Hey,

I'm choosing keys switches.

I have to choose between kailh red or the pro red (for a zsa voyager).

I'm torn because I'm reading online that many find the normal reds too stiff, but I'm worried that the pro red won't allow me to rest on the home row without misfires.

I absolutely do rest my fingers on the home row. Especially when starting typing. I use the concave feel of the caps to confirm I'm in the right place to start.

My research suggests that the mx blacks I use at home are stiffer than the reds (60gf, but much more travel), and the keys on my thinkpad are in theory stiffer too (57gf).

Has anyone here trodden this same path? Any insights?

Hey folks, me again.

Those of you who went from a larger keyboard to a smaller one that required the use of layers: was the transition hard? Could you still type on the old keyboard after?

Context: I was asking the other day about which ortholinear to get for commuting. Although the glove80 is the closest to my current home desktop keyboard, I've ruled it out as I don't think it will fit in my backpack. If it does, it will take up too much space.

So I'm looking at something like the voyager, but with such a small keyboard, there will be a learning curve. I'm used to ortholinear, but I've never used layers. And if I manage to adapt, it'd be nice to still be able to use my desktop keywell keyboard at home.

Thoughts?

I'm posting here because I have nowhere else to post. If you squint, this meets the community rules because my current keyboard is a Piantor/42, and my issue stems from a combination of 40% and QMK behavior. Although, to be honest, this is mostly about QMK, but using Discord is painful, and I'll go there only as a last resort.

For a long while, I used Kanata on my laptop, and desktop an ErgoDox, having replaced kmonad because of one certain feature: tap-hold key sequence behavior. It's best described here, but the tl;dr is that (press lsft) (press a) (release lsft) (release a) where a is a tap-hold key should output "A" and not "a" -- kmonad outputs "a".

A few months ago, when I got my Piantor, I discovered that this sequence outputs no character, and although there's an option that makes it output "a", I can't find a combination that makes it output "A". I'm asking whether, in the bewildering set of QMK variables, is there a way to configure QMK s.t. the sequence (press lsft) (press a) (release lsft) (release a) outputs "A"?

That's the main thrust of my question. As a sort of addendum, I think this behavior is behind another of my QMK irritations: I'm a reasonably fast typer, and often will be typing the next key before I've completely released the previous key. This means I have to set a large-ish time-out before tap-hold engages, which introduces an annoying delay whenever I want to chord a layer and get at, e.g. numbers. I do understand that this is may be an unsolvable issue, that it's just an unavoidable limitation on small keyboards in having so many common keys (numbers, punctuation, and arrows are the worst -- coding, nearly half the text are characters from layers). Either I have a long timeout and and live with an annoying delay when I want to type (many) punctuation characters or numbers; or I have a short timeout and frequently accidentally shifting layers. However, I feel as if this might be mitigated somewhat with the Kanata-style key sequence handling, because even though my Kanata configuration is nearly an exact mirror of my QMK layer configuration, I never have this problem with Kanata.

I suppose I could give up on using QMK for anything except the most fundamental mapping, and use Kanata instead. However, there's an appeal to the portability of having the programming in the keyboard itself; it makes me a little less dependent on the computer to which the keyboard is attached.

Hey,

I'm looking for a portable ortholinear for taking to co-working in my backpack.

For context, I'm a coder. I use neovim all day. At home I use a maltron 3d. It's a fantastic comfortable keyboard (I think kinesis nicked the design?), although it did take getting used to.

It's the only keyboard I've ever been able to touch type on.

So yeah. I'd like to find something similar that is portable. It has to have quiet switches, as it's a shared office. Any suggestions?

So far I've looked at:

• zsa moonlander
• zsa voyager
• moeergo glove 80

Those all look nice, but are too expensive.

How does the ergodox ez hold up these days?

Finished my first build, it turned out prettier than I expected honestly. I got a diodeless kit because I had never soldered anything before, it was quite a fun learning experience. Also my first mechanical keyboard, I'm really enjoying the feel of the keys (Kailh sunset).

