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Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

symboliclogic.io

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Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#91

Post by fouric »

wolrah wrote: post #52
cma wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switching to ortholinear can really mess you up when you have to use a laptop or colleague's keyboard.

I've been using a Moonlander exclusively on my desktop since November 2020 while having no trouble continuing to use a Macbook Air or my old Acer laptop. The differently placed modifier keys on the laptops screw me up infinitely more than going from an ortholinear split to a laptop and back.

I can second this - my main driver is a Dactyl-Manuform (ortholinear), and I have zero problems on any of the other four non-ortho keyboards that I use.

I also use Dvorak as my main layout and have no problems when going back to a QWERTY one.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#92

Post by tetha »

salamandersauce wrote: post #72
roganartu wrote: post #11

> I tried a few of those Kinesis split keyboards. Too squishy for me. Not far enough apart. The CherryMX Kinesis split keyboard was is too clickey for calls and screenshares. Muscle memory made it difficult to switch. This is a really cool hack, and I’m happy that the author found a solution for their pain that works for them, but this bit confused me. Kinesis are keyboards with separated key clusters, but not split…

Kinesis also makes split keyboards. Since they are talking about mushy keys they are clearly talking about the Kinesis Freestyle with membrane keys.

There is a new kinesis freestyle gaming, with LEDs (meh), but also mechanical switches (cherry). I'm very happy with mine.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#93

Post by trashcat »

jagger27 wrote: post #55
slightwinder wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Kinesis are keyboards with separated key clusters, but not split keyboards. When one says split keyboard I think they are normally talking about things like the Ergodox EZ/Moonlander Kinesis has also their freestyle-line, which are physically splitted keyboard. But traditionally, the name refers to the split of the key-segments, not the whole keyboard. Until a decade ago, there barely where any real split keyboards…

This is why the new hot thing in mechanical keyboards is gasket mounting and PCB relief cuts. There is some progress happening here. A good desk mat helps too.

I'm glad that this is the way customs are headed. I love my Think6.5 V2. Gasket mounting has been game changing for me.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#94

Post by samuell »

I used to do this before with two wireless Logitech K400rs, to ease my wrist pain.

I really like their compactness, built in touchpad and volume controls etc), but was not happy with the fact that i could not keep them too close to each other, and that fn-key combinations would not work across the two keyboards (on k400 the fn keys are key (pun intended) to getting to the function keys)

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#95

Post by fouric »

slightwinder wrote: post #16

Or just use a split keyboard, there are some dozen available nowadays: https://github.com/diimdeep/awesome-split-keyboards Personally, I'm using a Dygma Raise, after testing the Ergodox for a while. And the Dygma is really mostly perfect IMHO. I would prefer it to have an ortholinear layout, and an additional row with F-Keys (layers can be cumbersome when hands are not at homerow-position). But the build-quality and…

I think that this is meant as a "hack" - if you have two keyboards lying around and don't want to (or can't) purchase a new one. If you can, then yes, getting an actual split keyboard is far better.

However, the Dygma Raise has neither ortholinearity, nor concavity, nor a good thumb cluster (it's flat, not tilted to fit the actual strong muscle movement of your thumbs) - all of which improve ergonomics. See the Dactyl-Manuform for a build that has all of these three things.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#96

Post by jon-wood »

roganartu wrote: post #11

> I tried a few of those Kinesis split keyboards. Too squishy for me. Not far enough apart. The CherryMX Kinesis split keyboard was is too clickey for calls and screenshares. Muscle memory made it difficult to switch. This is a really cool hack, and I’m happy that the author found a solution for their pain that works for them, but this bit confused me. Kinesis are keyboards with separated key clusters, but not split…

I'm curious, is the Moonlander enough of an upgrade over the EZ to be worth dropping that sort of money on a second keyboard? What are the big differences you've actually noticed having made the jump?

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#97

Post by iwintermute »

psiconaut wrote: post #36
slightwinder wrote: post #16

Or just use a split keyboard, there are some dozen available nowadays: https://github.com/diimdeep/awesome-split-keyboards Personally, I'm using a Dygma Raise, after testing the Ergodox for a while. And the Dygma is really mostly perfect IMHO. I would prefer it to have an ortholinear layout, and an additional row with F-Keys (layers can be cumbersome when hands are not at homerow-position). But the build-quality and…

After some custom wooden cases for my ergodox, I'm really excited about the keyboardio model 100 https://keyboard.io/ basically an ergodox with style, and what seems a bit more ergonomy. I laughed a lot with the video for their last crowdfunding campaign, chicken jokes included :D

I've got 001 model and like it so much that getting 100 as the second one.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#98

Post by dotancohen »

iamevn wrote: post #81
dotancohen wrote: post #64

The absolute best keyboard that I've ever used was the Matias Ergo Pro, a true split keyboard with an audio jack plug connecting the two halfs, so they can be very far apart. A true mechanical (Alps) keyboard, true split, with tenting and tilting and integrated palm rests. And a real Function key row! I had two of them. Why two? Because the first one didn't last a year, so they sent a replacement. That one didn't las…

I love mine too, got it with the quiet click switches and they feel really good. Mine occasionally gets stuck and repeats certain keys so I'm going to need to order a bag of replacement switches and replace them. I've heard that there was a bad batch of switches or something so I've been unsure if I should recommend it to others. Hearing that you got a whole replacement keyboard I guess I should reach out to Matias a…

I'd love to hear your experience with that. I'm about to order a third keyboard from them, price be damned.

I had the repeating key issue with both my low-force keyboard (the first one) and the regular keyboard.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#99

Post by baoluofu »

darthvoldemort wrote: post #34

There are probably multiple different causes for RSI in programmers, but for me, a regular keyboard is fine. Even my slouch is fine. I type with my elbows on the table and it's fine. It's the mouse that killed me. A handful of years after graduating from college, I thought my programming career was over because the pain in my neck and shoulders was so bad I couldn't type. I went to a bunch of doctors, neurologists, p…

I'm the same. Never had an issue with keyboard usage, but started to run into trouble with the mouse usage. I used a wacom tablet as my daily driver for a while but it was a bit too inconvenient. I've found actually that just alternating between a trackpad (left hand) and a mouse (right hand) throughout the day has solved the problem.

Re: Using two keyboards at once for pain relief

#100

Post by 0x000000001 »

slightwinder wrote: post #16

Or just use a split keyboard, there are some dozen available nowadays: https://github.com/diimdeep/awesome-split-keyboards Personally, I'm using a Dygma Raise, after testing the Ergodox for a while. And the Dygma is really mostly perfect IMHO. I would prefer it to have an ortholinear layout, and an additional row with F-Keys (layers can be cumbersome when hands are not at homerow-position). But the build-quality and…

Did you read the article?

> Not far enough apart.

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