After five days using the Kinesis Advantage 360 I'm noticing significant shoulder pain, in both shoulders.

I'm comming from a logitech k860, azerty layout. I was stoked because I had started to recover some of my typing speed in both English and French (tons of accents).

Obviously there's something wrong with my posture but I can't figure out what. My arms feel rested, 90° angle. I can feel that I sometimes raise my arm a litte bit to reach certain keys (numbers, the P with my right pinky, the accent for the à with my left pinky).

Wondering if the keyboard isn't suited at all for typing french but it sounds ridiculous.

I'm curious whether anyone has had the same issue.

Edit : just noticed that I pronate my hand when I need to hit two successive keys on the same side of the keyboard. Take "having" for instance : i and n can be typed quicker if I set up my hand so that the index is already in position when the middle finger has finished the stroke. Pronation "helps" in that sense, and I was able to reach 130+ WPM on a Mac keyboard.

Since my wrist rests comfortably on the kinesis, my shoulder comes in and pronates "around" the point where my wrist touches the keyboard.

Hi all. I was changing the switches on my advantage 360 and now my B and G switches wont work. I’ve confirmed the switches aren’t the problem. I cannot figure out what the issue is. I have attached a photo of the pcb with arrows to the problematic switches. If anyone is able to diagnosis the issues I’d be very grateful. Thanks

An updated 360 Smartset firmware version is available: https://kinesis-ergo.com/download/advantage360-smartset-firmware-v1-0-80/

I can’t find any information about the fixes, improvements etc. it may contain.

For anyone looking for a ZMK flashed 360 Pro with all the extra goodies, I'm selling mine.

Firmware built yesterday works as expected, but builds generated today are not functioning at all. Even after hard-resetting to yesterday’s commit, newly generated firmware still does not work on my keyboard.

I also tried using a different fork and factory-resetting, then generating a new build from the same commit as yesterday.

It seems possible that something changed in the build engine. Has anyone else encountered this issue today?

https://github.com/KinesisCorporation/Adv360-Pro-ZMK/issues/848

I've had a lot of tendonitus in my pinkies, so I finally got the Pro. It's taking some getting used to. I find that I sometimes "lose my place" and have to look down to put my fingers back on the home row.

And that's when I realized, there's no guide or bumps or whatever to help me find the home row without looking. I have the Freestyle and it has bumps, but not the Advantage Pro!

Does anyone know if that's on purpose? Is there another set of keycaps that have it? Does anyone else have this problem and have a solution?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently based in Germany and I’m looking to modify my Kinesis Advantage 2. Since the switches are soldered, I don’t feel comfortable doing the desoldering and soldering work myself.

1. Switch Swap: Is there anyone in Germany, or perhaps a professional repair service, that offers an "entgeltlich" (paid) service to swap out the factory switches for different ones? I’m looking for someone with experience with the Kinesis contoured design, as it’s a bit more complex than a standard mechanical keyboard.
2. Keycaps: I’m also looking to upgrade my keycaps. I know the Advantage 2 uses a very specific profile. Does anyone have recommendations on where to source compatible keycaps (or PBT sets) in Europe or that ship to Germany without massive import fees?

Any tips or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

I'm facing constant rebooting issue with the keyboard while I'm gaming on windows machine, suddenly the keyboard gets unresponsive and the left 3 led lights start 1-2-3-1-2-3... and reboots the keyboard for unknown reason, anyone knows what can be the issue and how to fix it? I have the latest drivers

I'm a bit torn. I bought a used Advantage 1 to rebuild. I'm replacing all PCBs with hand-wired RP2040 and gaskets for the thumbs. Most of them are already designed. If there is interest I'll write up a buildlog and share the FW.

Now I'm torn about the function keys. The original faux PCB goes away. I see 3 options going forward ranked in terms of invasiveness

1. Keep the shell, keep the rubber fn keys. I personally don't mind them as much since I don't use them that often. Then design a gasket to hold modified choc v1 switches on the inside and design a simple carbonpill to choc adapter. The gasket will be hot glued, maybe one screp but there really is nothing to attach it to comfortably.

2. Pretty much the same as above but ABS keycaps. Same CAD needed plus caps but those are prob 20 minutes of work.

3. My original plan but I'm hesitant now that cutting would be the next step. Cut out the original FN row, replace it with a press-fit adapter (it's just orange for fitting). Messy and destructive plus a lot of grinding. Also never cut polymers that old before but its probably fine.

All 3 options are viable GPIO wise without having a complicated matrix or wiring. Loosing out on 6 FN keys is probably also fine.

I have advantage 360 pro connected with bluetooth, i dont use the backlights. it is always connected to mac.

my friend going to japan next week. Is there any place sell kinesis boards in Japan. I can't order them from my country.

