Looking for a new keyboard…some requirements

dirtychinchilla · 9 Mar 2021 at 09:21

PermaChanged said:
The Falchion has been great for me so far, battery is still showing 100% after a full days use over the 2.4ghz connection in an office environment (no constant holding of a WASD key), it's not missed any keystrokes and I'm loving the side swipe bar for media. Ergonomically it is thicker than my old keyboard so has taken a tiny bit of adjustment, but I can't say I've noticed any discomfort being caused by the slightly elevated typing position when compared to the old board.

The one thing I've missed, literally, is the enter key on the num pad - I try to tap it and hit the desk, I never realised how much I used it prior to not having one!

Appreciate the review

I'm wondering now how many keys I use all the time that I'm going to miss. I already know that I'll miss the numpad when I log into my PC (just using a pin), but I can get over that. Spreadsheets will be another matter...but my desk is so small it makes complete sense to get something smaller. The keyboard I'm using now (MK700 I think) has this screen on it that shows you essentially nothing for example and means the keyboard has a huge protrusion off the rear.

chroniclard · 9 Mar 2021 at 09:28

Just moved to a TKL myself from a full keyboard, I dont really miss the numpad too much but I did miss the enter key for a while until I got used to it. I couldnt manage without the arrow keys, essential for work(programming).

This place has tons of nice kb

https://www.keyboardco.com/

PermaChanged · 9 Mar 2021 at 09:30

I purchased a seperate wireless number pad as I work in spreadsheets daily while WFH. It's just some cheapy £15 thing which has done the job well so far, it runs off 2xAAA batteries so should last a fair while. It'll live in a drawer most of the time but is important for me to have if / when working from home.

dirtychinchilla · 9 Mar 2021 at 09:37

chroniclard said:
Just moved to a TKL myself from a full keyboard, I dont really miss the numpad too much but I did miss the enter key for a while until I got used to it. I couldnt manage without the arrow keys, essential for work(programming).

This place has tons of nice kb

https://www.keyboardco.com/

Thanks for that. Why can't you filter by wired/wireless though?! Nightmare!

I ended up buying the KEMOVE Dolch 64-66% anyway. I actually cancelled the RK61 after LIe pointed out that it has no arrow keys...I like arrow keys.

PermaChanged said:
I purchased a seperate wireless number pad as I work in spreadsheets daily while WFH. It's just some cheapy £15 thing which has done the job well so far, it runs off 2xAAA batteries so should last a fair while. It'll live in a drawer most of the time but is important for me to have if / when working from home.

Very nice. I'll have to see how I go. Not sure if I use it for anything other than logging in right now.

dirtychinchilla · 10 Mar 2021 at 13:42

I put this in the images of stuff thread as well, but it arrived:

KEMOVE Dolch 64-66 60%

Now my question, which is the reason for posting here as well. If you look closely, this keyboard has @ on 2 on the keys, and " where at should be on the keys. But, they do function correctly as in what you would expect from a UK keyboard, and the other way round to what the keys show.

Any idea where I might be able to get correct keys for this? I rarely look at the keyboard, so it's a minor annoyance, but one I'd like to resolve.

Btw, the double space bar set up is really nice. The software for this thing is pants though, so I've not really worked out how I might reassign that giant red button, and what to reassign it to for that matter. I could set it up to switch between my two bluetooth connections, except that I couldn't actually get the bluetooth to link to my PC for some reason. Any ideas? Tried all the really obvious stuff...

LiE · 10 Mar 2021 at 13:46

dirtychinchilla said:
Any idea where I might be able to get correct keys for this? I rarely look at the keyboard, so it's a minor annoyance, but one I'd like to resolve.

Since the keyboard is ANSI layout, you'll need to set your keyboard to US layout. It's using UK layout right now which is why the @ sign is where the " is.

You can change this under the language settings.

chroniclard · 10 Mar 2021 at 13:50

Would have to source ISO keycaps. Mine came with both ANSI and ISO and you can just swap the keycaps.

dirtychinchilla · 10 Mar 2021 at 13:56

LiE said:
Since the keyboard is ANSI layout, you'll need to set your keyboard to US layout. It's using UK layout right now which is why the @ sign is where the " is.

You can change this under the language settings.

I may not have explained it very well. It's physically in the US layout right now, but software-wise it's UK. So, the @ and " symbols are just shown on the keyboard in the wrong place.

chroniclard said:
Would have to source ISO keycaps. Mine came with both ANSI and ISO and you can just swap the keycaps.

I'm contacting their support to see if they even sell the correct keys. Quite annoying considering they're selling it into the UK market.

