My current project is a "Writer Deck," a low-powered computer that boots directly to a text editor or word processor (RPi Zero booting to Wordgrinder, btw). Being the weirdo that I am, I also want to use this as an opportunity to try a split layout again, and see if I can get myself used to something other than the "Advanced Hunt and Peck" that I do now and that tops out at 60 or maaaaybe 70 wpm. The deasign I've come up with is a split monoblock based heavily on a Corne, but with a very modest split angle and the thumb cluster (1) shoved a bit farther under the hands and (2) built around 1.25u keys because they can be adapted to switch-stabilized 2.25u or 2.75u (see the green outlines). The whole thing fits in the Pok3r/GH60 footprint.

So, ergo-mech people, is this a completely silly layout? I have always felt that "literally never moving your hands" isn't necessarily as ergonomic for the average typist as has been promoted, and I do like a good nav cluster, but I also wonder if I've compromised too much to hit that footprint, especially with moving the thumb cluster away from the center. The intended use case will be much more prose (journaling and other creative writing) than code, so I'm less concerned about optimizing for programming. I've never had major RSI issues myself, just needing to switch from a mouse to a trackball for a little bit every year or two.

Like many of you, I've wrestled with the tap-hold dilemma: set a short TAPPING_TERM for quick holds at the cost of accidental activations, or lengthen it for more reliable tapping, which can make holds feel sluggish. While there are many clever settings to tweak, I often felt I had to significantly adapt my typing style to the algorithm, rather than the algorithm to me.

To explore a different approach, I'd like to share a QMK community module I've been working on called Predictive Tap-Hold (PTH). To predict whether a tap or a hold was intended, PTH analyzes event sequences, timing between presses, and which hand is used. For ambiguous cases, it relies on generated decision trees and evolved functions.

With the training dataset, these functions reached about 96% accuracy in distinguishing taps from holds. With another dataset, they still performed similarly. While that number might not sound ideal, it's important to know that the dataset included a wide variety of typing styles and required a lot of filtering (77,614 of 168,593 participant datasets were used). While better data will lead to future improvements, no prediction is flawless, and there will likely always be an adjustment period.

PTH is also highly configurable, which I hope makes it easy to handle edge cases and match your personal typing style. For instance, an Instant Hold feature allows the hold function (even LT) to activate the moment you press the key, which is useful for things like holding LCTL_T and using the scroll wheel to zoom without any delay.

The module is designed with ergonomics in mind. By default, when a key like RSFT_T(KC_H) from the right side is pressed, it will only choose hold if the next keypress comes from the other side and no third key is pressed. This can help prevent same-hand fatigue and make taps more reliable.

I've also aimed to make PTH compatible with other great QMK features like Combos and Tap Dance.

My hope is that this module might help make powerful setups like home-row mods feel more accessible and intuitive. It's now available as a QMK Community Module if you're willing to experiment. Thank you for checking it out, and I would genuinely appreciate any feedback you might have. If you run into any problems, I'd love a message or a report in the repository.

I have adapted so quickly to using 34 keys on my Re-gret, that it feels awkward going back to 46 keys on my Hillside. So, am now considering even fewer keys. Is anyone using a Hummingbird or Rufous? Anything similar in a wireless version? What has your experience been? Other suggestions?

Alt text: POV you are sitting on a sofa, left half of a split ergomech keyboard resting against the left leg under an angle (tented) while a black cat provides wrist support

Ever since my 1st kit (a Beekeeb Hillside 46 splay) I have been wishing I had gone wireless, for better portability. I also progressed to the point where I wanted fewer keys, and a single board, but still wanted some decent splay. Thanks to keeb supply for stocking Ryan Schenk's Re-gret! It's a lovely compact keyboard, and meets my needs almost perfectly! And...it fits well in a Nintendo Switch case. ZMK was pretty quick to get working as well, though the error message after flashing each time had me worried for a bit. I did have to get a small rubber foot under the translucent cover plate to hold down the controller, as it tended to lift when charging via USB, breaking the touch connection to the battery, but I've got that dealt with now and everything's good.

