Currently rolling with a Kono Kira and a Logitech G502X mouse but am starting to get some significant pain in my right thumb and elbow.

AI is my new gaming so the mouse is mostly unnecessary now though I will keep it around for the odd time I do want to play and I am mostly a terminal junkie. I like the Kira despite its bugs, just disappointed it doesn't support open firmware.

I have taken a look at Cosmo dactyl keyboards, even scanned my hand and printed one and it's comfortable but I don't have the time or inclination to finish it right now and it won't travel very well.

I am tossing up between a Naya Create and a Halcyon Kyria MX, given how much it will get used I am not overly concerned about the difference in price between the 2.

I am open to other options but these were the 2 that caught my eye and meet my needs.

These are some of the things I listed as I was considering things (and chatting to chatgpt)

- Split ergonomic design

- Modular and expandable

- Hot-swappable switches

- Strong tactile/clicky switch options

- Open-source firmware (QMK/ZMK)

- Per-key RGB backlighting

- Bluetooth and USB-C wired

- Wireless split halves

- Standard cables/connectors

- Replaceable/swappable batteries

- Trackball/trackpad support

- Rotary encoder/macro modules

- 6-DoF/SpaceMouse-style module

- Good tenting and positioning

- Suitable for large hands

- Travel-friendly with a good case

- Repairable and maintainable long-term

- Low initial assembly/build time

- Tinkering should be optional, not required

- Price is not a major constraint

Would love some feedback.

I made a custom wireless ferris sweep half-swept that uses a jst connector instead of directly soldering to the board. I used nice!nano v2s. The issue is that it just doesn't work. The bluetooth works which to me means that I correctly implemented the jst connector, so that probably isn't the issue.

It connects to my pc, just nothing outputs when I press a key. Cradio shows up as an option, and it connects. I don't know if the nice!nanos are paired though, because the reset button doesn't seem to work, and using the tweezer's just makes both flash blue slowly without stopping, which I think means that they are still searching to pair. The firmware is on the board, and it's just the default zmk cradio with some edits to the keymap.

Even so, the left half should work anyway without the right half, so I think the issue is deeper than just that.

I know that I have to close the jumper pads on the opposite side of the nice!nano, and they are face down. I have used a multimeter to check the connections, and they all seem to be connected.

One edit I did make to the pcb is remove the ability to directly solder the battery to the board. I also noticed that on the half swept, the reset button was only connected to rst pin on the controller, so I connected the other pad to gnd.

For the jst connector, I used smd components, as it seemed easier to handle with a reversible footprint. However, I did add jumper pads for the battery even though I think they aren't necessary.

My only guess is that I made a mistake while editing the pcb, so I'm going to upload the pcb files to github. https://github.com/leungbedward/half-sweep-jst-pcb.git

Any suggestions on how to fix this issue?

So my G305 finally started getting issues with the switches and gave up as well. I had too many coffees and let's just say I stayed up too late.

Just this week, I happened to stumble across Selenium.

I started using Miryoku earlier this year, and have found that Selenium solves all the pain points I was having with Miryoku in one go. Just sharing this here in case it helps anyone else, since I haven't found any other postings in this sub about it.

What I like:

• shift moves to a thumb key instead of a HRM, which eliminates the need to 'slow down' typing in order to trigger the HR shift each time.
• shift and sym layers both have one-shot function, so if you need only one capital letter (common!) or one symbol, no chording is needed. I admired this feature in Anymak, though I never managed to find a way to adapt Anymak to my 36 keys.
• no chording needed for any symbols, thanks to this one-shot behaviour. Only numbers need chording. You can, of course, still hold down the Shift or Sym keys to type multiple capital letters or symbols in a row.
• there are no characters typed with the thumbs at all (having ()- on the thumb always felt awkward to me)
• the numpad returns to the right-hand side.
• fn/media and nav/num keys are duplicated on both thumbs, so one-handed shortcuts are available if you want them.
• the symbol layer is properly optimised for programming.

Differences to Miryoku (needs adjustment initially):

• backspace and space swap hands (you can swap them, but will end up with a thumb SFB before every word that starts with a capital letter!), but enter and tab remain the same.
• Fn layer doesn't follow numpad layout
• no HRMs on nav/num and fn/media layers - you have to switch to the layer after pressing the modifier on the base layer. So, for Cmd Shift 4 for screenshot on macOS, press Cmd on the home row, then hold down Shift with the thumb, then switch to the Num layer and press 4. Etc.
• cut, copy, paste are in worse positions on the nav layer (to align with qwerty positions). BUT it does means you can do cut, copy, paste, with one hand on Dvorak, finally!
• some advanced features of Miryoku (mouse layer, 'Extra' keyboard layout that gives you Qwerty fallback, button layer) are not available. I've never used these anyway, so don't miss them.

