Stopping the pinging on my Ducky 3 hotswap rgb with Cherry MX Brown switches

May 13, 2023


I previously purchased a Ducky 2 keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches and was so incredibly happy with it, I decided to order a new hotswappable Ducky 3 keyboard with Cherry MX Browns (RGB). When I got it, I noticed a pinging when I typed. I thought this was curious and ended up trying to DIY figure out what was causing this.

I tried enough things and it took enough time that I thought it could be helpful for someone else trying to solve this problem to write a lil blog post on it.

❌ First thing I tried were getting some o-rings for they keycaps. I thought maybe somehow the resonance had something to do with the keycap (? idk, just trying stuff to see what happens) so I thought maybe an o-ring could somehow dampen the resonance. I was wrong, it did not.

I started Googling and found some people trying to figure out the same thing, but it seems to be a pretty isolated issue.

I came across this article from Switch and Click which provided 3 different options for dealing with this.

  1. Try typing with the keyboard flat on a desk mat. Tried this, it dampened it but it felt too awkward to type like that long term.

  2. Open the case and insert dampening foam. I did not try this but I don't think this should be an issue with the Ducky 3. The keyboard is so solid and includes some foam, I didn't think this was relevant.

  3. Open the switches and lube the springs. ✅ This is what ended up doing the trick. The thing that was resonating in my case were the adjacent springs around wherever I made contact with a key.

It felt really awesome to figure out the issue. I don't believe the issue has anything to do with the Ducky 3 build quality, it was 100% an issue with the switches, specifically the springs that came in my Cherry MX Browns resonated when a key was struck. Hope that helps someone else experiencing it.