Pictured: current TKL below, split ergomech above

Background

So I recently got my first ergomech keyboard: a used BastardKB TBKMini, 3x6+3 layout.

It came with the default keymap.

I have been crafting my own initial keymap, using some vim-based heuristics and Callum style one-shot mods.

Followed BastardKB's instructions and got my keymap to compile.

Then onto flashing. This is where the problem is.

The problem: flashing the board

Instructions: https://docs.bastardkb.com/fw/flashing.html

I managed to put the device into bootloader mode with both layer keys and the top-left key. Verified that it is in bootloader mode by checking that typing has no effect. Also lsusb shows "Atmega32u4 bootloader" instead of "BastardKB TBKMini keyboard".

But I don't get a disk device.

Things I tried

udev

I tried adding the udev rules that QMK docs recommend: https://docs.qmk.fm/faq_build#can-t-program-on-linux

But it still won't work.

OS

I even tried another pc with other OSes: same behavior on

• Fedora
• CachyOS
• and even Windows 10

Help me please! 😥

Any ideas on what is going wrong here or what I could try to work around this? I really want to start using my split ergomech with a proper keymap.

Looking forward to reading your suggestions tomorrow morning (in about 9 hours for me, I'm in Europe). I wanted to post this now because I hope the Americans will be able to help me.

EDIT: Thanks, with your help and the help of some kind volunteers on the bastardkb discord I figured out that I have the old v1 elitec version and I managed to flash it with an old version of the bastardkb firmware. I got the layers working, as well as the combo, but callum’s oneshot modifiers aren’t working yet: https://github.com/fhoekstra/bastardkb-qmk/tree/main/keyboards/bastardkb/tbkmini/keymaps/fhoekstra

EDIT2: I finally listened and just followed the upstream QMK instructions, and it all just works, with Callum-style modifiers, combos, and a custom caps word:

https://github.com/fhoekstra/qmk_userspace

Hi there fellow people,

I was building an Aurora Sofle_v2 and I may have screwed things up. I melted one of the RGBs with the soldering iron and in the process of trying to remove it the solder pad was removed as well

After that I tried to "fix" it a handful of times, and now I believe that the connectors might be gone =(

Is there a way for me to salvage this RGB? (Or perhaps to link the previous one with the following one on the chain, so at least it works for the others)

I was thinking of connecting things using cables, is this an option?

Update: Bodge wiring worked! I got some spare cable pieces I had laying around and soldered it to the board The back doesn't look pretty, but at least it's lighting up (except the last RGB where I accidentally soldered two pins together, after this I'm not going through the troubles to fix it)

Something like this? The heavy stagger is great, 42 keys is almost perfect, but the thumb placement is -- for me -- horrible. Having to move my thumb to practically under my palm is just terrible ergonomics.

This thumb layout reminds me more of the ErgoDox variants, and is far better placement. Is there a layout close to this?

I'm looking for a keyboard with the following properties:

• 34 keys, split (3x5 + 2)
• choc switches (v1 or v2)
• wireless (usb-c for charging/updating)
• angled thumb keys (like a dactyl / skeletyl)
• aggressive pinky stagger (similar to a ferris sweep)

Something like this, but with angled thumb keys:

https://redlib.privacyredirect.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/1iri03k/my_custom_wireless_34_key_split/

Does such a keyboard exist?

I am using the Silakka54 keyboard with great pleasure. I configured the keyboard in such a way that I am using the Colemak-DH layout for English. However, I also speak other languages which do not use the Latin alphabet. For those languages, the operating system deals with translating the key presses. The problem is that my keyboard sends key signals according to the Colemak-DH layout while the system expects the QWERTY layout. Ergo, I get nonsense when I type.

To illustrate what I mean, let's say that pressing "L" on the QWERTY keyboard corresponds to the letter "Λ" being typed out. Since Colemak-DH moves the location of "L" to the "U" key, in order to type that character again, I'd have to press "U" on QWERTY, not "L" anymore. This breaks the layout.

