this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
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Mechanical Keyboards

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Share your keymap config (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by feverin@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/mechanical_keyboards@programming.dev
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I'm not finding any place where people share their keymap config (if that's the right way to refer to how you've configured which key has which actions bound to it), so here goes mine - and I hope to have feedback and to be inspired by yours, as well!

From some awesome inspiration, I updated the setup :-) thanks!

I moved the layer switcher to the left hand, and moved backspace to my thumb, so I don't strain my pinky so much.

I moved the arrows to right under my right hand... and added a button to make the switch to this gamer layer permanent. So basically, to go from layer 0 to layer 1 permanently, hold left thumb button, tap right thumb button. Tap left thumb button to switch back to layer 0.

And I added a num pad, also right under my right hand, where I'd expect it.

original: I just got my first mech keyboard with fewer keys than a 'regular' keyboard, and set it up this way:

with the TG(1) switching to layer 2 for gaming/some extra symbols:

and the home row is modded to GASC like in https://precondition.github.io/home-row-mods#how-to-use-home-row-mods with 160ms tapping term.

I am mostly struggling to get used to this way of typing and I still spend a lot of time on finding symbols, or correcting extra or missed keystrokes. But, I'll try to update this when I have more experience. Critique away!

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[–] algernon@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

My layout is... perhaps a bit strange!

algernon's Programmer Erlang Monster

It's the bastard child of Engram and Programmer Dvorak, laid out on a Keyboardio Model 100.

Apart from Engram being perhaps a less known layout, the symbols & number arrangement is likely going to raise questions, so I'll go ahead and answer them: I hate the number row on the top. To enter many numbers, I'd need two hands, and plenty of finger movement. So instead, I put them on a layer in a numpad-like arrangement, so I can type them with one hand (and another to activate the layer), with far less hand movement. That also lets me input most of the symbols without having to reach for a modifier: they're on the top row!

I also have a dedicated Compose key, and all my modifiers are one-shot (and so are the layer keys).

[–] mholiv@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Hello fellow Engram/Engrammer user! There are dozens of us!

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Pretty vanilla, but no stabilizers!

[–] somegeek@programming.dev 4 points 1 month ago

I use normal qwerty keyboards, I only swap Esc with Caps lock much better ergonomy. Specially with vim.

[–] Maxxie@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Cool idea, here's mine 🙃
Base layer: pretty boring except escape instead of caps. Highly recommend, who caps their locks these days
image

Layer one: cursor navigation for my left and num pad for my right.
image

Layer two: punctuation boogaloo (I'm a coder I use all of 'em)
image

Layer three is full of weird buttons like "F24" and "DM Rec Stop" that I use as hotkeys for specific programs.
It's probably highly sub-optimal, but I kinda like logical layouts :) plus its waaay easier to remember

[–] feverin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago

oh wow, instant delivery - I'm totally copying that escape instead of caps, though I'd need to get myself mentally prepared for slamming ` 100x when I want to use escape.

[–] NightFantom@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Does this link work? https://configure.zsa.io/moonlander/layouts/bnnrA/latest/0

[–] feverin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It does! For using so many different layers, don't you feel it's slower to change layers and back than to move your hand if you had a bigger keyboard? Or am I missing the point. I'm quite new to this.

Your layout is dazzling. How do you remember all of this... !

[–] NightFantom@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Nice! Initially I was definitely slower, but my choice (for the moonlander) was primarily for the ergonomics (the split keyboard really helps with my posture and back), and then I just started experimenting. My layers were intended to just get all of the features just somewhere, and then step by step evolved into the current setup. There's some logic to each layer though, and I mostly use the arrow keys (left hand pushes some button (no clue which, I'm typing this on my phone from the couch now and it's solely muscle memory) and my right hand is now as if I was on the arrow keys, with the pageup & pagedown keys nearby), in combination with the modifier keys that's 90% of my navigation while coding.

Apart from that there's the symbol layer, where the keys I use often are fine, but others I just spam keys until the special character I'm looking for appears and then delete the rest lol.

The mousenav layer is mostly a joke, but has saved me once when my mouse broke so worth it!

If you have any other questions, shoot!

[–] feverin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh, that's a nifty way to think about it, modify with one hand and map it to a situation as if the other hand was where you'd have it, e.g. with the arrow keys!

