Hello everyone! I recently open sourced the Kaly42, a cheap split Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard and, to celebrate the occasion, have decided to tell the story of how I went from a standard mechanical keyboard to the CSTC40 and eventually to designing and building a new keyboard! The files are available here and the video here!...
Sadly, to make a version like that, the cost (mostly of the switches and keycaps) would go up and you would need to add diodes to the build and config files. I don’t wish to deal with that currently, so sadly that project has been put on hold. (see my reply to the other comment too!) However, the Kaly42 is indeed cheap, if you source the parts well it can come in at about 50$!
Those are indeed great suggestions! However I feel that there is a missing market for keyboards with that size that have strong columnar stagger. If you know of any, please do inform us!
I would argue that the only trade-off is that my keyboard has no case or screws for tenting, I just use the bare PCB. In a future version I will add screws for a case and tenting though, then I would argue no trade-off when compared, for example, to the Cantor. (The Piantor has better microcontroller in the RP and the Corne just has amazing community support).
The thumb keys were only deal breakers because of my hands and condition at that time, I still think the Cantor is a good keyboard, but it’s just not for me. (I also like the thumb keys closer together!)
Oh, and I didn’t find any other keyboards like the Kaly. I did look for a while, but didn’t find anything like it, so eventually just decided to make my own! (I was quite against doing a full design at the start, but warmed up to it by the end).
I got those keycaps from aliexpress and the choice was purely based on “This is the cheapest I can find”, but they are quite ok if you don’t mind flat keycaps! I think about 0.2$ per keycap. (and you get free shipping after getting enough of them).
As for Ergogen, sadly I also didn’t find any. I imported and used the footprint exclusively from the Kicad PCB stage onwards. It took a bit more of manual work but was quite worth it! Hope someone adds it and the RP controllers eventually, it would be great!
Hi, I’ve been meaning to make a travel-friendly ergonomic keyboard setup for a couple years ago after starting /r/ergomobilecomputers, so far just been on a raised tablet setup with a regular keyboard (a setup I’ve enjoyed, but will confess I’ve some slight pain from using a standard keyboard with it)...
I have taken good care of my health for the last two years, with regular exercise, good diet, nice sleep, little stress and good habits. However, now with retrospect, I didn’t do any strength training in my arms, leaving them quite weak and prone to injuries. After some heavy activities I ended up getting tendinitis in the elbows of both of my arms. Since then, I rushed to get myself the solutions that I could and got an ortholinear board with the lightest switches I could find, changed to the Colemak-dh layout and started designing my own split ergo mech keyboard. Now I have my keyboard, started physiotherapy and have been improving steadily.
At least in my case, I truly believe that if I had stopped before taking any of those actions, and many more to better my working setup and reduce hand movement, including putting mouse controls and pretty much all shortcuts in my keyboard, I would not have been able to continue typing until the end of my semester. However, that made me realize that the thing that helped me the most is that other than my arms, I had 0 other issues. My mental health was in check, I was with a reasonable diet and I managed to push through to my holidays, where I managed to get a meaningful solution to my problem (which was physiotherapy).
I am sure that a split keyboard, or even a programmable ortho keyboard that is well planned with a good layout and ergonomic position can be a great help, but what helped the most was the ability to adapt my setup, my self and my surroundings to my pains and specific problems again and again and the motivation to stand through it until the end. To study it, see what others said about the solutions, and try them myself. A lot of times those were slow, tiring and saddening, but I knew it had to be done and it paid it’s dividends for sure
You should look into an ergo keyboard, which is even better to start when you have little to no pain (better stop before it gets worse!), but know that the best thing that you can do for yourself isn’t just buying a new keyboard, but also taking care of yourself. The new keyboards didn’t immediately solve my problems. In fact, adapting to them made it worse in the short term, but after ~4 or so months of pain, I have a stable setup with a nice keyboard that allows me to work with reasonable comfort again, and that is half in part thanks to the keyboard and half in part thanks to me taking care of my heath regardless of how hard it was sometimes.
Thanks to that care and all of my steps, it looks like I’ll have no lasting consequences if I finish up physiotherapy and start training my muscles properly, which is the best news I could’ve had. The best advice I can give to you (and to my past self) in order of importance (in my opinion, see other’s too!) is 1. Be patient. 2. Listen to your body, take breaks before you need them. 3. Exercise more 4. Make your setup more ergonomic, be it with keyboards, chairs, positions or whatever else.
I am aware that my case is different from most here, as my wrists are as health as they can be (I don’t have issues with ulnar deviation causing pain, the shoulders are fine, everything is good except for the extending and retracting of fingers), so my issues and solutions were quite unique to my case and because of that I won’t go into specifics, but I hope to have managed to at least show one more perspective. Keyboards help a lot, but in the end it’s yourself that can help you the most.
Hi EMK community! I have been lurking the old Reddit and this new instance for quite a while, and after some time with the CSTC40 (plank-like) I decided that I wanted my own ErgoMechKeyboard. However, I had 0 experience in making one and initially planned on a Cantor (affordable, easy to build, already supported)....
Sometime ago I saw someone post their keyboard in the midst of plants in the Reddit EMK, I thought it was funny enough to post my own version of it! Sadly, I don’t have the original post on hand… I did make sure not to get it dirty almost at all and to clean it properly afterwards!
Hello! I have just open-sourced the Kaly! You can find it here! I am not sure of where to ping you, so I will do my best to find somewhere that you can see!
My Journey From Mechanical to Ergonomic Keyboards | New ErgoMech Open Sourced (Kaly42) + Video! (iili.io)
Hello everyone! I recently open sourced the Kaly42, a cheap split Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard and, to celebrate the occasion, have decided to tell the story of how I went from a standard mechanical keyboard to the CSTC40 and eventually to designing and building a new keyboard! The files are available here and the video here!...
Has your ergomechkeyboard helped you recover from RSI pain?
Hi, I’ve been meaning to make a travel-friendly ergonomic keyboard setup for a couple years ago after starting /r/ergomobilecomputers, so far just been on a raised tablet setup with a regular keyboard (a setup I’ve enjoyed, but will confess I’ve some slight pain from using a standard keyboard with it)...
New EMK joins the Family! Meet Kaly the Caliper! (iili.io)
Hi EMK community! I have been lurking the old Reddit and this new instance for quite a while, and after some time with the CSTC40 (plank-like) I decided that I wanted my own ErgoMechKeyboard. However, I had 0 experience in making one and initially planned on a Cantor (affordable, easy to build, already supported)....