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First Impressions with the Pok3r

May 16, 2016

I decided to enter the wonderful world of mechanical keyboards this weekend, pretty much on an impulse. Friday evening I saw a post on a subreddit I follow and it was a 60% mechanical keyboard with blank orange and gray caps. After some quick research and a trip over to the mechanicalkeyboards subreddit I decided on the Vortex Pok3r. It is a 60% keyboard, which means it is tenkeyless as well as missing the arrow keys. The simpliest way to describe it is if you were to cut your keyboard after the backspace and only keep the left hand side. It also is missing the function key row. I ended up ordering the black model that has grayish keys. The Pok3r has 3 programmable layers and a default layer. Meaning you can have the 2nd through 4th layers do anything by programming them on the keyboard. This is the coolest feature in my opinion. I have spent the better part of the last two days trying to think of cool keyboard shortcuts I could program in I have thought of a couple but have not implemented them yet, that will most likely be another blogpost. The few I have thought of include:

  • My email address on one of the keys
  • Move the arrow keys Fn+(I,J,K,L) to Fn+(A,S,D,W) so they are on the other side of the Fn key
  • Also might move them to Fn+(H,J,K,L) so it feels like I have Vim everywhere
  • Have a unique key for Reddit, GeekHack, Twitter, and Github

As of right now I think this a pretty good summary of where I am at with this new board. I do believe this is going to turn into a very expensive hobby that I will really enjoy. I am going to wrap things up with a list of keyboard mods I plan on making, some of which I am not sure are even possible. Until my next post, adios.

Keyboard Modifications:

  • Change keycaps. Most likely to a blue and gray or a green and gray
  • Add a bluetooth adapter so I can pair it with my laptop without needing to bring the USB cable.
  • Get a Tux Key instead of having this God awfule Windows key staring at me all the time
  • Get a USB cable to match the cap colors