strafe rgb Manufacturing Quality and Key Chatter

[Applies to a STRAFE RGB with Cherry MX Browns from Q4 2015.]

In Short

If I RMA my chattering/faulty keybboard, will I receive a new, tested board where all of the keys have been confirmed working correctly and there are no other problems? I'm concerned that I'll just receive a board with different problems and waste a lot of money and time in the process.

My honest impression is that there's a 95% chance of the next Corsair board also having significant hardware probblems. Certainly this has stayed my hand in the past from purchasing a Kxx RGB series with their dim, failing LEDs.

(I'm leaving in the typos since they perfectly represent one of the problems that I'm having.)

The Long Version

Problems experienced:

1. Chattering keys:

- Mostly the B and U keys, but some other letters and numbers as well

- SwitchHitter suggests that the following keys fail at the 30ms threshold:

F1, F6, F10, F11, F12, 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, E, U, I, O, S, D, K, X, C, V, B, M, Home, Delete, End, Left, Down, NumPad1.

(I know that this isn't a perfect test due to the case of just passing the switching point, but for the most part, the fastest I can double-hit a key is around the 60ms, so I'm testing against 30ms rather than the default 8ms. This is a more than decent engineering margin.)

2. Keys that don't always register, even after hitting the floor: B, U

3. Metallic reverberating sound from some keys, especially Left Shift. This is actually quite distracting. Not sure if this is just the key, or the construction of that lower-left area of the board allowing some vibration.

What I've tried:

- Polling rate change

- Firmware update

- (More polling rate changes)

- CUE software update

- Different USB ports (on this note, the plugs need to bbe thinner! The USB port spacing specification has been out for years now...)

Deciding on a New Keyboard

I've been using a 2012 Razer Blackwidow with Cherry MX Blues (and striking static bblue backlighting) for many blissful years of work/gaming. Beside the glossy plastic, I've never experienced a bbuild quality problem. I decided that the RGB and reactive lighting were finally worth an expensive upgrade.

But which way to go?

1. Razer

+ Previous Blackwidow was awesome

+ Simple software user interface

+ Radiant RGB lighting

- Unknown Razer mechanical switches (feel/sound/longevity)

- Cloud privacy issues (have I bought my own personal key logger for Razer???)

- Razer deactivated the on-board memory of my Blackwidow

- One particularly non-chalant update message turned out to be a firmware update that bricked my £120 keyboard for a couple of days until I worked out how to fix it

- Software customisability

- No SDK (at the time I bought the STRAFE)

2. Corsair

+ Better software capabbilities for reactive backlighting (I'll happily spend the time playing)

+ SDK

- Dimmer / inconsistent RGB backlighting (e.g. the Enter key is partially lit)

- Bad reputation for quality control (let's be honest, that's the impression I get around the internet, especially after the Kxx RGBs)

It came down to a choice between the STRAFE RGB and the new BBlacwidow Chroma. With a primary requirement for the RGB lighting, and the unknown of the Razer mechanical switches , I opted to go with the STRAFE (even though it's missing the media wheel/macro record/some extra macro keys compared to the Kxx series).

STRAFE

I must stress that I really like this keyboard, the reactive backlighting is fun and I can now highlight controls in games so that the controls are more memorable. The macro capabilities work well, and it physically looks great. You're not quite there on the blazing backlighting of the Razer boards, but the brighter LEDs and white backing really has come a long way from the Kxx series.

While I've been through many, many £10 keyboards with never a problem, I fully expect that the best part of £200 will net me some good quality control. My Corsair RAM and PSU work fine (fingers crossed): why are the keyboards having such problems? Are you a second-tier buyer from Cherry or something?

I'm happy to upload my SwitchHitter logs if it helps.

I am having the exact saame problems with keychatter. I honestlyyy love this keyboard but the keychatter is exhausting. If i onlyy used this keyyboard for gaming and never chaated or text messaged or had to tyype anyything with out havving to wear out the backspace key would be really aawesome.. If anyone has any ideas oon how to stop or aatleast keep some of this keychatter to a minimum would be awesome. If anyyone else is having this problem please let me knoow or have some kind of fix for this issue would be awesome. Luckily I bought this keyboard at bestbuyy with a 2 year warrantyy aand have exachanged it atleast 3 times now I guess I will be exchanging it once again. Too bad because I really love this keyboard and expected much more for 250 Dollars. I woould really love a reply from someone at corsair or some kind of explination or ffix. Please note I intentionally did not edit out anyy of the errors let from typing this reply.

The Keyboard I am currently using is the Corsair Strafe RGB

the keychatter starts occuring due to the key's internal contacts not being shockproof at all. Just one hit too hard on the keys or the frame loosens the internal contacts even more then they allready are and they start resonatting and giving contact with the slightest bump, once affected you'r stuck with it. This could even be triggered by dropping or bumping the box during transport.

What has helped me a great deal in this matter was to raise the feet of the keybord making the chatter practicaly dissapear for now, even on a 1000Hz poll rate (spacebar still seems affected due to it's still flatter position on the bottom of the keybord, where there is less of the angle effect by raising the feet, i'm guessing. (or that key is just the worst of em all).

greetings.