ErgoMechKeyboards

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Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards

Rules

Keep it ergo

Posts must be of/about keyboards that have a clear delineation between the left and right halves of the keyboard, column stagger, or both. This includes one-handed (one half doesn't exist, what clearer delineation is that!?)

i.e. no regular non-split¹ row-stagger and no non-split¹ ortholinear²

¹ split meaning a separation of the halves, whether fixed in place or entirely separate, both are fine.
² ortholinear meaning keys layed out in a grid

No Spam

No excessive posting/"shilling" for commercial purposes. Vendors are permitted to promote their products/services but keep it to a minimum and use the [vendor] flair. Posts that appear to be marketing without being transparent about it will be removed.

No Buy/Sell/Trade

This subreddit is not a marketplace, please post on r/mechmarket or other relevant marketplace.

Some useful links

EMK wiki
Split keyboard compare tool
Compare keycap profiles Looking for another set of keycaps - check this site to compare the different keycap profiles https://www.keycaps.info/
Keymap database A database with all kinds of keymap layouts - some of them fits ergo keyboards - get inspired https://keymapdb.com/

founded 1 year ago

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Wanting to move from conventional to ergo mech. Am overwhelmed. Send help. (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago by lfzs@lemmy.ca to c/ergomechkeyboards@lemmy.world

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I'm a complete novice to mech and ergo so I apologize in advance for any sins lol

The 3 I checked are Kinesis 360 (https://kinesis-ergo.com/keyboards/advantage360/), Glove80 (https://www.moergo.com/collections/glove80-keyboards) and the Moonlander (https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/).

These below are what I got from watching reviews:

Kinesis is difficult to customize and sometimes has connectivity issues
Glove80 feels cheap
Moonlander doesn’t have many keys and thumb cluster is on odd position

Considering the prices, the moonlander is about US$100 cheaper than the others, so feels like a better option.

I am interested in options with keywell, as they feel way more comfortable, but anything will be better since I use an conventional non-split keyboard.

The right menu links to a compare tool but there are so many.

My hands are small, so it may constrain the options I have. Or maybe not.

What are your opinions/suggestions/experience with these types of keyboards?

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[–] lfzs@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I looked mainly on prebuit since the DIY didn't feel to fit what I was looking for. When I was searching for ones with keywell, no DIY models came up.

What I noticed with the one you suggested and some others I found when looking around is that they don't have many keys.

Is it common to have a separated numpad?

Also, out of curiosity, what are uses for the thumb knob? I saw that in some models and also on yours.

[–] kukkurovaca@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

When searching for DIY Keywell models, use "dactyl" in your search terms for most results. Most DIY Dactyl builds are handwired, although there are some models that make use of flexible PCBs such as the ones from BastardKB. (My keywell board is a TBK Mini from them.)

Re: the number of keys, this is pretty personal. Most ergo mech users are using something in the ballpark of a 60%, 40%, or 35%ish layout. (My objection to the Glove80 is that it has way, way too many keys for me)

Most ergo users have numpad on a layer. (Here's how I have my layouts)