I was really worried about adapting to the column-stagger, I've only used the regular row-stagger before, but after one hour of practice I was already typing at about half my normal speed, so I'm pretty happy.

I do feel that I need wrist rests though. not sure how to fix that yet.

I find that having a way to check the battery and connection status is very useful with wireless devices. Traditionally, the way to do this is through the addition of a display. However I always thought displays were a bit overkill for that and once I started using Xiao BLE controllers I noticed that they have an RGB LED built onto the controller itself that can be programmed.

So I wrote a small tool to indicate the battery and BT profile status that uses that LED, and I thought I'd share more broadly in case it is useful to others. It's pretty easy to add to your ZMK build as documented in the README as it is a ZMK module.

While it supports Seeeduino Xiao BLE out of the box, it's also easy to add support for it if you have a custom keyboard that has three dumb LEDs for RGB colors.

I like the glove80, but I don't want my keyboard to have any lights on it, and I want blank keycaps

I feel like I could find it for much cheaper without these things, but I also want it to have that instant actuation/deactuation found in certain gaming keyboards that makes the latency effectively tiny

Is there anything like this on the market? I can't find anything.

Im using my first mechanical keyboard and the experience has been great so far but, it is quite loud, especially at night, which cheap mods i can make to make it quieter while i can do something like changing the switches?

I'm trying to make myself a little Sweep clone with Ergogen. I'm following the amazing flatfootfox guide, but the guide doesn't talk about how to make a board flippable. I also watched the Ban Vallack videos and he kinda mentioned it but it didn't really go in depth. Are there some resources on what to keep in mind when making a board flippable/repositories for flippable footprints?

It's summer and it's hot.

Prime Day wasn't that great.

Things are a little weird.

So, we're having a Basically OK Sale in support of just being basically OK!

Get 15% off any order of $100 or more with checkout code YES-I-AM-BASICALLY-OK. Sale ends at midnight, July 31st.

Our keyboards are a bit more than Basically OK, of course. They're premium builds with gorgeous acrylic-coated resin cases, silky smooth trackballs and hot-swappable switches, with options like full wireless support, cool screens, scroll wheels, and RGB. (Haptic support is coming, too!)

Full Dactyl Manuform Builds (both wired and wireless)

DIY Dactyl Manuform Build Kit

Resin Dactyl Manuform Case Prints

PLA Dactyl Manuform Case Prints

If you'd like to try a Dactyl Manuform case on for size, we sell "sizing prints" of our C stock keyboard cases so you can actually try a case in hand to gauge how it feels.

Sizing Prints

And feel free to reach out if you have questions!

Cheers!

Andy @ Wylderbuilds

I created a short video on how to use the Latin extended/supplement characters (æ,ã,š,ß,ç, etc...) and how to pick other alternatives (sent via Unicode). High res version here: https://youtu.be/3h96KhmJhUs?si=rHAo-_tkZzZIPiie

My first ergo mech keyboard was a ZSA Moonlander which I got a little over a year ago. I love it. However, I am now being asked to come into the office more often and am looking at getting something similar, but more portable.

I was looking at the ZSA Voyager since the split keeb, low profile form factor, and columnar layout seem to check a lot of boxes, but I can't tell if I can go cut out that many keys/rows. Mostly concerned about losing the bottom row where I often hit CTRL, and losing out on the 3 thumbcluster buttons I always use.

Questions I have are:

1. Is it easy to switch from keyboard layouts that have dedicated ctrl keys, vs long pressing?

2. If this is used for an office setup where the keyboard is going to basically be straddling my laptop keyboard, do folks often just dance between the split keyboard to the laptop keyboard for those extra keys or muscle memory chords?

