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I obtained two Cherry G84-4700 21-key keypads. It turns out that you
can only use one at once. I was not entirely happy with the switches - so I modified them:
I installed Cherry Tools. It made a bit of a mess of my system - overwriting my existing PS/2 keyboard driver with something that doubled up every keystroke. I resolved the issue by using system restore to step backwards - and then electing not to install any Cherry PS/2 drivers when reinstalling. Unfortunately, it appears to be impossible to program the keys on the two keyboards to perform different actions. The software appears to be incapable of distinguishing between the two keyboards - and any programming attempt affects both keyboards. This seems to be a severe limitation. It means that any attempt to scale these devices up by using more than one of them seems destined to result in failure. It also means that my second keypad is almost totally useless. The keyswitches are not any better than with the Cherry MX ones that come with many other devices. After a while, I replaced them. The original key lenses were cheap and nasty compared to the X- Keys ones. I didn't even have a source of them for most of the keys. These too were replaced during surgery. However, the device is reprogrammable and was inexpensive. 20 of the keys may be fully reprogrammed. The 21st key (originally Ctrl) has a phantom Control press permanently attached to it. You can reprogram it - but you can't completely get rid of the phantom Control press. If you don't use sticky keys, you may not notice this problem. If you do use sticky keys, you might find this irritating.
LinksThis siteFrom here you can go back to Tim's keyboard page.The page about low force microswitches is related to this one.
CherryCherry Compact rangeCherry G84-4700 keypad |