One of the solutions I can think of is to make a macro that switches the keyboard over to a QWERTY layout and toggles the language change in the system. However, that would require me to reconfigure home row mods and other keys twice. Is there a more elegant solution for this problem, such as allowing the keyboard to send Unicode symbols? My keyboard uses VIAL for the firmware, by the way.

i made this pls enjoy

A while ago, I bought a pre-built Totem and just enough switches. I could never get used to the large stagger and the splay.

When I saw a relatively cheap wireless Corne on Aliexpress, I thought I'd have another try at a low profile keyboard. I didn't think of checking how many switches I had. Well, I'm two short! Damn.

Otherwise, the keeb uses ZMK and it took me a minute to flash it with my config.

Hello everybody!

I have finally made a new version of my mechapress88 (see my previous post here https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/1fs4ui9/we_need_more_flat_keyboards_meet_the_mechapress88/ ). This is the V3! I only assembled one half of the V2 and given up because it was too hard to assemble, so no post for that.

This keyboard uses the new Kailh PG1316S with actuation force of 35gf, as opposed to the Cherry ULP switches of the V1. To my knowledge, this is the first design to integrate RGB leds. Not that I find them useful, but it was more for the challenge :P Also, it features a speaker!

Now let's talk about the build.

Switches

As said before, the switches are the new Kailh PG1316S. The V1 had Cherry ULP switches which are of similar design. The mechapress v2 had all components on a single side, including the switches, the RGB leds and the diodes. This design only has the RGB leds under the switches, and the diodes on the underside.

I found that the Kailh switches are of poorer quality than the Cherry ULP. The main issue I have with them (which I discovered only after assembling the first half of the v2, and one half of the v3) is that around 10% of them do not lay flat on the board surface. Since I solder with a reflow oven, I place all the switches on the board and bake it. So it's only after taking the board out that I notice that 3-4 switches that are half soldered. This is an issue I didn't have with the v1 and the Cherry ULP, despite that being the first time I did such a job.

For the last half that I soldered, I only took good switches that lay flat on the board, and they all worked on first try.

Keycaps

I didn't like the official keycaps, I wanted more opaque ones to diffuse the RGB light a bit, and a more concave design to better feel how fingers are placed on the keys (and I wanted a home row bump). I designed my own keycaps, https://cad.onshape.com/documents/a1e8f687f2876977978d0499/w/2031da5aa86fb49b49b9da68/e/8571dbe03717cd2187e32d4a (based on madbadmax's design from https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/zpo9h6/comment/j0ttss7/ ).

My keycaps are 3d-printed vertically with a single support, on a Voron Trident with a Revo 0.15mm nozzle.

After nailing down the tolerances, I managed to make something that works, but the feel of key presses is not great. If I want proper keycaps, I'll need to figure out how to access a resin 3d printer.

The Kailh switches are VERY fragile. Removing keycaps from them can easily damage them. For the last half, to remove the keycaps without damage, I baked it in my reflow oven. A few minutes at 80°C (which the maximum storage temperature indicated on the datasheet of the switches), then I took them out with tweezers. The board would cool down, so I had to bake it a few times.

Soldering

As other people have said it, soldering these switches is hard. Even more so when you have components under the switches. My mechapress v2 design had SOD-923 diodes, they are next to impossible to solder. They are tiny, The pads are tiny, the solder paste doesn't stick on such tiny pads, the diode doesn't either, I had to rework a lot of them.

For the v3, I switched to SOD-523 diodes, and put them underside so that I can fix them without removing the switch if need be. These diodes are almost impossible to solder. Even if they are bigger, they are still very small. Also putting components under the board makes reworking very hard. My solder plate was not in contact with the board, but with the diodes, so heat wouldn't propagate well through the board.

These are the v3's SOD-523 diodes.