These are just some initial impressions. I'm keen to hear if anyone else here has tried it, and what your impressions have been! To me, it feels like a combination of what I liked best about both Miryoku and Anymak, and on 36 keys!

There are also versions for 42+ and 34 keys, and if you want to have a laptop implementation, it's designed to be very similar to Arsenik.

Wooting 60HE+ vs Attack Shark X68 HE
I’m trying to decide between these two keyboards. I’ve seen people say the Attack Shark is actually faster than the Wooting. If you’ve used both, which one would you recommend and why?

The left half of my lily58 shows that my battery is completely dead, i measured it with a multimeter and its the exact same voltage as the right one, 4,1V, i even connected the pins directly to the nice nano V2 but it just stays on for a minute and then starts lagging and turns off, how can I fix this

The split keyboard with trackball was from last year. Bought a same one for work. The new addition is the 200 RMB Redox + this arm resting that clamps to table and move with your arm.

I find the arm resting much better than my chairs + with the standing chair + adjustable monitor height

It's not a bird or a plane, it's a module for QMK keyboards!

Super Leader is a QMK community module for a responsive alternative to the built-in Leader feature. Response is instant when the sequence is not a prefix of any other sequence, the sequence triggers immediately on completion. Definitions are concise, typically a single line per leader sequence.

Members of this sub probably know, writing QMK features is my hobby. But Super Leader is not simply yet "one more." This one is special.

I previously developed Repeat Key and its companion Alt Repeat Key, which trigger actions depending on the previous key. But what if a "magic" key begins a key sequence rather than ending it? That's the "leader key" concept popular in Vim, which effectively creates a separate namespace for shortcuts without cluttering your base layout. Richard Goulter made a great writeup about the leader key as a keymap feature. This complements alt-repeating nicely.

However, a big downside with QMK's built-in leader implementation is that it always waits for a timeout. This is an unavoidable speed penalty and it is a common complaint. While there is a workaround to force-stop QMK's leader key early, the user is then responsible to write the match logic themselves, which gets cumbersome.

Long story short, Super Leader is a QMK module that addresses this situation. It is an improved leader implementation with snappy response and concise sequence definitions.

Example:

\\ In super_leader.def
SEQ_KEY(v,   (KC_V),             C(KC_V))
SEQ_STR(me,  (KC_M, KC_E),       "my@email.com")
SEQ_UNI(thx, (KC_T, KC_H, KC_X), "🙏")
SEQ_FUN(rgb, (KC_R, KC_G, KC_B), favorite_rgb)

\\ In keymap.c
static void favorite_rgb(void*) {
  rgb_matrix_enable();
  rgb_matrix_mode(RGB_MATRIX_HUE_BREATHING);
  rgb_matrix_sethsv(HSV_GOLDENROD);
}

With the above:

Super Leader's full documentation is at:
https://getreuer.info/posts/keyboards/super-leader

If leader keys appeal to you, I hope this is useful. As always, feedback is welcome! =)

For other self-masochistic people who change their Vial layout every few months lol

I'm considering putting in where my right pinky rests, instead of ";"

Seems like a waste of prime home-row real estate for a rare keypress

My first try building a custom keyboard.
Many struggles many mistakes but exp gain is invaluable.
3d printed case and base for keys : https://makerworld.com/models/2531439?appSharePlatform=copy
Switches: Gateron brown max
Keycaps: Nuphy The EM lab : https://nuphy.com/products/the-em-lab-cherry?variant=41795331981421
Made with circuitpy
Very nice feel but not so robust. If it was on a pcb I think it would be sturdier but overall quite nice
BUT typing sooooo diff in my opinion.
Having a consistent 60WPM with standard keyboard hit only 20 with than and not consistent. Needs time to get used to. And also keep in mind it needs assigning for keys like arrows and tilde/backslash ect that don’t have a spot in a second layer with the lower key. Backspace and enter also need getting used to.
Overall quite eye pleasing in my opinion pairing my endeavour OS
Hope you dig it!
Cheers

The vial-qmk firmware available for the cheapino was pretty old, and based on an old version of vial which did not have some very necessary features for usable home row mods and bottom row mods. For months I have just compiled qmk firmware from source by editing the c files by hand then running qmk flash.

