Analog desktop synthesisers
localise signal to noise ratio as 1:1.
A 2KH sin wave sampling at 1000 Hz reconstructs to 1000 Hz.
A beginner's guide to split keyboards
31–40 of 260 posts
Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards
#32No mention of the Kinesis Advantage 360? I was lucky and scored two of them for free, one from the ergo center at my employer, and one from a generous coworker who didn't vibe with his.
There are a lot of keyboards I'd like to try, but I'm pretty happy with these.
Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards
#33I resent the idea of an absolute standard of ergonomics or typing technique. I often use my left thumb to key z/x/c/v/b. I often reach with my left index finger to key y/h/b. During certain chords, my hands often cross over the split.
I tried multiple split keyboards over the period of 2 years and never grew out of these habits. I always wished, at the least, that some of the middle keys were duplicated between the two halves.
Eventually I received some permission to accept my personal "kinetic signature" (so to speak). Then the chronic wrist pain that led me to try split keyboards in the first place vanished. So I went back to using a normal tenkeyless. This led me to believe that split keyboards were ideal for some people, but that other people (like myself) are predisposed to a sort of perfectionism that entails physical guarding and chronic pain.
I still wish I had a wireless split keyboard for times when I'm supine and need to type, though.
Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards
#34The split keyboards with more traditional 92+ keys including 0-9 and F keys are underrepresented in the guide
My kingdom for a split keyboard with a traditional layout. I have no interest in chording, layers, or having fewer keys. No numpad if you must cut something. I just want to spread my arms without any additional novelty. No shortage of “vertical” desk space, give me that F-row
I like these: https://eu.perixx.com/products/periboard-535
The F-lock nonsense isn't too awful, you get all of the keys, the layout is pretty standard, you can buy ANSI layout ones in the UK, and there's a full set of meta keys that are usefully symmetrical enough. Also: connects to PC with a wire. No batteries required. (The wonders of modern technology!)
Haven't tried the brown switches.
The red switches are quite light touch with a nice positive action. Very nice to type on for text, where my fingers can get into a good rhythm, but it's a bit too easy to hit the wrong key if I'm going for an arbitrary keyboard shortcut.
The blue switches go click, which feels great to type on, and I've found it does help a bit with the problem of hitting the wrong key (something about the more obvious multimodal feedback gets my subconscious on the job I suppose) - but I never quite got on with the slightly heavier key action.
I used to use the MS Ergo 4000, and I've found this a good replacement. The keyboard layout is very similar, as is the reverse tilt angle, and the palm rest is fine, even if it's IMO inferior to the MS 4000. (But: the MS 4000's reverse tilt stand, a single piece of solid plastic, is significantly more solid than the Perixx's little fold out things. Worth bearing in mind if you're in the habit of resting your elbows on the palm rest when in thought.)
Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards
#35I resent the idea of an absolute standard of ergonomics or typing technique. I often use my left thumb to key z/x/c/v/b. I often reach with my left index finger to key y/h/b. During certain chords, my hands often cross over the split. I tried multiple split keyboards over the period of 2 years and never grew out of these habits. I always wished, at the least, that some of the middle keys were duplicated between the t…
Curious if there are any split keyboards with "overlap", eg, the center of the keyboard is duplicated on both sides
Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards
#36The split keyboards with more traditional 92+ keys including 0-9 and F keys are underrepresented in the guide
I have multiple of the MSFT Sculpt keyboards. It's wireless. Comes with separate wireless number pad. Now produced by Incase. It has Windows key, but it's easy to remap.
Official name now : Incase Designed By Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Wireless TKL Keyboard
https://www.incase.com/products/sculpt-ergonomic-keyboard
(In Canada, only available at Bestbuy)
Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards
#37My two cents: The Keychron Q11 is a decent choice for a split keyboard which also has a traditional layout and therefore doesn't require any learning. If you don't like the distance, you _can_ push the pieces back together and they'll just resemble a traditional keyboard. And it's definitely the highest build quality of any keyboard I've used this far in my life.
It seems to have this issue (or maybe Macbooks do? I don't know..) where, waking my computer from sleep, the right side of the keyboard doesn't work. It's quickly fixed by unplugging and replugging the right side of the keyboard into the left, or unplugging and replugging the entire keyboard into the computer.. it's a shame that I have to do that sometimes, though.
Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards
#38I 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?
Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards
#39Can somebody recommend a layout for a programmer for a 54 key kyeboard?
Take a look at ZSAs oryx configurator for Voyager (52 keys) - you'll see some general configs and development ones etc.
In general, for my moonlander I would have the first layer with all the normal alpha numerics and a few symbols like ?
But the second layer would contain most symbols, arranged/grouped in a manner which was natural for programming - e.g. grouping keys together like (), [], {},
Re: A beginner's guide to split keyboards
#40The 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 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. Ironically, the biggest enthusiast of these splits I know in real life (he owns a kinesis) is a slavic guy, speaks both Ukranian and Russian, but I suppose he's typing in English for most of the day at his job, however I know he uses layering for the cyrill…
Yeah, it’s two or three(?) letters that got cut out, one of them is kinda rare.
You can get used to it, but why suffer. Especially if one also uses a laptop.
Other thing that I don’t like in all these small custom keyboards is that most rely on a single spacebar on one half. I learned to use either thumb depending on which next key is: press space with left thumb if next key is on the right half and vice-versa.
—
Also I would urge you to buy a keyboard with arrows keys and extra stuff like home/end
I use uhk 40 and it is fine most of the time since I use vim-motions in my IDEs. But sometimes I just wish they were there.
For example alt-right on mac is to expand all folders recursively in the Finders list view. Just becomes an effing piano if you need to add caps-l to have an arrow in addition to all the alts and shifts.
You can mitigate this with stuff like caps + ; for alt + right arrow (ctrl + right arrow for win), but again, when you need to add shift or not only left/right it gets cumbersome once you are not in the vim-like environment (chats, word, what have you).
tldr; buy uhk 80 nowadays. And an external bluetooth numpad for those days when you need to enter a lot of numbers. Why external? Shorter distance between a keyboard and a mouse — more comfortable and takes less space.