Recently, the hottest topic in the peripheral industry is naturally the magnetic axis, after all, the MX axis has long been familiar to everyone, and the optical axis with longer life and faster response speed has already taken root in the market. As for the magnetic shaft, many people think it is a new thing, but in fact it is in their 60s.
As early as 1965, the first magnetic shaft was developed by the American Micro Motion Company. The Micro Motor Company was also the founder of the first micro switch, the inventor was named Philip Kenneth McGowell, and his boss used this invention to create the American Micro Motor Company.
That is to say, micro switches are also the companies that know mechanical micro switches best. Around 1960, Micro Motion in the United States began to engage in keyboard-related business. At the time, their keyboards were using reed switches. The inside of the reed switch has a shaft, a spring, a magnet, and a small bottle.
When the button is pressed, the magnet on the axis moves closer to the small glass bottle. Under the influence of magnetic force, the metal pieces inside the glass bottle are attracted and come into contact, which in turn generates a signal.
Monitoring this process with an instrument will reveal that the moment of contact, a jitter signal will be generated. Then it enters the state of stable on. That's the jitter problem. The duration and strength of the jitter signal are related to the force of pressing the keyboard, the speed of the keyboard, the thickness of the metal sheet, the composition, and the fatigue. The jitter problem of the reed switch is similar in essence to the jitter problem of the Cherry MX-like shaft body we use every day, and it is unavoidable and unavoidable.
In 1965, Micro Motion brought the world's first magnetic shaft.
The construction of the magnetic shaft is very simple. The shaft body is composed of a shaft, a magnet, a hall sensor, and a spring. When the shaft is pressed, the magnet approaches the Hall sensor, and a Hall voltage that exceeds the threshold triggers it.
According to a catalogue made in 1983, the magnetic shaft products of Micro Motion have a service life of 100 million cycles. In 1998, Micromotion published "The Concept and Application of the Hall Effect" on its website, describing that 20 billion cycles were successfully performed on a keyboard tester with 90 buttons. The life of the shaft body far exceeds that of the reed switch of the same period, and most of the current mechanical shaft bodies.
Incidentally, this Hall shaft achieves an input experience that no linear mechanical shaft can match. All Cherry MX-like mechanical switches, because of the presence of metal contacts on the shrapnel, even in the pressure gram curve of the ** axis, you can always see an inflection point in the rebound process.
The pressure gram curve of the linear magnetic axis is a nearly perfect straight line. Even if the shaft body is not lubricated, his typing feel is excellent.
The magnetic shaft of the micro motion company has also made some innovations. For example, two independent Hall elements are inserted into a shaft to achieve a single press and double trigger. Later, in the mechanical switches produced by ALPS, this function was copied and applied to the keyboard arrow keys of Apple III, realizing the slow movement of the arrow key cursor and the rapid movement of the arrow key cursor by pressing the arrow key, expanding the use scenarios of the keyboard in the future.
However, compared with the MX axis, the magnetic shaft has higher requirements in terms of materials, production difficulty, and quality control, so it is naturally more expensive. Originally, the early whole machine was very expensive, and the peripherals were not cheap, so they were naturally eliminated by both manufacturers and consumers.
Micro was acquired by Honeywell in 1950, and in 1993, Honeywell sold its keyboard-related business to Key Tronic. The CEO of Honeywell at the time said that the company's keyboard business was profitable, but it was no longer suitable for the company's strategic direction. The document "The Concept and Application of the Hall Effect" not only explains the Hall effect, but also provides more than 20 practical cases based on the Hall effect. It was destined to have a profound impact on the development of magnetic shafts.
*From: telcontar
In 1978, Omron engaged in magnetic shafts again, and it was still miniaturized. There is no shrapnel, but it has the feel of a paragraph axis, and the sound of a ringing axis. A total of three magnets are mounted on this shaft. There is a magnet A on the axis facing the Hall sensor. With your back to magnet A, there is also a magnet B on the axis. On the lower cover of the shaft body, there is also a movable magnet c.
During the shaft body pressing and rebounding, magnet B and magnet C will first repel each other, creating the feel of the paragraph. Eventually, the two magnets will attract each other and collide, producing a sound.
