost more than that, it's just that keyboards have been getting crappier as people don't use them anymore.
But at least it widens the options a bit and after searching around in that space one might get something half way decent. At least some gamers seem to prefer smaller keyboards, so you can get "tenkeyless" mechanical ones. Just a while ago, every gamer keyboard looked like Rick Wakeman designed it.
Them using cherry switch copys, getting replacement keycaps could be an option, but I haven't found a good deal on those yet.
I'll think for a few days to decide whether to return it or keep it as a freak equipment.
You can still find cheap mechanical 10-keyless boards on amazon with off-brand switches easily [1] [2] by searching "10-keyless". The brand that's "the cheap one" always rotates from month to month so buy them while they're hot.
[0] - https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-RGB80-Illuminated-Mechanical...
[1] - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682309...