3. Are there low profile split type keyboards I should be considering?

4. If I like U4Ts, what type of switches should I be looking at for low profile tactiles but not too thocky and loud?

I'm looking for "fat"? keycaps similar to what Matias uses for Esc, Ctrl, Option, Cmd and Space keys on their ErgoPro. What search term should I use to find similar keycaps? I've tried "tall", "fat", "oversized", "big", etc., but I only find extra wide (in the X direction) or extra tall (in the Z direction) rather than in the Y direction. Any help welcome.

Discovered it yesterday in another thread.

This video looks amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aLmO97Y2Is

I had a look at the long-term review thread but couldn't find any comment for this one, so maybe this thread will be more successful?

I guess for me the biggest difference compared to a Charybdis is that it's a professional product.

I love the Charybdis as a project, but due to the price, I would rather go for something that can resist the test of time.

Using previous advice here I managed to assemble a piantor and soldered the microcontroller on the pcb directly and I have to say that for a complete beginner that was very challenging.

I've gotten 5 pairs of PCBs and I kind of destroyed one pair but I am still trying to assemble at least another keyboard so I have a backup as I reckon it would take me a few days to be able to be proficient again on a non ortholinear keyboard now.

So I decided to try to use the female pin headers to be able to remove the microcontroller if I ever need to in case it dies or something of the sort.

I had the regular pin headers already and I know I can remove the pins from the white strip so I was going to solder them into the pcb while attached to the female and cut the extra length they'd have.

I got this specific female ones from Aliexpress https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005053790061.html I got the ones named "1x40P Female Tin"

When they arrived however, I ended up noticing that the regular pin headers I have do not fit the female ones. I have no idea what to search for to buy just the pins and what dimensions I'd need to get them, can anyone please advise me on what's the name of the loose pins and which ones should I buy please.

Thanks in advance, thanks to this community I have a working kb now :)

I created this keyboard with the goal of having a display in each key. It has 72 keys and each key has a 72x40 px OLED display. They keys can change according to language and layout. Also displaying shortcut icons is possible :)

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1137 days later it's finally here!!

! I designed a small 30% keyboard based on hexagonal keycaps. The source files can be found on github. It runs the FAK firmware.

I am living in Germany and I need some Keycaps, which are not expensive. They don't need to be special, they just need to... work.

If you have been using an ergonomic mechanical keyboard for more than year, let us know which keyboard it is, and whether you plan to keep to keep using it for at least another year or if there's another keyboard you are considering trying instead.

Hello all,

After trying to find good choc v1 compatible keycaps, I found some STLs on GitHub for some Chicago Stenographer ones.

My 3D printer is just an A1 mini (can only print PLA and PETG - maybe TPU?). Do you think it’s a good idea to use PLA for keycaps?

Have MBKs right now on my Chocofi but was hoping for something more sculpted to get a little less fat finger typing.

I know most people order Nylon SLS prints from online but since I already have a 3D printer I was hoping to avoid that.

Bad idea?

Hey there everyone, I'm currently building a Lily58Pro, So far things have been going great, I'm at the point now where I need to flash the firmware, This is totally new territory for me and I'm hoping the community here can shed some light on a few concerns of mine.

The kit I ordered came with 2x 0xCB Helios controllers, Which appear to be RP2040 based. The official build guild is using ATmega32U4's.

The firmware page from the site I got my kit from just links to a single .uf2 file, I'm probably overthinking this whole thing but shouldn't there be a left and a right side? Or do I just put the controllers into bootloader mode and throw the uf2 file on each one like a regular Raspberry Pi? Or do I need to flash these with QMK? Just a little confused, and probably vastly overthinking this.

I’m joining the split keyboard group by building a piantor. I have the pcbs already and they’re lead free coated and I will use lead free solder on the components.

I’m a bit worried though as I used a borrowed split and I noticed I keep touching the soldering in the microcontroller quite a bit and the build I was going for was a bare one where we just put rubber feet directly in the pcb so there’s no case or anything.

I tend to rub my eyes and bite my nails quite a bit during the day. I was wondering if it’s safe enough on lead free solder or if this is something I should completely avoid.

