A mechanical keyboard with hot-swappable keys lets you swap out its switches easily. This feature opens customization options to you, such as feedback, sound, and feel of your keystrokes.
A hot-swappable keyboard is easier to clean than a soldered-on mechanical keyboard.
Hot-swap is a recent innovation in mechanical keyboards, so you might wonder whether your mechanical keyboard has hot-swappable keys. Worry not, finding out if your keyboard is hot-swappable is relatively simple.
This article will let you know how to determine if your keyboard is hot-swappable. Further, we will discuss various features, pros, and cons of a hot-swappable keyboard. If you find out that you don’t have a hot-swappable keyboard, we hope this article will ease your decision-making process on whether to get a hot-swappable keyboard in the future.
Two Basic Keyboard Types
Traditionally, keyboards come in two flavors – membrane and mechanical. The difference between the two lies in the switches that actuate the keystroke.
Membrane keyboards have a rubber dome that presses down to complete the circuit on the keystroke. This makes the typing operationsoft and silent.
Mechanical keyboards, on the other hand, have a spring-actuated switch. This gives them a clicky and noisy nature, like typing on a typewriter.
Most generic keyboards that you find in the market are membrane-type. For everyday use and typing, they are perfectly fine. Furthermore, they are fairly affordable.
Mechanical keyboards, however, are slightly more expensive. Because mechanical keyboards have N-key rollover, they are most gamers’ preferred weapon of choice. They are also popular because they provide much more tactile feedback than membrane keyboards.
What Is a Hot Swappable Keyboard?
When we talk about the hot-swapping ability of a computer component, what that means is that you may plug in and out a device while the computer is running without interfering with the operation of the computer.
The biggest example is USB devices (although pulling out a USB storage device without ejecting it first cannot be recommended!). you may also hot swap external displays connected viaDisplayPort, HDMI, or even VGA. Your headphones with a 3.5mm jack are hot-swappable.
When it comes to a keyboard, the basic functionality of a keypress is composed of three components – thekeycap, theswitch, and the circuit on the Printed Circuit Board (PCB).
The keycap is the key face you interact with and press down on. This, in turn, presses on the switch (a dome or a spring switch), which then connects to the PCB, closing a circuit. The computer registers this action as a keypress.
