this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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ErgoMechKeyboards

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Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards

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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!?)

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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

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Dragonfruit by protieusz - my first trackball build (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by DeltaWhy to c/ergomechkeyboards
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Been daily driving low-profile Gateron switches for a while but wanted to give MX another shot. Mostly so I can use my nice keycaps again. I didn't buy this filament specifically for this build but I think it works really nicely.

Switches are Ergo Clears, lubed and filmed with (IIRC) 45g springs. They were previously on an Ergodox and barely got any use as I switched to smaller boards shortly after modding them and wasn't comfortable with desoldering yet, so I'm happy to have finally found a new home for them.

Caps are MT3 Godspeed, case is Overture Matte PLA (light blue and white), printed on the Sovol SV06 Plus.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

It reminds me of a Stanley Mouse graphic used for a lot of Grateful Dead art

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How long did it take you to get used to that layout?

[–] DeltaWhy 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Colemak-DH? I switched using the Tarmak series of layouts, which change a few keys at a time from QWERTY until you eventually get to Colemak(-DH). Took about 5 weeks to do the gradual switch, then a couple months before I got speed back up to around where I was with QWERTY. But with that method I stayed at a good enough WPM the whole time to not lose any productivity at work.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

That's all new to me. Thank you for the info. You say you haven't lost any productivity but do you feel you've gained any? Or is that not the goal? Either way the setup looks awesome.

[–] DeltaWhy 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There's less finger movement needed (for any alternative layout) compared to QWERTY so in theory it could be faster. In reality it seems to not make that much difference - typing speed records are still mostly set with QWERTY, and personally I think I'm about the same speed as I was with QWERTY, or a bit slower.

It's noticeably more comfortable though. I'm not sure there's any actual ergonomic benefit, but it just feels really nice to type on. I don't regret learning it but I don't exactly recommend it either - it was a lot of effort for a small benefit.

If you're deep enough into the ergo keyboard hobby that learning an alternate layout sounds fun to you though, then I say go for it, it's an interesting challenge.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I'm visiting from all and spend most of my time on my phone. Ideally someday I'll get a proper desktop I'll want to use and can explore keyboards more. It does make me wonder if there alternatw layouts designed with swipe typing in mind. Could be interesting.

[–] DeltaWhy 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not sure about swipe typing specifically, but there's been some pretty interesting and weird attempts to invent better touchscreen input methods since at least the Palm Pilot era, probably on the Newton too even before that. There's also some crazy stuff from the world of wearable computing that's even more niche.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

One of the Lemmy devs even made one but I haven't dedicated enough time to it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I made a split, even posted it here on c/emk, but at this point I am just too old, yes, too old to begin the training. I had no motivation to actually learn to type on the thing, but rather just wanted to make more keyboards.

This is the first one I've seen that made me (briefly) reconsider. Nice work!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How do you find the trackball in the middle? I've been trying something similar by putting one between my split but I find it to be a pain. Maybe it's better integrated?

[–] DeltaWhy 2 points 9 months ago

I've only been using it for a day so I'm still figuring that out. Something about it feels a bit 'off' compared to my Elecom Deft Pro but I'm not sure if that's a hardware or software issue - could just be a smaller ball is harder to get the same accuracy, could be the cheap BTUs I'm using. I'll probably try printing a different trackball holder that uses static bearings to see if I prefer that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I was about to mention them - those keycaps are indeed peak functional design for me, just superb.

[–] shinnoodles 1 points 9 months ago

I am terrified yet intrigued by this absolute monster

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Great quality on that 3D printed base! Did you model it yourself?

[–] DeltaWhy 1 points 9 months ago

No, I just printed the case files from the GitHub repo.

[–] markstos 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I like it! Although I would prefer 3x6.

[–] DeltaWhy 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

There are some similar boards with 3x6 layouts - ffkb and vulpes majora, both by fingerpunch, support 3x6 with a center trackball. I do miss the extra keys a bit with 3x5 layouts - when I eventually design my own board I think I'm going to do a 40 key layout.

[–] markstos 1 points 9 months ago

I’ve looked at those but the 6th column stagger is a bit much for me with those.