this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
28 points (100.0% liked)

ErgoMechKeyboards

5941 readers
2 users here now

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

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I've bought the idea of getting an ergo keyboard for work, but it's too expensive to buy one from where I live, so the last days I've been learning and designing my own.

I know it won't be as good as a manufactured one but I really want to see how the result will be

top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Nice! If you haven't bumped into it, then the build log of the Steel Tormentor and it's cardboard prototype have been really illuminating for me.

Edit: Also, an Inkscape trick: you can set it's zoom using a real ruler placed on the screen so it can show you your drawing real size. Then you can test button placement without having to print.

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

Wow, great content, it will definitely be helpful once I start building the keyboard, my father in law works with laser cutting and acrylic so I'm planning on using it for the case/board

About the inkscape tip, I'm doing this, helped a lot because I could fine tune the angles and offsets pretty quickly

[–] excitingburp 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

CAD (cardboard aided design) is really powerful. You get to fail fast: figuring out things don't work before more expensive manufacturing steps (such as laser cutting).

And using inkscape is fine, but even better if you print it out and stick it to cardboard.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Edit: I put up my .svg files here, in case they might be useful.

Cool! I just did a full Inkscape+laser-cutting build using MDF and acrylic. I'm still to write something up about it, though. In short, I used a 1,5 mm acrylic bottom cover, on top of that 2x 3mm MDF as "case" (minimum height with a 1,5mm plate), the top one supporting the plate, but with larger holes so the switch clamps fit, a 1,5mm acrylic plate, and finally another MDF layer on top of the plate, outlining the keys, for aesthetics and rigidity.

After having set up the keys, I used mainly offsets around those to do the outline etc.

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

It's sexy and looks comfortable, do you enjoy the MDF board?

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

Thanks :)

Yes, I do! I enjoyed a cardboard prototype before, and only just finished this. I really like it. The fit is great, and I like the sound. I gave it some small feet in the back (some 3mm foam tape) to lift it a bit from the table/deskmat, to get some more sound out - there's zero space between the switches and bottom plate.. And I like the sound.

Switching to the prototype, I switched to Colemak, too. I'm still learning that. So I'm by no means a fast typist on it yet. But I already know better where the keys are on Colemak than I did on QWERTY, and I think the symmetric, column-staggered layout helped a lot with that.

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

I did a prototype using cardboard today to test how typing would feel, I loved the column staggered layout, feels way better than the default, I might give a try one day to colemak, but I'll try not to change radically now, once I get used to the split keyboard I'll try other things too

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, column stagger is amazing! Congrats on the prototype! I ended up using mine a bit over a month before getting a nicer, revised version cut. I learned from that. Removed some keys, moved some a bit.

I've read elsewhere that switching to a new layout is easier at the same time as changing to ergo, instead of later. I've had some time off, that's why I did it now. If I had been busy, I'd rather have started using my new board and the old layout.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m of the opinion that if it’s cheaper with the same or more functionality than a consumer grade option, it’s superior. Bravo

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Great line of thought

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

First thought was that it looks similar to a Keyboardio model 100: https://shop.keyboard.io/products/model-100

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It was an inspiration, the model 100 and also the moonlander

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Shift not on thumbs with that many thumb keys?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

There's two shifts, one of them in the thumbs

[–] pca006132 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think you should probably use a CAD instead of graphics software to design...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Depends on what they want. Inkscape is perfectly fine for plate design, which you can then lift using standoffs, like the Steel Tormentor.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I probably should but I'd have to learn it first and I'm going to use laser cut acrylic so any 2d design should be fine for now, maybe in the future I'll 3d print a case, if so I'll try to use fusion 360 to do it