[ishtu]

>Regardless of keyboard type, key switches are mechanically imperfect and are subject to contact bounce — instead of a clean transition, the switch rapidly bounces between on and off states several times before settling. Bounce time depends on switch technology, for example, for Cherry MX switches bounce time is claimed to be less that 5 ms. Though exact probability distribution is unknown, basing on related empirical data, we can assume that average bounce time is about 1.5 ms.

This is amazing. I thought I knew everything about mech keyboards, but this opens new perspective.

[jacobolus]

Cherry MX switches are much bouncier than some types of switches. (This explains why some keyboards with MX switches end up dropping or duplicating keypresses when their controller uses a poor debouncing algorithm.)

For instance old “complicated” Alps switches (circa 1990) have an extremely clean switch from off to on, with almost no bouncing.