I've bought the idea of getting an ergo keyboard for work, but it's too expensive to buy one from where I live, so the last days I've been learning and designing my own.
I know it won't be as good as a manufactured one but I really want to see how the result will be
Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards
Posts must be of/about keyboards that have a clear delineation between the left and right halves of the keyboard, column stagger, or both. This includes one-handed (one half doesn't exist, what clearer delineation is that!?)
i.e. no regular non-split¹ row-stagger and no non-split¹ ortholinear²
¹ split meaning a separation of the halves, whether fixed in place or entirely separate, both are fine.
² ortholinear meaning keys layed out in a grid
No excessive posting/"shilling" for commercial purposes. Vendors are permitted to promote their products/services but keep it to a minimum and use the [vendor] flair. Posts that appear to be marketing without being transparent about it will be removed.
This subreddit is not a marketplace, please post on r/mechmarket or other relevant marketplace.
It's sexy and looks comfortable, do you enjoy the MDF board?
Thanks :)
Yes, I do! I enjoyed a cardboard prototype before, and only just finished this. I really like it. The fit is great, and I like the sound. I gave it some small feet in the back (some 3mm foam tape) to lift it a bit from the table/deskmat, to get some more sound out - there's zero space between the switches and bottom plate.. And I like the sound.
Switching to the prototype, I switched to Colemak, too. I'm still learning that. So I'm by no means a fast typist on it yet. But I already know better where the keys are on Colemak than I did on QWERTY, and I think the symmetric, column-staggered layout helped a lot with that.
I did a prototype using cardboard today to test how typing would feel, I loved the column staggered layout, feels way better than the default, I might give a try one day to colemak, but I'll try not to change radically now, once I get used to the split keyboard I'll try other things too
Yes, column stagger is amazing! Congrats on the prototype! I ended up using mine a bit over a month before getting a nicer, revised version cut. I learned from that. Removed some keys, moved some a bit.
I've read elsewhere that switching to a new layout is easier at the same time as changing to ergo, instead of later. I've had some time off, that's why I did it now. If I had been busy, I'd rather have started using my new board and the old layout.