1、 A story between me and the keyboard

Keyboard, as the most important peripheral device for computer input, is closely related to our life; Basically, every computer is equipped with a keyboard, but the keyboard is good and bad; I am a game enthusiast. At the beginning of my computer assembly business, I will give keyboard and mouse as gifts. For example, Hyundai, Shuangfeiyan and others can call their names, and others can't call their names, which is even worse; Later, I found that the keys of the keyboard became less and less flexible, and the feel of the keyboard became worse and worse; Later, separately purchased Logitech G13 and Logitech G1 mouse key kits;

▲ Although it is a game keyboard in the sense, the feel of it has declined with the years. Later, when browsing the web, I accidentally saw a special keyboard: Mechanical keyboard In terms of structure, each key of the mechanical keyboard has a separate switch to control the closing, which is also called“ axis ”According to the classification of microswitch, mechanical keyboard can be divided into black axis, tea axis, green axis, white axis and red axis. It is precisely because each key is composed of an independent micro movement, so the key has a strong sense of paragraph, thus producing a special feel suitable for game entertainment; Compared with the short life of the silicone bowl of the membrane keyboard, the shaft life of the mechanical keyboard is up to 5000W times;

▲ In order to see the charm of the mechanical keyboard, I bought the Benji Tianji Mirror mechanical keyboard in 2014. It uses the original cherry black shaft, 104 full keyboard structure, and is equipped with thick steel plate. The thick, straight up and down feel makes me love it; After using for a period of time, the criticism was exposed, and some keys failed repeatedly. The most unpleasant thing was that the feel of the ABS keycap was reduced by oiling. Two years later, today, there was a willingness to replace the keyboard.

▲ 618 In the promotion activity of a company, the first one was the mechanical keyboard. At this time, the difficulty of choosing came on again, and I hesitated to miss several types of keyboard. Later, I saw the mechanical keyboard of the domestic Gauss brand in the promotion of preferential information, especially the white version; Its most prominent feature: the original cherry shaft+PBT key cap, but only the smaller 87 key model (GS87) is available. At this time, we can't hesitate to place an order immediately.

2、 Appearance

There are obvious advantages in purchasing peripheral products in East China: transportation timeliness+warranty; The order was placed that night, and the next morning I received a call from the courier. Not surprisingly, GS87 is smaller in size;

▲ GS87 is packed in a simple paper box, with a large model - GS87 printed on the front, and a description of the product features on the upper left corner; There is a large amount of information, among which the main features are: cherry shaft+PBT key cap+optional lamp; In addition to the anti-counterfeiting code in the upper right corner, there is no sealing strip; From the above figure, we can see that the characters in the upper left corner have been painted. It can be seen that the exchange of goods in a certain east is still quite serious. It is not ruled out that the last player has maliciously painted and changed it. I don't care. Anyway, it is very convenient to exchange goods; But children's shoes with virginity complex should be careful.

▲ Simple product label. The mechanical keyboard purchased this time uses cherry green shaft, the body color is white, and the manufacturer has a one-year warranty; Universal packing boxes can only be checked manually, which is a common fault of domestic manufacturers. In order to save costs, details are ignored. If stickers are used, the labels will look cleaner.

▲ There is only Gauss GANSS label on the side, which can easily open the package seal;

▲ Open the packing box and see the warranty service card and the keyboard wrapped with bubble film; The volume is just enough to fit into the packaging box. After a long and bumpy transportation, there is no bump on the edge, and the key cap does not fall off. This simple packaging is very reliable!

▲ In addition to the white keyboard host and warranty card, the accessories are only the mini blue key puller; Compared with the non PBT version, the PBT version does not give away colorful keycaps; The key puller is too mini, especially for large keys such as shift, because the force arm of the key puller is too short, it is not convenient to hook to the bottom of the key cap; It is suggested that the manufacturer give away the steel wire key puller next time (in fact, the new GS87 in 2016 gives away the steel wire key puller); ▲ The warranty card indicates that a one-year warranty service is provided. The delicate body of the mechanical keyboard and the failures caused by splashing water on the keyboard are not covered by the warranty. As for whether the refitting and lighting can be guaranteed, there is no direct statement above, only that the unauthorized removal and maintenance, and the removal of the batch number can not guarantee; Therefore, in the daily maintenance, pay special attention to the waterproof splashing of the keyboard.

