As you might imagine I spend a great deal of time in front of my computer. Being a Software Developer I spend lots of that time using the keyboard. I had been having intermittent problems with carpal tunnel like symptoms and this past spring I started having numbness in my pinkies. I googled around and found that the numbness was likely a result of my keyboard. So I did more research on what kind of keyboard I could buy that would help me.
My first thoughts were of those gimmicky split and undualting keyboards popularized by Microsoft. But digging in I found that my hand position was probably not my issue but instead the actual keys. Cheap keyboards wear out very quickly. As the key switches wear you need to start pressing the keys harder and harder to get them to respond. This is usually not noticeable since you use the keyboard so frequently and the wear is slow. All of this means lots of extra work for your hands, which in turn can lead to problems like I was experiencing. So my mission was to get a keyboard with high quality key switches.
I ended up buying a Deck keyboard. The basic components of the board are the same ones used in emergency vehicles and other “industrial” uses. The switches are rated for 50 million cycles! Typical decent quality keyboards are rated at about 1 million cycles. The layout is a bit non-standard but it actually works really well for me. Having the arrow keys packed in with the delete key and Home/Pg Up/Down/End keys is very useful for navigating through my code files. The keyboard is also backlit with a LED under each key, 2 for the spacebar. This is a feature that I did not need and one that makes it more costly but damn if it is not uber cool.
The Deck keyboard is aimed squarely at gamers but in the end I think that it makes a great keyboard for everyday use and daily coding. If you need a full numeric keypad you have 2, possibly 3 options.
- Buy the Deck board and a USB 21/24 key keypad.
- Wait for the recently announced full size Deck keyboard.
- (Possibly) Wait for the 24 key Deck USB keypad that has been announced but also delayed and possibly killed forever. (Deck has been very non-responsive to inquiries into this matter.)
Even at the steep price of $99 I recommend it to those in siutations like mine.
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3 Comments
Hello, have you found that the Deck keyboard works? I am very concerned because for the last few hours I have been feeling pains in my upper back and tingly, numb feelings down my arms and in both pinkies. I’m actually thinking that I might be having a stroke or some other kind of neural seizure! If it doesn’t get better by the morning I might go to the hosp. emergency room to be checked out. In the meantime I googled “numb pinkies” and found this site and your suggestion on the keyboard. Any feedback/ideas would be appreciated! Btw, I do spend a lot of time typing on my PC (5-6 hours a day) but I never thought it would result in experiencing what I am. Thanks again in advance for your thoughts.
Patty Block
pblock *at symbol* blockconsulting *dot* net
The keyboard works for me, though frequent breaks (at least every half hour) have helped me the most. The layout of the keyboard might be a big problem for some though.
When you type it is also important to keep your elbows and the underside fo your forearms off of the desk.
Hopefully you are feeling better.
i now have two deck keyboards, one full size for my desktop at home and the smaller one for my laptop. they are built like tanks, and be darned if you dont think they look cool. the best keyboard since the original ibm clicky-type one. they are expensive, but if you buy one, it will far outlive your current computer, the one after that, the one after that…