I Recently found out that my work has a benefit where they give you a couple hundred dollars to improve your health somehow. Gym, massage, Ergo stuff, ect. I want o put it towards an Ergo Mechanical Keyboard.
I have seen LinusTechTip’s video on the Moonlander and I think it is for me (love the white, ortho linear, and split). But are there other things you folks would recommend that I check out?
Thank you for your time!
Anything by Beekeeb if you’re new to this. It’ll end up around the same price or cheaper than a moonlander, and will be much more ergonomic in the long run.
I got the Piantor and I’m happy with it, but I’ve also got my eye on the wireless Chocofi.
The Ortho split means you can put the numbers on a numpad layer on the right hand if you want, so you won’t need a number row, and you can easily fit your 104 keys into 3 layers on a 42key keyboard - the math checks out.
For me it’s the Sofle
+1 for the Sofle, I love mine, just built a wireless version so I can take it on the go.
The starting point is whether you need an ergo keyboard. Is there some specific pain point out fatigue you want to alleviate? Are there some parameters you need to fix first?
The next obligatory step, assuming you need (or want for whatever reason) an ergo keyboard, is a visit here: https://jhelvy.shinyapps.io/splitkbcompare/
Select interesting layouts, print them 1:1 scale and try placing your fingers on the print. Then you will see whether the Moonlander us for you (maybe you need to fold the sheet along the thumb cluster hinge, in the case of this keyboard), or if some other 2d layout is better.
(There will remain the question whether a 3d key well would not work better, à la kinesis advantage/dactyl/glove80/…)
The next obligatory step, assuming you need (or want for whatever reason) an ergo keyboard, is a visit here: https://jhelvy.shinyapps.io/splitkbcompare/
It’s nice for flat keyboards, but not really useful for contoured keyboards like the Kinesis Advantage, Glove80 or Dactyl. I am still hoping that someone will provide a service where you can offer stub versions of common contoured keyboards so that you can try how they’d feel. Of course, the 3D construction if one of the more expensive parts, so I don’t know how feasible it is…
Probably you could not do better than actually 3d-printing the stl (or have it printed)…
Afaict, most folks in the scene end up with something more individual, mostly smaller designs, often with a bit more column stagger and/or splay.
I feel like 34-36 keys is the sweet spot for most.
Now the recommendation depends a bit on how much time you wanna spend with iteration of the keymap and physical layout. If you just wanna get a new keeb asap, then the moonlander is certainly an option.
I’d recommend browsing the other posts a bit and also check out what vendors on your continent can offer if you don’t wanna build yourself.