So, for the v3, I used a reflow oven (the great Controleo v3), with SAC305 solder for the diodes, then reflowed a second time with low temp solder paste Sn42/Bi57/Ag1 for the top side. The use of low temp solder paste made reworking the board easier (especially for those bent switches!). Heating the hotplate to 200°C is enough melt the solder, though on the v3 with the diodes under, I had to heat it up to 220°C. I'm sure this helped not damage the diodes. Nevertheless, reworking the boards with a hot plate bends them. My right board isn't flat anymore.

Btw, stenciling was done with a personal fork of this jig https://github.com/scheffield/stencil-fix connected to a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Reworking was done with a MHP30 hot plate and a Pinecil solder iron.

I used a Pixel Pump ( https://shop.robins-tools.com/ ) to place the SMD components. It helped, but it's not miraculous. Placing SOD-923 or even SOD-523 diodes with it is still very hard. A few of them went flying and I didn't find them to this day.

Disclaimer: I have no electronics formation. I suck at this, and it may explain why I had such a hard time. Maybe I did things wrong too. I'm open to recommendations!

Case

The case is 3d printed. I finished designing it yesterday, to print today. Then, before going to bed, I saw the mikecinq post by @dynam1keNL ( https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/1kjbfr5/mikecinq_my_second_pg1316s_keyboard_incl_long/ ), and thought about slanting the top surface of my design too so that it doesn't get in the way of the thumb keys, and here it is!

The case is designed with build123d, a CAD tool that allows designing parts in Python (I guess that's nerd).

Controller

The same pro-micro clone from aliexpress that I used for the v1. Still running the qmk firmware.

Future build

This keyboard is still a prototype, features I plan to add:

• Make it easier to solder
• Wireless
• Aluminum case
• Keep ultra low profile design as much as possible
• Transporting case
• Open source

Closing thoughts

I hope you like this board!

I want to thank everyone who post their builds. They're a great inspiration, and I learned a lot from them. Please keep posting your custom builds. And to people who haven't attempted a build yet, please do it, the journey is long, but it is great :D

Photos are not of top quality, but neither is the keyboard, so I guess it's fine :D

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29330696

Progress towards universal Copy/Paste shortcuts on Linux

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/11676258

The Nocturnal Ambient switches are insanely quiet. I am typing at normal speed now that I moved the keys up one row so that it matches my Planck. A much more familiar layout, a much softer approach to typing, I still miss the tactile bump feedback, which is what makes typing satisfying, but this has been an incredible experience so far. So smooth, so soft, and just so sleek and ergonomic.

Now that I've completed my article for work, I find myself trying to find things to type and write about. It just feels so good to write this way.

I've been looking for a long time for a solution to not having a desk, or room for one. This tiny bedside table barely fits anything... I was using a regular mouse on the bed and dangling a regular keyboard half off the table, which didn't work so great as you can imagine lol. Now I've got this Ploopy Adept trackball and a FalbaTech Atreus62_FT keyboard. Switched to Colemak-dh layout just to make the transition as jarring as possible 😝

I know you guys build some pretty nice boards, but I think this is the most elegant one I've seen yet. (I'd post the image but my host lemm.ee doesn't support it)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25354779

Not observant myself, but best wishes to those of the faith. My first ever hand-wired keyboard was a Planck with an extra column.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.nl/post/28411785

cross-posted from: https://feddit.nl/post/28411770

34 Is close enough, right? Here's me hoping I'm not a day off. 😁

In picture

I think it would be unfair to do this kind of post without showing the keyboard

Keyboard: Sofle Choc by splitted.space.
They're making Cooler Sofles these days.

Switches: 35gf Ambient Twilights

Keycaps: 57x MBK Convex POM, 1x wrk. Dime (for the Gui key!)

Legs: "Slim laptop kickstand" by Baseus

Macro pad: UwU by Wooting
Sometimes you can find these for cheap when people discover that switch actuation point was not the only thing stopping them from being good at osu! / etc.

Mouse: Razer Naga X
A slightly excessive number of side buttons requires the so-called MMO mice to have a somewhat ergonomic profile.

Mostly out of frame: Kensington Orbit
Here for the "scroll ring" or giving the cursor small nudges.

Default layer

I've had the keyboard for slightly less than two years now so the layout has relatively stabilized.

