First mechanical keyboard questions

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Bjerrk

10 Jun 2021, 09:43

ZhakirSetie wrote:
10 Jun 2021, 09:02
I really wanted the blue clicky ones from what I've read but this one comes with brown switches. Am I going to miss out on a huge difference between brown and blue? Is the difference just about the noise?
Cherry MX Browns and Blues are certainly quite different with respect to e.g. tactility. It's not just the noise. That having been said, all cherry switches have some common features, and there's a whole world of non-Cherry switches out there, with much greater variety. :)


To get an idea of the differences between different Cherry switches, have a look at these force curves for Cherry MX Brown, Blue, Black, Red and Clear:
Image

Not that these types of switches are bad (I quite like some MX style switches), but as you can tell from the above graphs, all the Cherry MX switches follow a similar pattern. They're either linear or have small, rounded tactile bumps superimposed on a linearly increasing force curve.
ZhakirSetie wrote:
10 Jun 2021, 09:02
This keyboard supposedly has replaceable switches, which you can just pull out and switch with different ones. Would I be forced to buy Outemu switches as replacement, or would it be possible to use cherry switches or something else?
Assuming that things haven't changed in the last couple of years, Outemu hotswap sockets only accept Outemu switches, because their pins are so thin. You'd have to modify other MX style switches to fit the Outemu sockets.
ZhakirSetie wrote:
10 Jun 2021, 09:02
Hi! I'm receiving my new Redragon K556-RK Devarajas this Friday [...]
Lastly has anyone had issues with this keyboard in the long term? Some of the reviews pointed out hiccups after a few months of usage on other, lower end keyboards by Redragon
Hope you don't mind me asking, but why did you go for this keyboard? :P
It does of course look fun, but also seems like it would be horribly uncomfortable to type on.
If it turns out that you like mechanical keyboards, I'll bet you a dollar that you'll be coming back for something better ;)

EDIT: Just to give you a taste of the possible variety within clicky switches, here are a couple of YouTube videos you may find fun:

TOP 5 CLICKY mechanical keyboard switches of all time

Model F77, IBM Model M, and Cherry MX Blue sound comparison

inozenz

10 Jun 2021, 10:35

ZhakirSetie wrote:
10 Jun 2021, 09:02
Hi! I'm receiving my new Redragon K556-RK Devarajas this Friday and the only point I'm not sure about is the switches: this would be my first mech keyboard and I really wanted the blue clicky ones from what I've read but this one comes with brown switches. Am I going to miss out on a huge difference between brown and blue? Is the difference just about the noise?

This keyboard supposedly has replaceable switches, which you can just pull out and switch with different ones. Would I be forced to buy Outemu switches as replacement, or would it be possible to use cherry switches or something else? I'm a newbie about mech keyboards so I've no clue. Also where should I buy switches? I'm in Europe.

Lastly has anyone had issues with this keyboard in the long term? Some of the reviews pointed out hiccups after a few months of usage on other, lower end keyboards by Redragon, which is also why I wanted replaceable switches just in case I'd have to replace a faulty key or two in the future.
Hi,
when I first started with mechanical keyboards I decided to buy a redragon keyboard aswell.
It is a good choice. It's solid, has a long live and it's modable.

I worked with redragon and have almost every keyboard they make. The keyboard Royal kludge, most famously know for the rk61 is also from redragon, but with a different branding.

Every keyboard that isn't lubed will ping. It's just how switches work. You can spray lube them or take the time to take each switch out and lube them by hand.
When using the right spray lube you won't damage any internal components. Just make sure to let the lube dry over night and wipe off all excess lube.

You can only swap outemu switches, lucky for you that outemu has a wide variety of different switches.

There is also a way to use other switch brands, but I would not recommend that method.

Hope this helped a little.

By the way currently that is my daily driver aswell. Very sturdy and hefty keyboard. I just changes the switches and put some foam in it and modded the stabilizers. I even use the original keycaps. Good choice!!!

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Go-Kart

10 Jun 2021, 22:20

Outemu Browns aren't too bad IMO. I haven't experience with that particular board but what I found when I first started with mechanical keyboards is doing the work on them makes all the difference. Lube the switches, grease the wires, dampen the chassis, even add weight to it if there's space internally. If you then want to push it a little further, a half decent set of caps could do the trick. All this will improve the sound no end, make it feel nicer and make the board more pleasurable to use. The first board I really worked on was my Pok3r. It still lives on my desk most days and is my go-to board for gaming.

micmil

10 Jun 2021, 23:53

Brown vs blue is 100% a matter of opinion, of course. I like loud and annoying switches a bit more but the browns that come in the K556 are just fine.

Outemu it is, unfortunately. The sockets that are included are absolute garbage, essentially just a metal "cup" that the leads press-fit into. On my Redragon Draconic (Anne Pro 2 style) I swapped out with Box Jades by removing the sockets and hard soldering the switches in. Not recommended. Massive pain in the ass, and the traces like to lift. I have a handful of bodge wires in that thing.

I haven't had issues with the ones I have now, but a row on the K556 stopped working right after I bought it. Amazon replaced it, luckily. Overall, worth the dollars. Hell, the metal body alone is a $60 starting point for customization.

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Mazian

11 Jun 2021, 00:48

Just another spambot. No sense in replying, the text is copied from a three-year-old Reddit post. (Not even the first time that exact text has been pasted here.)

Always good to treat 1-post new accounts with some caution, and do a quick search for the post's content, to check if it's copied from elsewhere.

keyboardjoy

18 Jun 2021, 16:19

Deleted, thanks for the spot Mazian.

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