this post was submitted on 30 Jun 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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I designed a small 30% keyboard based on hexagonal keycaps. The source files can be found on github. It runs the FAK firmware.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Weird desk choice, seems unstable, but I bet such battle station as s whole does wonders for your mental health.

Nice keebler (or beebler with yellow keycaps).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

these look so cool.

[–] luckybipedal 4 points 4 months ago

Nice. The world needs more hex keyboards!

[–] Cris_Color 3 points 4 months ago
[–] luckybipedal 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

BTW, not sure if you're aware of my Mantis keyboard design. It was inspired by the same hexagonal key caps but has since evolved to my own 3D printed sculpted hexagonal key profile, which is a lot more comfortable for typing: https://github.com/fxkuehl/mantis

My v0.1 prototype resembled your keyboard. But your PCB is much prettier. And I haven't designed anything with an integrated controller. Kudos! I bet this is not your first PCB design.

I'm guessing your layout uses 2 keys for each pinky, 5 for each index finger and 2 for each thumb.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

People pointed me towards your keyboard when I showed them mine. I was not aware of your very nice board when I designed mine. The 3D structure of your keyboard is very interesting. I would love to try it once.

The hexapoda is my 3rd to 6th keyboard PCB design, depending on how you count different variations of my hexatana keyboards and whether or not you include a very simple numpad PCB I once design for a keyboard/arduino workshop.

You are correct, the layout for my hexapoda supports 5 index keys and 2 pinky keys and two thumb keys per side. However aver having typed on the board a bit, I only use one pinky key and only 3 index keys. I do not type on the inner index keys. I might do a new version of the board, where I remove the unused keys.