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PCB design now supports LEDs and Matias switches
- gravypod 11y agobuying a new keyboard would be very easy for me if I hadn't gotten used to USB ports being built into them. That's a feature fee manufacturers build in but damn is it useful.
- lallysingh 11y agoKinesis Advantage - mechanical key split keyboard, 2 USB ports in the back. They're updating it, so if you're in no hurry, they'll be releasing an improved version at some point (AFAICT, months, not years, from now). https://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage-for-pc-mac/ https://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/advantage-for-pc-mac/
- shocks 11y agoI have the Advantage. It's awesome. I didn't know they were updating it though, cool! Got mine a year or so ago.
- kvcrawford 11y agoReally?? Do you know if they'll make it wireless? I love my Advantage. My only wishes are that it would be wireless and have room for Cmd, Ctrl, and Alt on both sides.
- redtuesday 11y agoI believe they have not said anything about that yet. You can read a bit about their plans here: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=36195.0 https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=36195.0
- jseliger 11y agoI too have a Kinesis Advantage and have had one for years: http://jakeseliger.com/2011/07/17/further-thoughts-on-the-kinesis-advantage-unicomp-space-saver-and-das-keyboard%E2%80%94two-years-later/ http://jakeseliger.com/2011/07/17/further-thoughts-on-the-ki.... So far it appears remarkably durable, and I much prefer it over conventional keyboards (though I still use laptop keyboards when I'm traveling).
- verisimilidude 11y agoIt's easy and cheap to tuck a small USB hub underneath a tented split keyboard, assuming that's what you want.
- randlet 11y agoThis looks very nice. Switching to a split keyboard (Kinesis Freestyle)[1] and a trackball placed in the middle of the split so I can use it with either hand (pic of my current setup [2]) was a complete game changer for my RSI problems. It hasn't eliminated it completely but I am managing much much better now. My only complaint with the Freestyle is that it doesn't have mechanical switches but it's still quite pleasant to type on imo. [1] http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/freestyle2-for-pc-us/ http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/freestyle2-for-pc-us/ [2] https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzAsjQaobJuoQllYbTVGYlc2b2s/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzAsjQaobJuoQllYbTVGYlc2b2s...
- DanielStraight 11y agoWhat trackball is that? Does it have scrolling capability?
- randlet 11y agoIt's a Kensington Orbit and yes it has a great (smooth) scroll wheel surrounding the entire trackball.
- melling 11y agoI have the Kensington Orbit and a Logitech Marble. While I love the scroll wheel on the Kensington, I find that the left button requires a bit more force than the Logitech when clicking. No such thing as a gaming trackball? http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/trackman-marble http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/trackman-marble
- randlet 11y agoInteresting. My one complaint about the Kensington is the buttons feel a little flimsy to me. Not sure I could live with that Logitech without a scroll wheel!
- digikata 11y agoI still miss the Logitech Marble FX (out of production) http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-TrackMan-Marble-FX-Trackball/dp/B00000JBUI http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-TrackMan-Marble-FX-Trackball/... But it would be a terrible 'center' trackball.
- scribu 11y agoI switched to a split keyboard last year (Kinesis Freestyle2). While it's definitely better than a flat keyboard, it's still incredibly awkward to execute some basic combos with one hand. Chief example: Cmd + T. I'm still waiting for someone to mass-produce the http://ergodox.org/ http://ergodox.org/ - here you can press all the modifier keys with your thumbs!
- drl42 11y agoThese guys are mass-producing ergodox - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ergodox-ez-an-incredible-mechanical-keyboard#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ergodox-ez-an-incredible-... I recently got my keyboard
- randlet 11y agoI don't have too much trouble with Cmd/Ctrl T (although something like Ctrl+Shift+6 is really awkward) but I agree an extra key under the spacebar for the thumbs would be a great addition to the Freestyle 2.
- qihqi 11y agoYou can always press Cmd and T with different hands... (assuming there is Cmd in both side of your board).
- verisimilidude 11y agoTook the words out of my mouth. You've gotta teach yourself to do this on a split keyboard.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- to3m 11y agoSome PC-style keyboards only have one Windows key, with the right-hand equivalent being the Application key. So you only get one command key in OS X. Fortunately, you can use Karabiner (https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ - formerly known as KeyRemap4Macbook) to turn the application key into another copy of the command key.
- kentt 11y agoI'll buy the split first keyboard with Topre switches. Matias is not enough of a step up from Cherry to make a difference.
- kod 11y agoSo buy a utron? http://xahlee.info/kbd/uTRON_keyboard.html http://xahlee.info/kbd/uTRON_keyboard.html
- kentt 11y agoWow, I've looked for something like that before, but never found anything. Thanks for pointing this out.
