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Building my first mechanical keyboard

not-matthias.github.io

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Re: Building my first mechanical keyboard

#21

Post by badlucklottery »

bobcostas55 wrote: post #17
colordrops wrote: post #8

Great intro. One thing I don't understand about the mechanical keyboard community is how the vast majority (like well over 95%) are not split keyboards. You'd think keyboard enthusiasts that sweat the details would also be obsessed with ergonomics. But no, I suspect that they are more concerned with aesthetics, which are arguably worse with a split keyboard.

The price difference is pretty wild, hard to make an investment like that without being able to try it first.

Whenever the Kinesis Advantage 360 starts shipping, that might be a good option for trying out a split keyboard.

They have 60 day returns and don't fight you on RMA at all: https://kinesis-ergo.com/support/returns/

Re: Building my first mechanical keyboard

#22

Post by Symbiote »

0xCAP wrote: post #20
Symbiote wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm mostly-maintaining a mechanical split keyboard gallery [1] to help with this. There are a lot of options, from keyboards you can buy from a major retailer (or easily get your IT department to buy), to hand-soldered kits where you need to 3D print the case.- [1] https://aposymbiont.github.io/split-keyboards/

I've always been interested in buying one, but since I'm curre tly budgeting for other major investments I'm not willing to spend like 350€+ for an ergodox. Are there decent sub 100€ non diy (i have never soldered anything in my life) split keyboards around afayk?

I don't think you'll find anything non-DIY for under €350. The cheapest options are probably the Chinese/AliExpress ortholinear ones[1], but even those still cost more.

[1] http://www.koolertron.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=keyboard

Re: Building my first mechanical keyboard

#24

Post by celrod »

badlucklottery wrote: post #21
bobcostas55 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price difference is pretty wild, hard to make an investment like that without being able to try it first.

Whenever the Kinesis Advantage 360 starts shipping, that might be a good option for trying out a split keyboard. They have 60 day returns and don't fight you on RMA at all: https://kinesis-ergo.com/support/returns/

I am a big fan of the Kinesis Advantage 2's dished layout. I think that's a bigger deal for me than being split. The 2 unfortunately is not split, while the 360 is both split and dished.

The thumb keys are also extremely important, but they're more common among ergo keyboards. I don't think I'd ever buy a keyboard without thumb keys. Thumb keys go great with emac's standard keybindings.

I've spent too much money on keyboards already, but will very likely buy the 360.

There are some DIY keyboards like the dactyl-manuform that also look great. Could be a fun project, but I'm not really looking for more side projects at the moment.

Re: Building my first mechanical keyboard

#25

Post by nextlevelwizard »

colordrops wrote: post #8

Great intro. One thing I don't understand about the mechanical keyboard community is how the vast majority (like well over 95%) are not split keyboards. You'd think keyboard enthusiasts that sweat the details would also be obsessed with ergonomics. But no, I suspect that they are more concerned with aesthetics, which are arguably worse with a split keyboard.

>they are more concerned with aesthetics,

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

Mechanical keyboard communities are 110% all about aesthetics. For most it is far more important how the keyboard looks than anything else, the comes how it feels and sounds and somewhere very far comes actual functionality and even further ergonomics.

Obviously there is nothing wrong with this, but it makes sourcing split mechanical keyboards hard and expensive.

Re: Building my first mechanical keyboard

#26

Post by rgoulter »

0xCAP wrote: post #20
Symbiote wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm mostly-maintaining a mechanical split keyboard gallery [1] to help with this. There are a lot of options, from keyboards you can buy from a major retailer (or easily get your IT department to buy), to hand-soldered kits where you need to 3D print the case.- [1] https://aposymbiont.github.io/split-keyboards/

I've always been interested in buying one, but since I'm curre tly budgeting for other major investments I'm not willing to spend like 350€+ for an ergodox. Are there decent sub 100€ non diy (i have never soldered anything in my life) split keyboards around afayk?

If your main concern about DIY keyboards is experience, most DIY split keyboards only require through-hole soldering, which is easily doable even with a cheap soldering iron.

The Sofle keyboard is a popular split keyboard. https://github.com/josefadamcik/SofleKeyboard I haven't checked, but I'd believe it's possible close to that budget. e.g. Keyhive have a DIY kit https://keyhive.xyz/shop/sofle

Re: Building my first mechanical keyboard

#28

Post by hackernewds »

creakingstairs wrote: post #10
colordrops wrote: post #8

Great intro. One thing I don't understand about the mechanical keyboard community is how the vast majority (like well over 95%) are not split keyboards. You'd think keyboard enthusiasts that sweat the details would also be obsessed with ergonomics. But no, I suspect that they are more concerned with aesthetics, which are arguably worse with a split keyboard.

I bought a split keyboard last year and I honestly don’t think I could go back. My shoulder/chest pain went away. The layers let me almost never leave the home row and I miss it every time I use my laptop keyboard. > I suspect that they are more concerned with aesthetics, which are arguably worse with a split keyboard. Yeah, mine has lots of wires and I miss the minimalistic aesthetic of wireless mini keyboards.

Does it feel intuitive? I'm worried about learning a typing paradigm that isn't accessible everywhere (for eg can't hit both G and H with index if they're in diff sides)

Re: Building my first mechanical keyboard

#29

Post by lawn »

creakingstairs wrote: post #10
colordrops wrote: post #8

Great intro. One thing I don't understand about the mechanical keyboard community is how the vast majority (like well over 95%) are not split keyboards. You'd think keyboard enthusiasts that sweat the details would also be obsessed with ergonomics. But no, I suspect that they are more concerned with aesthetics, which are arguably worse with a split keyboard.

I bought a split keyboard last year and I honestly don’t think I could go back. My shoulder/chest pain went away. The layers let me almost never leave the home row and I miss it every time I use my laptop keyboard. > I suspect that they are more concerned with aesthetics, which are arguably worse with a split keyboard. Yeah, mine has lots of wires and I miss the minimalistic aesthetic of wireless mini keyboards.

There are wireless split keyboards as well.

Re: Building my first mechanical keyboard

#30

Post by gorgoiler »

hackernewds wrote: post #27
gorgoiler wrote: post #23

If anyone here also has a keyboard of this size, I would be interested to know how you access the tilde key. I’ve bound mine to Fn-Esc but it feels unsatisfactory as a solution.

The solution is to not use tilde for anything :D

It’s potentially a fair point.

Alas my day to day frequently involves referring to paths relative to my Unix home directory, and creating markdown documents (code review, project documentation, bug reports) that use backtick to indicate code fragments and blocks.

I use it all the time but maybe I should become a writer instead? I am feeling the burnout of being a programmer pretty hard.

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