I was into low profile keyboards for a long time and never got into the AEK. I should try one out sometime. By the time I got into mechanicals, the AEK had already been discontinued.
As an aside, I have a condition in my right hand where I have no feeling in the tip of my thumb and first two fingertips, which makes typing on a keyboard where I can’t feel the edge of the keys with the sides of my fingers very error prone. It’s my primary reason for exploring mechanicals with raised keys, though I’ve come to just love clicky keyboards on their own.
I wanted to simulate an old-fashioned typewriter and only feel a click if the key produces an actual letter. The difference might be negligible, and the metaphor breaks with functional keyboard shortcuts such as copy/paste/select all etc. But I am pretty happy with this concept. And I can imagine a future with hall-effect switches combined with solenoids that only deliver a tactile and audible feedback when an actual letter is produced. The mech-keyboard scene is crazy enough right now that we might see this in less than a decade!
All right, I’ll give the split keyboard another go to become the daily driver, with some worthy keycaps, perhaps. I just realized I soldered in Kailh Box Jades – this will be a workout.
The ONLY problem I have with the UHK is its very non-standard keycap set. It takes a TON of customizing orders to get anything right other than alphanumeric keys. And I would LOVE to find wooden space bars, but they’re 1.75U RX4 and nobody seems to offer that. I’d actually love to find new spacebars of any kind… any tips for custom keycap manufacturers?
Happy Hacking Keyboard (HHKB) for me. Having the arrow keys on a function layer causes my pinky to hurt eventually, but I just can’t quit those Topre switches. And I love the layout.
I am a happy ErgoDox EZ user, combined with a Magic Trackpad for most of use and a Logitech MX Master 3 when I need precision
I have hacked my own keyboard layout as well, which is just a modified qwerty layout, never gone down the rabbit hole for other layouts. I am a bit tempted to get the latest from Zsa, the voyager keyboard. But at the moment hard to motivate the cost as I have. no problems with my current and I don’t travel much or work from other places than home.
It’s amazing how, when it comes to keycaps, yet there always seem to be one or two things missing … I stopped following the group-buys to keep my sanity, honestly. My search for a decent shine-through double-shot ISO-DE keycap set will always be futile, I guess.
Regarding wooden space bars, or 1.75 U RX4 altogether: This could be an area where only the novelty market or even the hand-made market can help. I mean, a full wooden keycap set with consistent grain will be expensive. But a single custom CNC-milled wooden keycap with a 3D-printed inset for the MX stem should be doable with a Snapmaker or similar tools. So maybe Etsy?
My two daily drivers are a Keycrhon Alice with mint switches and some Mac-specific keycaps I built earlier this year at my work desk. Then my Bike desk has a little low profile mechanical I picked up a few months back. It could use some custom touches, but it’s pretty good as is. I also have a super compact little travel keyboard when I work from my in laws.
My daily driver is Keychron K8 Pro. I don’t use QMK/VIA much but I do customize my keyboard with Karabiner-Elements.
I also use a Magic Trackpad + Wacom Intuos Pro (throwing the mouse out the window!)
I have dabbled most recently with Keychron but ended up back on my Apple Magic Keyboard. I have used laptop keyboards for too long and just cant adapt to the height and travel in full size mechanical keyboards. Would love to be able to as I do like old mechanical keyboards having spent my early years on old IBM PC keyboards…
That’s the Keychron Alice. It’s nice. You can program different shortcuts for “windows/mac” modes on the switch. So I have a bunch of SQL statements on the shortcut keys in one mode and then all my Mac shortcuts in place on the other. Thought since it’s QMK you could make that second layer another Mac layer with a second set of shortcuts. The mint switches are Tactile and have a nice feel but that’s a taste thing.
