A number of Model 01 keyboards from the first two production runs developed ‘key chatter’ problems, either over the first few weeks of their lives or later on. This usually manifests as repeated keystrokes. For example, if you type ‘r’, the keyboard might instead send ‘rr’ or ‘rrr’ some or all of the time. Sometimes, it manifests as missing keystrokes.
After the second production run of Model 01s, we got Matias to change their keyswitch assembly process to use a dry teflon lubricant instead of the wet lubricant they’d previously used. This dramatically decreased the incidence of keychatter on Model 01s, though it’s still possible for dust or other foreign matter to creep inside the switch causing chatter to manifest. These instructions should help with keychatter, no matter the cause.
Simplest solution
The simplest of these solutions is simply to turn your keyboard upside down and to press the offending key 10-20 times. Some of the time, this will provide a temporary fix for the issue. It’s unlikely to be any sort of permanent fix.
Alcohol cleaning
If the issue is grease or or something else interfering with the contacts, stronger measures may be called for. If you’re willing to try this and have rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) on hand. this is the procedure:
Disconnect your keyboard from the computer
Take the keycap off the misbehaving key
Put 5-6 drops of isopropyl alcohol into the switch, just behind the stem. (You should see the switch fill with the alcohol.)
Hit the key 10-15 times in rapid succession
Flip the keyboard upside down
Hit the key 10-15 times in rapid succession
Flip the keyboard right side up
Hit the key 10-15 times in rapid succession
Give it about 10 minutes to dry
See if it’s behaving itself.
Reinstall the keycap.
If that resolves things, it is likely the case that the affected switch was over-lubricated by the keyswitch factory. Depending on how much lubricant got into the switch,you may need to repeat this process once or twice as more of the grease migrates to the contacts and causes the switch to start to chatter again.
If your Model 01 is still under warranty, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at help@keyboard.io for assistance. (If your Model 01 isn’t under warranty, you’re still welcome to ask for help, though there may be a charge for repairs.)
I have founnd that my keyboard occasionnally generates a seconnd n when typing n. I have tried repeatedly pressing the n key, and haven’t yet nonticed any sort of pattern to the generation of double n’s. No other keys seem to be affected. This post itself is an example of the effect – I have not corrected the double letters. Interestingly, it appears that the second nn can appear after the followinng typed character. Has anybody else observed similar behaviour?
I get double A’s fairly frequently and occasional double S’s, but I attribute it to being slow enough getting my finger off the key to trigger a held key repeat. I’m planning on ferreting out the setting to make that delay longer.
Yours looks like a different issue to me, just noting my case for others with doubled letters. This timeout+personal style affects my OneShot modifiers as well.
I’m so sorry your keyboard isn’t behaving correctly. We’ve had a couple reports of “key chatter”, which is the usual name for what you’re seeing. So far, we’ve been able to step folks through an easy at-home resolution.
Shoot us email at help@keyboard.io and we’ll get you sorted out. It shouldn’t require a keyboard replacement, but we’ll make this right, no matter what.
-jesse
[As a note, I’m going to move this conversation into the forum thread with an earlier report of this issue, just for housekeeping purposes]
Today the ‘l’ key (which is the ‘n’ key with my flashed Dvorak mapping) has started to spit out duplicate characters. I’m into the second week of using the keyboard at work and it’s only now beginninng (there’s one there) to show up. NNN(againn!)ot sure what’s up.
Today I noticed that my butterfly key doesn’t always register when pressed down.
I’ve had my keyboardio for over a week, but since the butterfly key is mapped to Right Alt, which I never use, I haven’t noticed anything unusual about the key until now. Today I remapped the key, and was confused why nothing happened when I pressed the key. At first I thought I had made a mistake in the firmware, but it turned out that the key simply doesn’t always register.
I’ve found the LED Stalker effect to be very helpful when “debugging” this. The butterfly key doesn’t always light up when I tap it. On the other hand, the Esc key on the other half of the keyboard always lights up.
It seems like it matters where on the key I put my fingertip when pressing the key.
At the lowest corner, closest to the H key, it feels like 9 times out of 10 the key does not register.
At the opposite, highest corner, closest to the Alt thumb key, it feels like only 1 time out of 10 the key does not register.
Between those points there’s kind of a spectrum of how well it registers.
It also feels like if I mess around with the key for a while, pressing it very hard, holding it, slightly rotating my finger, wobbling it, etc. it gets better for a while even when tapping it “normally.”
This absolutely not a deal breaker or anything for me. Mostly wanted to share the experience and give a tip on something that potentially could be improved in the production in the future
Has anyone else noticed anything like this?
Is there anything I can do? I’ve thought of taking the keycap off and checking the switch, but I don’t have a keycap puller, so I haven’t gotten around doing it yet.
So, in case somebody else stumbles upon this thread, one of the things mentioned via email was “to turn your keyboard upside down and to press the offending key 10-20 times. Most of the time, that will resolve the issue.”
I did that, and so far that seems to have completely fixed the issue!
It’s sill really important to contact help@keyboard.io if you run into something like this. We need to keep track of who sees this and how often, otherwise we can’t push on our suppliers to improve things.
Today somehow my Model01 keyboard started inserting multiple space characters when I press space. Not every time, but some times. Sometimes it’s one extra space sometimes it’s multiple extra spaces.
I’ve left the spaces in this post to illustrate the problem.
I’ve tried unplugging the keyboard and plugging it back in as well as restarting my Mac. I verified that the keyboard on the laptop itself does not exhibit this problem.
Anyone know how to fix this? Is there a way to reset the keyboard to factory defaults? Thanks!
Here’s a video illustrating the problem. I used keycastr to show the keys that are being pressed on the bottom. At the end of the video I’m just pressing “a” “” “a” “” repeatedly, but at a regular cadence.
I’m loving the model 01 in general but am having a few nigglie issues with it on my mac.
I often get multiple key presses recorded (P and bksp seem to be the worst contenders) which may be related to me not releasing the key quickly enough but it happens frequently enough to be a real pain (especially as my password has a P in it which often fails and I think its because of the double character injection).
I must admit I havn’t flashed the firmware for quite a wile (because I’ve swapped the tab ~ and esc keys in my layout and am not sure how to re-flash without loosing that change) so there may be some improvements I’m missing.
