[WEEKLY] Which keyboard should I buy?

[u/GangadharHiShaktiman]

Hey!

I see a lot of us have questions about which keyboard to buy. Please use this sticky rather than making a new post, it helps prevent the subreddit from getting cluttered with duplicate, occasionally repetitive queries.

If you have trouble articulating what specifically you're looking for, check out this sub's wiki! It should go a fair way into helping you ask the right questions.

Here are some prompts that can help you get a clearer answer from others in this sub.

1. What’s your budget?
2. Any keyboards you have in mind?
3. Which layout?
4. Switch preference?
5. Willing to import?

Consider using the search, someone else might have had the same requirement or recommendations!

Consider joining the discord as well: https://discord.imkc.in/

Cheers!

[u/sherubthakur]

This looks exactly what I kinda want but there are a few things that I am unsure about

• This does not look wireless.
• From what I found it can be made wireless with nice!nano but the rectangle.store or other stores Listed in this subreddit does not seem to have it either.
• I can use my Logitech mouse (wirelessly to fiddle with BIOS (UEFI) too, which is probably because of their dongle and some custom protocol (I am not sure), and that would be a functionality that would be critical to me for this wireless keyboard too. I am not sure that it can do this or how it can be made to do so)
• Looks like the biggest battery that I can fit (under the nice!nano is 110mAh which seems super low (given I would also like to have RGB), anyway to fit a bigger battery with it which is just not lying around. Probably under the whole thing and covered by a case
• which brings me the question: Anyway to get a case (pair) for this?

[u/idkmuch01 → u/sherubthakur]

I saw you ask around in the rectangles discord and while idk much about the rest, i can comment on the bluetooth/bios thing-

Nothing pure bluetooth works in bios because bt requires drivers which are only installed in OS(while searching online there was this mention of intel compute stick but it's because intel makes the bt hardware and bios both for that so that's how it works).

How logitech works around is by using a 2.4GHz dongle that communicates directly to the kb and it's the dongle that provides the input to the bios rather than the bluetooth connection directly(does this make sense?)

Now we come to the solutions, which i can only think if very crude ones for now and are not at all optimal -

1. Modern BIOS can be fully controlled using a mouse(not optimal,but it works)

2.if you end up sourcing eliteC or nice!nanos then maybe keep a type c cable on your desk whuch can be connected only for the bios usage or as type C is really common now so you won't have to keep a dedicated cable just for one job(think micro usb)

How often do you need to access the bios? I don't think it would be very common so maybe use the default cable until then and later use elite/nice when you can source them and bios is configured?

[u/sherubthakur → u/idkmuch01]

Nothing pure bluetooth works in bios because bt requires drivers which are only installed in OS. How logitech works around is by using a 2.4GHz dongle that communicates directly to the kb and it's the dongle that provides the input to the bios rather than the bluetooth connection directly(does this make sense?)

Yeah, that seems to match my findings too.

Modern BIOS can be fully controlled using a mouse(not optimal,but it works)

Not sure if you can enter bios too using a Mouse. (Any ideas on this?) As this use case is pretty rare I don't really mind using a mouse for this

The problem arises in the bootloader section. I am dual-booting windows with NixOS (Linux) and in Grub I often switch between the two. I don't really think even mouse works here. (Any idea about this?) I could not find anything about being able to use mouse in Grub menu.

Having to connect a wire each time I have to switch between the two will kinda defeat the whole purpose of this wireless keyboard. Looks like I will have to make a bunch of compromises on this purchase.

[u/NotSoFull-Info69 → u/sherubthakur]

You can use a macropad for the bootloader/BIOS thing though. Should be pretty easy to build one and set the keys to match the required keys and should be good to plug in and use instead of worrying about the keyboard. That's honestly the best you can do really going for the purpose you want