deskthority

Hello everyone!
I'm in the process of designing my second custom keyboard a school project, my first being mostly a prototype for testing.
I know I could make something pretty standard, but why not create something completely unique? I really like ErgoDox but It's a bit too expensive and I want something that's just one piece. Also, I am currently learning the Colemak layout, so I wanted to design the keyboard with that layout in mind.

I will use a cnc machine to make the case and wire it all up to a teensy.

List of details about what I want:
* Compactness, about the size of a 60% keyboard
* Optimized for Colemak (Also needs ÅÄÖ for swedish (in an fn layer))
* Some sort of thumb cluster
* Need to work for typing, gaming and coding

Here is the first crazy layout I made:

I moved the bottom row two steps to the right to have it more centered.

Divided keys into fingers:

I will probably use two FN layers to access all the keys that were removed.

Soooo what do you think? Could something like this work?

Looks like a ton of work for your little fingers. Unless maybe you're thinking of crossing your wrists and using those as thumb clusters!

An ergo the size of a 60% is a great goal, but I haven't seen a great way of getting there.

Separate halves, like the ErgoDox, are far more ergonomic than a traditional rectangle; even with finger appropriate rows like you've drawn. But if you're determined for a single piece, what about rotating the halves so that your wrists can work further apart? That way you'd get space for a central thumb cluster as the columns move further apart at the front of the keyboard.

Muirium wrote: ↑Looks like a ton of work for your little fingers. Unless maybe you're thinking of crossing your wrists and using those as thumb clusters!

GENIUS!

Muirium wrote: ↑ Separate halves, like the ErgoDox, are far more ergonomic than a traditional rectangle; even with finger appropriate rows like you've drawn. But if you're determined for a single piece, what about rotating the halves so that your wrists can work further apart? That way you'd get space for a central thumb cluster as the columns move further apart at the front of the keyboard.

Maybe something more like this?:

That's more like it. Try various angles (especially wider ones) and maybe print some out 1:1 scale and lay your hands on them to get a feeling for what they're asking of your wrists. There could be a sweet spot.

Muirium wrote: ↑That's more like it. Try various angles (especially wider ones) and maybe print some out 1:1 scale and lay your hands on them to get a feeling for what they're asking of your wrists. There could be a sweet spot.

Yup, definitely going to print out a bunch of different layouts and try it with some keycaps!

Findecanor wrote: ↑Yes, you need a larger angle and/or separation between the key halves.
Are you sure about the location of the ZXCV keys? They are shifted two steps from on a staggered keyboard, not just one.

BTW, is there no Swedish version of Colemak, like there is for Dvorak ("Svorak") ?

Yeah, you're probably right about ZXCV, moved them back.

I've only been learning Colemak for a couple of days so I'm not really sure. Currently I'm using a modified norwegian version that I found so it's pretty much swedish.

Slightly updated the layout, starting to like it now:


Slightly more angled halves, now 14 degrees. Fixed the thumbs section a bit. Added ÅÄÖ and buttons for the left little finger.
What could the middle buttons be used for in the default layer? I'm thinking maybe PgDn and PgUp, but maybe something like []{} would be better for programming.

You are getting closer and closer to this one. Which design I personally really like and would love to try out one day!


https://trulyergonomic.com/store/truly- ... 07-english

noesc wrote: ↑You are getting closer and closer to this one. Which design I personally really like and would love to try out one day!

https://trulyergonomic.com/store/truly- ... 07-english

Huh yeah. Thanks for showing me! I'm gonna look into what people think about that keyboard!

There will be only one truly ergonomic keyboard on planet earth:

7bit wrote: ↑There will be only one truly ergonomic keyboard on planet earth:

That IS a cool keyboard, but it's something I would want at a spaceship or something. The smaller the better for portability

7bit, I REALLY LIKE the Hyper7! Is this actually going to be produced?