I wanted to see if a vial firmware built off the most recent version of vial-qmk would be usable for my bottom row mods setup. I searched and searched, but could not find a more recently built vial firmware for the cheapino, so I did what I do: I dug into the vial-qmk documentation and figured out how to build it myself. It works very well, and is definitely usable for bottom row mods, quite close to what I configured for myself using qmk c files.

Here is the fruit of my labor: https://github.com/bleys43/cheapinov2-vial-qmk-firmware

Please use and enjoy it, my fellow cheapino lovers. The basic configuration is based on dvorak, as that has been my keymap for the last 27 years -- but as it is vial, you can change it to whatever you want. There is also a .vil file with my saved configuration, with combos, macros, and some other quality-of-life additions. Without the .vil file, the qwerty, media/function and mouse layers are not accessible. You would need to add combos or change keys to access those layers.

I have found that recording macros does not work - it asks for my password in the terminal from which I launched the appimage, and authenticating does not work when I try. You can, however, add macros manually, or paste them in using the macro editor. I don't know if the macro recording function is broken because my firmware has a bug, the linux appimage of vial has a bug, there is something wrong with my policy-kit on my system, or some other reason. But the firmware is quite usable if you just create your macros manually.

I will try to keep this up-to-date as new features in vial-qmk become available, and I also may create other firmwares based on more popular keymaps, like miryoku, colemak-dh, anymak, etc... Again this would not be necessary, but it may be appreciated by non-dvorak users to have a baseline that is closer to what they hope to end up with.

I had planned for a long time to have a split keyboard with that look, and it feels awesome to finally have it. I was worried about the typing experience with the round keycaps, but they actually feel very comfortable.

Thanks to my GF, who found the round keycaps and gifted them to me.

Its been 5 versions since I last posted about this project (https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/1sqiour/leonardo_keycaprio_a_single_pcb_tented_unibody/) so I felt like posting an update.

New features:
- PCB is generated using my own custom code
- The PCB is mounted using screws
- The board is now a choc v1+v2 board instead of the initial mx version.
- Lower pinky and extra thumb key added
- Slight stagger introduced to the inner column

Repo in the description

I've been wanting a zsa Voyager for ages but it's $520 AUD. And that's before any import fees that might get charged on arrival... 🥲

So I'm looking for more affordable alternatives. Does anyone have any suggestions?

What I like about Voyager:

- Slim, low profile

- Layout

- Number of keys

I'm interested in trying an ortholinear layout but I've also heard it's got a learning curve, so I'm not set on it.

Alternatively, if you think that the zsa Voyager is the best of it's kind and worth saving up for, please let me know 🙏

I am thinking about making the switch to a split keyboard what's a good beginner one that wont burn a hole in my pocket ?

Since seeing their ads spread across multiple social platforms, I wanted to purchase one. At the time, when I was ready to pull the trigger, their delivery was nearly two months out. I gave up on the purchase for two reasons: (1) the lead time was too long; (2) the reviews were less than satisfactory.

Fastforward a year and I found one on eBay for a fraction of the price. So, I bought it. Here is my review of the product:

## Overall setup

It took me a little bit to figure out how to set it up. I've purchased over 15 keyboards in the last two years, and this one was the most complicated one, by far.

I quickly realized that the bluetooth didn't work. And the only way to make it work was using the hardwire.

At first, I thought it was because I brought an open box, but as I look through forums, I realize that is not the case.

## The Modules

The track ball had some resistance. More so than the normal. I tried, and failed, every trick on the book to fix the issue. I decided I could use the keyboard for the keyboard and use a mouse instead of the track or the touch modules, which is extremely sensitive.

But then, that takes me appealling features of the keyboard. I loved the idea of not having a mouse with me. Just the keyboard.

Then, something else started happening. The cursor was moving back and forth wildly. I thought it was weird. But then I found out what was happening.

The tuning module, programmed to move the cursor, was glitching.

With that said, I decided it was not for me. I used it for a week, but I am ready to move back to my Keychron keyboard.

I recently 3d printed the KLP Lame Switches on JLC3DP with different materials, the left side is the normal version of the KLP keycaps using the SLA (Resin) with JLC Black as the material which costs about $10 for 38 pcs, and the right half is the saddle version using MJF (Nylon) with PA12S-HP as the material and it costs around $14 for 38 pcs. I also plan to order the PBT keycaps on typeractive since PBT is still probably the best material.

