Mechanical keyboards are one of the most famous PC peripherals in recent times. They are precise and fast in games, very durable and give the team a certain gaming aesthetic, but do you know how they work? In this article we are going to tell you how a mechanical keyboard works , its switches, and what makes them so good.
Traditional keyboards are membrane ones . In them, pressing a key pushes a piece of rubber with a contact through a hole in the membrane, closing an electrical circuit and thus sending an input signal to the PC.
The advantage of this type of keyboard is that they are cheap to manufacture and are quite resistant, but the disadvantage is that many users find them “soft” when they press the keys. This means that more effort is required to type and the results are less accurate, which is why mechanical keyboards were created as an alternative to solve this problem, while adding many other features.
How a mechanical keyboard works
The reason given above is the main reason why many users prefer mechanical keyboards instead of membrane. Instead of using this system with a rubber membrane, they have individual switches with a spring, which is what returns the key to its original position instead of a rubber. When you press a key, the switch part makes contact with the PCB and that records the key press.
These keyboards are called mechanical precisely because of that spring mechanism with a spring. The activation method is the same as in the membrane keyboards (push a part to make contact and send a signal) but the feeling when pressing is very different, since that piece of rubber that creates a feeling that we press is removed. on something soft, improving precision and reducing fatigue.
Mechanical switches
In addition, as you may know, there are different switches for mechanical keyboards, both in terms of brand (Cherry, Romer-G, Kailth, OUTEMU, etc.) and type (generally expressed in colors). These switches can provide different sensations when pressing, the stiffness of the spring causes the force to be applied to the switch to change, and of course there are also different travel distances of the pulsation, making them more or less fast depending on the preference of the user.
In summary, the sensation of pulsation is much more customizable, adjusting better to the preferences of each user.
Thus, the different switches on a mechanical keyboard have different sensations when pressed. Some are light and easy to press, especially good for gamers, but they cause more unintended keystrokes. On the contrary, there are others harder and even with tactile and sound feedback, preferred by people who dedicate themselves to typing a lot on their keyboard. These are the main characteristics of the switches:
- Actuation force : it is measured in grams, and it is the necessary force that we must do on the key for its activation to take place. The typical value is 45 grams.
- Pulsing distance: it is the distance, measured in millimeters, that the switch travels from its normal position to the maximum that can go down. The typical value is 4 mm.
- Activation distance: it is the distance measured in millimeters that the switch must travel from its initial position until activation occurs. The typical value is 2 mm.
- Pulsation type : There are two types, linear and tactile. Linear pressing simply consists of the switch going down and up in a straight line, while tactile feedback pressing has a small “snag” about halfway, causing the key to jump a little when pressed and making that we feel in the finger the activation of the mechanism.
- Sound : likewise, there are mechanisms that do not have sound (even so they sound when the mechanism reaches the top), and others that have what is called “audible click”. These switches, like the Cherry MX Blue, have an extra piece in the mechanism that makes a slight “click” sound when pressed.
Likewise, whatever the manufacturer, there is an unwritten rule that sets the color of the mechanism with the type. Thus, we have that the red switches (Red) have a linear operation, with an activation force of 45 grams and without sound, while the blue switches (Blue) also have 45 grams of actuation force but have tactile feedback and clicky sound .
