this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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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.

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I love a lot of the keyboards on here (especially ones with an integrated track ball) but I'm a poor grad student under deadlines; even most kit-boards are too much of a time sink for me to soldier together.

I know at least some of you like trying new boards all the time. And I'm guessing some of you have one or two daily drivers and then 3 older boards; maybe one that was a prototype build, or a novelty micro-board that was fun to just play with but not use, etc.

I would be happy to effectively fund a new kit/build for someone by buying one of those older (assembled) boards, but I don't know where to look.

Is there any kind of used market, or do you guys have any recommendations?

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[–] pca006132 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not sure about others, I tried to sell me keyboard but without success, maybe split keyboards are a bit too niche and no one near me (HK) is interested. I just disassembled the keyboars to scrap the components for the next build, which is a bit sad considering a significant amount of time is spent on assembling it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

that is sad. I feel like shipping isn't as big deal compared to the cost of the board. I mean I'm looking at a pre-built Charybdis and it's $500+

[–] pca006132 1 points 1 year ago

Indeed, the major cost is labor cost. I was iterating on the design once a month and do some very simple tweaking (change the screw location for example). Because I want to make sure that the entire thing works, I need to solder everything for each cycle. Due to the lack of components, I have to disassemble old working keyboard to make a new one. I probably disassembled 4 or more in total. I was looking to sell the old one for $100, but no one was interested. I guess a lot of mechanical keyboard users are probably not used to split keyboard and DIY keyboards, so are not willing to buy it.