- randlet 11y agoKeyboard layout looks good, but it doesn't look like the two halves can get far enough apart for me. Also $420USD !!!
- arm 11y ago400 USD and up seems to be the general price range for such keyboards in Japan. See also The Esrille New Keyboard − NISSE¹ (my personal dream keyboard). ―――――― ¹ — http://www.esrille.com/keyboard/ http://www.esrille.com/keyboard/
- pekk 11y agoYou already pay a high premium for Topre switches.
- busterarm 11y agoI'd even say ALPS switches are a step down. Matias hasn't made them suck any less than they always have.
- mtourne 11y agoGranted I haven't tried the MX Clear, but so far I prefer the Matias Quiet click over the MX Brown or the MX Blue that I have in other keyboards. They are absolutely a step down if you're looking into keycaps customization.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- melling 11y agoHow ergonomic are Matias switches compared to Cherry switches? My understanding is that the Matias' bottom out to register a keypress like the cheap rubber domes. I don't have much about Matias in my notes: https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/keyboards.org https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/keyboa...
- papercrane 11y agoI haven't used them personally, but according to Matias all three of their switches actuate at 2.2mm and bottom out at 3.5mm. http://matias.ca/switches/click/ http://matias.ca/switches/click/ http://matias.ca/switches/quiet/ http://matias.ca/switches/quiet/ http://matias.ca/switches/linear/ http://matias.ca/switches/linear/
- ebbv 11y agoI dunno, I think the ultimate hacker would sometimes reach over to the other side with her left or right hand. Split keyboards seem like kind of a walled garden to me.
- noir_lord 11y agoUsed to think that until I used a Ergo 4000 and within a week once the swearing stopped I realised I was never reaching over the river in the middle. It also completely solved all the pain I was having in my arms and wrists so while I miss the key feel of my mechanical keyboard a little bit I wouldn't go back. Something like this might be interesting though.
- melling 11y agoHuh? I would think the ultimate hacker would use their tools with a bit of precision. Developers who use vim, for example, count the keystrokes: http://vimgolf.com http://vimgolf.com https://github.com/easymotion/vim-easymotion https://github.com/easymotion/vim-easymotion
- rhinoceraptor 11y agoIt's not as bad as it seems to make the switch. I switched from a regular QWERTY layout to an ErgoDox. It's split, and it's a columnar keyboard whereas standard keyboards are staggered like a typewriter. It took me a week or two be able to touch type comfortably, and now I can switch back and forth without too much trouble.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- shiftpgdn 11y agoHow is this different than an Ergodox other than it joining together? I can buy an Erogdox today for $199 shipped from China with cherry greens.
- to3m 11y agoThe layout is closer to the usual one (though it's still a bit unusual). Look at the right-hand side in particular. Whether you approve or not is a separate question...
- roel_v 11y agoI have an ergodox yet preordered this one too. It's less non-standard (for better or for worse), has optional modules for trackpoint, touchpad, thumb cluster etc. I'm curious how it will compare. Also I don't know which ergodox you have, but for that money with cherries the build quality can't be all that good. Uhk has a steel base.
- asciimo 11y agoThis reminds me of the open source keyboardio [1], which isn't yet in production. They key mapping and LEDs are controlled by Arduino and fully customizable. The creator blogged in detail about its creation from concept to manufacturing [2]. A maker triumph. [1] http://shop.keyboard.io/ http://shop.keyboard.io/ [2] http://blog.keyboard.io/post/77078804805/building-a-keyboard-part-1 http://blog.keyboard.io/post/77078804805/building-a-keyboard...
- ptomato 11y agoYup. It solves my main complaint about the ergodox, which is the poorly placed/uncomfortable thumb cluster. It also has out-of-band communication with PC for e.g. LED or layer controls, which, well, I've thought of a few interesting things for that already. At minimum, indicators for e.g. vi insert mode, running shell as root, &c&c...
- nwah1 11y agoThis one looks interesting. I tried the Truly Ergonomic keyboard and while it was innovative, it was hard to get used to the middle row and the build quality was not so good. I ended up buying from WASD Keyboards and I absolutely love their product. Complete customization, a tenkeyless option, excellent build quality, the most durable key caps around, but familiar IBM style key placement. http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/ http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/ This one seems to be something in between these two. In my opinion, the most important ergonomic improvements are to buy a tenkeyless model and set the capslock to a backspace. Having a heavy keyboard with sturdy grips at the base is also important. Exotic features like a split keyboard, matrix layout, and strange thumb controls are just annoying and non-standard. I also somewhat regret having switched to colemak, but not entirely.
