Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander • Hacker News Board

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#281

Post by dotancohen » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 8:36 AM UTC

westonmyers wrote: post #218

dotancohen wrote: post #4

All I want is a quality split mechanical keyboard with Function keys. I use an IDE all day, I don't want to pull quadruple buckies every time I debug. The Matias Ergo Pro is almost perfect, but I had two of them and they both failed within one year. I had one of each switch type (low force and regular) - both were missing some button presses and repeating other button presses.

I've been running an Ergo Pro since 2015. Ordered like 40 extra key switches and have had to resolder in about a dozen as replacements so far. Annoying, but I'm keeping it going! Gel wrist pads?... Not a great implementation. I either need to work up a 3d printed DIY replacement via covering TPU (or something of the like) or order a first party replacement.

That might be the route I should go.

I also have a "flat" gelpad on one of my Ergo Pros. Came that way from the factory, but it never really bothered me enough to complain to them. I love the gelpad palm rests (not wrist).

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#282

Post by wry_discontent » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 3:52 PM UTC

jamesbvaughan wrote: post #249

wry_discontent wrote: post #245

The only ergo keyboard I've ever enjoyed is the ZSA Voyager. I tried the Kinesis, the Ergodox, and the Moonlander, but something about them didn't quite suit me. I think they all had similarly oversized thumb clusters, which I found very uncomfortable. My current setup is the Voyager with homerow mods, which is super comfortable and I manage to mostly avoid typos. edit: I should also say I'm an avid Emacs user.

+1 to the Voyager. I switched to it a few years ago from the Moonlander and have been really happy with it. I like the smaller footprint, and the fact that it has fewer keys. Having fewer keys has forced me to create layers that keep everything within a closer reach so I'm stretching my fingers out to the edge keys less than I did with the Moonlander. I split my time about 50/50 between the Voyager and my macbook's k…

You can do some of it with Karabiner Elements and/or Kanata, but I don't think it's quite as good. I couldn't get the timing working as well with those so the layers were more trouble than they were worth.

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#283

Post by sleepybrett » Tue, Sep 30, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

linsomniac wrote: post #277

sleepybrett wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When i switched to my kinesis advantage (then called the essential) in about 1999-2000. I had to spend a very dedicated amount of time using ONLY that keyboard. Once I became fully proficient I was able to switch between the advantage and 'normal' staggered boards without any problems. Muscle memory is incredible.

With the Ergodox the big issue I have is that my muscles know where a few of the unusual keys are (+/= primarily) and if I just type it I'm fine, but if I think about "where is +" I'm just jacked. I should probably just get used to using the second layer for +, which I do for {} and %, I really should more fully embrace that but it has just never stuck.

yeah if + and - are the same as the advantage (furthest left and right on the numrow). I could see how that might cause an issue. If I ever have had that problem I've mostly gotten over that. That said, I don't often actually code on a normal keyboard so +/= and -/_ aren't really something that I'm using much. Any time I'm away from my desk it's often taking notes or responding to emails or slack .. so less technical things.

Just to say in my experience once you've fully settled into the advantage, and maybe this is just because I use an advantage and i've got the extra little 'hint' to my brain from the keywell shape, moving back and forth to flat boards doesn't cause any issues. I'm not missing keys because of the stagger differences, which I think was the primary concern.

The only things I keep on a separate layer are some multimodified keys that I use for window management, the f-row, and random things like keyboard backlight and bluetooth stuff, and a few macros.