I’ve slowly been going down the rabbit hole of ergo keyboards and want to replace my current “normal” full-size keyboard, but the sheer amount of variation there is, even disregarding the usual differences like rgb or some extra macro keys or whatever, is kind of giving me decision paralysis, so I’d like some help.
I know what I definitely want:
- Split
- Tentable
- Ortholinear
- Supports QMK
But that still leaves a lot of questions open.
I like the look and portability of heavily vertically staggered 42-key keyboards (three rows and three keys per thumb cluster), and while for programming that’s definitely enough, especially for certain games that seems like a questionable choice, since you’d need a lot of layers for a good experience.
Then I looked further into keyboards with four rows, which definitely seem more appealing, but at that point I’m wondering if for convenience’s sake, it might be better to just get something like the Moonlander which has more than enough keys, but is also just really big and leads to a lot of finger movement which isn’t necessarily a problem, but also just isn’t really… well, neat.
What kind of keyboards do you all have and what do you use them for? Are there any you’d recommend? Should I just go with something akin to the Moonlander or are there any tangible advantages to something like the Piantor apart from portability?
I have a moonlander and love it, but that’s technically columnar and not ortholinear since it’s staggered rows. One thing I like is the Oryx software that I found very intuitive and easy to use to update layouts and layers. Although some question build quality, it was cheap to find someone on printmything to 3d print extra feet for the thumb cluster to add stability to the cluster. Swapping switches was easy as well and installed U4Ts to get more tactile feel.
But I found it helpful to print shit out and play with it on a desk to get a feel for size and layout difference in lieu of seeing a real keeb. You can get creative with folding stuff or angled binders to simulate tenting options as well. This tool lets you do size comparison and print out different keyboard layouts on paper. https://jhelvy.shinyapps.io/splitkbcompare/
Same here. Had the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard prior, but really appreciated when I switched to the Moonlander. Is portable without much work - just isn’t small. Oryx is really easy to use (including color mgmt per layer and per key). I thought it has a really nice feel. Only downside I have is that it isn’t wireless.
Just built my first Corne, which has been a good learning process, but don’t think it will be my final keyboard.
For me it was really up in the air between ergodox and moonlander. But as a novice to mechanical and ergo, the Oryx software was a huge selling point, and I wouldn’t discount that benefit when considering a ergo keyboard where you will be needing to tweak and edit layers to experiment with fit. Just built a budget GMK67 keeb for my partner, and that software is sketch and weird… Really made me appreciate Oryx.
In the end, I think I preferred the moonlander thumbcluster layout of 3 columns of thumb keys. That red key is really a modifier for not typing. The column and row ergodox thing seemed not as great for me. I was surprised that the modifier keys on the moonlander being narrow width wasn’t a hard thing to get used to.