Have you tried home row mods? In theory, it sounds good...

[–] NightFantom@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What do you mean by home row mods? Layer switching happens on my home row, when holding those keys, if that's what you mean.

[–] feverin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ah yes, that's what I meant, but putting heavily used modifiers like shift, Ctrl, alt under those fingers and mirroring the setup between left and right hand, trying to make the most out of those 8 keys where you don't need to move your fingers for.

[–] NightFantom@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 month ago

Ooh, interesting, I guess the layer modifiers are kind of the same thing indeed. I have too many layers for that so I don't think I'll fit that in, but I like the idea.

[–] feverin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Ok, you inspired me :)

I moved the layer switcher to the left hand, and moved backspace to my thumb, so I don't strain my pinky so much.

I moved the arrows to right under my right hand...

And I added a num pad, also right under my right hand, where I'd expect it.

EDIT: updated the screenshots

[–] NightFantom@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 month ago

I think you pasted the wrong screenshot for the numpad by the way

[–] NightFantom@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I've also moved backspace, delete, and enter to my thumbs, way better :D

I don't know about having the same button do multiple layers, especially tapping is not my thing (because then I don't really have control over going back, unless that's again a tap of another key, which feels like overhead), I just hold a finger for a layer on my other hand, and release when done.

That said, you do you and it could definitely work, experiment with the most wonky setups and keep what works!

[–] feverin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wayyyy better :-D

And I see! Yeah I've definitely already jammed keys realizing I'm on the wrong layer, but I need a permanent switch to the gaming one. But I'll try the switch on hold til release with an extra a hold to switch for just the gaming layer, I like that idea more. Good one!

[–] NightFantom@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh yeah my gaming layer is indeed one I "permanently" enable, by going to the layer switching layer, then choosing the one for the gaming layer. I don't use that layer for anything else but it's good to have

[–] feverin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago

Oh yeahhhh...I updated the screenshots, now I have a button in layer 1 to make the change to layer 1 permanent. the options are endless!

[–] Morphit@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago

I use a Lily58 to which I added extra thumb keys, so it's really a Lily60. The layout is intended to minimise using the top row so I could probably move to a board with no num row without changing much. The delay on home-row mods doesn't sit right with me but I use mod-tap to get a few extra keys on the outer column. RAlt is my compose key so that's on a thumb key and all the other alt modifiers are LAlt. There's quite a few mouse controls since I have the first-gen Ploopy nano trackball which has no buttons - e.g MMODE switches the trackball to scrolling instead of mousing and I often use MB3 to paste the "primary" clipboard. There's a load of stuff I don't use (like the mouse movement keys) but I always try to keep the ASCII layout up-to date in my QMK config:

/* QWERTY
 *        ,-----------------------------------------.                     ,-----------------------------------------.
 *        |  ESC |   1  |   2  |   3  |   4  |   5  |                     |   6  |   7  |   8  |   9  |   0  |  =   |
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|                     |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |TABAlt|   Q  |   W  |   E  |   R  |   T  |                     |   Y  |   U  |   I  |   O  |   P  | -/Alt|
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|                     |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |"/Ctrl|   A  |   S  |   D  |   F  |   G  |-------.     ,-------|   H  |   J  |   K  |   L  |   ;  |'/Ctrl|
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|  MB3  |     |  MB1  |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |LShift|   Z  |   X  |   C  |   V  |   B  |-------|     |-------|   N  |   M  |   ,  |   .  |   /  |RShift|
 *        `-----------------------------------------/       /      \      \-----------------------------------------'
 *                          | MMODE| LGUI | LOWER| / Space /Tab  Esc\ Enter\  |RAISE |BackSP| RAlt |
 *                          |      |      |      |/       /LAlt  LAlt\      \ |      |      |      |
 *                          `----------------------------'            `------`'--------------------'

