Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

imgur.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 373 posts

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#61

Post by Symbiote »

7thaccount wrote: post #51
Symbiote wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also a fairly new subreddit, /r/ErgoMechKeyboards/, which only has ergonomic keyboards (simply split ones, or more usually with staggered columns rather than rows, and often a 3D shape). Fewer fancy, expensive keycap sets, and more works-in-progress with wires sticking out. https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/

Can any of these be bought? I love mechanical keyboards, but I can only use an ergonomical keyboard

Link dump ahead...

https://falba.tech/ and https://keycapsss.com/ are two suppliers in Europe, both sell kits and the first sells premade keyboards.

There are small companies selling prebuilt keyboards and kits elsewhere, but I don't know them offhand, except for https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33006060286.html from China (as I have one). There's also https://www.reddit.com/r/mechmarket where there are people that will build the keyboard for a fee, or sell keyboards second hand.

Then there's the larger operations like https://ergodox-ez.com/ and https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/ only selling built keyboards.

The Reddit wiki is a reasonable reference, and the Xah Lee site it links to: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/buying_gui...

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#62

Post by cjbprime »

13415 wrote: post #41

Interesting. I'd like to build my own keyboard, but my crafting skills are not good enough for it. It's a pity how few tenkeyless mechanical keyboards with a ctrl capslock dip switch there are, and most of them don't allow you to install matching custom key caps. I'm currently using a Pok3r, which is okay, but I really wish there were more custom keyboard options on the market.

> It's a pity how few tenkeyless mechanical keyboards with a ctrlcapslock dip switch there are

I suppose it's because everyone knows how to do that mapping in their OS these days. Many mechs even have reflashable firmware, if it came to that.

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#63

Post by jcims »

ganonm wrote: post #49

Around 2 years ago now, I took the plunge and bought myself an Ergodox EZ split island keyboard. Quite franky, it is the biggest quantum leap in the ergonomic experience of interacting with a computer I have seen since learning Vim. It is comfortable, effortless and fast. If you spend any significant time interacting with computers it is a complete no brainer to invest in optimising the IO channel between your brain…

Plus nobody else will want to use your computer. Win win!

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#64

Post by wwright »

lsc wrote: post #57
7thaccount wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can any of these be bought? I love mechanical keyboards, but I can only use an ergonomical keyboard

I use a kinesis advantage2 with brown cherry keyswitches. (I think it's available with others) - my only complaint is that it's kinda giant. Overall, it's pretty great; if you don't want to build your own, and if you don't want to change your keyboard, it's the best choice because it has been in production since the early '90s with few changes to layout; for me? this is big- changing layout is a big deal. The kinesis…

Seconded. I have two of these, one for work and one for home.

Regular keyboards start giving me fatigue after 20–30 minutes, but I type on these all day, all week without issue.

Some cool features:

- you can use arrow keys without moving your hands from the home row!

- with correct posture, it’s possible to hit every key on the keyboard without moving my wrists (though I have long hands)

- fully remappable keys, built-in

- includes some extra key caps so you can customize the layout in the thumb area

- it has a “numpad mode” that can turn the right-hand side of the keyboard into an ergonomic numpad

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#67

Post by octocode »

jcims wrote: post #63
ganonm wrote: post #49

Around 2 years ago now, I took the plunge and bought myself an Ergodox EZ split island keyboard. Quite franky, it is the biggest quantum leap in the ergonomic experience of interacting with a computer I have seen since learning Vim. It is comfortable, effortless and fast. If you spend any significant time interacting with computers it is a complete no brainer to invest in optimising the IO channel between your brain…

Plus nobody else will want to use your computer. Win win!

Especially if your keys are blanks.

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#68

Post by benhurmarcel »

7thaccount wrote: post #51
Symbiote wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also a fairly new subreddit, /r/ErgoMechKeyboards/, which only has ergonomic keyboards (simply split ones, or more usually with staggered columns rather than rows, and often a 3D shape). Fewer fancy, expensive keycap sets, and more works-in-progress with wires sticking out. https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/

Can any of these be bought? I love mechanical keyboards, but I can only use an ergonomical keyboard

Most recent models can only be found in kits or even parts you need to source. Some people sell assembled keyboards so you can limit yourself to those, but at this point your best bet is to buy a kit or the parts and find someone to assemble it. It's really not difficult to do if you can solder and have a bit of patience, if that's a design with a PCB. Handwiring is more challenging.

One model that's easy to find assembled is the Ergodox. But it's been improved by new models like the Iris, Corne, Gergo, Kyria, Lily58…

Re: If You Can't Buy the Keyboard You Want, Build It Instead

#70

Post by overkalix »

ganonm wrote: post #49

Around 2 years ago now, I took the plunge and bought myself an Ergodox EZ split island keyboard. Quite franky, it is the biggest quantum leap in the ergonomic experience of interacting with a computer I have seen since learning Vim. It is comfortable, effortless and fast. If you spend any significant time interacting with computers it is a complete no brainer to invest in optimising the IO channel between your brain…

$300 for the simplest keyboard...
Post reply on HN