Any suggestions in case I should avoid it entirely. I reckon the worst place would be the top of the pcb maybe I can use some hot glue where the solder is but I have no idea if it’s hard to pull it off later if I need to review/resolder.

This is my first project and I haven’t done anything like this before, so even the flux I’m kind of unaware how to clean, solder comes with it right, do I need to wipe it somehow or use isopropyl alcohol and wipe with maybe a paper towel?

Sorry about being a complete noob. I searched around but most people are concerned about the lead solder not lead free like me.

• Mekanisk Klippe case in Ultramarine
• cinereus he PCB with assembly by JLC
• FR4 plate in JLC Blue (missing Ultramarine’s hint of green)
• Gateron Melodic switches
• MTNU Susu keycaps
• running Vial firmware
• a BIG thanks to Noah Kiser’s PCB design videos and JLC’s PCB fab and assembly services

Less keys = better right?

Sorry for the crap photos - I just wanted to share these extra keys I added to my Lily58.

I noticed there was a gap in the matrix so I tacked a spare hot-swap socket to the pads on the back of the PCB. That worked with minimal modification to my QMK set-up. I couldn't really use it dangling off some wires so I set out to make an extension that would slot in and be retained by one of the standoffs. I don't have a laser cutter or 3D printer so I just hacked these out of a sheet of ABS plastic following a printed template and glued them up. They're nice and solid and line up really well, despite being rather rough around some of the edges.

I'm finding the 1.5U keys a bit confusing at the moment, swapping them out for 1U keys makes it a bit easier to home my thumbs. These are certainly much easier to access than the outermost keys on the lower row or the keys below the display. I'm thinking they need to be called Lily Pads.

! !

Hi all, I recently got into the world of ergo mech by borrowing a friend's old Iris v2, and I really love how powerful and customizable things can be with QMK firmware.

Recently, my old n52te has started to show signs of age after a dozen or so years of abuse. If you're not familiar, they look like this: !

There's definitely stuff that could be improved on--just being able to build your own firmware for it would be amazing. Having one or two more thumb buttons for layers would be sweet as well.

The community of ergo mech keyboard builders are doing some super cool things with 3d printed builds and all kinds of neat stuff. Since I've just been dipping my toes in, my question is: does anyone know of any good replacements for my n52te? Is this something anyone has tried tinkering around with?

Thanks!

The primary motivation behind v2 was to simplify the build process by ditching the XIAO/Shift Register for an integrated STM32 microprocessor. The only parts that need soldered are the hot swap sockets.

Features

• 36 key unibody split
• Choc spaced, column staggered, splayed
• Cirque touchpad support
• Integrated microprocessor
• Built in mounting standoffs
• Preflashed with VIAL

Kits include all required hardware except switches, keycaps and case.

Base Kit - $50

Cirque Kit - $65

Printed Cases are available in every color - as long as the color is purple or black.

Black ABS - $35

Purple ABS - $35

Purple Sparkle PLA - $25

Matte Black PLA - $25

So, I figured y'all would be the best people to ask. I make fairly traditional row-staggered hand-wires, but I like them to be stabilizer-free, due to my home tooling limitations and a realization that they work fine. They also avoid one of the biggest pet peeves across the various niches of keyboard people. What is the easiest and cheapest way to come by a handful of convex keycaps at 1.75u and under, to use as spacebars? I can make a lot of different combinations work, so "mix kits" in Cherry or MDA or XDA seem the most likely to be useful, but I'm not sure.

With the sole exception of the Enter key (which at 1.75u will need to be labeled CapsLock or Control for most keycap sets), most keys can be sourced by being a little careful with which sets you get, even in sculpted profiles. Numpads require a bit of care too, as many don't have the two to occupy a "split plus", but they'll usually have something usable for that, as well as a shrunken Enter.

I can find blank keycaps easy enough, and they work pretty well for XDA, but other profiles can get a little uncomfortable on the thumb, and only some benefit from being turned around.