Keyboard: Keychron Q10 (Alice Layout) QMK Custom Mechanical Keyboard
Switches: Keychron K Pro Switch (Don’t think they’re making these anymore)
Keycaps: Keychron K Pro Switch
I like this layout just because it’s a full TKL but with the ergo split. I know some people like the tenting and splits better so your mileage may vary. My biggest annoyance is QMK is not the most intuitive software to get set up and your settings applied. I had to actually read the manual, but once I did it made sense.
It’s a premade one. I’ve had it for like five or six years now and there are some much nicer ones. It’s really just a laptop stand with a keyboard and trackball. I like it though, since I work from home it’s a good way to get some activity during the day especially if I end up getting off work late and need to drive rather than bike/walk to the park with my son.
Thanks! This might be my next keyboard. It appears to be a great compromise between ergonomics and the habits I developed over decades.
QMK is such a weird thing and I hardly understand what I´m doing. This might mean I will give up on it soon - but more likely, I will try to completely understand it. Maybe even this winter already. Thankfully, there´s via - I heard a colleague of @film_girl is developing it. I heard it does not support all of QMKs features, and not all keyboards, but it skips the compiling/Firmware-flashing steps. Much easier to iterate until all keys are set properly.
I have a big clicky Logitech mechanical keyboard: G413 Silver. In fact 2. One at work, and one at home. Love it and dislike clicking on things so I try to do everything through the keyboard where possible (i3 / EXWM etc., not leaving Emacs)…
For me, it’s currently a mix of Logitech and Apple devices:
MX Keys for Mac, MX Master 3 mouse for Mac (right side), Gray Magic Trackpad (left side), and a KOMPLETE M32 controller keyboard that’s directly above the keyboard and at the same level.
I am transitioning to Colemak-DH as my full-time layout. Death to QWERTY!
My main board is a FalbaTech custom built ErgoDox, with 80 keys. The switches are Kailh Brown Box with DSA KeyCaps. I configure it with QMK.
I have a board dedicated to macros, that sits between the spilt halves of the ErgoDox. It is a Preonic keyboard MX kit (V3) by DROP + OLKB. I built the kit using solid color KayCaps from Tai-hao. The colors allow me to group/identify macro keys visually. Also configured with QMK—with the macros being handled by Keyboard Maestro.
I am very happy with my setup. If I ever have to replace the ErgoDox, I will likely change the bamboo case to black acrylic (or metal, if available).
So after a little encouragement, some rummaging, a lot of qmk firmware adjustment and daily training with the typioca cli keyboard trainer, I am starting to feel at home on my split keyboard.
The keeb.io Iris went through a lot of iterations since I bought the Rev.4 as a bare-bones kit. You do not have to solder in your switches any more. There are pre-built versions now, but you can still mix and match your preferred plates, switches, stabilizers and rotary encoders.
I will stay with this one for a while, though – it has been a long journey, and I am starting to reap the benefits. Also, I am pretty sure I will soon start over with the qmk and build my own setup from scratch.
And now, whenever I switch to a different keyboard with a default key alignment, I can feel the strain it is putting on my wrists after mere minutes.
Oh man, this looks AMAZING. I might have to set up a macro keyboard like that now, if I can find enough desk space. I could get used to having the trackpad in the middle, too, though my experiments with that before have messed with my muscle memory enough to dissuade me from continuing.
I use a keyboard tray on my convertible sit/stand desk so I can easily adjust the height of the input devices based on my stance. I have an Ultimate Hacking Keyboard, a Magic Trackpad, a 15-button Stream Deck, and a Shuttle Xpress on it right now and it’s completely out of room. I either need a bigger tray, or I need to switch to using my desktop space, which would require adjusting all of my monitor heights and desk levels to be ergonomic, which seems like too much trouble. I guess I could move the Stream Deck and Shuttle to the desktop, I don’t have as much muscle memory built around those…
I’ve been really curious about ortho layouts. I don’t think that’s available in my preferred keyboard, but yours looks very tempting! I’m a sucker for trying to find the absolute best experience.
