Membrane keyboards are more durable than mechanical keyboards? Analysis from the perspective of axis development

Recently, I heard a very interesting saying that membrane keyboards are more durable than mechanical keyboards. Membrane keyboards do not have sticky shafts or smelly shafts, and they can be easily waterproofed. The mechanical keyboard has a limited lifespan, and it will be inexplicably unable to type, and Barbie Q will fall when it enters the water. I believe this is the misunderstanding of many friends who have not entered the besieged city.

It is true that there are also many classic products of membrane keyboards, such as the Dell 8115 keyboard with many replicas and imitations. But more membrane keyboards are a set of 30 yuan with a mouse. In fact, membrane keyboards are products that exist for price.

The membrane keyboard is named because of its structure, and the trigger principle is obvious, which is to trigger the electrodes on the circuit through the membrane to generate a signal. I believe those who have played the 7080 of the FC red and white machine will guess that this thing is similar to the previous gamepad, from the principle to the structure and the way of implementation are exactly the same.

In fact, the waterproofing of the membrane keyboard also needs to be dealt with, and since the circuit is connected, if any part of the circuit fails, at least one key or a whole row of keys cannot be used.

In addition, there is another point that when using a membrane keyboard, we mainly play stand-alone games, and the requirements for key frequency, trigger speed, and trigger feel are far from those of e-sports games. It's like, it's impossible for you to spend two hours doing makeup in the dormitory just to go to the school cafeteria, right?

So, is it true that the mechanical keyboard will stink, get stuck, and hang when it gets in water? The first two are true, and the shaft itself has life problems. For example, the classic MX black switch life is 50 million times, and the classic MX green switch, brown switch, and red switch are all 20 million times.

And waterproof and dustproof, in fact, it is also achievable.

To put it simply, each key of a mechanical keyboard is a shaft, and each shaft is plugged into the PCB, and pluggable and non-pluggable are not the focus of this article, and I will show you later when I have a chance.

I believe that some friends will definitely ask, how does the life of the shaft come from? I don’t have an exact method for how it came about, but I have been to the factories of E Element, Shuangfeiyan, Daryou, Fuling, Wolfpai, Titanium and other brands, all of which have special testing departments to test the life of keyboards and switches. of.

It is impossible to test the lifespan by hand, but with a machine, it is not a big problem to test tens of millions of times, but the optical axis time of 100 million times is only doubled.

There are scientific methods to test the life of buttons and shafts, but this test can only be used as a reference. It's like, the shutter life of entry-level SLR is said to be about 50,000 times in the future, but my Nikon D610 uses at least 150,000 shutters, and I haven't changed anything so far. Because this is the official reference value, it means that within this range, the performance is the best, and the best performance cannot be guaranteed if the reference number is exceeded.

For example, if the life span is exceeded, there may be problems of missed delivery, wrong delivery or even failure.

Why does the shaft have a long life, and why is it not waterproof and dustproof? The former is actually not a problem. After all, everything is not eternal. At most, its lifespan is too long for us to observe. The latter is not waterproof and dustproof. It is just a classic MX axis.

With the power of the classic MX blue switch, a blue switch is composed of five parts, from top to bottom are the upper cover, the lower cover, the spring, the moving piece, the static piece and the shaft core. Among them, the moving film and the static film correspond to the two external pins.

There is no need to explain the upper cover and the lower cover, it is the outer shell, which is equivalent to a small heaven and earth box packaging. The moving piece will be deformed, the static piece is responsible for the short-contact trigger, the spring provides the corresponding trigger pressure and rebound force, and the axis column is responsible for the key travel and connects the keycap through the cross axis.

Simply put, the MX axis is a typical axis body that generates signals through metal deformation.

The essence of the shaft body is the mechanical structure, which is also the origin of the name of the mechanical keyboard. The inside of the shaft needs a certain amount of space for movement, and because of this, there is a possibility of dust accumulation, especially for friends who like to smoke, soot is more lethal to the mechanical keyboard.

Obviously, the more dust accumulates, the more serious the impact on the shaft.

Of course, now the shaft body is no longer the era of foreign countries, the domestic shaft body has developed very rapidly in recent years, and many switch factories in China have developed very well.

Domestic shafts are not only widely used in domestic brands, but also favored by international brands. For example, Razer, the Razer switch was originally designed to deal with the pirate ship’s strategy of monopolizing the cherry switch, but the Razer Green switch itself surpassed the cherry switch.

Note that the yellow and green shaft cores in the above picture are Razer shafts, and the other two are MX-like shafts.

Of course, in essence, the Razer switch still belongs to the MX-like structure, although the lifespan and response speed have been surpassed.

The early Razer switches were developed by the domestic manufacturer Kaihua, and the supplier was changed later, but there are certain improvements. In addition to the MX-like axis, Razer now also has another new axis body-Razer optical axis.

Because the trigger is realized by the light beam, the trigger time is shortened again. Ultra-low delay, no procrastination, and triggering when pressed are the characteristics of the optical axis. In addition, fewer mechanical structures and metal key balance bars also enhance the life of each component, with a life of about 100 million keystrokes, which greatly meets the needs of players.

However, for peripheral players, Razer optical axis is no stranger. To put it bluntly, this is just the third generation of the optical axis that has been used on the bloody ghost B975.

As early as 2017, Bloody Ghost had a mechanical keyboard of the third generation of optical axis.

As for the inventor of the optical axis, it is also the domestic manufacturer Raywing Shark. Raywing Shark is also a switch manufacturer. The biggest difference between the optical axis and the classic MX axis is the trigger principle and structure.

The classic MX axis and the improved axes such as the Kaihua axis and the short axis in the back have the same trigger principle in essence, and they all generate signals through metal deformation. The trigger principle of the optical axis is that the optical signal is closed.

By judging whether the optical signal is on or off, a trigger signal is generated. The classic MX shaft has two major metal modules, the moving piece and the static piece, especially the moving piece, because of the influence of metal characteristics, problems such as metal fatigue, oxidation, wear, etc., plus dust will eventually cause the shaft to get stuck and smelly.

And the optical axis is almost simplified, leaving the spring as a metal part, so there are not so many troubles at all. The optical signal generator should be blocked, unless the accumulated dust fills the entire shaft body, there is no need to worry about it at all.

Due to the reduced "reliance" on metal, the problem of preventing drinks from pouring onto the keyboard can be fully realized as early as the first generation of optical switches. This is also the brand of Shuangfeiyan, Langyin's first-generation optical axis keyboard-Wubayao.

Look carefully, there is a "fence" design on the shaft to prevent water from entering.

Among the mechanical keyboards tested, Titanium's mechanical keyboard has the strongest waterproof and dustproof ability. The optical axis of Raywing Shark is also used, together with the PCB treated with waterproof coating, let alone water, there is no pressure to soak in water for a day and a night.

Therefore, it is basically a false proposition that the membrane keyboard is more durable than the mechanical keyboard. First, friends who use membrane keyboards are basically mainly for business, office and entertainment, not real heavy keyboard users.

Second, the expectations for the keyboard are also low, because there is no sense of oppression that counts against every second in e-sports games.

Thirdly, the switch body of the mechanical keyboard has changed a long time ago, not only the classic MX switch, the MX-like switch but also the brand new optical switch. The optical axis is not only improved in life and response speed, but also can further realize waterproof and dustproof.