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submitted 5 months ago by fl42v@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

Out of curiosity, I've been watching a few restorations of those spectrums, and I've noticed the keyboards having a rather peculiar construction, judging by today's standards. They have 2 springs, the small one, as far as I understand, presses the membrane layers together, and the larger one returns the key into neutral position once the key is released.

I personally haven't used any spectrums, yet I've encountered the very same construction on a keyboard of a Russian clone of said machines (namely, zx atas), and to this day I haven't touched anything worse... The only way I can describe it is like trying to type on a piece of raw meat.

So, if anyone here had a chance to type on the original spectrums, was it this bad? I suspect otherwise since I haven't heard of crowds of people requesting PTSD treatment, but the whole thing still somewhat bothers me ๐Ÿ˜…

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[-] modeler@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I had a Sinclair QL which pioneered the keyboard. It wasn't great - it was far behind the Acorn BBCs and the Commodores) but it was quite usable.

There was significant vertical travel, and there was variation in the push the key gave back - increasing to a point of no return, then a quick downward movement to the thunk of the end of key travel.

I could type moderately fast on it.

[-] fl42v@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago

Phew, count me relieved. The keyboard on that clone was pretty linear as far as I can remember with no variation in force applied whatsoever

this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
33 points (92.3% liked)

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