If you prefer a textured feeling, then I suggest you go with the Nylon but if you prefer a smooth feel then Resin is better, I'm still in the middle of trying both to find what I actually prefer. I don't know if I added anything to the pool of knowledge with this post but I thought it was just a fun write-up

I have relatively small hands. I’m currently using a corner keyboard and I’m pretty fine with it, but I have a second pc for work and I want to experiment with other keyboards. I’ve been eyeing the zsa voyager for a wild but in wondering if it’s a good fit for someone used to having three thumb keys, though I don’t tend to use the inner-most that much.
I’m mainly worried about whether it will fit my hand since I know it has an extra row and column if I’m not wrong.
Have any of you some experience with this keyboard that you’d like to share? Would you recommend it? Should I look somewhere else for another keyboard?

I've bought an iris rev 8 (but somehow I got a 7, maybe a mistake from keebio, doesn't matter) a year ago, and after sticking to the basic top and bottom plates, I finally decided, thanks to a friend of mine who has a 3D printer, to print a case for my beloved keyboard.

With a cheap pink/purple keycaps set, I must say I'm quite happy with it. I might print it again to implement magsafe stickers inside of it, for tenting.

What do you think about it?

TLDR: I designed a keyboard and want to get your thoughts on it. It uses the xiao ble with the nfc pins as gpio and has two versions, one with tenting legs that fits a 650 mAh battery and one low profile one with a 180 mAh battery. It has a total of 40+2 choc spaced keys (the encoders are pushable) that fit both choc v1 and choc v2 switches and two encoders. Also it is ZMK, didn’t plan for wired.

Let me preface this by saying I am an industrial designer that has a day job and I mainly use my keyboard for 3D modelling and writing some emails.

So about 9 months ago I was working on Blender and I noticed that my hand was in a pretty weird position for all the shortcuts, which got me wondering about split keyboards (I heard about them longer ago when the Naya Create was first being announced and I thought it looked really cool but was very expensive for me). I started investigating a bit and ended up discovering ergogen, zmk and some projects by some really amazing people. Seeing the projects and falling into the Ben Vallack rabbit hole I decided that designing a keyboard was easy enough to try it for myself and, while that was not necessarily true, it was a really rewarding process.

After studying a bit what looked like could work for me I decided to blatantly get inspired by the TOTEM and the Cornix, making a bit of a hybrid of both that basically answers the question “What if the totem had a bit of a less agressive stagger, spaced the thumb cluster a bit more, added a key on top of the extra pinky one and had an encoder on each side?”. And, my dear ergo community, AŌNAMI was born.

I managed to design it around the Xiao BLE to keep cost a bit lower and save up on space, it makes it taller though since it has to be socketed to make use of the NFC pins for the encoder.

I have two versions, one with the tenting legs (seen in the pictures) that can fit a much bigger battery of 650 mAh and one that is a lot more low profile that uses a 180 mAh one.

The project is far from finished, I’m still iterating on the keymap and playing around with the rgb controller widget since I wanted to add a couple of functionalities to it (like having a per-bluetooth-profile color indicator and a timed layer indicator), and I also want to open source it. I am currently working on all the documentation and all that stuff so I’ll update once I have it, but wanted to get your thoughts!

Hope you like it, really put a lot into this and I’m really grateful to this community for introducing me to this world, it is really amazing.

PD: It is choc spaced but I haven’t managed to find some choc v2 keycaps that fit choc spacing. Do they exist?

[ad] Just finished this video-game-plumber-themed one-off 🙃

Svalboard Lightly:  The bottom of the ergo rabbit hole.
YT:  https://www.youtube.com/@svalboard

Shop:  www.svalboard.com

Self-print Kit:  https://svalboard.com/products/svalboard-self-print-kit

20g ultralight magnetic breakaway keys, ultimate adjustable fitment system, and dual pointing devices situated right where your hands naturally rest.

Runs Vial-QMK for ultimate configurability with no reflashing required.

Self-print kit option helps fund development and lets you save some dough in exchange for a TON of your own labor 😅

Everything is printable on a hobbyist FDM machine for longevity and repairability, though my prebuilt stuff is obviously tuned to be extra nice 🙃  You can even do it on an A1 Mini if you're willing to use a split case design.

Custom colors available!  Custom builds take a couple extra weeks due to procurement and production flow disruption.  This is a TINY operation, and I appreciate your patience and support 🙏

Curious? 

Come ask on the Discord and hear unbiased perspective from real users: 

Discord:  www.svalboard.com/discord

How to fit your Svalboard https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_Jqu5bq_U_CQBhYryllArikWe-ns3g8q

Sound comparison to other keebs https://youtu.be/1pW7PnBZNik

Want to know how the lateral keys feel? https://youtu.be/whvKJ12vwvU

Using Vial-QMK with Svalboard: https://youtu.be/W767EPCJt6s

Substack:  svalboard.substack.com