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Show HN: Bayleaf – Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard

graz.io

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Re: Show HN: Bayleaf – Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard

#91

Post by jsheard »

regularfry wrote: post #63

The unsung hero here is probably the nice!nano. Such a good little board. I've made my own split keyboard around them and it just makes so many things I thought I'd have to think about Go Away.

The nice!nano gets the job done but it's really expensive for what's ultimately just an nRF52 dev board in the ubiquitous Pro Micro form factor. They're $25 a pop and you need two for a split board, while you can get generic nRF52 Pro Micros on AliExpress for about $3.50 each.

It's the same story with RP2040 Pro Micros for wired QMK builds, there's a huge "keyboard tax" if you get the ones marketed for that purpose.

Re: Show HN: Bayleaf – Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard

#92

Post by Executor »

Criticism: - Non-standard layout - Where's the arrow keys block? Insert/delete/home/end/pgup/pgdown block? - Non-staggered keys makes it hard to type due to mistyping on the wrong row

Questions: - Do you have nkey rollover? - Would you accept "optional" wires? Note: gaming requires fast response times. Hell even programming/writing sucks when there's key lag.

Re: Show HN: Bayleaf – Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard

#93

Post by hinkley »

The part of my brain that never stopped playing Tetris notices that if you had striped the color variations left to right instead of top to bottom you’d have a more uniform color variation. And if you’s put half the dark and half the light on each side then the gradient would look more purposeful.

But you also probably should have printed 2x as many keys and split them up for making two copies.

Re: Show HN: Bayleaf – Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard

#94

Post by jabart »

First it looks amazing. Honest question, why do all of these keyboards never have an extra column on the right. Standard querty layout has a lot of coding related extra keys to the right than the left. Similar with the ergodox ez and moonlander. Hard to break a years long habit of going up for a curly brace or bracket then down.

Re: Show HN: Bayleaf – Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard

#95

Post by striking »

Executor wrote: post #92

Criticism: - Non-standard layout - Where's the arrow keys block? Insert/delete/home/end/pgup/pgdown block? - Non-staggered keys makes it hard to type due to mistyping on the wrong row Questions: - Do you have nkey rollover? - Would you accept "optional" wires? Note: gaming requires fast response times. Hell even programming/writing sucks when there's key lag.

I actually don't think I'll be going back to a staggered keyboard. Ortholinear layouts make setting up layers a lot easier, which gives you the ability to set up momentary arrow key or cursor movement blocks.

ZMK supports N-key rollover and layers.

Re: Show HN: Bayleaf – Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard

#96

Post by volemo »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #82
danielvaughn wrote: post #45

Personal opinion, but I really don’t get low-profile keyboards. I always need a foam cushion for my palms, which means that a normal profile always feels best for me. Low feels too low with a cushion, and yet still feels too high without one.

I agree. It looks like with this it would be near impossible to press the lower left/right keys with my palm, which is something that helps take the load off my pinkies. It does look like a fun project though.

Sorry for uninvited advice, but you really shouldn't be using the keys in the corners for common actions (so common that you have a need to take the load off you pinkies). Utilise the CapsLock [1, 2]. (This key is so misbalanced in terms of prime key estate to utility ratio!) Better yet, try using home row modifiers [3].

[1]: https://wiki.c2.com/?RemapCapsLock

[2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/vim/comments/1442ads/mapping_capslo...

[3]: https://mattgemmell.scot/home-row-mods/

Re: Show HN: Bayleaf – Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard

#97

Post by ghostly_s »

aredox wrote: post #6

Nice write-up. For something so thin, your soldering woes aren't surprising. The standard way to manage that would have been to solder everything in one go on a hot plate (reflow soldering). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QarizoUnRfk

This video features the exact same technique and hot plate that was used here.

Re: Show HN: Bayleaf – Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard

#98

Post by [deleted] »

jabart wrote: post #94

First it looks amazing. Honest question, why do all of these keyboards never have an extra column on the right. Standard querty layout has a lot of coding related extra keys to the right than the left. Similar with the ergodox ez and moonlander. Hard to break a years long habit of going up for a curly brace or bracket then down.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Bayleaf – Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard

#100

Post by hinkley »

makeitdouble wrote: post #64
danielvaughn wrote: post #45

Personal opinion, but I really don’t get low-profile keyboards. I always need a foam cushion for my palms, which means that a normal profile always feels best for me. Low feels too low with a cushion, and yet still feels too high without one.

My take is that finger muscle are really different from person to person, to a degree that can be surprising. I might be at the other extreme end, but even typing on glass doesn't bother me much, and laptop keyboards are a good compromise to have just enough travel and not too much. I tried a nuphy low profile and it was tiring after a while. The thinkpad standalone trackpoint keyboard has been my go to for a while,…

Squishy keyboards make the tendons on the backs of my hand burn after a while. After Apple stopped producing their wired keyboard, which I used for everything, I bought a bunch of surplus ones and burned through them. I tried a few knockoffs, several of which were close, and now I’m on the wireless ones.

I was surprised as anyone when an Apple keyboard became my gaming keyboard.

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