What are Optical Key Switches?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2017-05-06
·
956 words · ~4 min read
0:00
quick response times tactile feedback that delightful clickity-clack sound
0:05
that's like a vegas craps table that keeps your roommate awake at night
0:09
mechanical keyboards are awesome for all of that not to mention their durability
0:14
and premium feel but what if instead of relying solely on a mechanical actuator
0:20
you could harness the power of light
0:24
when you type and i'm not talking about the ever
0:27
present RGB backlighting either we are
0:30
starting to see optical keyboard switches hit the market
0:35
which are actually sort of a fusion of existing mechanical keyboard technology
0:40
and infrared light that determines when
0:43
you push down on a key and unlike the huge variety of purely
0:48
mechanical switches there are only two main types of optical switches out there
0:53
right now since the technology is rather new
0:56
the first type is called a light strike switch also called an lk switch these
1:02
work with a more or less traditional mechanical shaft that blocks a freaking
1:07
infrared laser beam when it's idle but when you press down the beam is allowed
1:12
to hit a sensor on the other side of the switch which registers a key press
1:17
now although this is a pretty simple principle of operation it actually
1:21
allows for faster response times when gaming because lk switches register
1:26
keystrokes after traveling just one and a half millimeters downward about 25
1:31
percent less than most current mechanical keyboards the manufacturer
1:35
also claims that actual response times could be as low as a fifth of one
1:40
millisecond which is useful if you need to aim and fire quickly before getting
1:45
headshotted not that too many people have firebound to their keyboard don't
1:48
worry about those little details the other kind of switch goes by the
1:52
super intense name of flaretech
1:55
and works quite differently instead of using a beam of infrared light the pcb
2:01
has an upward facing ir sensor that can
2:04
tell when the switch itself is being pushed down now although this is a
2:08
little more complicated and expensive to engineer than the lk switch the ir
2:14
sensor can actually tell how far the switch is being pressed down allowing
2:18
keyboard manufacturers to use them as so-called analog switches in fact a
2:24
dutch keyboard manufacturer called wooting
2:27
currently has a keyboard with flair tech switches on kickstarter featuring this
2:33
analog control that they're advertising as fine control over things like player
2:38
movement or steering and throttle in driving games imagine being able to push
2:43
down just a little bit on a key to make your car go more slowly around corners
2:47
instead of like spamming the key and hoping that somewhere between here and
2:51
here is like like here ish
2:54
cool right looting is also pushing customizability as a feature of this
2:59
keyboard as the analog functionality can be programmed in a number of ways to
3:04
make these keyswitches much more versatile than traditional ones
3:08
and i mean beyond just gaming they also have the distinct advantage of being
3:12
replaceable since neither type has to be soldered onto the pcb
3:17
so the light sensor used by an lk switch is housed in the switch itself while the
3:22
ir sensor of a flaretech switch doesn't
3:25
need a physical connection to the switch making combining like a keyboard base
3:30
plate with any other type of mechanical actuator that you want
3:34
sound pretty versatile in the future and all of this without giving yourself a
3:39
crash course in soldering of course since the technology is so new
3:44
there isn't much to choose from yet although there are a small handful of lk
3:49
switches currently available on amazon but given their potential to help gamers
3:53
get quicker response times and more granular control it wouldn't be
3:57
surprising to me to see bigger name peripheral brands try to incorporate
4:01
optical switches into their keyboards in the near future and bring in the sweet
4:05
sweet paper that comes with cutting edge technology speaking of being on the
4:11
cutting edge with a lynda.com membership you can stay on the cutting edge whether
4:16
you're looking to take your career to the next level or you just want to get
4:20
better at your hobby for enhanced pleasure
4:23
you can watch and learn from top experts who are passionate about teaching
4:26
because they've got freaking thousands of video courses that you can stream on
4:31
demand and they've got a bunch of great little features that make it easier to
4:35
use you can browse the course transcripts to follow along or just skip
4:39
to that point in the video to see the diagrams that go along with it you can
4:43
create playlists so that you can go along on a particular learning path with
4:47
a small study group of your friends you can even download the tutorials and
4:51
watch them on the go including access on iOS and Android meaning you can start to
4:57
make use of that time that you spend sitting on the bus letting your brain
5:02
rot so the call to action then is head over
5:06
to lynda.com at the link in the video description get the 10 day free trial
5:10
find out if you like it and if you do it starts at a flat rate of just 25 bucks a
5:15
month for all the learning that you could possibly imagine
5:19
so head down there lynda.com slash techwiki so thanks for watching if you
5:23
like the video like it if you dislike to dislike it if you want to check out our other channels boom if you want to leave
5:27
a comment with video suggestions boom and if you want to subscribe then you're
5:31
a good person do that