New Cherry MX keyboard - Which switch?

[robin13867]

As I'm sure you're aware, the G80-3000 is still alive and kicking and available from Cherry with 4 main switch options - Red, Brown, Black and Blue. However, there's a new version of the keyboard due to appear early 2013 that we've been told about today. MX3.0 has an additional 4 buttons to control volume and access to the Homepage, as well as a removable cable, additional rubber feet for the legs and rubber inserts for when the keyboard isn't propped up to ensure it doesn't slip. This is a big change from the MX2.0 that appeared in some countries earlier this year and the keyboard has been improved dramatically.

Production is due to start at the end of the year and the Red switch has been selected as the one they should use. However, we have a potential window of opportunity to change this for the UK market (and possibly the rest of Europe at the same time!) and I need your help as the 'experts' within this field. Given the opportunity to choose, which would be the switch of choice for the members of Deskthority? Would you like us to stick to the red or is there something else you'd prefer - Clear, Blue, Black, Brown? The choice is up to you....

Really sorry though. We STILL can't do double shot caps I'm afraid - Laser etch only.....

Thanks in advance for your help folks. Really looking forward to the results!

[IvanIvanovich]

Any more details on it? Will it have the same low profile keycaps as the 3800 too? Can't say I would be interested in it either if so.

[dirge]

Would you guys ever do a tlk board? May have asked in the past but is the dyesub equipment still around or the supplier that did it for you guys?

[robin13867]

Any more details on it? Will it have the same low profile keycaps as the 3800 too? Can't say I would be interested in it either if so.

No further detail at the moment. Yes, I have seen it and yes, it's pretty much the same in look as the 3800. However, it's far more robustly built than the 3800 and with the removable cable, extra buttons and the optional rubber pieces, it's a much, much better product. It's not going to replace the 3000, just sit alongside and (no doubt) if you wanted to replace the caps with something a little more 'normal' it would be possible to do so. I'll certainly feed back the comment though, no worries.

[RC-1140]

I'd probably be interested the most in a keyboard with Ergoclears, but as this probably won't happen I'd choose clears.

I feel indifferent about flat keys, on the one hand you can rearrange the keys easier, but on the other hand typing is much less ergonomic.

Oh yeah, and I don't really care about the doubleshots. But bring back the frickin Dye Subs! Cherry used to be the company for PBT. You guys are the only ones to manage to produce PBT keys without any shrinkage dimples.

And if you want to stay friends with the community, don't mix any membrane keys into the board. Keep all keys with MX switches, even the Multimedia ones! And don't change the keysizes compared to the 3000. We don't want even more spacebars, and CapsLock keys! We love to exchange keycaps, so we have no use for great new designed keycap shapes!

I really think you guys miss a great opportunity with the Ergoclears!

[robin13867]

Would you guys ever do a tlk board? May have asked in the past but is the dyesub equipment still around or the supplier that did it for you guys?

TLK board? Sorry, really not sure what this is.....I may be a keyboard expert in here, but this is alien territory! If you can explain a bit, I'll happily answer a little more coherently...

Dyesub equipment isn't around - I believe (and could be wrong) that this was done internally, not by an outside source (unlike double shots), so the equipment would have been ditched approximately 13-14 years ago when production stopped and moved to laser etch....

[RC-1140]

I guess he meant to write TKL. aka Tenkeyless. A keyboard without the numpad.

Edit:
Also, what about the Ergoclears? Light springs as in browns, reds or blues combined with the stems of clears.

[fossala]

If you want to get big sales do something that no one else is doing. How about a plate mounted mx green?

[Limmy]

Doing something that no one else is doing is not usually a good business strategy. There are reasons why firms do not do certain things.

By the way, it is good to hear something new is coming out from Cherry. I personally didn't like the most recent G80-3800 because the caps were not compatible. I hope next round of keyboard is going to have compatible caps, either with the classic or the modern ones.

I have seen several different kind of laser etched caps from Cherry. One I liked is the etching method that doesn't raise the etched surface. Two major complaints with laser etched caps are that they stain and lack contrast. You might not be able to do anything about lack of contrast, but I think the stain part can be improved by using certain type of etching method.

Also, it would be nice to get some textured finish on the POM caps. POM caps are slippery. Smooth finish on slippery material doesn't feel very good.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Absolutely echo the need for a new switch! Cannot agree more. Something in between brown and clear sounds perfect (I'm currently using a G80-3000 with clears and it's somewhat too stiff but a lot better than brown), and from what everyone says about ergo clears, I'd buy one if it was sold.

Less sure about greens, but I consider blues too light as well and a board of greens sounds interesting and something I've wanted to try for ages. However, for home purposes (where I'd use it) I wouldn't really want the bulky case. Someone took a look at my G80-3000 on my desk at work the other day and was quite amused by my ancient keyboard, before noticing that it had Windows keys ...........

