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ErgoMechKeyboards
Ergonomic, split and other weird keyboards
Rules
Keep it ergo
Posts must be of/about keyboards that have a clear delineation between the left and right halves of the keyboard, column stagger, or both. This includes one-handed (one half doesn't exist, what clearer delineation is that!?)
i.e. no regular non-split¹ row-stagger and no non-split¹ ortholinear²
¹ split meaning a separation of the halves, whether fixed in place or entirely separate, both are fine.
² ortholinear meaning keys layed out in a grid
No Spam
No excessive posting/"shilling" for commercial purposes. Vendors are permitted to promote their products/services but keep it to a minimum and use the [vendor] flair. Posts that appear to be marketing without being transparent about it will be removed.
No Buy/Sell/Trade
This subreddit is not a marketplace, please post on r/mechmarket or other relevant marketplace.
Some useful links
- EMK wiki
- Split keyboard compare tool
- Compare keycap profiles Looking for another set of keycaps - check this site to compare the different keycap profiles https://www.keycaps.info/
- Keymap database A database with all kinds of keymap layouts - some of them fits ergo keyboards - get inspired https://keymapdb.com/
I'm in Australia so this will be in AUD with Australian shipping.
I got the PCB's from JLPCB for $23.85
The keycaps diodes microcrontroller switches etc came to $50.17 total. I just used the ones linked in the github, as well as probably knockoff holy pandas and a knockoff soya milk set? They were both super cheap hahah.
So that's $73.22 AUD total, so a bit less than $50 USD!
https://github.com/tompi/cheapino
I've done some soldering in the past but never built a keyboard or anything like this. I was quite nervous but it was quite easy! Hardest part was making sure the switches were straight, but following the build guides tips I managed to do that pretty well (better on the right half then the left half I tried first hahaha.) Highly recommend this keyboard and project.
Really happy with the end result, I plan on building a Charybdis nano or Flow36 in the future to replace my trackball mouse but this is a great first step.
Wow, that's way less expensive then I thought! Seems like a fun project as well!
Thank you so much for all the info. This project is really compelling to me, so I might end up building something similar :)
Yeah crazy cheap, if you’re in Australia I’ve got 3 spare pcbs (JLPCB has a minimum order of 5) I’d be happy to send them to you with my spare rotary encoder and diodes