Looking for some testimonials on these setups as I’m due for a keyboard upgrade. I like the thought of spreading my arms a bit more and the external wrist rotation from the tenting. Any suggestions?
I bought a moonlander by ZSA about a year ago.
I found the split allows for a much more relaxed position while writing, and being able to adjust the halves individually when I reposition myself is very comfortable.
They also have the benefit of having thumb clusters, giving more work to the strongest finger of the hand.
Another benefit I find is that most split keyboards are fully programmable, which makes customizing it to your needs very nice.
The only drawback I find to this keyboard (apart from the price, which is not cheap) is that it is hefty, and not easy to transport. The fact that it is wired clutters a bit the desktop, if this is something that concerns you.
I recently built a corne low profile yo have something more transportable and wireless, but this is much more involved, as the configuration goes through writing code and not a nice UI.
However the comfort of this new board is very nice.
There was a whole subreddit dedicated to ergonomcal keyboards, ErgoMechKeyboards, which is very interesting to browse, as what I have done is seen as extreme by my coworkers, but tame compared to what some people are do.
Fellow Moonlander + Corne user here. Once I accepted that I was never realistically going to take my Moonlander on the go, I sprang for the Platform kit. It’s a huge improvement over the stock tenting legs.
Column stagger and ortholinear keyboards are an ergonomic wonder. Everyone’s hands are different of course, but I find them really comfortable.
Another big plus for ZSA products is their software. The graphical configurator is really powerful and nice to use. It adds a lot of features on top of what’s natively available in QMK. I’ve only manually tweaked my firmware once, and that was for a particularly niche and convoluted use case.
I can vouch for the moonlander too. I had an Ergodox EZ for ~3 years, then got a Moonlander, and I’ve loved them both. Really comfortable to use, and as someone with some chronic wrist issues, honestly a career saver. The Moonlander is also slightly easier than the Ergodox EZ regarding transport as it folds a bit tighter and came with a carry case.
I imagine a split keyboard requires you to at least type properly?
I’m a software engineer with wrist issues, and would love to use an ergonomic keyboard, but I never really learned to type properly. I often have my hands overlapping the opposite sides of the keyboard. I’ll use all finger on my hands, but mainly it’s my pointer, middle, and ring finger doing the typing. I feel like this would be impossible on a split kayboard, and would take a crazy amount of time to get back up to speed typing properly.
The way to learn to touchtype is simple but annoying. Figure out how to hit backspace every time.
From here all you do is never look down. You hit the wrong key? Backspace. Try again. You can look at the keyboard sometimes, but not while typing.
It will take a while but eventually your error rate drops very quickly and you are good.
This process works very well on split keyboards.
I started off with the quefrency, a split ‘normal’ keyboard, then started making my own (3d printed handwired) orthos.
Then I saw the alu case for iris and got tempted but am unwilling to drop >$300 on a layout I’ve never used before, so designed my own case with tilt and 3d printed and handwired that (all for ~£30 only!! split orthos CAN be cheap! - my first post on Lemmy was on this :D) And have been daily driving it so far
Column staggered is defo the way to go
I’m going down that rabbit hole as well - I’ve already built a handwired 3d printed keyboard and my current project is a split with a 4-way switch as a thumb cluster - inspired by the Fulcrum and in case I need a different cluster, this part of the case is modular.
My next build was (probably) going to be a remix of the iris and I wanted to include a joystick so I could use it 4 ways (towards left, highlight words to left; to right, layer; up down, vol controls).
I’d never come across 4/5 way switches before so that’s definitely something I’ll be looking into! Thanks for sharing!!
What CAD program do you use for designing your cases?
Ah you’re right, it’s a 5 way switch - forgot the “push” action. I’m using realthunders’ branch of FreeCAD - it is really convenient to use compared to the normal release.
Oh I might have to take a look at that, I also use FreeCAD! Damn look at all these things you’re introducing me to 😂
I started off getting a Dygma Raise, as this is a staggered layout like a standard keyboard and you could even slot it together or separate it and use as a split.
I recently put together a Lily58 which is a columnar layout, which took a few days to get used to but I have been enjoying using it.
It makes a lot of sense to me, although I haven’t jumped on one yet.
But I refuse to use anything but a 65%, I have a seperate numpad if I need one and having mouse and keyboard closer together is already a godsend ergonomics wise, I have no idea how I could stand full size boards back in the day.
A split keyboard is already great because your arms can be in a normal position and proper tenting and tilt makes sure your wrists are at a good angle as well.
That said, most of the more “advanced” split keyboards have pretty… unique layouts and I don’t know if I’ll get used to them. I also really want to keep my arrow keys and don’t want to rely on layers too much, for stuff like the F keys and other rarely used functions it’s fine but I don’t want layers for anything that’s a regular part of my workflow.
Maybe I’ll just get a quefrency and see how it goes.
The Microsoft Sculpt keyboard is my perfect keyboard. They discontinued it a couple months ago, but you can still find them in Amazon. Tented and split (though it’s one solid unit, so no customization) with a separate wireless numpad for exactly the reason you described. Typing on anything else makes my fingers go numb after about half an hour.
