Are there keys with a lesser travel distance?

General
1

Hi. I’ve had the UHK 60 for a year now and I’m thinking of buying the 80.
But I’m not 100% happy with the UHK, because I keep making a lot more
mistakes (eg hitting two keys at once) that with my previous favorite
keyboard (Thinkpad/Lenovo).

I attribute this to the fact that the keys have to travel a longer
distance than with the old keyboard. Ideally I’d keep my fingers on
the same horizontal plane and move them only a tiny bit.

I’d like to know if maybe some of the varieties of keys you offer have
a lesser travel distance. I considered buying the key tester, but it’s
pretty expensive for what it is, any having just one key of each type
may not give me a real idea of what working with that type of key will
feel like.

2

You could either try some lower switches (choc v2?), but those would only work with low keycaps.

Or you could try some “fast” switches, e.g. Kailh speed bronze (clicky) or silver (linear) or copper (tactile). These switches have the same height as normal ones (so standard keycaps work with them) but have less travel until they “click” (register the keypress) and generally also less total travel until they bottom out.

From memory I think the difference is 1.5mm for regular switches and 1.1mm for speed switches until they register, and total travel until bottom out is 4mm for regular and 3.5mm for speed.

I tried speed bronze several years ago on a normal (non-UHK) keyboard. For me it felt like I have to be careful not to touch the switches or rest my finger on them; they are “fast” to activate. So yes, they were speedy. Eventually I went back to regular blue. (I like clicky. Nowadays my favourite clicky switch is Kailh box white.)

3

Another reason why you may be hitting two keys instead of just one could also be the keycaps. Caps with a slightly flatter or smoother surface may help your finger sliding over from key to key more easily, without accidentially triggering another key.

In fact, “fast” (speed) switches can also cause more inadvertant key presses because they trigger quite quickly with only little vertical movement needed.

Might be worthwhile to experiment with both (switches, keycaps).

4

Afaik, chocs are not compatible with uhk, as low profile switches have different pin layout (am i mistaken)?

Speed switches wont improve the situation, although indeed the feeling is slightly better than that of standard switches (for me).

It is worth to look into tecsees medium, those make a significant difference. (See the “low profile” thread in the modding section.)

Also it may be worth to look into mt3 keycaps.

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5

You’re not mistaken. The Choc V2’s have an extra pin and the center plastic stabilizer has a much bigger diameter than the standard MX’s.

I pulled these from the UHK80:
LEFT - Kailh Box White
RIGHT - Kailh Choc V2 Blue

MX vs ChocV2
MX vs ChocV21920×1510 77.7 KB

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6

Thank you for all your answers. I’ve ordered the key tester even though (with shipping) it costs US$ 37.00 – I hope it will help me decide. It doesn’t sound like the “fast” option will address the problem of misstrikes, but I’ll keep an open mind.

7

I am not sure UHK tester will give you any insight. All officially provided switches are standard long travel. Also indeed when you don’t have at least ten or so switches installed, you don’t get the idea of the actual feel.

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8

These are interesting. You just reminded me that I wanted to try them out, too.

Just be aware that they list this warning:
only support standard XDA / XDA V2 / MDA / DSA and Cherry Profile keycaps

So the tecsee medium will NOT fit the original UHK keycaps. (You can put them on, but they will likely sit too low to actually be able to properly depress the switch.)

But they support Cherry profile, so Yuzukeycaps should fit :wink:

9

So the tecsee medium will NOT fit the original UHK keycaps.

They work just fine. They are just a bit looser than they should be, but that can be easily addressed if it turns out to be a problem.

10

Oh, did you get the tecsee medium and try them out? Nice.

I think I need to get a set and try them with the Yuzu keycaps (Cherry profile).

11

Yes, and definitely recommend them. (Also kailh whites are a very pleasant surprise - they use a different clicky mechanism than standard blues.)

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12

Yes, I now use Kailh box white. They are awesome.

13

I’d just like to piggyback on this thread for a question I have about lower profile keys.

I’m a complete noob at the mech keyboard stuff but I do really enjoy using the UHK. I found the original switches and keys a bit high and were causing a bit of fatigue and after much digging around I took a plunge on the tecsee medium switches (tactile: Amazon.com). I really like them and they’ve more or less solved the fatigue problem I had. Trouble is as some others have mentioned they are a bit loose. Not enough to cause me much of a problem but I’m kinda hoping to get some other keys that are just a bit lower profile that would fit the switch and the board but I’ve got no idea where to start :slightly_frowning_face: does any one have any recommendations? Also as a caveat they’d need to support a uk-en layout.

14

I don’t think there are any other MX compatible switches in a lower profile, but you can get some custom keycaps in a lower profile that should be compatible here: https://fkcaps.com/custom

Choose the “LPF” profile option, and there’s a UHK template. You can do a standard UK layout, or customize/tweak your own. I have a set of their XDA profile caps & they’re pretty nice. You can join their Discord if you have questions. They’re super nice & helpful over there.

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15

Thank you for the suggestion, looks ideal so I’ll check them out!

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