> As someone with an affinity for both wireless devices and mechanical keyboards, I am saddened that wireless mechanical keyboards are few and far between.
There are two reasons for this. First, mechanical keyboards are generally larger than other keyboards, which makes them less portable.
Secondly, mechanical keyboards are oftentimes used by professional gamers, and for their use case, wireless just doesn't cut it. Higher latency (and more importantly - higher variance latency), as well as multi-key rollover[0]
That said, as someone who owns two Das keyboards and hates typing on laptop keyboards (or, worse, on tablet screens), I'm very happy to see this!
I'd like to know, on the other hand, what's the supposed benefit of wireless? On a laptop the cable length shouldn't be an issue anyway, and on a desktop you can, in the worst case, get an extension cable for a couple of bucks. And what do you get in exchange? Batteries that need to be swapped and slightly (though arguably neglegible) worse performance.
That is curious. Relying on an extra driver? Acting like multiple keyboards on a USB hub to work around USB protocol limitations, possibly causing complications or weirdness? </wildlyguessing>
I think "professional" gamers tend to be needlessly fussy about their equipment. I beat Super Meat Boy 100% with a wireless gamepad with no issues at all. I also use a wireless gaming mouse to play Counter-Strike and other FPS. These are both Logitech products so they use their own receivers instead of Bluetooth (presumably for better performance), but it looks like this keyboard mod is doing the same thing.
One less thing to get tangled up and knock things over.
Also lets me switch sides easily, to play games that assume a right-handed keyboard/mouse layout (I normally mouse left-handed).
I've never had connection issues with my wireless mouse since I velcroed a USB hub to the bottom of my monitor stand and plugged the dongle into that. (And I only had occasional issues before that because of my metal desk pad. Most users shouldn't have any troubles at all.)
So I just have to swap the batteries in the mouse for a set in the charger every few months. No big deal.
If its a frequent problem, you can use a mouse bungee [1] [2] [3] to prevent it.
They're targeted at the gaming crowd and most "pro gamers" use those. I'm sure you could rig up a cheaper solution with sticky tape or something if you don't want to buy one.
Trick from old dog:
When using wired keyboard with wired mouse, use the cable-binder that came with either device to bind the two cables together leaving enough length of the mouse cable so it can move freely. This has the added advantage that your mouse cable won't break as fast because of movement.
For me the big problem isn't battery life, it's cats deciding to knock the mouse onto the floor and hide it. A wired mouse makes this very easy to fix!
I know someone who looked into Logitech's wireless protocol. He said it was just Bluetooth with some magic numbers changed to separate it from real Bluetooth.
Maybe, but I do know that Logitech differentiates between their normal wireless peripherals and their gaming peripherals, especially in regards to products like the 500hz G602 mouse.
There is no need for scare quotes since professional gamers are a thing. Unless you meant serious or hardcore gamers, in which case I don't know why you didn't just write that.
I don't think professionals are playing SMB. CS though, probably.
Sure, but real professional gamers are few and far between. It would be a stretch to claim that their fairly unique peripheral needs are the reason why wireless keyboards are scarce in general. No — I think it's exactly the scare-quote professional gamers who scoff at things like wireless keyboards and keep them from becoming popular.
I didn't write serious or hardcore because I was responding to the language in the parent post. And I mentioned SMB because it's a game that really tests your reflexes.
I don't think the problem is necessarily the latency. But with wireless keyboard/mouse I sometimes had the issue of a key not beeing registered, or a fast mouse movement. Sometimes just randomly or when the batteries were getting low.
For regular use that's not too much of a problem, as it happens rarely, but even for somewhat serious gaming that's not acceptable, as it can cost you hours of progression, a lost match or whatever.
Fair point, and that's what you should have responded to the parent post with. Making an irrelevant remark about non-professional gamers came off as quite condescending.
Latency is bad, but it's pretty trivial to build a short range ultra-low-bandwidth wireless connection that will never have a latency of 1ms or greater. And for a human inputting via a mechanical device into a desktop operating system, that's as good as zero.
The default on a USB keyboard is polling every several milliseconds anyway.
Do they not? Probably because they're using simpler chips and they're conserving battery power instead of sending the message at 5x the necessary strength every tenth of a millisecond.
Or because they're hooked up to USB, or using 5ms of debouncing anyway, so the extra bit of latency isn't enough for them to care.
I can't remember using a wireless keyboard in the last decade that had any noticeable latency. Even a cheap HP Wireless Elite that I tried on a whim recently had no visible latency as I typed.
I've love to see some sort of blind visual latency test between a wired and quality wireless keyboard. I've been using wireless keyboards since around 2005, am fairly allergic to latency in any device, but couldn't imagine going back to the shackles of a wired keyboard or mouse now.
I'm confused as why you wouldn't just use a USB breakout board and a bluetooth or serial modem (e.g. [1]). Having to desolder every key seems like an immense amount of work and risk of error. At any rate, an awesome hack. I love my Das Keyboard, and wireless wouldn't hurt (gaming isn't my use-case).
I have different problem - keyboard I love doesn't come as wired keyboard, only wireless. I want something to turn into wired one. Why? Because wireless microsoft keyboards aren't secure. And I'm talking about Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard...
I too wish there were more out of the box solutions for these. I also wish more keyboards separated the keypad from the main keyboard. I like to stay centered in front of the monitor, which means necessarily the number pad makes the whole thing asymmetrical and knocks into the mouse (I have a very narrow desk).
I'm surprised they're not more common, because many of my programmer friends also prefer mechanical keyboards. At that point latency seems irrelevant? It doesn't appear mechanical keyboards are intrinsically less suited to being wireless...
since no one has mentioned it, there's this http://matias.ca/laptoppro/mac/. IMO, it's the perfect solution for a portable mechanical keyboard. It's small, so you can throw in your bag and have it with you always, and the rechargeable batteries inside this thing are seriously impressive. I last recharged mine about 9 months ago and I use it all day every day.
An interesting project, and a nice result, but I'm curious about the goal of not having inscriptions on the keys? You may not look down at the keyboard when typing but what if someone else needs to use it or for whatever reason you cant focus? It seems like needless one-upping, even their website seems to acknowledge that its really only for showing off...
If nothing else, it means they can make one version without annoying half the population - in this case me, as a Mac user. It's simple enough to remap the Ctrl/Win/Alt cluster to their Mac equivalents.
It's also forced me to be a better touch-typist; I'd never really bothered learning the numbers up until now. I didn't even realise it but I was looking down at them each time I needed them. No more!
To be fair, using PC keys might annoy ~10% of the population if you include Linux users, not half. They actually make an Apple version of the variant that does have printed keycaps.
But yeah, the stated purpose of the blank keycaps is to force you to become a better typist (citation needed as to whether it actually works).
I own an unlabeled Das and I did find it helped me type because it completely takes away the ability to cheat. I ended up having to learn how to type a lot of special symbols w/o cheating.
I have a keyboard without key inscriptions. I prioritize aesthetics over other people being able to use my keyboard (and using a non-conventional layout, most people would be confused by my keyboard anyway).
There are two reasons for this. First, mechanical keyboards are generally larger than other keyboards, which makes them less portable.
Secondly, mechanical keyboards are oftentimes used by professional gamers, and for their use case, wireless just doesn't cut it. Higher latency (and more importantly - higher variance latency), as well as multi-key rollover[0]
That said, as someone who owns two Das keyboards and hates typing on laptop keyboards (or, worse, on tablet screens), I'm very happy to see this!
[0] Even the Das keyboards don't support n-key rollover over USB; you need to use PS/2 cables, IIRC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_%28key%29