Still thinking about trying a fully customizable one someday though, but I’m not sure it’s worth the expense for me
I use an Iris, a split ortholinear board. I also used a pack of differently sized rubber feet to tent the board a small amount. I love using it, I wish I could have one for every system I use.
I’m even keeping my eye on the Framework 16 inch laptop, since the customizable keyboard module will allow for a split board!
They take a fair amount of getting used to, especially if you get an ortholinear variety. You might find yourself not really enjoying it out the gate, but it’ll force you into better typing posture and you’ll grow to love it over time and hate the times you have to type on a standard keyboard. I have an Ergodox and the ortholinear aspect took a while to get used to and settling into a function keys layout I liked took another good while. Expect to be worse at typing and less productive at the outset. Your hands and wrists will thank you in the long run, though.
I’ve been using a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 for 12 years. I broke my first one by spilling tea into it and immediately bought a second one after trying to go back to my previous keyboard. Now “normal” keyboards feel cramped to me.
One thing that’s good is that it forces you to type more correctly, and if you’re not a touch typer already, getting a split keyboard is a great time to learn since you’re having to make adjustments anyway. I used typing.academy to learn.
My keyboard is flat on the desk and I never have problems with carpal tunnel or similar.
I got my piantor yesterday and i really like it so far, it was a bit of a challenge to set everything up in a way i like. And my writing speed has deceased from 140 wpm to about 30. But that is just a matter of relearning to write on this keyboard and unlearning years of bad writing practices.
More anecdata, but 10-15 years ago I started getting RSI/carpal tunnel symptoms in both hands. I switched to tented keyboards (mainly Kinesis) and vertical mice (Anker among others) and the symptoms went away. I was able to finish out a programming career until I retired a few years ago. So thumbs-up from me. If you’re on a Mac, the Kinesis Freestyle is perfectly plug & play. I would recommend checking out a vertical mouse at the same time.
My wife and I use the ZSA moonlander when we’re not gaming. When we game we switch to regualr 60%s. I also have a custom built split keyboard that I don’t really use.
For me, it saved my wrists. My wrist and forearms used to go numb after extended coding sessions while using a regular 60%. I no longer have that issue using a split.
I do recommend researching switches, as I found that using Gateron Red Inks, 45g actuation force, also added to relieving stress on my wrists. I lubed and filmed them too, which is overboard for most.
I also recommend trying different key layouts, I use Colemak DH, but Workman and regular Colemak are also good. They lower the finger movement needed to press the most used letters in English. Layouts can be changed on the hardware level on the Moonlander, allowing it to just work on any device.
https://colemakmods.github.io/mod-dh/ https://workmanlayout.org/
I have an Ergodox EZ that I use off and on. I used to use it regularly, as I mainly bought it because I was experiencing some shoulder pain.
When you bring your hands/wrists together to type on a regular keyboard, your shoulders tend to roll inward a little bit. Using the Ergodox or any split keyboard lets you open up your chest and shoulders to a more proper alignment and is much more comfortable in my opinion.
It only took me a couple days or so before I was typing at 80%+ of my normal speed on the split and ortho layout.
I haven’t used that keyboard regularly in a while since I wound up discovering that my shoulder pain was caused by my mattress (and just exacerbated by my regular keyboard). I had built out a layout that worked pretty well for me on the Ergodox, but then for the times I would travel for work I would get thrown off switching back to the normal layout of the laptop keyboard.
I used to have a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic and recently upgraded to a Keychron Q10. Both are excellent keyboards. Both are splitted
The Sculpt is a membrane keyboard but a very good one at that. You can get the Q10 with either blue, brown or red switches. The only thing that bothers me compared to the Sculpt, the Q10 doesn’t come with a palmrest. So in that regards, you need to bring your own.
I have a ReDox keyboard built by https://falba.tech/. It took a month of getting used to but once I did I can’t go back. My wrist pain is gone and the layers I built make me faster in practice than I was on a standard layout.
I absolutely adore my kinesis freestyle 2. I have the 15° tilt attachments, and my wrists dont feel uncomfortable at all at the end of the day like they used to.
Same here. I wish the Freestyle 2 came with the attachments by default, because when I remove them I find it uncomfortable to use. But it’s great with the tilt+palm rests!
I find that I go through phases, switching between the Kinesis and the Microsoft Ergonomic 4000. The latter is so cheap that I usually recommend it as a starting point for people.
I built myself an Iris (v6 iirc) and I love it to pieces. I painted mine rainbow!
I also have an Iris! I haven’t tented mine and am trying to decide if I want to.
I’ve found it works fine for games, I usually just shove the right side of my keyboard out of the way for more mouse space, and just have a few extra mouse buttons to make up for not having the right side of the keyboard.
I set mine up with rotary encoders that give me up/down/left/right, so I don’t have to take my hands off my keyboard to move around within an open file.
I haven’t tented mine either, but have tossed around the idea a little bit.
