Mechanical Keyboards

Had my baby for over a decade now. Its survived thousands of falls, runs on two double A's, and is comfy to rest on my lap while traveling.

Until I finally complete the firmware for this mothership:... ...then I'll be on an(y) old full size keyboard - with INS and DEL and so on in their rightful places. And wireless, that's convenient.

This is my current daily driver. Before that, I wore out a couple of these beauties:

Oh, and Dvorak layout. Obviously.

~1500 yen Buffalo US-layout keyboard (Linux/Windows) and a ~15k yen Logi wireless one for the Mac that work makes me use.

For gaming, I want to eventually get a mechanical (or at least something that allows more than like 2 keys near each other to be pressed at once), but they're all too expensive for me to justify it. A 10-key and US layout are musts for me (Japanese layout has a bunch of symbols and stuff in completely different positions) which reduces the pool a lot.

I think I'm on my 4th Kinesis Advantage in 25 years. Dvorak, with an Apple touchpad taped in the center. I have the newer one -- the 360 -- but getting the Dvorak layout firmware dialed in is a project I haven't had time for and so it still sits unused.

I'm building a 3d printed dactyl-like keeb with this generator. It's got a cool hand scanning feature that adapts the key spacing/curvature to your hand.

https://ryanis.cool/cosmos/beta

I really like concave keyboards, and maybe someday I'll invest in one (I previously used a Kinesis 2 but the company kept it when I left).

But besides the brief Kinesis foray, I have used the MS Ergo Sculpt since...2014, I think. It's honestly pretty nice, especially since I don't really care about mechanical keycaps and I value portability. (The only portability downside is that I need to manually put something in the battery compartment to keep it powered off while traveling, because for some reason it has no off-switch.)

I use a Logitech K120. It has all the right keys in all the right places, a numeric keypad I can use for MouseKeys, and doesn't do stupid shit like remap the F-keys to useless media controls. My only complaint really is that the little tabs that lift the backend up are too weak and break far too easily.

That said I'd totally have one of noughtnaut's Accom command and control centres. Finally one with enough keys for modded Minecraft!

Kinesis Gaming. Good ergonomics, but it's pretty stupid how much they want for risers and like 6 Mac layout key caps on top of an already expensive keyboard. I don't use the RGB or macro features.

I built a “Caldera” using the guide that ex Apollo dev Christian provided and have been extremely happy with it in the past few months I’ve been using it full time.

GitHub link for those interested

Anybody else rocking the good old Deck Legend? I got it in 2012, the LEDs are all green including caps/num lock indicators, and inside the boring outer case the PCBA is mounted to a slab of freaking metal. \m/

Mattias ergo pro - adjustable, split, and ALPs style switches

ZSA Voyager for over a year now, and the other ZSA boards since about 2018.

image (not mine)

I've been really happy with it, and it helps me type fast. I do tend to slam the keys down sometimes but it's held up great. I was able to stop using a mouse- the key-driven mouse motion is intuitive enough for me.

Took me a bit to get used to the reduced key layout, but it's actually turned out to be just enough. I see some people with even fewer keys! Will need to try that out sometime.

Just running a base hardware configuration with Kalih Choc Brown switches and a custom layout that does not use any chording or timing-based layer switching, only holding.

Would like to try building my own someday.

Keychron K3.

It's low-profile (no twisted wrist!), wireless (Bluetooth), has RGB (though I have it set to white), small enough to drag to work, and with the Keychron Mint keys (there's also a Gateron version) - I've tried all their keys except brown because I never liked browns, ever. Black and red are too light - can't rest my fingers on them without accidentally press them. Blue and orange are too clicky for work, and Mint is what I ended up liking - they're like browns, but the click is way higher, which feels sooo comfy, instead of weirdly squishy.

Been looking at the Kinesis 360 (?), but I can't find low-profile keys for it, and the available options are rather lacking for a 650 EUR keyboard (I kinda want the wireless one).

Me and the homes at work are all sporting the HP slim. https://www.amazon.com/Business-Enhanced-Keyboard-HP-803823-001/dp/B017JP0GS4

Scylla Dactyl.

Which is what you have under "Dactyl" but the usual Dactyl is much more boxy.

Keychron q10 max Alice layout, so sweet

I've been using this for a while now, both at work and a home, they're relatively cheap to build and tick almost every box for my usage: https://github.com/mmccoyd/hillside open hw/sw

Here is what I use. The split mechanical one is from Keebio. I don't think they stock the PCB I used any more. It's called the Viterbi and I like it a lot. It's just 2 simple 7x5 ortho boards with an option for a 2u spacebar on the bottom inside keys on both halves.
My other keyboard is a Kensington Pro Fit Ergonomic Wired Keyboard. It's about 40 dollars on Amazon. I got it because I was learning Blender and it uses hotkeys on the numpad and other keys I don't have on my Viterbi.

My MacBook Air default keyboard

ZSA Voyager.

The corne 3x6, but you can convert it into the corne 36 by breaking off the edge of the pcb. I have several of them.

Odin75 with HMX Macchiato switches. No exotic layouts or anything, just a good board

I use 2 keyboards primarily.

• SliceMK ErgoDox Lite - I daily drive this keyboard in particular at home. I was surprised how much you can do with the configurator app. The developer is very active and responsive in his discord. Using the config tool I was able to reproduce all the same layers that my Moonlander has and the keyboard works just as well except that it's wireless.

• ZSA Moonlander Mk 1 - I use this keyboard daily when working. It's packed with features and feels great to use. My only complaint has always been the 1U modifier keys. I got big hands and it's easy for me to slip up and miss modifiers. Other than that it's a fantastic keyboard and I'd daily drive it if those modifier keys were longer. The Oryx configurator app is really fluid. I like that it's integrated with GitHub for version control of your keyboard firmware. Also really cool that you can turn this keyboard into a mini midi controller

All three of mine are there! I have a Kinesis 360, Moonlander and Glove 80!