3 ms·

I wonder what actually changed in the new design that causes this problem? The travel is obviously shorter butsomething else is fundamentally causing the probl

by proee 8y ago

I wonder what actually changed in the new design that causes this problem? The travel is obviously shorter butsomething else is fundamentally causing the problem. Does it have a smaller surface area/pad, different pad material, different coating etc...

lbotos 8y ago
For mine, it's basically any speck of debris that get's lodged, it fails to register the press until that debris moves to another spot. I think the tolerances for "pressed" are too small for "real world" use. Any crumb will "lock up" the key.
- proee 8y ago
  Maybe previous versions had a better "dust keepout" or the contact pad is larger so more resistant to dust.
  - mypalmike 8y ago
    Previous versions were of a different design such that you could shove a small sandwich under the keys and they'd still work.
- pervycreeper 8y ago
  The old trackpads on Apple laptops (pre-force touch) suffered from the same vulnerability, but there didn't seem to be a whole lot of outcry over it.
jacobolus 8y ago
It is a completely different design. The old one was basically a dimpled rubber sheet with some plastic-scissor-stabilized keycaps over the top. The new one is made of little buckling metal parts. They mainly changed designs so that they could make the keyboard thinner – the new one is something like half the depth, or less. Since key travel is reduced, they needed a snappier mechanism to keep enough tactile feel. The feel of the new keyboards is actually impressively okay for something with so little key travel. (Personally I would prefer something with the snap of the new keyboard and at least as much travel as the old keyboard.) The problem is that the little metal pieces get easily slightly bent and stop snapping as much as they should, and also dust gets into the contact mechanism and stops keys from registering.

3 ms·

I wonder what actually changed in the new design that causes this problem? The travel is obviously shorter butsomething else is fundamentally causing the probl

by proee 8y ago

lbotos 8y ago
For mine, it's basically any speck of debris that get's lodged, it fails to register the press until that debris moves to another spot. I think the tolerances for "pressed" are too small for "real world" use. Any crumb will "lock up" the key.
- proee 8y ago
  Maybe previous versions had a better "dust keepout" or the contact pad is larger so more resistant to dust.
  - mypalmike 8y ago
    Previous versions were of a different design such that you could shove a small sandwich under the keys and they'd still work.
- pervycreeper 8y ago
  The old trackpads on Apple laptops (pre-force touch) suffered from the same vulnerability, but there didn't seem to be a whole lot of outcry over it.
jacobolus 8y ago
It is a completely different design. The old one was basically a dimpled rubber sheet with some plastic-scissor-stabilized keycaps over the top. The new one is made of little buckling metal parts. They mainly changed designs so that they could make the keyboard thinner – the new one is something like half the depth, or less. Since key travel is reduced, they needed a snappier mechanism to keep enough tactile feel. The feel of the new keyboards is actually impressively okay for something with so little key travel. (Personally I would prefer something with the snap of the new keyboard and at least as much travel as the old keyboard.) The problem is that the little metal pieces get easily slightly bent and stop snapping as much as they should, and also dust gets into the contact mechanism and stops keys from registering.