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

electronicmaterialsoffice.com

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

#491

Post by teolandon »

soheil wrote: post #431
jordemort wrote: post #272

The biggest disadvantage to switching to a split keyboard is seeing neat things like this come out, and then hearing my wrists say "it's too bad we're never letting you go back." I even have to travel with the damn thing now, if I'm planning on doing any serious coding...

What if you learn to type 50% less? Incidentally you might discover that you're a better programmer as a result too. I have a simple rule I refuse to type any word longer than 3 characters. Copy and paste is your friend.

Did you copy and paste most of the words in this comment? Where from?

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

#493

Post by TheRealPomax »

Really wish people remembered to put USB pass-through on their keyboards though. If I need a small form factor keyboard, it's gonna be a good bet the number of USB ports available is at a premium and chaining will make life so much better. Depending on what I'm doing, I'm going to need the zero latency of a cable (like using my keyboard with FL studio to make some music, for which Bluetooth latency -even the latest gen- is still way too high)

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

#494

Post by seltzered_ »

MetaWhirledPeas wrote: post #247
seltzered_ wrote: post #94

I run a subreddit on mobile ergonomics ( http://reddit.com/r/ergomobilecomputers/ ) and spent the past year using raised tablet PC as my only machine, and curating the smaller subset of portable keyboard & computer setups. My advice: - drop the rotary encoder, it messes up the height for packing the keyboard away. - a 75% layout (i.e. having fn keys) is okay, but makes it a bit challenging to fit in with a 13" tablet…

> 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.

> This does not claim to be an "ergonomic" keyboard.

I'm arguing the market already has a number of minimalist standard layout keyboards (the Nuphy lineup, even major brands like Logitech). Making something ergonomic and portable would be an interesting differentiator. The Atreus ( https://shop.keyboard.io/products/keyboardio-atreus ) is a nice example but gets a bit too minimal whatwith not having a number row.

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

#495

Post by jagger27 »

glxxyz wrote: post #316
da4id wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why a screen?

"battery estimate, whether it is trying to pair, or which device it is currently connected to"

All of that could be done more elegantly with a row of LEDs like on the side of an old unibody MacBook.

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

#496

Post by maratc »

I've been looking a lot at keyboards but have spent $0 on keyboards so far. This is the first keyboard I may actually consider buying. For a change, it looks like it has been designed by a person who actually digs typing.

I don't care about clickyness, or what switches does it have. This keyboard is the first I've seen that has a design that will actually allow finding keys by touching and feeling them, not by looking at them. The difference in the shapes of the different key groups is huge for me.

The only thing that I miss is the space around the reverse-T of the arrows. The space that Macbooks have around the arrows is not a "wasted space," it has a purpose: it allows me to position my fingers on the arrows just by touching and feeling. Maybe consider adopting the half-size of the arrows and leaving the left-shift where it should be.

Another note: I don't use Windows much, but when I do, the key in the lower left corner is hard-wired in my muscle memory to Ctrl. Ctrl is the key that is used the most in Windows, so I often need to find it quick, in that corner. Maybe consider a Mac/Win switch (fn-control-option-command for Mac, Ctrl-Fn-Windows-Alt for Windows).

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

#497

Post by jagger27 »

jitl wrote: post #51

First off, I love the design. I signed up for updates, etc. To me, this is missing an opportunity to be ortholinear - a grid instead of the standard finger straining zigzag pattern. That’s an ergonomic feature you can fit in a low profile keyboard. I think the grid would harmonize quite well with your design aesthetic while adding another feature on top of “pretty and slim”. I am the sort of person who buys every vag…

There are so few choices for low profile standard layout keyboards with nice keycaps, and you ortholinear fans insist on having yet another? Come on.

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

#498

Post by david422 »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #493

Really wish people remembered to put USB pass-through on their keyboards though. If I need a small form factor keyboard, it's gonna be a good bet the number of USB ports available is at a premium and chaining will make life so much better. Depending on what I'm doing, I'm going to need the zero latency of a cable (like using my keyboard with FL studio to make some music, for which Bluetooth latency -even the latest g…

I still like a wired mouse. This would be nice.

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

#499

Post by gus_massa »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #480
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, r…

A few years ago here in Argentina, the "free" keyboard with your desktop computer was usually a Spanish-LatinoAmerica 101-keyboard. You have the "Ñ" key, but the "><" key was missing. One solution was to install a special unofficial device driver downloaded from a page I can't find now. Perhaps this keyboard need some special configuration.

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

#500

Post by runevault »

seanbarry wrote: post #450
potamic wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is becoming a trend on HN where top comment points calls out the criticism in a thread. I personally feel there is nothing negative about critique and one of the reasons people broadcast their work here is to receive more feedback on it. Not every showcase automatically deserves a compliment. I think we should respect people for their opinions and the danger of applying negative pressure to criticism is we creat…

>Not every showcase automatically deserves a compliment. You're right. I do find, however, that the "default" reaction to showcases is to point out all the flaws, but not reinforce any of the strengths. To me that seems unbalanced. I'm sure many HN users are content with this form of feedback - that's fine. I personally think that when receiving feedback, finding out what has been done well is as important as finding…

The "point out flaws but not strengths" thing is something that has always bugged me for one simple reason: If you only tell me what you don't like, I don't know what I need to try to maintain while fixing the flaws to keep what IS good/useful/etc.
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