mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (08/04/84)
I just ordered and received a Qubie FF5150 keyboard. I'm having a lot of trouble with it, and would appreciate input from others so I can tell if I have a lemon or if all Qubie's are like this. Also, I'd like to know if Keytronics keyboards have these problems. I'm very impressed with Qubie's policies - I ordered it on Wednesday by phone (cost is $169) and for an extra $7 they shipped it UPS Blue Label - I had it on Friday. No extra charge for Visa. They also advertise a free 30 day money back trial. The keyboard layout is also excellent. It's claimed to be a "Keytronics KB5150 lookalike" and as far as I can tell it is. Shift and \ are swapped from the IBM layout, and the enter key is horizontal, with the `~ key moved to the right of ]. There is also a large ENTER key where the bottom 2/3 of the keypad + used to be, and LED's in the num lock and caps lock keys. Several keys (tab, ctrl both shifts, enter, backspace) have full-sized keys instead of the "gotcha" keys on the IBM. There are still gotcha keys on Alt, Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock, Ins, and Del. There are little nibs on the f, j, and 5 keys so your fingers know they are in the home position; the f and j nibs are on the lower edge of the key, so they don't annoy you the way dots in the center do. The main problem is that the keyboard is far too stiff. When typing on it, a substantial fraction of the characters I type don't register, because I didn't press down far enough. In spite of a conscious effort to press harder, I find I still miss a lot of characters and have to go back and get them. This makes touch typing very hard as you have to watch what appears on the screen and go back and fix problems. The advertisement claims you get tactile feedback (the key click the IBM keyboard has is gone.) I don't get any tactile feedback from the Qubie. I expect tactile feedback to resemble the IBM selectric or Teletype Dataspeed 40 keyboard - effort gradually gets harder as you press the key down, then at the point where it registers you feel a "breakthrough" as it suddenly gets easier. The point of registration is clearly evident. With the Qubie, effort is constant (and high) until the key is about 75% depressed; it registers at about the 70% point (far too deep), and after 75% effort gets harder. It's as though you had suddenly hit a rubber pad and were pressing into it. I expect a keystroke to register somewhere around 30-50% of the travel distance, and most other keyboards do. The IBM keyboard has a little ridge above the keys, apparently intended for placing the paper you're typing from on (like a typing stand). It's also used for overlay templates, which are cut to hook around this ledge. The Qubie has changed this - when moving from the bottom of the keyboard to the top, there's a 1/4 inch sudden rise just past the top row of keys (just like the IBM), but instead of an equally sudden 1/4 inch drop after 1/4 of ledge, it gradually slopes down to keyboard level at the top of the keyboard. This makes the ledge useless for holding typing copy, and prevents overlays from fitting onto the keyboard neatly. I can't figure out any reason for this change. There is also a recessed slot for a label near the right of this slanted area, about 5/8 inch by 2 3/4 inch, which is blank. I wonder if Qubie OEM's these keyboards for someone else - you don't suppose the Keytronics keyboard is made by Qubie? A couple of packaging differences that don't seem to matter - the keyboard is slanted, not by the two little side legs the IBM has, but by two little metal things in the middle that remind me of those big paper clips with the black metal clamps. They are harder to raise and lower, and the middle position isn't available, but they work fine, and have rubber feet so they won't slide around your desk quite as easily as the IBM. Also, the cord comes out the back of the right side of the keyboard (the IBM's comes out the left) so it wants to snake around the right side of your PC instead of the left side. I've noticed some reliability problems with my Qubie in one day's use. Several times it's gone into what acts like a "shift lock" mode, where everything is shifted. I can't reproduce it, but it seems to happen when I hit the backslash key and shift key at the same time (I have some unlearning of IBM habits to do), and it goes away when I press shift. I've also had it go into a similar "control lock" mode twice - again, pressing control clears it. This isn't documented so I assume it's a bug rather than a feature. On four separate occasions, it's simply generated the wrong character for me. For example, twice I've hit the "t" key and it's put a "`" on the screen. Given the positions of these characters on the screen and where my hands were at the time, there is no way I could have hit "`" by mistake. Anyway, I'd like to know if the Keytronics keyboards have these problems as well, and if anyone out there who has a Qubie is having the same problems. Mark Horton mark@cbosgd.UUCP cbosgd!mark mark@Berkeley.ARPA