▲ Compared with the Benji Tianji Mirror with 104 keys, the size of 87 keys is reduced by one third due to the lack of a number keyboard; The reduced keyboard increases the portability; Compared with Tianji Mirror's radical increase of the return key and the reduction of the return key, GS87 is standard, which also makes it easier for GS87 to find a replacement key cap, suitable for DIY users;

▲ The white ABS plastic fuselage can be used, because the white is easy to produce obvious defects and yellowing, generally speaking, the fuselage has no burrs, and the workmanship is OK; The font of the key cap is clear and legible. Graphical icons are also marked below the F1-F12 function keys to facilitate user identification;

▲ The upper right corner is the function key and the indicator light, the left side is the upper case indicator light, and the right side is the upper case indicator light? How many children's shoes know its function? Originally, this is called the scroll lock key. When you press Scroll lock: After this key, the mouse's scroll key cannot be used. It can only be used in the era of DOS, and does not work at present;

▲ There is only sky blue logo on the side of the white fuselage, which is simple and generous;

▲ Flat bottom shell, with fixed wide foot pads and foot supports around, and product nameplate and warranty sticker in the middle; The disadvantage is that there is no cable trough, and the keyboard data cable can only be routed from the middle, which is inconvenient to store;

▲ From the side view of the GS87 keyboard, the six row key cap has a certain slope. If the feet are propped up, the slope is higher. Compared with the sky mirror, the GS87 has a larger slope, which is more ergonomic and makes typing more comfortable.

▲ The data line with shielding ring can prevent external interference. At the same time, the head is gold-plated to prevent oxidation, and the wire diameter is quite thick; The disadvantage is that the data cable is not detachable; At the same time, it is recommended that the manufacturer should equip the data cable with ties to facilitate the storage of the data cable;

▲ The adjustable foot support has only one angle, and the top of the foot support is made of soft plastic material to make the support more stable;

3、 Disassembly

In order to have a glimpse of the internal structure of GS87, and at the same time to add lights to produce a more dazzling effect, we decided to dissect GS87;

▲ Several tools are used here: diagonal pliers, screwdriver, tin suction device, electric soldering iron, soldering tin, crystal oscillator base and ice blue LED light; Why do you need a crystal oscillator base? Don't you directly weld the LED lamp on the motherboard? The reason is that in order to facilitate the replacement of the lamp, the traditional welding method is troublesome, and the repeated welding due to the replacement of the LED lamp is easy to make the bonding pad fall off. With the method of crystal oscillator base, it only needs to weld once, and it can be replaced simply by pulling out the LED lamp;

▲ Used at this time For the key puller, first pull out all the key caps;

▲ When removing the key cap, it can be seen that GS87 adopts a two-color injection molding key cap with stiffeners inside; However, there is a little burr at the edge of the key cap, and the visible details have not reached home;

▲ Compared with the ABS key cap (black) of Tianji Mirror, the PBT key cap of GS87 is more delicate, and the PBT key cap is characterized by no oiling;

▲ The key cap of two-color injection molding has a good advantage, that is, transparent injection molding materials are easy to penetrate light, and the characters of ctrl can be clearly seen through light irradiation, which is very beautiful;

▲ The space bar is designed with a satellite axis on both sides, so that pressing the space bar can balance the left and right sides, and the hand feel is not fleshy;

▲ Large keys such as the Enter key are designed with the satellite axis, making the feel consistent with the ordinary keys;

▲ After removing all keys, the original cherry green shaft will show its true face; There are 87 keys in total, all of which use green axis;

▲ After the upper cover plate is removed and the screws of the back cover are removed, you can see the green PCB board, which is thick, double-layer structure, and glass solder board. The components are evenly distributed and the wiring is reasonable;

▲ Melt the tin on the two pins of the fixed shaft with an electric soldering iron and suck it away with a tin suction device; Here is a trick. Generally, after a period of oxidation, solder joints are difficult to melt directly with a soldering iron. One way is to add tin, which is to directly add tin to the solder joints. In this way, the hot solder will transfer heat to the solder joints and fuse with the solder joints. At this time, remove the soldering iron on the horse, press the tin aspirator to the bottom of the solder pad, and then absorb the solder, The effect of tin removal is very ideal;

▲ At this time, the solder left on the pin will be sucked away, making it easier to disassemble the shaft body, but it is inevitable to encounter some difficult pads, which need to be repeatedly operated, but it should be noted that the pad temperature should not be too high, which may easily lead to the pad falling off;

▲ Install the crystal oscillator base on the shaft body. Generally, the whole shaft body needs to be removed for the course. This is improper. If the installation is not good, the stability of the shaft body will be affected, and the feel will change; I use the side insertion method, just pull the snap on the side, align the base with the bottom hole and insert it, and finally install both bases; It can be seen from the front that the notches of the two crystal oscillator bases face outward;

▲ Install the shaft body inserted into the crystal oscillator base back to the main board, and then the electric soldering iron is on the scene again. Weld the pins by spot welding. Pay attention to the cone shape of the welding spot, and avoid false welding;

▲ Turn the welded PCB upside down and install LED lights; Remember to cut the LED lamp pins to 1cm, with the same length on both sides. Insert the two pins into the notch of the quasi crystal oscillator base, pay attention to the positive and negative poles of the pins, do not use brute force, and avoid pressing the elbow foot;