layers

/* RAISE
 *        ,-----------------------------------------.                     ,-----------------------------------------.
 *        |      |      |      |      |      |      |                     |VolDn |VolUp | PSCR | SCRL | PAUSE|      |
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|                     |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |      |   <  |   >  |   {  |   }  |      |                     |      |   (  |   )  |   -  |   _  |      |
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|                     |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |`/Ctrl|   (  |   )  |   [  |   ]  |  %   |-------.     ,-------| Left | Down |  Up  |Right |   ;  |#/Ctrl|
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|  GAME |     |  MB2  |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |      |   |  |   #  |   (  |   )  |      |-------|     |-------| Home | PgDn | PgUp |  End |Insert|      |
 *        `-----------------------------------------/       /      \      \-----------------------------------------'
 *                          | MMODE| LGUI | LOWER| / Space /     MB1\ MB3  \  |RAISE |Delete| MMODE|
 *                          |      |      |      |/       /          \      \ |      |      |      |
 *                          `----------------------------'            `------`'--------------------'
/* LOWER
 *        ,-----------------------------------------.                     ,-----------------------------------------.
 *        |  F12 |  F1  |  F2  |  F3  |  F4  |  F5  |                     |  F6  |  F7  |  F8  |  F9  | F10  | F11  |
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|                     |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |F12Alt|  F1  |  F2  |  F3  |  F4  |  F5  |                     |  F6  |  F7  |  F8  |  F9  | F10  |F11Alt|
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|                     |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |`/Ctrl|   1  |   2  |   3  |   4  |   5  |-------.     ,-------|   6  |   7  |   8  |   9  |   0  |=/Ctrl|
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|  FIX  |     |  MB2  |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |      |   \  |   [  |   ]  |   #  |   b  |-------|     |-------|   +  |   -  |   *  |   .  |   /  |      |
 *        `-----------------------------------------/       /      \      \-----------------------------------------'
 *                          | MTogg|  MB2 | LOWER| / Enter /GAME SPC\ Enter\  |RAISE |BackWD|   ,  |
 *                          |      |      |      |/       /          \      \ |      |      |      |
 *                          `----------------------------'            `------`'--------------------'
/* ADJUST
 *        ,-----------------------------------------.                     ,-----------------------------------------.
 *        | NKRO | MRST | MDPI |      |      |      |                     |      | MAC0 | MAC1 | MAC2 |      | DBG  |
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|                     |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |Console MWUp |MWLeft|  MUp |MWRght|  OCR |                     | FFwd |  MB1 |  MB2 |  Rwd |  MB3 |      |
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|                     |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |      | MWDn | MLeft| Mdown|MRight|      |-------.     ,-------| Prev | Play | Stop | Next |  MB4 |      |
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------| OLED- |     | OLED+ |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |      |   |  |      | Calc |      |      |-------|     |-------| Mute |VolDn |VolUp |      |  MB5 |      |
 *        `-----------------------------------------/       /      \      \-----------------------------------------'
 *                          | MMODE| LGUI | LOWER| / Space /        \ Enter\  |RAISE |Delete| RAlt |
 *                          |      |      |      |/       /          \      \ |      |      |      |
 *                          `----------------------------'            `------`'--------------------'
/* GAME
 *        ,-----------------------------------------.                     ,-----------------------------------------.
 *        | ESC  |      |      |      |      |      |                     |      |      |      |      |      |      |
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|                     |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |  T   |  Tab |  Q   |  W   |  E   |  R   |                     |      |      |      |      |      |      |
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|                     |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        |  H   | Shift|  A   |  S   |  D   |  F   |-------.     ,-------|      |      |      |      |      |      |
 *        |------+------+------+------+------+------|  GAME |     |       |------+------+------+------+------+------|
 *        | Shift| Ctrl |  Z   |  X   |  C   |  V   |-------|     |-------|      |      |      |      |      |      |
 *        `-----------------------------------------/       /      \      \-----------------------------------------'
 *                          |BackSP| Enter|INVENT| / Space /GAME    \ Enter\  |RAISE |BackSP| RAlt |
 *                          |      |      |      |/       /          \      \ |      |      |      |
 *                          `----------------------------'            `------`'--------------------'
 */

[–] spacemanspiffy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

What keyboard are you using?

I know little about split keyboards but am interested, and just happened across your post. Your image has enough keys to solve something I wanted for a long time...

https://lemmy.world/post/21625638

[–] feverin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I use the sofle choc but instead of LEDs or so, I have those 3 extra buttons to the inside.

Using a split keyboard because I really want the tenting for my wrists.

I guess you're referring to having the Y on the left side? I found my keyboard on Ali Express, but the listing is gone now. There might be others, though.

[–] spacemanspiffy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Precisely, the Y, should have been more clear. Your layout isn't 100% what I would want, but it's the closest and best I've seen.