I imagine that if you were to manufacture ergo clears you'd get a lot of people buying them up. Look at the success of the MX red – in a year or so it's gone from a novelty (as in, keyboards with a single red switch!) to massive popularity with linear switch fans across the world. Now all of us tactile switch lovers need a similar treat. And a suitably nice stem colour :) That's what the vote should be: stem colour for the ergoclears :)

[Ascaii]

PUUUUURPLE

In all seriousness, Ergo clears from cherry would be incredible.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Yeah I was thinking purple for Matias's new switch, but then there aren't many hues left for ALPS. Purple would be awesome.

[fruktstund]

Pink! If Cherry was to start produce ergoclears (and doubleshots again) it would be a deam come true.

Voted for clears by the way. I feel clears need more impact on the market, or something like that.

[Findecanor]

The market is already saturated with Black.
People complain that the Blue is too loud.
The soft tactility of the Brown is too wimpy for many people.
Red is soft, but easy to bottom out and it is weird to have 4 mm key travel with such a soft non-tactile switch.
That leaves Clear.

Clear and Blue are also my personal favourites, for feel. I like the MX Clear like it is without any modification, except perhaps some more lubrication. I don't like "Ergo Clears".
I love my Cherry G80-3000LQCDE-2, except that the layout is in German (practically impossible to find keycaps in Swedish layout...) and that the keycaps are a bit too slipper (made from POM).

[Acanthophis]

Clears with a lighter spring.
Colour it the way you want, but the keyboard world needs this

And yeah, reproduction of Cherry Corp Dyesubs or even Doubleshots would be more than awesome!

[tlt]

Clears would be a good choice. The stiff springs makes it pleasant to hammer on and the tactile feedback invites you to start typing softer and get better ergonomics. This means that you will please more than one category and some might start type softer and feel less stress on there hands. Personaly I like the browns. But I like soft keys and am actively trying to type softer. Reds is a good fit for a gaming keyboard where you hold down the keys alot but I think you need feedback to type comfortable on a soft spring. Erogclears would be something that might make me leave browns.

[robin13867]

Would you guys ever do a tlk board? May have asked in the past but is the dyesub equipment still around or the supplier that did it for you guys?

Ok, thanks to the other posting, I now understand!!

There are no plans at the moment, but... I'm creating a 'wish list' to send across to my colleagues in Germany this week and I'll be sure to put it on there. Personally, I think we should have one - If Filco and others can do it and sell them, why can't we? I know it's going to be a 'me too' product, but at least we'll be in the game.

We're now sponsoring a gaming team (Team Enigma - look 'em up) and I'm sure they'd appreciate something like this, as well as a new gaming keyboard due at the end of 2013 - from what we heard yesterday, if this does hit the market, it'll be revolutionary in so many ways, including key-feel, so keep an eye out. Can't say any more about it than that currently, but it's exciting...

[Findecanor]

A new type of switch? Interesting!

[domin8r]

Glad to hear you guys are still on it!

Ergo clears please.. or just clears.

[rindorbrot]

my vote for Ergo Clears!

[dirge]

Robin what about keyboards with blank pbt keys? I love the 3000 that you did/do with them.

[robin13867]

Robin what about keyboards with blank pbt keys? I love the 3000 that you did/do with them.

Will get it added to the list. I've already added double shot keys to the list - not sure what's going to come back from it in all honesty, but we'll see over the next few months if anything materialises as a product......don't hold your breath, but at least its an opportunity!

[dirge]

Sorry I meant no printing at all. G80-3000 LSCXX



tinlongs http://deskthority.net/marketplace-f11/ ... 6-480.html

[tinnie]

Sorry I meant no printing at all. G80-3000 LSCXX



tinlongs http://deskthority.net/marketplace-f11/ ... 6-480.html

crappy pic

[Daniel Beardsmore]

How do Ergo Clears compare to complicated black ALPS btw? Complicated black ALPS > MX clears.

As for the poll, I think we have a clear winner ;-)

[robin13867]

Sorry I meant no printing at all. G80-3000 LSCXX



tinlongs http://deskthority.net/marketplace-f11/ ... 6-480.html

We do make these still.... G80-3000LPCxx-0 / G80-3000LPCxx-2 or G80-3000LSCxx-0 / G80-3000LSCxx-2 or G80-3000LQCxx-0 / G80-3000LQCxx-2. Or, if you're needing a US variant, change the last x for a y....we've only ever supplied the LPC variant in the UK though, but that doesn't mean to say we can't get the others, we'd just have to check the MOQ and availability.

