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I haven't been following ergonomic keyboards for awhile, but went pretty deep a few years ago back when the Dactyl Manuform and Kinesis were the only names in t

I haven't been following ergonomic keyboards for awhile, but went pretty deep a few years ago back when the Dactyl Manuform and Kinesis were the only names in town. So seeing the Glove80, I was excited to see a new "mass-manufactured" entrant in the space, since dactyl manuforms have to be 3d-printed and handwired, thus meaning they're hard to come by and quite expensive. The glove80 looks interesting, however at $400 it's not much cheaper than handmade dactyls (https://bastardkb.com/product/scylla-prebuilt-preorder-2/ https://bastardkb.com/product/scylla-prebuilt-preorder-2/). So if I were purchasing another one, I'd probably still go for a dactyl, as there's more community history/support, and hand-built build quality might be higher. If an injection molded + flexible PCB mass manufacturer for these curved keywell ergonomic keyboards could release something for around $200, then the space might really heat up!

wesapien 3y ago
I have it. The community is active in Discord. They also have a section for buying/selling Glove80's from users and getting mods done. The firmware is ZMK and lots of configuration options. I was glad to have bought this over any Dactyl. The physical key layout is amazing. The Red Pro switches even better than I expected coming from C MX Reds. The low profile is also great and I prefer it over standard height keys. It met my expectation. Checkout Ben Frain on YouTube since he has the Glove80, Moonlander, Kinesis Advantage 360 and a Dactyl. A customized to your hand Dactyl w/ low profile low force linear switches would be enticing.
wahnfrieden 3y ago
Dactyl thumb cluster is not good. Glove80 nailed it and the community is very supportive.
- tehnub 3y ago
  I have a Scylla and a Skeletyl from BastardKb (the site linked above). The Skeletyl is a 3x5 keyboard with three thumb keys each hand, and I love the thumb clusters on it. Works perfectly with Miryoku and each key is very comfortable to press.
- matthewtse 3y ago
  I'm pretty happy with mine, looks like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/p282ee/dactyl_manuform_5x6/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/p282ee... I like how the thumb buttons splay across the way you rotate the thumb, so you don't need to stretch/contract the thumb, which is awkward. What do you like about your Glove80 thumb cluster?
  - wahnfrieden 3y ago
    My thumb rests at close to neutral position on Glove80 as well, at least compared with Advantage. I like that I can press thumb keys more by moving my arm slightly without having to contract my thumb tendons whereas Dactyl is more of a claw grip.
microtonal 3y ago
I think one of the issues is that the key wells need to hand soldered, which increases the cost per unit. You can find well-priced Glove80s sometimes. I was particularly lucky and found one for 150 Euro. But for the other, the 360 Euro was well spent! At any rate, people spend thousands on a MacBook, but for a product that probably lasts longer and might save your job long-term, we suddenly practice extreme austerity. When I had my brush with wrist pain, I realized that the money spent on a good keyboard, chair, and desk is nothing compared to the income lost if I can’t work until I’m retiring.
- matthewtse 3y ago
  I hand-wired and hand-soldered two of them myself (back before you could buy them as easily). I was hoping flexible PCBs (https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/qbw7i4/opensourced_dactyl_manuform_flexible_pcbs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/qbw7i4/o...) would make the hand-wiring part much less labor intensive.
  - 3np 3y ago
    Did it?
    - matthewtse 3y ago
      Already soldered 2 dactyl manuforms (one for home and one for work), not going to solder another one until one breaks :) Though honestly if it broke, I'd probably just pay for the next one, not worth the labor (literally hundreds of solder points and hand wiring over like 30 hours). I did it mostly to learn about soldering/electronics and thought it would be fun. The careful hand wiring is the laborious part, which the flexible PCB seems to solve. So I'd imagine it would take a 30 hour task down to 2 hours?

wesapien 3y ago

I have it. The community is active in Discord. They also have a section for buying/selling Glove80's from users and getting mods done. The firmware is ZMK and lots of configuration options. I was glad to have bought this over any Dactyl. The physical key layout is amazing. The Red Pro switches even better than I expected coming from C MX Reds. The low profile is also great and I prefer it over standard height keys. It met my expectation. Checkout Ben Frain on YouTube since he has the Glove80, Moonlander, Kinesis Advantage 360 and a Dactyl. A customized to your hand Dactyl w/ low profile low force linear switches would be enticing.

wahnfrieden 3y ago

Dactyl thumb cluster is not good. Glove80 nailed it and the community is very supportive.

tehnub 3y ago
I have a Scylla and a Skeletyl from BastardKb (the site linked above). The Skeletyl is a 3x5 keyboard with three thumb keys each hand, and I love the thumb clusters on it. Works perfectly with Miryoku and each key is very comfortable to press.
matthewtse 3y ago
I'm pretty happy with mine, looks like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/p282ee/dactyl_manuform_5x6/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/p282ee... I like how the thumb buttons splay across the way you rotate the thumb, so you don't need to stretch/contract the thumb, which is awkward. What do you like about your Glove80 thumb cluster?
- wahnfrieden 3y ago
  My thumb rests at close to neutral position on Glove80 as well, at least compared with Advantage. I like that I can press thumb keys more by moving my arm slightly without having to contract my thumb tendons whereas Dactyl is more of a claw grip.

microtonal 3y ago

I think one of the issues is that the key wells need to hand soldered, which increases the cost per unit. You can find well-priced Glove80s sometimes. I was particularly lucky and found one for 150 Euro. But for the other, the 360 Euro was well spent! At any rate, people spend thousands on a MacBook, but for a product that probably lasts longer and might save your job long-term, we suddenly practice extreme austerity. When I had my brush with wrist pain, I realized that the money spent on a good keyboard, chair, and desk is nothing compared to the income lost if I can’t work until I’m retiring.

matthewtse 3y ago
I hand-wired and hand-soldered two of them myself (back before you could buy them as easily). I was hoping flexible PCBs (https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/qbw7i4/opensourced_dactyl_manuform_flexible_pcbs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/qbw7i4/o...) would make the hand-wiring part much less labor intensive.
- 3np 3y ago
  Did it?
  - matthewtse 3y ago
    Already soldered 2 dactyl manuforms (one for home and one for work), not going to solder another one until one breaks :) Though honestly if it broke, I'd probably just pay for the next one, not worth the labor (literally hundreds of solder points and hand wiring over like 30 hours). I did it mostly to learn about soldering/electronics and thought it would be fun. The careful hand wiring is the laborious part, which the flexible PCB seems to solve. So I'd imagine it would take a 30 hour task down to 2 hours?