Split keyboards and how to build them • Hacker News Board

Re: Split keyboards and how to build them

#261

Post by rendaw » Tue, Feb 02, 2021, 2:41 AM UTC

xudongz wrote: post #260

rendaw wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad I came back here. I'm interested, but had some questions. What's a controller? It sounds like some sort of combined battery pack/bluetooth adapter... How much extra desk space does it take? Do you have photos of that? Also re: battery life, I assume the reason why having a "central" half reduces battery life is the same as the first version. Why can't the computer keep track of modifiers/layers? If you have…

https://www.xudongz.com/blog/2020/ergoblue/firmware/ has a lot more information about the controller (with photos). In summary: - The dongle is reasonably small. If you're traveling with it, you can toss it in your bag with a battery pack and it acts as a Bluetooth keyboard (for your phone/tablet/laptop/etc). You can plug it into your desktop, in which case it acts as a USB keyboard in addition to Bluetooth for other…

Oh thanks! I didn't realize the dongle attached to the computer, I thought it was like a power brick for the keyboard itself. That looks pretty nice!

So basically all the smarts so to speak are in the dongle, which you reprogram, etc?

Re: Split keyboards and how to build them

#262

Post by martin_a » Tue, Feb 02, 2021, 3:13 PM UTC

jamil7 wrote: post #131

__mharrison__ wrote: post #50

I get that these are expensive... But they might be a career saver. Listen to your body. If your fingers and wrists are telling you something, take action. It doesn't have to be an expensive split. (I have an ergodox with the Norman keyboard layout with other firmware goodies as well as running AutoHotKeys to give me emacs bindings all over the place.)

Some of them aren't even expensive, I have the cheap R-Go Split mentioned in the list and it's been great for me, someone with wider shoulders and long arms. I finally feel like I can type in a natural position. Completely agree though, it took me too long and too much complaining to start looking into this area.

Any negative sides on this one? I wonder if all the others are expensive for a reason and the R-Go misses something?!?

Re: Split keyboards and how to build them

#263

Post by xudongz » Tue, Feb 02, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

rendaw wrote: post #261

xudongz wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.xudongz.com/blog/2020/ergoblue/firmware/ has a lot more information about the controller (with photos). In summary: - The dongle is reasonably small. If you're traveling with it, you can toss it in your bag with a battery pack and it acts as a Bluetooth keyboard (for your phone/tablet/laptop/etc). You can plug it into your desktop, in which case it acts as a USB keyboard in addition to Bluetooth for other…

Oh thanks! I didn't realize the dongle attached to the computer, I thought it was like a power brick for the keyboard itself. That looks pretty nice! So basically all the smarts so to speak are in the dongle, which you reprogram, etc?

That is correct. Typically if want to update your keymap, you would just update the firmware running on the dongle. The firmware on the two wireless keyboard will pretty much never change.