The Official OcUK Mechanical Keyboard Thread

Tweaker · 12 Jan 2012 at 09:47

dodgem said:
The actual definition of ghosting is slightly different from what Tombo wrote and more like what PianoBasher wrote. I think some manufacturers are using the term wrongly as well. I read a description of what ghosting is after following links from this thread but I can't remember where it was so i'll try and paraphrase........

Ghosting occurs due to the way that keyboards read which key is being pressed. Essentially (and simplified) you can imagine a series of wires running horizontally under the keys, and another set running vertically. When a key is pressed it shorts 2 wires and a current flows from a horizontal wire to a vertical wire. If 2 keys are pressed at once then as long as they are on different pairs of wires then the keyboard recognises the 2 keys from the current flowing in each set of wires. It still works if the keys are arranged on 1 vertical wire but 2 different horizontal wires - it can still tell which keys were pressed. However, if 3 keys are pressed and 2 of them share a horizontal wire, and 2 of them share a vertical wire (1 of the keys is common to both these pairs) then it create a ghost press whereby the keyboard doesn't know if 3 keys were pressed, or a slightly different combination of 3 keys, or indeed if 4 keys were pressed! This is what ghosting is.

The term is often wrongly used to describe the lack of ability to do NKRO. So technically, NKRO and anti-ghosting are seperate things, but some manufacturers use the terms interchangably. Real anti-ghosting requires more sophisticated interperetation of the signals generated when keys are pressed.

Not sure if that makes much sense.... the original article had useful pictures to illustrate what i have probably rather poorly tried to describe!

Some keyboards use optimised clusters of keys to eliminate ghosting, but not actually solve the overall problem. Most gaming keyboards use 6KRO, but most standard ones use 2KRO. Some companies will take a 2KRO keyboard and change the layout enough to make WASD and ESDF work with more than 2KRO, so maybe 6KRO. So on some keyboards the anti ghosting is classed as technology they have built to stop there optimised keys from messing up. It is a funny one, as you are right in that companies like to fool people into believing they wont have missed key pushes or pushes that appear with a delay. There are also companies that fake more than 6KRO, Thermal Take are one such company, they only offer more than 6KRO in Word and some games, totally misleading.

Triggaaar · 12 Jan 2012 at 10:56

but, does ghosting cause this:

PianoBasher said:
in an FPS sometimes you get stuck moving in one direction despite not holding the key down

NinetyOne · 12 Jan 2012 at 15:35

Ok so just picked up the keyboard from the depot. Pics etc incoming.

Jamie23 · 12 Jan 2012 at 16:25

NinetyOne said:
Ok so just picked up the keyboard from the depot. Pics etc incoming.

Very glad to hear

, no extra charges from customs or anything?

NinetyOne · 12 Jan 2012 at 16:31

Jamie23 said:
Very glad to hear , no extra charges from customs or anything?

Aye I got £28 charge. Still doesn't make it any more expensive than the filcos though. This is including a wrist rest and keypuller and usb extension.

And FFFFFFFFF just took a **** load of pictures and they all turned out really tiny for some reason...

Jamie23 · 12 Jan 2012 at 16:45

NinetyOne said:
Aye I got £28 charge. Still doesn't make it any more expensive than the filcos though. This is including a wrist rest and keypuller and usb extension.

And FFFFFFFFF just took a **** load of pictures and they all turned out really tiny for some reason...

Yikes! Are you sure? Filcos seem to be £120 delivered, I just priced up a WASD (semi custom, brown switches, wrist rest, no other extras) and it came out at $169.98 ($41.70 shipping + $127.98 for the board) which is £110 according to the converter I'm using, if you stick on that extra £28 it takes it over what the Filco is.

Not trying to rain on your parade by the way, love what WASD are doing with their keyboards and I'm extremely jealous of you

NinetyOne · 12 Jan 2012 at 16:50

Ok I paid £106 + the £28 that's only like £8 or something more that the filco ninja, but yes your right only slightly higher.

NinetyOne · 12 Jan 2012 at 17:10

Sorry for bad pics.. Camera is awful

The orange keys are a lot darker in real life as well. As you can see I went for a pretty simple design. I didn't want anything crazy.

Triggaaar · 12 Jan 2012 at 17:19

WASDs sound good, except for this problem of letters coming off easily.

Triggaaar · 12 Jan 2012 at 17:21

Thanks for posting the pics.

NinetyOne said:
Sorry for bad pics.. Camera is awful

It's not the camera

NinetyOne · 12 Jan 2012 at 17:24

Triggaaar said:
WASDs sound good, except for this problem of letters coming off easily.

? Get engraved keys or just go blank like I did. Filco's printed keys are just as crappy.

Triggaaar · 12 Jan 2012 at 17:33

NinetyOne said:
? Get engraved keys or just go blank like I did.

Engraved would be good, more to the cost though I assume.

Filco's printed keys are just as crappy.

Are they? At £120 a set I'd just keep returning them (ie, Filcos bought from uk).

gropingmantis · 12 Jan 2012 at 17:43

That WASD is really nice. Hoping they bring tenkeyless with the ISO layout. With Reds and blank keys I would buy in a heartbeat.

Jamie23 · 12 Jan 2012 at 17:56

Thanks very much for the pictures, looks very nice! How are you liking typing?

Triggaaar said:
Engraved would be good, more to the cost though I assume.

Nope, same price.

NinetyOne · 12 Jan 2012 at 18:30

Jamie23 said:
Thanks very much for the pictures, looks very nice! How are you liking typing?

Nope, same price.

Feels great typing so far. Loving the clicky feedback

robin66 · 12 Jan 2012 at 20:56

Rainagul said:
Picked up a razor blackwidow the other week, really liking the feel of the keyboard. Would highly recommend it, though apparently the noise of the keys annoys people I skype with, but not my problem

Picked mine up on Christmas eve, and really like this keyboard. The noise isn't an issue for me also.

But I do need to stop bottoming out the keys still.

dodgem · 12 Jan 2012 at 21:29

Triggaaar said:
but, does ghosting cause this:

PianoBasher said:

in an FPS sometimes you get stuck moving in one direction despite not holding the key down

Click to expand...

It could do. If you press a combination of keys including a movement key that confuses the keyboard, then when you release the movement key but still hold down some other keys, the keyboard may not actually recognise that you've released any of the keys, so you keep on moving, despite the fact you're no longer pressing that button. It's like some of the keys create a blindspot for the keyboard so it can't see what's going on in a certain area.

If you release all the keys and keep on moving, well that's a different matter. Either your keyboard is borked or the software is buggy!

dodgem · 12 Jan 2012 at 21:31

More pics with a decent camera, steady hand, and more lighting please NinetyOne!!

Glad you're liking the keyboard. Can't wait until they start selling the 105key layout and I can go to town on my design!!

NinetyOne · 12 Jan 2012 at 22:05

dodgem said:
More pics with a decent camera, steady hand, and more lighting please NinetyOne!!

Glad you're liking the keyboard. Can't wait until they start selling the 105key layout and I can go to town on my design!!

Yeah I might try nick my mates camera in a sec.

NinetyOne · 12 Jan 2012 at 23:09

These should be better.

These might be a little big for people with smaller resolution monitors. If so sorry.

** The Official OcUK Mechanical Keyboard Thread **

The Official OcUK Mechanical Keyboard Thread