I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard • Hacker News Board

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#471

Post by teolandon » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 4:00 PM UTC

guywithahat wrote: post #458

Out of curiosity why did you use Chinese and not the more popular German (Cherry MX) switches considering the rest of the board was assembled in the UK? Really cool keyboard though, looks great!

The Kailh low profile switches are better than the Cherry low profile switches.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#472

Post by ebiester » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 4:00 PM UTC

devmor wrote: post #330

MetaWhirledPeas wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> drop the rotary encoder, it messes up the height for packing the keyboard away If that's really a concern the correct approach would be to make the knob low-profile. > What ergonomic job does this design serve? This does not claim to be an "ergonomic" keyboard.

I think you are misunderstanding their use of the word ergonomic. They're using it in the literal sense, not the colloquial sense of gimmicky layout keyboards. All keyboards should be ergonomic in the literal sense.

You say gimmicky, I say life-changing. Now, some of them are certainly gimmicks, but split keyboards make it so much more comfortable to type that for trips of more than a day or two where I think I might have to type, I have brought my keyboard with me. (And I'd love a low profile travel version of the Kenesis Freestyle Edge, for those keyboard types who are looking for differentiating features.)

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#473

Post by spoonjim » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 4:00 PM UTC

seanbarry wrote: post #229

There's a lot of criticism in the comments here, some of it feels very negative. I can imagine reading it as the OP is quite demoralising. Personally I think what the OP has achieved is very impressive. The design looks beautiful, and there's a very "Apple-esque" feel to the website. I love that sustainability has been made a requirement as part of the design. I think some of the other comments give good feedback abo…

I would think that someone with the tenacity to spend a year designing a keyboard would have enough grit that a few Comic Book Guy comments would not demoralize them.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#474

Post by aemerson_ » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 4:01 PM UTC

sandebert wrote: post #461

I see some questions about Linux support here, and apparently it works just fine with that OS. But why does the site say this then? OS support Apple MacOS 12 (Monteray) and up Microsoft Windows 10 and up

In theory the board works with Linux, but it has not actually been tested. If it is tested with Linux and is confirmed working, I will specify that in the specs.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#475

Post by chad_stevens » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 4:02 PM UTC

I was literally talking to my coworker about wanting a keyboard just like this yesterday! I don’t like the UK layout and I don’t want the arrow keys to go into the keyboard. They should be on the same row as space.

I would pay around $150-200 for the keyboard though.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#476

Post by interleave » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 4:02 PM UTC

bravoetch wrote: post #442

interleave wrote: post #423

This looks fantastic! A thought-experiment that may interest you coming from someone (me) who already has happily spent several hundreds of dollars on mechanical keyboards and uses them every single day: Let's imagine the keyboard could be bought today as-is with a simple "Buy Now" button and price was no concern. The two main reasons I would _still_ hesitate to hit that button are: 1. I absolutely and undoubtedly ne…

The site describes the switches as similar to reds. Linear, no tactile bump, silent.

Thank so much, that covers the feel – I wish there was sound ;)

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#477

Post by WhyNotHugo » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 4:02 PM UTC

Festro wrote: post #2

Looks really nice BUT: There's a split between what people online post pics of on fancy desktop setups and what people prefer to use as their daily driver. Minimal keyboards are for minimalists, and people who like to show of their setups. Just like desktop vanity posts typically have speakers, yet everyone uses headphones. Anecdotally there was a post recently on some PC subreddit asking what keyboard people preferr…

IMHO, the numeric keyboard is bad for ergonomics because I have to move the mouse to the far right, at a very uncomfortable angle. And I already have numbers close to the home row anyway.

I guess for data entry or numeric-intense jobs it does make sense, but not for the rest of us.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#478

Post by WhyNotHugo » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 4:04 PM UTC

rodrigodlu wrote: post #91

ISO keys, awesome. I wish ISO layouts can be more common, I grew up using ABNT (pt-BR) layouts, I got used to US-intl + altgr, but I dearly miss the big enter key. I'm a US layout MX Keys owner right now, so the key caps minimal profile is awesome for me. Definitely miss the big enter from ISO layouts. Don't care about the num pad like my accountant wife does, but the full size arrows and del/insert I do care. home/e…

The big downside of the ISO layout is that the enter key is no longer in reach of the right hand -- you have to move away to press enter. I use enter way too much for it to be out of reach.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#479

Post by barrenko » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 4:04 PM UTC

interleave wrote: post #423

This looks fantastic! A thought-experiment that may interest you coming from someone (me) who already has happily spent several hundreds of dollars on mechanical keyboards and uses them every single day: Let's imagine the keyboard could be bought today as-is with a simple "Buy Now" button and price was no concern. The two main reasons I would _still_ hesitate to hit that button are: 1. I absolutely and undoubtedly ne…

I hate to tell you - and this is a common "theme" on HN - but you are probably not the target audience.

Re: I spent a year designing a low profile, minimal mechanical keyboard

#480

Post by LeifCarrotson » Thu, Aug 18, 2022, 4:05 PM UTC

interleave wrote: post #423

This looks fantastic! A thought-experiment that may interest you coming from someone (me) who already has happily spent several hundreds of dollars on mechanical keyboards and uses them every single day: Let's imagine the keyboard could be bought today as-is with a simple "Buy Now" button and price was no concern. The two main reasons I would _still_ hesitate to hit that button are: 1. I absolutely and undoubtedly ne…

Down in tech specs it says the switches are Kailh Chocolate Low Profile Reds, which are a reasonably common linear switch.

Also, OP, you've got a typo in those same specs: OS support is listed as "Apple MacOS 12 (Monteray) and up". That should be Monterey with an E.

I'm a bit curious why the keyboard requires MacOS 12 or Windows 10, and doesn't list Linux support...it's an HID device. Just about anything will work, right? I assume it's configured out of the box with CONFIG_ZMK_HID_CONSUMER_REPORT_USAGES_FULL, and not _BASIC, to get the RGB and encoder to work...but again, this is a keyboard. Why wouldn't it work?