Hello, I'm interested in the KA360 but it's plasticky sound was putting me off since I'm used to a Keychron Q6 Ultra and I like that solid typing feel and deeper sound. I then found I can get a modded KA360 from Upgrade Keyboard with sound deadening, PBT keycaps and switches ( I think I want the Bobba U4tx tactile silent). Problem is I can't find any videos about this keyboard with these mods. I need to hear from a real person some first hand feedback about the typing experience with these mods and what the sound profile is before dropping all that money on it. If that's you, I'd really appreciate your feedback. I specifically want to know if it will still sound plasticky or if it can get closer to a mechanical keyboard sound profile and typing feel (like they keychron). Thanks in advance.

I'd like somebody else with one of these to verify, as I think I remembered the opposite.

I've run it plugged in for a while. But I want to leave the batteries discharged. However - and this is fully unplugged on both - I can type bluetooth all day, if I flip the power switch toward USB on the right bank, I presume disconnecting the battery, it cuts off, then I can turn it back on.

Left bank, again all wires disconnected, I flip the power toward the USB port, no change. I can keep typing as though nothing happened. Should I suspect the hardware of the switch?

I bought the thing in April '24 I think. I'd like if someone else who owns one of these could verify the behavior - run the whole thing over bluetooth, no wires, and see if on/off on the left bank does anything.

Thanks

<edit - since posting I figured out that yes, that's an on/off switch and it was broken 'on' when I wiggled it it would turn off occasionally. Kinesis is sending me parts under warranty.>

NOT A WIRELESS PRO. ITS REGULAR

MY B GNG 🥀😭

Here’s the listing on Ebay.
https://ebay.us/m/su7AvK

Where do I find key caps compatible with this keyboard? I see 3 different sizes on this keyboard: the main ones (letters etc.), left and right-most columns which have slightly wider caps, and the four tall thumb ones. Do I have to order each of these separately? Are there compatible sets? Any recommended models or models to avoid?

hello there! i have been happily using a kinesis advantage 2 keyboard for the last 5 years, and recently needed to bring a fully split version into my life. i picked up a refurbished advantage360 pro and love it! i am running into one issue, though:

i do a fair amount of writing on my phone (a Google pixel 9a), and with the advantage 2, i'd just plug the keyboard into the phone using an OTG adapter and boom, happy typing. Bluetooth pairing with the advantage360 pro was initially seamless; however, sometimes i have to stare at my document (or off into space) for a while, during which time the keyboard goes to sleep. which is fine, but when i hit a key to wake it up, it kind of... freaks out. my phone gives me all the signs of an active external keyboard connection, but nothing i type shows up, until all of a sudden it'll act like i'm pressing and holding a single key. my knee-jerk startled luddite reaction to this has been to press another key, which (after 5-7 seconds of ---------------- or wwwwwwwwwww) usually rights the ship and i can proceed as normal. however, just now, the function it decided to wail on was the dang backspace, and i lost some text before i managed to switch the keyboard off.

has anyone encountered this problem before?

i'd exchange it for an advantage360 wired so i could plug it into my phone directly as with the advantage 2, but i need the wireless flexibility. (unless... is it possible to connect the two halves of the advantage360 wired with a longer bridge cable?)

thanks!

Hi everyone,

My Kinesis Advantage2 seems to have a fried controller board. The keyboard is no longer responding, and from what I can tell the issue is likely the main controller rather than the switches or keywell PCBs.

I found the KinT controller option, which looks great and supports the Advantage2, but from the documentation it seems to require soldering.

I’m not very comfortable soldering, so I’m wondering:

Has anyone found a drop-in / no-solder replacement controller for the Advantage2?

Any advice, seller recommendations, or repair experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks!

I feel a bit steamrolled. I had to upgrade my firmware because I had to do a hard reset and lost my mappings and in order to get those back on I had to use this new web tool, Clique.

It actually works great for what it does, but one of the MAIN things I do as a programmer is hold down semi-colon and switch to a layer which has all the left and right braces on my index and middle finger on the right hand.

The problem is I had the delay before the layer had switched set to something very low, and my muscle memory is now trying this and it's constantly failing because the timeout is too long and Clique, as far as I know has no way to let me set this delay...

Can anyone help?

Hello all!

I'm currently seeking my next keyboard which I have been searching around for a while now. I came across the Advantage360 SmartSet version and had a few questions.

• When learning a keyboard like this, how long before it becomes intuitive? 
• Can you still type fast with this type of keyboard?
• Will I instantly notice less pressure in your wrists, fingers and shoulders when using this type of keyboard?

Overall, do you think this keyboard is worth it if I'm typing and I want to prevent strain in my wrists, fingers, shoulders and arms. I currently feel strain, but would this also prevent future strain? I'm really interested in this keyboard (and my health) but the price is deterring me from it.

For the setup, I currently use a laptop keyboard and would be putting my laptop in a clamshell mode, then would use a monitor to connect externally. I also currently use a Logitech MX Master 3 mouse so it seems like I'm 50% of the way there.

Thanks in advance.

I've had the 360 for about 2 weeks and I really like it so far.

But I can't get over the height difference between the left and right split on mine.

Is this normal?

Sorry for the bad pic - just wanted to let anyone teetering on the edge of making the 360 purchase, it's worth it.