Keycool 87 blue mx

tobo · 16 May 2012, 19:14

I bought a keycool 87 keyboard from Qtan's store. It took 10 days to ship to my location, though 2 of those days the keyboard was sitting at the shipping agency's nearby storage location over the weekend.

Below is a picture of how the package looked when it arrived.

Back.

Unpacking.

Blue switches. I replaced the ESC key with the red keycool key.

Sitting on my desk. It's not as white as it appears in pictures. In real life it has a slight off white color.

Some key alignment issues can be seen (XC and AS)

It's my first mechanical keyboard so I can't compare it to other mechanical keyboards or switches. Compared to my rubber dome G15 the buttons on this keyboard feel more solid. The keyboard as a whole is quite heavy and is well built. The blue switches are quite noisy and feel pretty heavy. I actually expected them to be a bit lighter. Maybe because I was focused more on the plastic part of the switches than the actual springs

.
Overall I am happy with the keyboard, it's a good buy for the price. I payed €68 including shipping. There were no additional charges (custom, VAT).

So in summary,

The good:

* Relatively cheap
* Solid build
* Includes extra color keys, key puller and a bag

The bad:

* Uneven key gaps
* Slight spacebar rattling

It will take some time getting used to a mechanical keyboard, but pressing buttons on it is a lot of fun

.

off · 17 May 2012, 18:52

Looks nice and pretty clean, and I love windowed caps.
Seems a decent price for an all-white board! Guess Noppoo would be my preference though, purely layout-wise (and the front-printed pbt caps)..
Also it appears to me that the X is printed lower on the cap than the others around them; and the X, C and V seem to have a thinner infill-line used than the others around them...

STILL: Grats on your new board, do enjoy!
and don't come back here for a while, money will roll right out otherwise

itlnstln · 17 May 2012, 19:02

tobo wrote: The good:

* Relatively cheap
* Solid build
* Includes extra color keys, key puller and a bag

The bad:

* Uneven key gaps
* Slight spacebar rattling

The Ugly:

* Arial used for the legends

ripster · 17 May 2012, 19:11

Cheap bastards didn't want to pay Helvetica fees. Probably didn't whql for the domed win key.

boost · 17 May 2012, 20:19

ripster wrote:Cheap bastards didn't want to pay Helvetica fees. Probably didn't whql for the domed win key.

Hostilities ...

hoggy · 17 May 2012, 20:23

I like the bag.

itlnstln · 17 May 2012, 20:48

hoggy wrote:I like the bag.

This one?

tobo · 17 May 2012, 23:23

off wrote:Looks nice and pretty clean, and I love windowed caps.
Seems a decent price for an all-white board! Guess Noppoo would be my preference though, purely layout-wise (and the front-printed pbt caps)..
Also it appears to me that the X is printed lower on the cap than the others around them; and the X, C and V seem to have a thinner infill-line used than the others around them...

STILL: Grats on your new board, do enjoy!
and don't come back here for a while, money will roll right out otherwise

Haha. Noppoo was my first option actually, but they just went out of stock when I wanted to buy them. So I decided on the keycool, since the only other option was to go for much more expensive hardware. But it worked out fine for me since I'm very happy with the keycool and I saved some money. I guess I haven't developed the high standards you guys have

(yet).

I was actually a bit worried when I saw the package, thinking that the keyboard might have been trashed, but fortunately it was fine. Apparently mechanical keyboards can take a beating

.

I'll see if I can do a short video tomorrow for those whom are interested how the keyboard sounds in action.

huttala · 05 Jun 2012, 09:21

Hmmm, this is the Filco copy that has 2KRO right?

Otherwise it looks good, but 2KRO kills gaming.

CeeSA · 05 Jun 2012, 09:28

according to this ebay listing it has 21KRO
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Key-Cool-87-Mech ... 153wt_1011

JaccoW · 05 Jun 2012, 09:29

Uhm no, this has 21-key rollover over usb (with ghosting) So at least 6-kro.

CeeSA · 05 Jun 2012, 09:50

quote: "Over roll: 21 key over roll under USB and Full NKRO under PS2."

