Fülhen FL8000

[HaaTa]

Apparently this is the first one of these in North America...don't worry it's nothing special. Don't bother.
It is however, capacitive sensing.

DSC_0260 by triplehaata, on Flickr

DSC_0261 by triplehaata, on Flickr

So...cheap...I should stick to vintage keyboards

DSC_0262 by triplehaata, on Flickr

Yep, it's a dome.

DSC_0264 by triplehaata, on Flickr
DSC_0265 by triplehaata, on Flickr

They're definitely not Fülhen me
DSC_0268 by triplehaata, on Flickr

A million cheap screws later...

DSC_0270 by triplehaata, on Flickr

DSC_0271 by triplehaata, on Flickr

Now this is interesting, domes over membrane...but isn't this supposed to be cap sense?
DSC_0278 by triplehaata, on Flickr

LOL, so they used a membrane instead of using springs (like Topre), foil (like Keytronic, Alphameric, etc.) or capacitive flippies (like IBM Model Fs).
DSC_0288 by triplehaata, on Flickr
DSC_0289 by triplehaata, on Flickr
DSC_0292 by triplehaata, on Flickr

Ugh, was this hand soldered...terribly?
DSC_0281 by triplehaata, on Flickr

At least the soldering job on the RGB leds looks good, because we all know these are the most important part
DSC_0280 by triplehaata, on Flickr

DSC_0307 by triplehaata, on Flickr


As for the scan rate, I did some basic scoping. At best the scan rate is 5.25 milliseconds (not including overhead from the controller). Not bad. A Model F is around 16 ms. Though not quite the 1 ms (1000 Hz) that marketing likes to throw around.

Conclusion:
Crap keyboard, feels like a normal rubber dome. Basically the only reason for the capsense here was to cheap out on diodes and get more durability over a metal contact dome switch.
Still, it's neat to see a some new attempts at doing cap sense. I've never seen the membrane over pcb method.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/triplehaa ... 763091475/

Hopefully I'll start posting lots of pics again in the near future, lots of inventory to go through...

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Considering that I barely understand normal capacitive, and two or three layer membrane gives you ca. 0.7–0.9 mm travel …

[Halvar]

I don't get it yet. How is a membrate with a conductive dot on it that's exactly the size of the inner contact on the pcb like the spring in Topres? The PCB contacts seem unisolated, so when the membrane is pressed down, there should be full contact between the membrane and the inner dot contact on the PCB. How is that capacitive? I assume the outer circle on the PCB is supposed to be the other electrode, but I don't even see how the capacitance should be increased by much.

[andrewjoy]

It looks ugly, that font

[Muirium]

"Some gamers must like it." This is the only logic I can think of for all the keyboards with that style of typeface. Copying the other guys…

Looks like they reused normal membrane components to make this. We need to see how many layers there are in the membrane (if it's all 3, then engage suspicion!) and what's actually hooked up to the circular sense pads.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Then there's those weird yellow things under the keycaps.

[Diventus]

Is this keyboard silent? Seems like it could be...

[Muirium]

Cheap / light rubberdomes are generally quieter than any mechanical, even the damped ones like (super expensive) Topre Type-S. So you're probably right!

[jacobolus]

Tried this yesterday. Feels pretty much like Topre. :p


(Just kidding. It’s similar, but not exactly the same. The extra spring in the Topre switch is pretty noticeable. This switch is more tactile than Topre but doesn’t give you as much resistance on the way down or bounce on the return stroke. To be honest I’m not a huge fan of either one, but I can understand why some people like Topre switches.)

Overall this is pretty nice for a rubber dome I thought. But nothing to write home about.