#Future of keyboards and hopefully Wooting!

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

rapid badge
#

When you imagine Wooting what do you see? Over engineered keyboards? A company that loves the same things that we do? Magnets? Personally I see all of the above! A company that is able to implement the future into the things we love. Recently I’ve felt the company has been in a divide especially after the Wooting v2. It feels like the company has split into three: one head in software development, one in manufacturing and quality control, and the last in the enthusiast keyboard space. I love that Wooting is open to the community, but the focus has drifted more toward gaming and collaborations. I’ve loved collabs like the Optimum keyboard or Owl Labs, but with all this activity there hasn’t been as much visible drive to innovate. The last big leap was implementing hall effect switches—and that was huge—but one downside is sound. The rigid plate required for accurate readings nerfs acoustics. Regular keys sound fine, but stabilized keys like the spacebar, backspace, and enter echo due to the rigid plate. To minimize that echo, we need to look at the source: the stabilizers. The screw-on stabs in the Wooting 60HE+ were a step in the right direction but didn’t solve it fully. The board still rattles unless you lube it. So how do you eliminate the problem entirely? Someone already did—Ryan Norbauer essentially over engineered stabilizers with zero rattle! Here’s that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3FEv1qw4_w&t=1591s

I’d love to see Wooting explore this kind of innovation and would be excited to contribute however I can. If you ever consider interns who are deeply invested in the enthusiast keyboard space and eager to help bridge engineering with community ideas, I’d be honored to be part of that conversation.

YouTube
Adam Savage’s Tested
Fixing the Biggest Problem With Mechanical Keyboards

Adam recently met Ryan Norbauer, a designer and propmaker who is obsessed with mechanical computer keyboards. He has spent the past five years building what he considers the perfect mechanical keyboard: a beautiful and precisely crafted keyboard called the Seneca. We visited Ryan in his workshop to learn about the technical and mechanical proble...

▶ Play video
floral acorn
#

Yeah the thing with those stabilizers is they are extremely expensive and require around 30 minutes to hand assemble for each keyboard.

From the live streams a lot of effort has gone into improving the factory lubing of the stabilizers to get a more consistently good experience across every keyboard so there's definitely effort going into improving this aspect in the future

rapid badge
#

Yeah the assembly time is insane for production but this is just one guy with taeha types assembling this, imagine if they are able to get a whole production line with more than one person! They could make like 3 a day lol

round tangle
#

just throwing in here that you prob mean the 60he+ stabs not 60hev2

rapid badge
#

yeah you are right ill fix that rn

round tangle
#

also a note: we are aware of those stabs but the exorbitant price attached to them and the complexity doesnt make them really mass production friendly.
We are always looking at how to improve products but things often take time. the HE switch also wasnt just a week of work or even just a year.

#

heck a good example is prob the knob which calder blurped out accidentally in a christmas stream far too long ago and only now did we put out an actual website to inform people of its existence. and we are still not at being a selling product

rapid badge
#

I'm not trying to downplay the greatness you guys have achieved and will achieve. I just wanted to put this out there in hopes that you guys will be able to implement it in some form or the other in the future when somehow this becomes a viable solution.

round tangle
#

we are definitely looking at the industry and what happens on all fronts so we can improve out products when possible. we are, for example, still following TMR stuff even though we currently dont think its really better than HE.

rapid badge
# round tangle we are definitely looking at the industry and what happens on all fronts so we c...

In my eyes there are four things that keep people in the keyboard community: Customization, Sound, Typing experience, and tech. You guys are killing it in the tech and customization department and don't even really need to consider the other forms of keyboards like tmr, inductive, or optical. You guys have essentially solved the tech department of the keyboard. All that really is left to solve are the other two: typing experience and sound which really go hand in hand.

round tangle
#

then youll prob like the tikkens

#

from all the conventions we showed them off people loved them

rapid badge
round tangle
#

with the 60he v2

#

(also sound is something i dont think anyone can really comment on given the noise floor of conventions)

rapid badge
#

true

round tangle
#

(and we woot staff should be treated as biased by default)

obtuse patrol
#

You know nourbauer stabs are like 3000usd minimum right and nourbauer holds patent which doesent allow other people to manufacturer his stabs

rapid badge
#

Yeah im just really hopeful of the future of mechanical keyboards

round tangle
#

(imo totally ridiculous)

obtuse patrol
round tangle
#

oh you said 3k first

#

which sounds like the price of the keyboard they make with the stabs

obtuse patrol
#

Because you have to buy entire keyboard with them

rapid badge
#

it looked like they also designed thier own plate from the video which probably added to the overall cost

obtuse patrol
#

@round tangle i'am pretty sure if he allowed chinnese manu to make his stabs price would be 50usd maybe 100usd max

rapid badge
# round tangle oh you said 3k first

The goal of this design wasn’t to create a product to sell, but to push the limits of what a min-maxed keyboard could be. The key innovation was in stabilizing the motion of the bar using two pin joints: one connected to the top of the housing and one to the bottom, meeting in the middle. This setup allows the key press to translate into a stable, linear motion.

Interestingly, the parts themselves don’t move in a straight line—they follow their own slightly curved path with each press. This curve applies a force on the stabilizer bar which helps minimize stabilizer wobble by ensuring a constant force is applied at every point of travel.

I believe it’s possible to achieve this same constant force on stabilizers without relying on pin joints. I don’t yet have the advanced math background to model it myself, but with focused R&D, I think this idea could definitely be made a reality.

obtuse patrol
rapid badge
#

True it is cheaper to let someone else solve the problem

#

One day in the future ill whale out for a wooting with perfect stabs lol

obtuse patrol
rapid badge
obtuse patrol
#

Whats stops u is your wallet

rapid badge