- Fillipoman 11y agoWhat do you not like about different thumb controls? It seems odd to me that the thumb is really only useful for hitting the space bar on standard keyboards.
- nwah1 11y agoIf you use any other keyboard for any other purpose, the more removed from the standard layout you are, the more disoriented you'll be when switching between the two. I think if keyboards originally were designed for thumbs to press Ctrl and Alt, in addition to Space, it would be the standard, and it would make sense. As of now, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V are so standard that I wouldn't want to switch, and am glad that even Colemak doesn't force me to. But pressing Ctrl+C requires much less hand movement than pressing a traditional backspace. If minimizing hand movement is the goal then backspace is the biggest offender. It is also one of the things that tends to skew the results for Colemak in studies regarding hand movement, making it appear better than it actually is. Colemak would've been a better standard. But it is not the standard. Don't learn it. Just learn how to type correctly on QWERTY and get a keyboard with the features I mentioned.
- verisimilidude 11y ago
- leoc 11y agoGood: Split spacebar. Extra thumb button: only one of them per thumb, but that's a lot better than nothing. Bad: No pointing stick, thumbable trackpad or other means of mouse-pointer control, so you still have to move your hand over and back between keyboard to mouse every time you need to switch between typing and pointer movement.
- detaro 11y agoThey have a trackball as an option if you want it. And a trackpoint. And a small touchpad.
- rpilgrimr 11y agocheck the add-on modules: https://www.crowdsupply.com/ugl/ultimate-hacking-keyboard/updates/addons https://www.crowdsupply.com/ugl/ultimate-hacking-keyboard/up...
- leoc 11y agoVery nice, and as they say quite exceptional. But pointing controls should really come as part of the default configuration (if not necessarily the minimal one): they're more important than the keyboard split, let alone clicky key actions.
- rpilgrimr 11y agoYou can control pointer with mouse button (left button on 3rd row) and ijkl for direction + sdf for mouse clicks. works quite well.
- detaro 11y agomatter of personal taste, i'd probably prefer having extra keys there, if anything. Why is it not being included in the default configuration somehow worse than allowing you to choose what you want?
- mmgutz 11y agoHow is this different than this? http://matias.ca/ergopro/pc/ http://matias.ca/ergopro/pc/
- mtourne 11y agoThis is my daily driver and I really love it! It's mechanical, split and the layout is really not esoteric. The major upside from the UHK would be total firmware configurability, not an option on the Matias Ergo pro. I would have to remap 'Mouse' though as this is the place for my 'Ctrl' key (I use Emacs a lot).
- tylerc230 11y agoI use this keyboard at home. While it checks everything off on my list (split, ergo, mech keys, ten keyless), the build quality feels a little cheap i.e. Loose keys that stick often. For ~$200 I expected more. Looking forward to the uhk.
- farnsworth 11y agoI've never been able to use a non-split keyboard comfortably for long periods of time. I used a Kinesis Ergo for awhile and generally liked it except that I still have to be able to use other people's keyboards from time to time and it was just too different. The Microsoft Natural 4000 has been my favorite for around 8 years but I wish I could get one with mechanical switches. It has a slight curve - the "flat but split" form factor of some others feels a little off to me.
- noir_lord 11y agoMine as well, I'd very much like a mechanical version with the exact same geometry, I even loved the massive removable rest once I got used to it, been able to use a keyboard in a neutral position had a massive impact on my wrist/arm pain (it pretty much went in about 6 weeks between the keyboard and tennis ball exercises).
- redtuesday 11y agoWhy are they using staggered keys? Because it's cheaper to produce and more familiar for most people? I can't go back to staggered keyboards after using one with a columnar layout. But I never liked staggered keyboards to begin with. For me it felt awkward to touch type (maybe a problem with my small hands, idk). But the config looks beautiful. My dream keyboard would be something like this: https://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/katy-keyboard-or-k80cs-key80-contoured-split-t8524.html https://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/katy-keyboard-or-k80cs-k...
- jluxenberg 11y agoYou might like this layout better: http://shop.keyboard.io/ http://shop.keyboard.io/ (disclaimer: I'm an investor in Keyboardio.)
- redtuesday 11y agoYes, when the kickstarter launched I actually thought about backing the project, but I don't know if I can go back after experiencing the concave key wells of my Kinesis Advantage (I can't even decide what's more important to me - a columnar layout or concave key wells). But I will certainly give it a try when one of my friends or co workers get it (if they let me ;o). I especially like the key caps, the look beautiful and comfortable.