ErgoMechKeyboards
Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards
Rules
Keep it ergo
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 Spam
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.
No Buy/Sell/Trade
This subreddit is not a marketplace, please post on r/mechmarket or other relevant marketplace.
Some useful links
- EMK wiki
- Split keyboard compare tool
- Compare keycap profiles Looking for another set of keycaps - check this site to compare the different keycap profiles https://www.keycaps.info/
- Keymap database A database with all kinds of keymap layouts - some of them fits ergo keyboards - get inspired https://keymapdb.com/
view the rest of the comments
This is all good advice but I would say if you're willing (and interested) to try a "40s" like board, the corne (at least in 6 column version) is fairly accessible and is very popular so looking for ideas about how to make your keymap won't be difficult. And also boardsource now has a fully assembled version of the corne (no soldering).
That is to say, cerement described a very reasonable progression, but if you don't mind feeling like you don't know how to type for a bit you can jump into anything that is interesting to you, and many folks agree that smaller boards are more comfortable to type on.
I must say It's daunting to reduce the amount of keys that much, since I'm used to full-size. Then again, I use the numpad mostly to control foobar2000 (music), which should be easily balanced with a thumb-activated additional layer in a board such as the corne. I can't seem to find the fully assembled version of the corne, but the unicorne is assemblable without soldering. Would you recommend low-profile switches? I have absolutely no experience typing on those so I'd be interested to know what the difference feels like.
Another thing: I use Blender. Is it possible / feasible to reduce key count that much when blender has this huge amount of keyboard shortcuts? I think if I were to buy an ergo keyboard, I'd gravitate towards the moonlander for this reason.