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A beginner's guide to split keyboards

justinmklam.com

121–130 of 260 posts

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#121
post #119

Shameless plug but I'm a doctor who made an ergonomic split keyboard called the TAIKO-01 ( https://taiko.taikohub.com ). It's split in two so you can position them at shoulder width. It's angled so your wrists are in more natural positioning (reduced pronation), and curved to prevent finger overstretching (finger joints have arc-shaped range of motion). It's injection molded and hot-swappable. I've been working on th…

Looks great! What do you use for mouse though? I wish more split keyboards had some integrated pointer control (touch / trackball / thinkpad-like-stick) so I didn't need to move my hand all the time.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#122

There really is no going back when you go split and tented. I've was on a Kenesis Freestyle for years, then upgraded to a Dygma Raise (V1) about three years ago. It's served me well, but I've been eyeing a CyBoard Imprint, which is like a Dactyl or Charbydis, but has hot swap-able switches (a rarity for curved key-well boards.) Can't give up my holy panda switches. :)

I went back - really don't like the wobble of the Kinesis keys. Ironically I prefer just an Apple keyboard since it matches my laptop (making going back and forth easy).

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#123
I'm mildly interested in keyboard ergonomics and efficiency, but every time I read threads like this I can't really see me spending $200+ on a keyboard when there are quite functional versions at $10 (and I know that the vast majority of the world is typing on either those or a laptop keyboard). To me it reads too much like an audiophile discussion about whether the materials of the cable affect sound, or just people "playing" (similar to cyberdecks). Not just trying to be provocative here, but those prices just seem crazy and just Silicon Valley posturing. Is there a post here that is not partially signalling "I'm rich enough to splurge in an unreasonably expensive set of keys"? Or am I being too harsh? The most grounded take seems to be easterncalculus's "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47083354" where he mentions that the best approach is to rest and exercise a little bit instead of having led-colored chording keyboards.

Sorry, I'll go get my coffee now :)

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#126
post #38

I was looking into split ergos a while ago but was bummed by the audiophile-ness of the userbase when doing research. I don't have time or interest to learn new layouts or keymaps or whatever. Any suggestions of simple split mechanical keyboards with standard (row staggered) layouts that aren't a small fortune?

Goldtouch Elite is the gateway drug. It offers both a hinged split and tenting if you want it, while having the classic keyboard layout. Microsoft natural also requires very little learning curve, assuming that you don't use the wrong hand for some of the middle keys out of habit.

I use Kinesis Advantage2. I suppose they should be relatively cheap on eBay now. They still have a slight amount of ulnar deviation, but I find it's the best keyboard I've ever owned. I don't use all the macros and foot pedals and whatnot. You don't lose the ability to touch type on a standard keyboard, and it really only takes a day or two to have some proficiency, and maybe 2 weeks to get to full speed on the Kinesis. It helps greatly that all the letter keys are the same; it's just the thumb keys and the arrow keys that take some getting used to.

One massive advantage of the old Advantage2 is that there's a big empty space in the middle (with just the indicator lights). You can use museum wax to stick an Apple trackpad there, and then you hardly move your hands at all. I still have a trackball for large mouse movements or whatever, but most of the fine movements are done on the Apple trackpad at the center of the keyboard.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kinesisadvantage/comments/16994c7/t...

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#127
post #14

The issue with kinesis and all those nice small symmetrical keyboards is that not every alphabet is as short as English. Russian, for example, has 33 letters. So if you’re someone like that, you really want that ordinary macbook-like number of keys = larger non-symmetrical right half. — As for the ortholinear keyboards, I spent a few months with the latest kinesis but sold it eventually: not that comfortable. Just cl…

On mac I just use settings to Map it so alt is still alt on nix but on mac it cmd

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#128
post #14

The issue with kinesis and all those nice small symmetrical keyboards is that not every alphabet is as short as English. Russian, for example, has 33 letters. So if you’re someone like that, you really want that ordinary macbook-like number of keys = larger non-symmetrical right half. — As for the ortholinear keyboards, I spent a few months with the latest kinesis but sold it eventually: not that comfortable. Just cl…

the uhk looks fairly close to what I've been looking for, just wish it had ortholinear keys.

how's the build quality? I got a split keyboard a while ago from a small producer, and the case was completely built out of 3d printed plastic which caused it to be pretty flimsy and kept sliding around due to the light weight.

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#129
post #88

Surprised Ergodox is not mentioned, that's the keyboard that started the movement. Very safe pick since firmware is open source and it can be both self-assembled and bought. It has too many keys in thumb clusters and bottom row, but you can easily remove them.

I feel like the Ergodox was traditionally a lot of people's first wacky split keyboard -- but for those that stuck around, it was rarely their last. These days, there are so many better options that it's hard to recommend Ergodox despite its historic importance.

Can you recommend one that is clearly better that ergodox in every manner?

Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards

#130
Neat article. I used to daily drive a ZSA Moonlander but it got unwieldy with desk space taking notes on my laptop as well. Recently tried it again, and some of my muscle memory is still here - though all the second layer shortcuts I've forgotten. In particular, what the lesser used keys on the thumb cluster map to.

If I was coming back to a smaller keyboard, I doubt I would even know where to find punctuation.

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