Notes:

• I have medium-sized hands and use a lightly claw-ish hand placement so all of the keys are accessible from the home row
• Ukrainian alphabet has 33 letters in it so the alpha rows have to be mostly like this unless you're willing to learn an alt. layout (as if I don't have enough things to do)
• Having a rotary encoder with Up/Down arrows next to an Enter key is very nice for navigating menus!
• I press those Left/Right keys by curling fingers, not with a thumb
• Having Delete as a tap on Alt is very nice when selecting things with a mouse!
• Having -_ =+ on thumb is a little silly, but it's nice for programming/markup.

Navigation layer

Notes:

• I don't like home-row mods, but I do like a home-row of mods on a navigation layer for wiggling lines of text/code around.
• Having PrtScr and F4 above Alt is very nice on Windows/Linux!
• Copy Word does Ctrl-Left, Ctrl-Shift-Right, Ctrl-C. This isn't perfect (can't select on word start), but still I get a lot of use out of this.
• There are two AltGrs because I have a bunch of symbols (— · ➜ ≤≥ etc.) mapped through AHK on Windows and custom shortcuts on Linux.
• "Search" opens voidtools Everything on Windows and FSearch on Linux - for quickly locating well-named files and directories.
• The top-left key used to be Esc and I haven't found anything else I'd like there.
• TG N/2 toggles the following:

Nav block toggle layer

For playing games without re-mappable controls (or playing them without re-mapping anything).

Numpad and mirror layer

Enough to type numbers and small snippets of text without moving the right hand away from the mouse!

The numpad portion is mostly used to type phone numbers and 2FA codes.

The mouse

Evidently it's mostly navigation keys and shortcuts that would take more work to access otherwise (e.g. are on the right half of the keyboard). Scroll Up/Down do 4 scroll "clicks" at a time.

Razer's software isn't The Best, but they do have application-specific profiles, which is good help for games with a large number of inputs.

You can also define one extra layer, but this mouse does not have any buttons that are convenient enough to press for that (e.g. G600 had a third "shift" button on top) so it's mostly useless unless you have another Razer peripheral and the service is running.

Considerations

Hypothetically I could use another column for layout experiments (like offloading [ and | keys there and having an arrow key corner instead of a toggle layer), but there are rather few keyboards like this, less so pre-soldered and/or low-profile.

On other hand, the smallest keyboard I could use for anything would likely be 6x3+3, though I don't see myself needing one unless PG1316S boards become common enough for vendors to sell pre-built options.

Thanks for reading !

tl;dr: It's a great keyboard with a few minor flaws, if you need a good keyboard because you have wrist pains; I would recommend this.

Around 6 months ago I started getting really bad pains in my wrists after using the keyboard all day. I was originally going to get a Cyboard Imprint, but as my pain had been going on for a few weeks at that stage, I needed something ASAP.

I thought I would leave a review on Lemmy and help grow the community here :)

I got the white version with the clicky switches. I've used pretty much every popular switch and keyboard variety, Cherry, Gateron, Topre, buckling spring, you name it. A few years ago I've gotten ridden rid of most of them and started using a 65% custom board with Clicky Box Navy switches and QMK. This served me very well, but as it's a "joint" or classic non-split keyboard I used it with my shoulders hunched in. I really thought this would have been my endgame as it had hotswappable switches and therefore pretty much indestructible. This combined with my wrists pains drove me to get a new keyboard with better ergonomics.

It is very good as you would expect, the tenting is pretty tedious to setup as you have to screw in poles in and tighten them manually. This is a good mechanism that I'm sure will stand the wear and tear of daily use. But when you change one leg, you also have to change the other legs in order to keep it level. Because of this, it took me a few days to find a good level. I'm also not too sure if it is the best level for me, while I'm comfortable, it's a faff to properly test and use every tilt level.

The keycaps are high quality, but a bit too smooth for my liking. I prefer them rougher so I can get a better grip on the caps. As this is a unique layout with less common switches I really doubt I could get better keycaps, so it's good that most people will be just fine with the default set.