We only sell these to a handful of customers and they take them to customise for individual projects - for instance, 'KeyTools' have either a G80-3000 or G81-3000 printed with extra large yellow lettering on a black keyboard as they supply to partially sighted customers, so we simply provide the blank keyboard to our customer who makes it for them. They're not mentioned on any site, as they're not generally commercially available to end-users directly, but there's nothing to my knowledge stopping one of our customers purchasing a box (45pcs) of them in order to provide them to the community. We just have to sell 45pcs at a time.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Just out of curiosity – The Keyboard Company only sells the G80-3000 with blues and blacks. I would have put the G80-3000 down as being an office keyboard, but blues are too loud for a modern workplace, and blacks are widely held to be terrible for typing. The G80-3000 can purchased with Clears in limited layouts (I'm stuck with German to get ISO, ditto Findecanor), but no-one on earth sells it with brown switches.

What is the rationale for these choices? What is the intended purpose and environment for the G80-3000, and for the brown switch?

Of course, it's not brown that should be used in the G80-3000 but pink/purple ("Ergo clears") – clear stem with 45 cN spring.

[dirge]

We do make these still.... G80-3000LPCxx-0 / G80-3000LPCxx-2 or G80-3000LSCxx-0 / G80-3000LSCxx-2 or G80-3000LQCxx-0 / G80-3000LQCxx-2. Or, if you're needing a US variant, change the last x for a y....we've only ever supplied the LPC variant in the UK though, but that doesn't mean to say we can't get the others, we'd just have to check the MOQ and availability.

We only sell these to a handful of customers and they take them to customise for individual projects - for instance, 'KeyTools' have either a G80-3000 or G81-3000 printed with extra large yellow lettering on a black keyboard as they supply to partially sighted customers, so we simply provide the blank keyboard to our customer who makes it for them. They're not mentioned on any site, as they're not generally commercially available to end-users directly, but there's nothing to my knowledge stopping one of our customers purchasing a box (45pcs) of them in order to provide them to the community. We just have to sell 45pcs at a time.

Is it possible to just buy keycap sets? Realise this is a long shot... But we're tied into signature plastics and buying blank pbt sets direct from Cherry, which we could then have dyesubbed ourselves via a group buy.

[robin13867]

Just out of curiosity – The Keyboard Company only sells the G80-3000 with blues and blacks. I would have put the G80-3000 down as being an office keyboard, but blues are too loud for a modern workplace, and blacks are widely held to be terrible for typing. The G80-3000 can purchased with Clears in limited layouts (I'm stuck with German to get ISO, ditto Findecanor), but no-one on earth sells it with brown switches.

What is the rationale for these choices? What is the intended purpose and environment for the G80-3000, and for the brown switch?

Of course, it's not brown that should be used in the G80-3000 but pink/purple ("Ergo clears") – clear stem with 45 cN spring.

G80-3000's are only available in the UK in 3 variants - G80-3000LPC, LQC and LSC. We don't generally buy LQC models for the UK market and only have this in German layout on our system (bought for one customer). LPC is also uncommon, though we have stock currently. LSC is the most popular variant in our market, so that's what's stocked constantly. Yes, blues are loud, but they're popular and, as we keep hearing on 'The Apprentice' type programs on TV - smell what sells. If they don't sell in big numbers, why bother? The rationale for choosing those switches? Not a clue - this is a German decision that's been made over time and we've settled on the 3 that form the range only. Anything else would be a 'special' and although we can do them, it requires a new bill of materials and orders placed in the system for a good quantity to justify it.

Ah, Ergo Clears - keep hearing this and I'm now feeding this back to Germany as we speak and this is forming part of the report with the poll on the site. Will let you all know what happens.

[robin13867]

We do make these still.... G80-3000LPCxx-0 / G80-3000LPCxx-2 or G80-3000LSCxx-0 / G80-3000LSCxx-2 or G80-3000LQCxx-0 / G80-3000LQCxx-2. Or, if you're needing a US variant, change the last x for a y....we've only ever supplied the LPC variant in the UK though, but that doesn't mean to say we can't get the others, we'd just have to check the MOQ and availability.

We only sell these to a handful of customers and they take them to customise for individual projects - for instance, 'KeyTools' have either a G80-3000 or G81-3000 printed with extra large yellow lettering on a black keyboard as they supply to partially sighted customers, so we simply provide the blank keyboard to our customer who makes it for them. They're not mentioned on any site, as they're not generally commercially available to end-users directly, but there's nothing to my knowledge stopping one of our customers purchasing a box (45pcs) of them in order to provide them to the community. We just have to sell 45pcs at a time.

Is it possible to just buy keycap sets? Realise this is a long shot... But we're tied into signature plastics and buying blank pbt sets direct from Cherry, which we could then have dyesubbed ourselves via a group buy.

Not that I know of in all honesty, but we've never asked the question. Keycap sets were stopped some time ago, simply as we stopped producing them ourselves apart from as blanks and only for our own products. Something for me to go back to them with....