▲ After installation, power on commissioning can be carried out to check whether the lights at all key positions display normally; Because this version of the motherboard has a light control chip, there are 11 kinds of lights with rich effects;

4、 Usage

As a mechanical keyboard for players, Gauss GS87 not only has a good feel, but also has rich lighting effects and performance;

▲ Pass the PassMack KeyboardTest, and there is no conflict in the whole process in USB mode;

▲ As a game player, the most troublesome thing is to press the WIN key by mistake, which leads to the return to the desktop mode. At that time, all the players want to die; Through FN+F12, you can block the WIN key, so you can rest assured of the game;

▲ In addition, it supports a variety of lighting effects to increase the playability of the keyboard; Through the FN+function keys, we will not demonstrate one by one here;

▲ Area lighting mode, according to different game types, for example, in FPS, LOL and other modes, the lights of commonly used keys can be selected to light up;

▲ In the single click off mode, the keyboard lights are all on, click the keyboard key, and the key light touched by the finger is off;

▲ Single on mode, which is just the opposite of the above single off mode. The key not pressed is off, the key light is on, and the key is delayed off;

▲ In Ripple Mode, pressing the button is like throwing stones into the calm water surface, and the ripples spread around like a charm;

▲ Horse running lamp mode: the lamp in this mode lights up automatically, running from left to right and from top to bottom like a greedy snake. It is very dynamic. In this mode, there is no linkage between the keys pressed; In addition, there is a breathing mode, which can flash out according to the set time;

▲ Finally, let's talk about the core axis of the mechanical keyboard - cherry green axis; The Cherry Axis has a good reputation and a large number of loyal fans. In particular, the Green Axis has a clear sense of paragraphs and is popular with office and game people; But last year, the rate of smelly axle of cherry green axle increased (smelly axle: refers to the axle body with sense of paragraph, without clear and crisp paragraph sound, the sound appears dull, but does not affect triggering and bottoming), so the original factory green axle was treated coldly in the peripheral circle. I bought this Gauss keyboard with both the old and the new axis (the 2016 version of GS87 all uses the new axis). No smelly axis was found in the whole keyboard. There is little difference between the old and the new, but the sound of some keys is slightly different. It is said that the quality control of the new axis has been improved, which is not sure here;

▲ Cherry shaft is divided into four parts: shaft cover, switch slider, contact metal sheet and base; Disassembly is very simple, only four clips of the shaft body need to be removed;

▲ The most important part of the switch slider is the zigzag plastic block. The strong sense of the blue axis is generated by inserting it into the contact metal sheet;

▲ If the switch slider is the main reason for paragraph feeling, then The contact metal sheet is the source of the unique sound, and its structure is very special. The metal plates on both sides contact the contact in the middle;

▲ As the zigzag plastic sheet on the switch slider is inserted into two metal sheets closely together, it is obvious that when the pressing depth exceeds the protruding part of the plastic sheet, the pressure degree is significantly reduced, which is completely different from the previous pressing feel; At the same time, due to the function of inserting the plastic sheet, the contacts of the two pieces of metal collide from separation to suction, forming a unique mechanical keyboard Click、 Click、 Click... sound, compared with the thick straight up and down feel of the black axis before, the unique paragraph sense of the green axis, two different pressing forces, and the unique Click sound makes typing a pleasure; But at the same time, the noise of the green axis is too big, which is not suitable for quiet office use. In terms of games, whether online games or shooting games, the green axis of GS87 gives a different feeling from the black axis, but the disadvantage is that the trigger journey is relatively long, affecting the reaction speed.

5、 Summary

As my first Cherry Green Axis keyboard, it may be because my expectations are not too high, so GS87 gives me a good feeling; Specific performance:

advantage:

1. The white and elegant traditional keyboard appearance is simple and generous, which proves that no feature is the best feature;

2. Solid workmanship and thick materials, whether the frame is made of ABS material, or PBT key cap, whether it is a double-layer PCB glass solder board, or an expandable lamp control, all give a sense of stability and reliability;

3. The handle is outstanding. The original cherry green shaft, whether new or old, can basically maintain the same feel, and the big key with the satellite shaft design will not feel very fleshy;

Disadvantages:

1. The white ABS material frame and bottom shell are easy to get dirty, and whether they can withstand the test of time still needs a big question mark;

2. The key cap has burrs, and the detail workmanship needs to be improved;

3. USB cable cannot be disassembled separately, which is inconvenient to store;

Purchase suggestions:

If you need an entry-level 87 key mechanical keyboard, the 300 or 400 yuan Gauss GS87 is definitely your first choice. Low price but not low quality, solid internal workmanship; For the axis, black axis or red axis is recommended for those who like the game, and green axis is recommended for text input; If you are new to the mechanical keyboard, recommend tea spindle; Recommend the official flagship store or a store through the purchase channel; DIY recommends to purchase motherboard series with lamp positions reserved to make room for installing lamps in the future.