Atreus key chatter (kinda)

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1

I am an Atreus user for the past 20 days and I can definitely say that, even though it was a challenge to come up a layout that fits my daily use, Atreus is definitely a joy to type on. However, I do have a pretty minor complaint, which is some form of key chatter, or that is what I think it is.

The problem I have is that I get occasional, but rare double key presses that are not specific to any key; some of which interestingly occur after the next key press. To illustrate, say I want to type ‘the’ but it can sometimes come up as ‘thhe’ and some other times as ‘theh’.

The model I have has Kailh Speed Copper switches, which actuate pretty early compared to what I use before (my previoous experience was with Halo Trues), and snap back quickly. To be honest, me getting used to the switches and the column staggered layout may probably be the main culprit here (that’s why I hesitate to call it a chatter and put the blame on the keyboard), but this probblem is exclusive to this board (I switched back to my previous keyboard for a while to be sure) and I also suspect that it may be completely solved by tweaking some debounce parameter or something.

Any ideas what may cause this?

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I have this same problem! I use my Model 01 most of the time, and whenever I pull out the Atreus I have trouble with extra keypresses in the same manner you describe.

I’m sure that part of it is just the difference between the keyswitches, the “Speed Coppers” seem to be meant to press and release more quickly than I am used to, and the more I use the Atreus the better I get at minimizing duplicates. It used to happen for me every other word, now it only happens every paragraph or two.

I’ve thought about replacing the switches for this reason, maybe they’re “too fast” for me. However, it also seems like maybe a slightly longer debounce time would help, if that is feasible to do.

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The way I may follow if this happens to me one day :thinking: :

  • Your list is thhe and theh -> hey, it’s seems to be on the letter h, or after the t, or before the e…
  • Try to log the keys that chatter (write down the words like the ones you mentioned in a file, yes, it is fastidious and broke your writing flow, but this is how data comes in - a keylogger can help !)
  • Analyzing a more complete list, you may find a pattern : hhas hahs ? check the h. t h y g are here ? your indexes fingers may stroke the keys with a bad angle…
  • If the letters seems to always be the same ones, try to change the switches (by the same ones, changing with a less used one if you don’t have spare parts) : does it moves the problem to this other key, or does the problem persist ? Changing the switches with an other model (box brown, or so) resolve this or not ?

If it is still random, open an issue over kaleidoscope, and maybe some investigations could be done to find a software issue :crossed_fingers: :

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I’m sure that part of it is just the difference between the keyswitches, the “Speed Coppers” seem to be meant to press and release more quickly than I am used to, and the more I use the Atreus the better I get at minimizing duplicates. It used to happen for me every other word, now it only happens every paragraph or two.

This is exactly my experience. The fact that now I make less errors when typing tells me that the switches are part of the problem; but I do not have any separate set of keyswitches laying around and I do not want to purchase one anyway (I do love the feel of the Speed Coppers aside from this chatter issue). If it can be solved my tweaking the firmware, I’d be very glad.

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Try to log the keys that chatter (write down the words like the ones you mentioned in a file, yes, it is fastidious and broke your writing flow, but this is how data comes in - a keylogger can help !)

Can you recommend any keylogger that I can easily trust? I have found something called WhatPulse but I want to be sure it’s safe before I install it on my PC.

By the way I am pretty sure that the issue is not specific to a single key, I’ve seen it happen on a variety of keys: letters, space, backspace, enter…

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Kaleidoscope has an official Keylogger plugin - GitHub - keyboardio/Kaleidoscope-KeyLogger: A key logger for Kaleidoscope. - maybe that would work? Don’t know if there can be problems with detecting chattering keys with a keylogger running on the possible culprit itself (the keyboard).

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7

Update from my end: this could be super rookie level info, but it was helpful for me, so I thought I would share!

I don’t know a whole lot about keyboard switches, but I learned recently that you aren’t necessarily supposed to “bottom out” tactile switches. Especially with the Speed Coppers, because the tactile “bump” requires so little force to reach—you only have to press 0.25mm to reach the “bump”, which counts for a single key press, and then there’s 2.5mm left before you bottom out. You’re supposed to press until you hit the bump, and then release before bottoming out. When I type this way, with seemingly a “feather light touch”, I have no chatter issues. It strange to me to type this way, as someone who has used non-mechanical switches most of my life, but it definitely fixes my issues.

I may end up buying different switches that more closely match my Keyboardio switches, but it’s nice to verify that this is a PEBKAC issue and not a keyswitch issue. :slight_smile: I’ll keep practicing and hopefully I can master the coppers with time.

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