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
That seemed like a lot of hurdles to have jumped through but I'm glad you stick with it and that you're enjoying it.
I originally thought people were crazy for using 40% boards, but with home row mods I'm now using 34 keys and I would never go back to using a standing row stag 60% again lol.
Welcome to the ergo split club, and the months of tinkering with your layout until it works the best for you :)
Thank you! I guess with enough training motor functions will eventually pick up on the c-c-c-c-combos required to type without tripping over every other special character or number. :-) I however feel like below 60 keys every missing key adds one to
xwhere(weeks required to get comfortable with the layout) ^ x, heh. How long did it take you to get fluent?It took me about a week or so once I dropped down to 34. Sometimes I would lose a key and that made me realize it needed to be moved if I couldn't easily remember it.
One thing I found super helpful was configuring autoshift for non-alpha characters. So now I can hold [ to get { for example, or 2 for @. It's helped a lot in reducing the size of my keymap. And as I said, home row mods are incredible once you become accustomed to using them.
If you're interested I can share my own keymap, which might help you come up with some ideas that help you.
Hmm, autoshift... keep on talking, sir! Haven't tried that/didn't knew it was a thing. So holding down on 2 for x amount of time would input @? Doesn't that effectively slow you down? Also, how would you laugh in Brazilian Portuguese, if holding down on a key produces another key? kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Yeah, exactly. It does slow you down just a smidge, but it removes the need to do finger gymnastics to hold shift + layer + tap (in this example) 2. Instead, it's just layer + 2 (hold for like 0.1s). You can also configure it to not apply to alpha characters, which is what I have, so it won't do anything unless it's a symbol or a number.
If you want to hold a character (2), then you tap, release, then hold within a configurable time frame.
I also think you mentioned it, but combos are also really nice, as is the leader key.
Leader key you press it and then you input a series of keys (or just one) and it acts as a new key. I have a lot of macros stored under leader key activations, like wrapping a word in (), or writing "->" or " !=" . There's a deep rabbit hole of customizing you can fall into here :P