ErgoMechKeyboards
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/
view the rest of the comments
I was not considering the press point. I was using the center of each key.
In a column staggered layout I'm calling the distance between the centers of adjacent keys in the same column the row spacing. The column spacing is the distance of imaginary lines drawn along adjacent columns (through the key centres). I measure the shortest possible distance, which is at a right angle to those lines.
In a row staggered point of view it's the other way around.
The different spacing comes from the hexagonal key shape. If you think of it as row staggered, the keys have 21.5mm horizontal (column) spacing and 18.6mm vertical (row) spacing. Rotate your point of view by 30° and this flips to a column staggered layout. Now the columns are spaced 18.6mm and rows are 21.5mm apart.
Square keys don't have the same hexagonal symmetry. When you look at it as row staggered, it's normal MX spacing, 19x19mm. When you look at it as column staggered, you need to do some trigonometry. The column angle is atan(0.5) = 26.6°. the column spacing is 19mm × cos(26.6°). The row spacing is from Pythagoras sqrt(19^2 + (19/2)^2).