Speaking of the switches, they are good quality, the lower travel compared to standard MX switches has not been that noticeable for me, despite me preferring longer travel and a stronger click usually. The tactile feedback on the switches are good, but I prefer something more tactile if available.

The key well is well designed, and I can reach most of the keys without much trouble. I think a tighter curve would have been good so more of the keys can be reached easier. If you have larger hands I don't think this would be an issue. The keywell on the pinky is slightly shifted, and while a tad strange, I think it is a good choice.

There are quite a few things I don't like about this keyboard. The Glove 80 doesn't have a full top row, I actually use the F11 and F12 keys so this was a very strange choice to me. I cannot see why anyone thought this was a good design choice.

Likewise, I find the sharp edges very strange here as well. While I do use a keyboard for most of the interactions with my computer, I do use a mouse for certain tasks. I usually have my mouse in the middle of the 2 keyboard halves, and because of the super sharp corner of the thumb cluster, I've stabbed myself more times than I can count. The keyboard well also has sharp edges between the columns. The 2nd column (the columns with the F and J keys) has this very weird and sharp lump right below the keys. While it's not an major issue, I struggle to find why they have left it like this. Maybe some people like this more "brutalist" approach, and have it show the heritage of the design process. But to me, it just feels lazy, and almost like a prototype. I can also see the groves between the columns collecting dust and dirt during usage. Just some work in CAD would have removed these sharp edges before mass manufacturing. I cannot see what utilitarian purpose that this sharp design will have, maybe some people thinks it looks nice? I'm not one of them...

The build overall is good, I've heard some people say it feels cheap, while I can see what they mean because the plastic can flex in some places, once you place it down on a table, it doesn't move in any tangible way. While I don't think it is cheap, it's just designed to be light. Again, I don't really understand this design choice, this keyboard is meant to be used on a table, and I really cannot see anyone carrying this around despite the nice case they give you. It is huge, and with proper tenting it wouldn't fit in the case anyway.

I also bought the split cable on their website. It is so crap. While it does allow you to plug both in at the same time, the split in the cable is quite far down. So you can only spread the 2 halves ~20cm MAX, and even then, you are putting some serious strain on the ports and connectors. I ended up buying a 1->2 usb type a cable/hub, then plugging in 2 different type a to right angle type c cable. This was cheaper, more durable, and modular so you can replace cables if it ever broke.

Overall a strong 8, the points I deducted are more due to personal preference than anything inherently wrong with the keyboard. I'm sure someone likes the sharp design, not me... Some strange design choices here and there, but nothing that makes the ergonomics worse. The cable did leave a bad taste in my mouth for how much it cost, and literally defeating the point of a split board. Nevertheless, I think the V2 of this will sell like hotcakes.

The Voyager in its case (including a trackpad) is about ¼ the size of a Glove80 case. Personally I think the Glove80 makes up for it in its ergonomics, but it does take up most of my backpack when commuting to the office.

Hey!

I'm searching for a dream keyboard design, and cannot find this anywhere on the internet, so asking for a recommendation (or maybe a "nope, you won't find it, build it yourself").

My main concerns are:

1. Split (no RSI, but my shoulders feel much better when keyboard halves are far apart).
2. Completely wireless with good battery life (have a keychron k3, their battery life is abysmal), looking at least for 1m+
3. 60% (fell in love with the UHK layout, less than that is too chord-heavy, i want my numbers to be pressable as-is without modifier keys), both due to layout and portability.
4. Integrated trackpoint/touchpad/anything mouse-like. I'm using a trackpoint with uhk, and got completely rid of mouse and trackpad.

UHK60 checks almost all boxes, but it being wired is inconvenient, and i for some reason couldn't get it to be completely silent (tried lubing and pads), probably something to do with the metal backplate.

Disconnect MK1 (https://www.hidergo.fi/shop/disconnect_mk1/) is kinda almost perfect (although i would still prefer a trackpoint), but they are out of stock for the time being, and judging by their discord are not planning on making any new ones anytime soon.