I wasn't even born in 1978, so I'm sure it's too old for most people, but more recently in 2004 there was a restaurant called Ace Pad Tech. The boss of the company is called Yang Litao. In January 2015, he applied for a patent for the magnetic switch and sold the magnetic switch keyboard on Alibaba.
But the workmanship is too rough, and the shaft body feels bad, which can be said to perfectly avoid all the advantages of the magnetic shaft.
*From in Peripherals.
The real significance of the magnetic shaft to the market is still SteelSeries, one of the three royal companies, SteelSeries Apex Pro can freely set the actuation key travel of each axis, up to 36 mm, as small as 04mm, dimensionality reduction to combat various e-sports mechanical switches, but also reproduce the dual trigger function of the micro motion company: in FPS games, press the W button to walk, and press the W button to run;In MOBA games, tapping the Q key is to select the release target of the skill, and pressing the Q key is to release the skill towards a set range, which can save a lot of operation time.
When the keyboard first appeared, SteelSeries also announced that the OmniPoint axis had a 0.07 ms, compared to 5 ms for Cherry MX mechanical switches and 6 ms for normal mechanical switches.
However, SteelSeries' magnetic shafts are OEM by domestic manufacturers. It is reported that domestic manufacturers engaged in magnetic shafts include Ruiyi Shark, Huannuo, Jia Dalong, and Kaihua, among which the white magnetic axis and red magnetic axis of Ruiyi Shark are more representative.
The core components of the white magnetic shaft of the Swiss wing shark include the pivot, PC transparent shaft cover, spring, light guide column, permanent magnet, hall sensor and base. When the shaft body is pressed, the magnet moves closer to the Hall sensor, causing the Hall voltage to exceed the threshold and trigger the corresponding action. Because the magnetic shaft has no shrapnel contact point, no noise button reset in time, and the linear feel is super smooth, it fundamentally solves the problems caused by metal oxidation or product aging, and makes its service life reach more than 100 million times.
The parameters of the white magnetic axis of the winged shark are as follows:
Total trips: 385±0.25mm
Trigger Stroke: Custom.
Initial force: 30 10gf
Maximum force: 60 10gf
The Raesha magnetic shaft is available in two different versions: red and white. All of them are linear feel, light sound, life up to 100 million times, and can be customized on stroke. The two shafts are lubricated at the factory, which makes the feel smoother, there is no astringency at all, and some noise can be reduced. The initial force of the red and white magnetic shafts is 30 10gf, the difference is that the maximum force of the red magnetic shaft is 50 10gf, and the total stroke is 40±0.5mm, while the maximum force of the white magnetic shaft is 60 10gf, and the total stroke is 385±0.25mm。Players can choose the axis according to their needs.
Having said so much, you may still not understand the advantages of the magnetic shaft
Conventional mechanical shafts have a reset point. Because of the presence of shrapnel, the button must be released at a certain distance before it is possible to separate the contacts and proceed to the next operation. With Rapid Trigger, as long as the button is sensed to be lifted, even if the button is reset, it is more suitable for games with high frequency and repeated tapping of a button, such as audio games such as Audition.
It is also because of the advantage of being able to customize the reset, which is also a great boon for esports FPS games such as Vanolante. To some extent, it was also Vanolant who brought the magnetic shaft on fire. Realistic analog gaming FPS simulates the characteristics of a firearm, such as ballistics, recoil, and the effects of movement on shooting accuracy.
Real shooting can't be like John Woo's movie, flying and shooting guns and headshots, there will be no bullet time, and it is impossible to have a divine drama like a person who blindly sniped in mid-air for several cities. In the real world, inertia exists, and the shooting accuracy in motion is greatly reduced, and it is necessary to stop to ensure the accuracy.
However, because the magnetic axis has a rapid trigger, as long as the button is perceived to be lifted, even if the button is reset, there is no need to practice Xi reverse emergency stop, so that more game masters can go to the next level.
However, for the average user, it will be unable to adapt because of the ultra-high sensitivity, and a friendly driver is needed for users to constantly debug and find their own gameplay. It also takes a while to get used to the magnetic axis, after all, it is too far from the MX axis in terms of structure.