Closer Examination

There it is finally! The Diviner, as with other Datamancer products, has manual labor involved, and so, there will be minute differences between individual units. But as it is here, this is among the simpler products they offer, with a large wooden case shaped to look more like a plaque than the usual rectangular keyboard. Adding to the aesthetics are the brass ornaments on the corners and in the top middle, which appear glued on and not at all budging - something that could have come off as quite tacky and cheap if not executed well. The indicator LEDs themselves have three red plastic jewels enclosed by brass on the outside to hold them in place, such that the LEDs give off a red light while in use.

The keycaps have secondary legends printed underneath the primary ones for the Num Pad, and over the primary ones in the alphanumeric section. There is no backlighting here, so it matters not as long as you know what to look for. The typeface used for these legends is Penhurst, with the website also offering Elemental Alchemy as another choice. It is interesting that the website does not directly include the other two keycap sets, but it may be a color choice (the other two being predominantly black) as opposed to a hard limitation, which could be requested against.


On the back, we see more on how this product was created. A single piece of poplar wood was carved into shape and cut on the back, hollowed out to allow the keyboard internals in. The back was then screwed in place by the way of the cut out piece, which was further shaped to fit the main case's body. There are notches to allow for a snug fit and to accommodate the non-detachable cable.

Datamancer's implementation of case feet is arguably not a good fit for the rest of the design scheme. Two simple screw pins are used to elevate the keyboard at the back, and there is some leeway in their angle if you loosen/tighten the screws, but getting them aligned is not the easiest, and it will inevitably scratch or, worse, loosen out of its threaded hole with use. During the four weeks of testing, the pins actually left some scratches on my wooden desk. There is also nothing but the mass of the keyboard to prevent it from sliding around if the pins are left in place. If you remove them, you get no elevation, but there are four small rubber pads, one on each corner, to aid with friction on the desk. Out of the box, two were loose already, and while gluing them back on is easy enough, a paying customer should not have to. Datamancer would do well to improve this aspect sooner rather than later.


There is another cutout in the back to access a set of six dip switches, the use of which is described in the quick start guide that comes with the keyboard. This further hints at the identity of the keyboard OEM for Datamancer, but we will be able to confirm that on the next page. The keyboard's cable is non-detachable, a standard 6' long, and terminates in a standard male USB Type-A connector. USB 2.0 will suffice here because of the lack of backlighting.


The keycap design is similar to that of other typewriter-style keycap keyboards we saw before, though these are the originals in this niche. They have a flat profile with no curvature on the top, and the surface has a top cover over the legends to help provide a smooth touch. This also helps with the longevity of the keycaps and their legends over standard laser etched ones, and the font with the background is a nice touch also for those wanting more than the usual. The metal rings are also held in place from the side and the bottom, which is another improvement over the AZIO/Adesso/Nanoxia versions and thus does not come off easily either. The Datamancer keycaps cost more than some of those keyboards, so there was really no excuse here. I can not see any shortcomings in the design, so I suppose it is a case of imitations being held back by pricing.


The larger keycaps are held in place via costar stabilizers, which does make them slightly harder to remove and install, but given the keycaps are a big part of the product here, I imagine that will not be a major concern. That said, the spacing is standard enough also to where you can replace the keycaps if you wanted to. There is enough of a gap between a keycap's surface and the switch's mechanism for you to use compressed air to clean the keyboard without necessarily having to remove the keycaps themselves.

The switches used are Cherry MX Blue mechanical switches that have received a paint job on the housing and stem to make them appear brown in color in an attempt to better fit the design, but in practice, it does nothing for me. Thankfully, the layer of paint is thin enough to where it does not seem to affect the switch's functionality even with a quick 1000-actuation test on two separate switches, although the paint did start to come off over time. This is another place where I would rather Datamancer just leave it as-is, with the black housing on the switches not that much further off from the brown here and the stem not really being visible in use.