Soarer · 05 Jun 2012, 15:13

Yeah, apparently 21KRO - funny number! qtan seemed fairly confident it was done in a way that's compatible with all OS, but that remains to be seen...

tobo - any chance you could dump the descriptors so we can see how it's doing the 21KRO?

JaccoW · 05 Jun 2012, 15:56

Soarer wrote:tobo - any chance you could dump the descriptors so we can see how it's doing the 21KRO?

Here you go, I will add it to the GH thread as well. I have no idea what it says so please let me know what you find.

Keycool 87.rar: USBlyzer html file, packaged because .txt nor .html was allowed; (1.46 KiB) Downloaded 217 times

Soarer · 05 Jun 2012, 16:15

JaccoW wrote:Here you go, I will add it to the GH thread as well. I have no idea what it says so please let me know what you find.
Keycool 87.rar

Thanks! That's a standard 6KRO report descriptor

Was it the only device showing under that port? If you select the Port entry in the tree USBlyzer puts all the descriptors for that port into the Properties window, that will give us some more info

CeeSA · 05 Jun 2012, 16:15

how did you get the sum of KRO keys? where is the information?

JaccoW · 05 Jun 2012, 16:18

Crap, It showed 2 keyboards, probably did something wrong. I'll try again.

JaccoW · 05 Jun 2012, 16:24

Alright, here we go, take 2.

I think my mouse was interfering (Roccat Kone [+]) since that one can be programmed to be pretty much any key or combination as well.

Soarer · 05 Jun 2012, 16:28

CeeSA wrote:how did you get the sum of KRO keys? where is the information?

First I should say that this is the KRO for the USB communication, so we are assuming that the keyboard itself is NKRO (has diodes etc). In that case the limiting factor is the USB comms.

Commented version...

Code: Select all

Interface 0 HID Report Descriptor Keyboard
Item Tag (Value) 	Raw Data
Usage Page (Generic Desktop) 	05 01 
Usage (Keyboard) 	09 06 
Collection (Application) 	A1 01 

# chunk defining modifiers byte...
    Usage Page (Keyboard/Keypad) 	05 07 
    Usage Minimum (Keyboard Left Control) 	19 E0 
    Usage Maximum (Keyboard Right GUI) 	29 E7 
    Logical Minimum (0) 	15 00 
    Logical Maximum (1) 	25 01 
    Report Size (1) 	75 01                 <------ these are bits
    Report Count (8) 	95 08                 <------ there are 8 of them, one for each modifier
    Input (Data,Var,Abs,NWrp,Lin,Pref,NNul,Bit) 	81 02 

# chunk defining an unused byte...
    Report Count (1) 	95 01 
    Report Size (8) 	75 08 
    Input (Cnst,Ary,Abs) 	81 01 

# chunk defining the LED output of 5 bits...
    Report Count (5) 	95 05 
    Report Size (1) 	75 01 
    Usage Page (LEDs) 	05 08 
    Usage Minimum (Num Lock) 	19 01 
    Usage Maximum (Kana) 	29 05 
    Output (Data,Var,Abs,NWrp,Lin,Pref,NNul,NVol,Bit) 	91 02 

# chunk to pad the LED output up to a multiple of 8 bits...
    Report Count (1) 	95 01 
    Report Size (3) 	75 03 
    Output (Cnst,Ary,Abs,NWrp,Lin,Pref,NNul,NVol,Bit) 	91 01 

# chunk for keycode input...
    Report Count (6) 	95 06                  <------ 6 slots for keycodes
    Report Size (8) 	75 08                 <------ these are bytes (keycode values)
    Logical Minimum (0) 	15 00 
    Logical Maximum (104) 	25 68 
    Usage Page (Keyboard/Keypad) 	05 07 
    Usage Minimum (Undefined) 	19 00 
    Usage Maximum (Keyboard F13) 	29 68 
    Input (Data,Ary,Abs) 	81 00 
End Collection 	C0

Soarer · 05 Jun 2012, 16:32

JaccoW wrote:Alright, here we go, take 2.

