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Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

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Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#81

Post by kayson »

qwerpy wrote: post #74
kayson wrote: post #5

I love my moonlander so much, I bought a second one for work. Both were secondhand, so the sticker shock wasn't quite so bad. Though, I did end up spending some of that savings on custom, coiled cables. A coworker, after seeing my setup, also ended buying two. I agree with the author. It's a tool, and if your job requires a lot of computer use, it is worth it to invest in a tool that can not only help prevent RSI, bu…

I like my moonlander. Feels great and now that I'm used to ortholinear, I can't go back. The ZSA layout editor is awesome. I just wish it had more keys so that I could have an F row and dedicated keys for modifiers. Yes I can use the various features to get them and yes I know it'll be allegedly faster once I train myself. But I'm a busy middle aged man now. I float back and forth between Windows (home), Mac (work),…

I use long press on the number keys for function keys (F11 and F12 on the inner columns) and I'm pretty happy with that setup.

I got my cables on etsy. There are tons of US-based makers who have large selections of colors, connectors, etc. I got my connectors cerakoted and they're really nice. It's pricey though.

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#82

Post by danpalmer »

daft_pink wrote: post #68

The thing I don’t like about keyboards this is that I still have to use a mouse and these keyboards don’t really address that. If I mounted on the arms of my desk, it’s even harder to get to the mouse. Maybe a few people can get away with just them all day, but I can’t.

I switched from a Moonlander to a UHK, and I have the trackball module for it. Life changing. I don't use a mouse anymore and instead have a trackball right under my thumb.

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#83

Post by Forgeties79 »

Lunamare wrote: post #45
Forgeties79 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These look great and I don’t doubt it’s worth the investment, but holy hell $500 is a tough price tag to accept.

The way I thought about it was that I would gladly pay $500 to have a reduction in RSI symptoms, let alone prevent them beforehand. Not to mention the potential loss of enjoyment & employment from pain during computer use. And as such, I'm an extremely satisfied Advantage 360 Pro user. The Adv 360 + a mouse side-grade massively reduced pains in my hands/wrists to the point where I don't notice any issues 99% of the t…

Totally agree that it is worth the investment and who knows, maybe I will even get one one day. But I’m definitely getting some sticker shock regardless haha

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#84

Post by grepex »

qwerpy wrote: post #75
FridgeSeal wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Moonlander and I genuinely don’t understand why so many split keyboards do this. “Here’s a really nice split keyboard. But we’ve removed everything except the alphanumerics” Whhhyyyy. “Oh but it’s programmable. And you can have layers. And you can have macros” Cool. I actually didn’t want any of that. I just wanted a single row of function keys. My Moonlander can somehow make space for a “meh” key, a “caps w…

I completely agree. Moonlander would be perfect with a F key row and dedicated modifier keys. The purists will sneer, but they could always take off the keycaps and switches if they want to show off how minimal they are. I don't spend all my time in vim, my job is mostly emails and docs now. Muscle memory decays for all the fancy chords/layers/macros/etc and I don't have infinite time to spend tweaking keyboard layou…

I added a numeric layer where my left thumb activates the layer key and the numbers are arranged like a numpad on my right half. The dedicated number keys at the top row are now f keys. Highly recommend

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#85

Post by marvin-hansen »

I got a moonlander for programming. The defaulting tenting is indeed a lame joke, so I got the platform, which is made out of steel(!). It's heavy, but rock solid and stable. I mapped commonly used Fn-key combos on the number rows as long press i.e. cmd-Fn-4 is a long press on 4. The web UI makes this dead simple to setup and customize. That said, I read from the guy who build the Svalboard to put the keyboard on a tray below the desk. I actually did that and, man, that was a revelation. I have one of those motorized desks with adjustable height, and with the tray the Moonlander is now roughly on the same level as the arm rest from the chair. It reduced the tension in my shoulders noticeably. It's a vastly improved typing experience.

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#86

Post by petesergeant »

Jcampuzano2 wrote: post #8

I started having RSI issues 2 years ago, what a way to welcome me to my 30s. It was excruciatingly painful just getting through a workday even with plenty of breaks. I didn't care for building my own keyboard I literally just wanted something to help me not be in pain no matter how weird it looked. I've ended up on a Kinesis advantage 360 pro after spending thousands of dollars on keyboards because I needed something…

Anyone else suffering with this, I would highly recommend an app that forces you to stop typing for a few seconds every other couple of minutes, like AntiRSI. Hugely annoying but helped me where many keyboards did not

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#87

Post by mewse-hn »

Twey wrote: post #73

> proponents of mechanical keyboards say you need fewer keys than a regular keyboard, for _reasons_ That's a bit of a generalization. Mechanical keyboards like the Hyper7 exist that have enough for even the most key-hungry typist. If you want an ergonomic mechanical keyboard with many keys there are also some of those out there, like the Kinesis line or the Glove80. That said, one thing people mean by ‘ergonomic’ is…

I'm a mech keyboard enthusiast and an ansi 104 full size ride-or-die

> (Because subcultures are subdivided recursively, the _gaming_ mechanical keyboard subcrowd also often like small keyboards, for reasons I don't really know but are presumably quite different from the reasons the ergonomic mechanical keyboard subcrowd have.)

The explanation I've always heard for TKL for gamers is that removing the numpad leaves more room for the vigorous, professional mousing they have to do (I'm skeptical)

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#88

Post by artimaeis »

Twey wrote: post #73

> proponents of mechanical keyboards say you need fewer keys than a regular keyboard, for _reasons_ That's a bit of a generalization. Mechanical keyboards like the Hyper7 exist that have enough for even the most key-hungry typist. If you want an ergonomic mechanical keyboard with many keys there are also some of those out there, like the Kinesis line or the Glove80. That said, one thing people mean by ‘ergonomic’ is…

I like smaller keyboards (80% or less) in both gaming and professional work because it lets me keep my hands and shoulders in a more natural position when I’m using the mouse.

A person with broader shoulders would probably have a different experience, but a full keyboard makes me feel like my mouse is either too close to the keyboard or too far to rest my shoulder.

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#89

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

sudahtigabulan wrote: post #56
Forgeties79 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These look great and I don’t doubt it’s worth the investment, but holy hell $500 is a tough price tag to accept.

You can get pretty far with software-only tweaks to your existing keyboard instead. I've settled on keyd[1], after using XKB and interception-tools for a while. [1]: https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd

For some users they’re fine, but terrible for hypervisors, remote desktops or systems you don’t own (it’s far easier to sneak a keyboard into some places than a software solution). A hardware solution was far better for my usecase, obviously ymmv,though.

Re: Thoughts on Mechanical Keyboards and the ZSA Moonlander

#90

Post by dimator »

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.

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but keychron make split keyboards:

https://www.keychron.com/collections/split-keyboards

I'm not sure if they're in stock, but it's a lovely keyboard with dead simple programmability.

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