LiE · 10 Mar 2021 at 13:57

dirtychinchilla said:
I may not have explained it very well. It's physically in the US layout right now, but software-wise it's UK. So, the @ and " symbols are just shown on the keyboard in the wrong place.

As I mentioned, go into Language settings and change the keyboard to US layout.

dirtychinchilla · 10 Mar 2021 at 14:03

LiE said:
As I mentioned, go into Language settings and change the keyboard to US layout.

Hah that would put them physically the right way around, but confuse the hell out of me otherwise. I'm not looking at the keyboard when I type so it's not a serious issue, but I'd much rather the keys were correct and that I didn't have to write like I'm using a US keyboard!

I'll see what their report says.

Other than my issue with the keys, it's a lovely keyboard. Really nice to type on, and the I've adapted to the layout very quickly. I'm making a few mistakes, but that's fairly typical. I am finding myself hitting a couple of wrong keys repeatedly. The RGB is subtle, but looks nice if you do glance at it. It's not actually on the keys, just the part under, but I didn't buy it for a light show. Thus far, my experience with the software is that it's fairly atrocious, but I probably won't use it at all in reality. The space bars are actually awesome. Just feels completely natural to have tow of them!

I've also managed to work out where my favourite media keys are very quickly, and I'm getting used to having to press the function button. Annoying having to do FN + Alt + F4, but I can get over that.

Sounds nice as well, but it's certainly not the silent experience my COD buddies might have preferred.

dirtychinchilla · 10 Mar 2021 at 16:33

Just found a key that appears to be missing - the back slash. I have no idea where they've put it. There's a physical key for it in the American layout, but there appears to be nothing in the UK one. Wtf!

LiE · 10 Mar 2021 at 16:36

dirtychinchilla said:
Just found a key that appears to be missing - the back slash. I have no idea where they've put it. There's a physical key for it in the American layout, but there appears to be nothing in the UK one. Wtf!

It’s above the return key.

dirtychinchilla · 10 Mar 2021 at 16:42

LiE said:
It’s above the return key.

I know, this is what you get: # or ~. There's also no vertical line thingy, not sure what it's called, which would normally sit on the same key as the back slash next to the z.

PermaChanged · 10 Mar 2021 at 16:43

The problem with the elongated shift/ANSI

LiE · 10 Mar 2021 at 16:45

dirtychinchilla said:
I know, this is what you get: # or ~. There's also no vertical line thingy, not sure what it's called, which would normally sit on the same key as the back slash next to the z.

And you have the keyboard set to US in language settings?

dirtychinchilla · 10 Mar 2021 at 16:55

PermaChanged said:
The problem with the elongated shift/ANSI

As I'm finding.

LiE said:
And you have the keyboard set to US in language settings?

No, are there any disadvantages to it being set up as US? Seems annoying just to match the keys. Just looking at it, I can see the advantages, but how do you get a £ with a US keyboard?

Twice now something inexplicable like the keyboard maybe losing connection has happened and I've ended up with a huge line of one single letter across the screen. That's quite annoying.

LiE · 10 Mar 2021 at 17:01

dirtychinchilla said:
No, are there any disadvantages to it being set up as US?

Well you have a US layout keyboard, so it’s a good idea to have it match. Otherwise, as you’ve found out, the keys won’t match.

dirtychinchilla · 10 Mar 2021 at 17:06

LiE said:
Well you have a US layout keyboard, so it’s a good idea to have it match. Otherwise, as you’ve found out, the keys won’t match.

Fair. Any idea how you do a GBP symbol with that though?

prjwebb · 10 Mar 2021 at 17:29

I don't know about the software for that board, but for my ANSI board I have FN+\ for the \| and pressing it without FN is the #~ key. Works pretty well. My keycaps came with options for ANSI and ISO boards.

dirtychinchilla · 14 Mar 2021 at 10:35

Just thought I'd give you guys an update.

Loving the keyboard, it's great. Having all this space on my desk is amazing, and I don't feel I'm missing out on the functionality that I had on my previous keyboard (aside from missing the pound key).

I'm still having one problem - can't connect it to my PC via bluetooth. It'll connect to my laptop and phone, but not my PC, which is a bit annoying. The RGB is also a bit tempremental, but I didn't buy it for that.

On the whole, it feels great to use and to type with. It's definitely louder than my old keyboard...don't know how my gaming buddies feel about that - probably not great. But the ergonomics of having such a tiny keyboard make gaming hugely more comfortable, which I'm surprised by. I can turn the keybaord at an angle and easily cover all the keys I need in a much more comfortable way.

So, on the whole, good buy, but it the issues with the keys and bluetooth really need sorting.