I think my mouse was interfering (Roccat Kone [+]) since that one can be programmed to be pretty much any key or combination as well.

Err... that's the same single report

JaccoW · 05 Jun 2012, 16:34

In that case I am at a loss. In aquakey it shows a lot more, but for some reason it doesn't register F2, F3 or F6 :S
It does work everywhere else though.

EDIT: Doesn't this board send two seperate packages to enable higher than 6kro?

Soarer · 05 Jun 2012, 16:50

Yes, most likely it uses multiple devices.

You need to highlight the Port in the tree, not the HID device. The USB Properties view will then begin with Connection Status etc. Like this...

: usblyzer_snapshot.png (74.02 KiB) Viewed 13672 times

Then the export from the USB Properties window gives a much longer dump, which includes all the reports from all the (virtual) devices attached to that port...

Soarer_v1.01_descriptors.zip: (3.9 KiB) Downloaded 162 times

huttala · 05 Jun 2012, 19:31

Why don't you just do the #KRO test that Microsoft has so we know for sure if it's more then 6KRO.

http://www.microsoft.com/appliedscience ... ained.mspx

off · 06 Jun 2012, 11:22

Microsoft #KRO [url]http://www.microsoft.com/appliedsciences/antighostingexplained.mspx[/url] wrote: in fact, the circuit includes a div class="asContentParagraph" of the connected column wire on the left).

indistinguishable. When this happens, that the pattern is ambiguous, the typical keyboard stops reporting new key presses to avoid reporting the wrong keys. We call these unreported key presses, "ghosted."

I recall calling that 'blocked'. Ghosted would be what would happen in case they were not blocked by choice. IIRC.

huttala · 06 Jun 2012, 11:57

off wrote:
Microsoft #KRO [url]http://www.microsoft.com/appliedsciences/antighostingexplained.mspx[/url] wrote: in fact, the circuit includes a div class="asContentParagraph" of the connected column wire on the left).

indistinguishable. When this happens, that the pattern is ambiguous, the typical keyboard stops reporting new key presses to avoid reporting the wrong keys. We call these unreported key presses, "ghosted."
I recall calling that 'blocked'. Ghosted would be what would happen in case they were not blocked by choice. IIRC.

That test has worked just fine on my Noppoo with NKRO over USB, my filco with NKRO over PS/2, my Quick fire rapid, MK-80, Cherry G80-8113, Topre etc etc.

off · 06 Jun 2012, 12:10

huttala wrote:That test has worked just fine on my Noppoo with NKRO over USB, my filco with NKRO over PS/2, my Quick fire rapid, MK-80, Cherry G80-8113, Topre etc etc.

Wasn't attacking their programming skills, just the proofread ones.

ripster · 07 Jun 2012, 20:41

Forgot to say Congrats on Your First Mechanical Keyboard.

And don't sweat the wobbly keys thing.

There is often key/switch variance. It's just a LOT more visible when you have white or colored keys.

McRip Effect (as long as it is only appearance, not performance)

tobo · 09 Jun 2012, 20:25

Sorry, haven't checked this thread in a while

. I've added the descirptor as attachment for those that requested it. I checked the above microsoft page and the keyboard seems to register up to 21 keys. However I normally use the keyboard over ps/2 interface, since my motherboard has one.

Also here is a short typing test I did on the keycool. I'm not a fast typist so please ignore my crappy typing skills. The image goes blurry towards the end due to shaking of my webcam, sorry for that.

Thanks ripster, I don't mind the small imperfections, still loving the keyboard

. Typing on a rubber dome keyboard really feels weird now, keys seem smaller and they lack the nice feedback.

ripster · 09 Jun 2012, 20:45

Nice vid! Like the ol' Cherry Blue ClickClack, my fav switch.

Yeah, don't sweat the forum epeen little things I say.

Btw if you get a Logitech LogiCOOL Japanese version mouse you'd have the COOL twins!

tobo · 09 Jun 2012, 21:35

Some weird stuff right there

. I think I'll stick with my razer abyssus.

Also this

: