deskthority

Since I soldered together an ErgoDox a couple months ago, I've been messing around with my own designs.

I have a proper making-of blog post half written, but figured that posting pix here might help spur me to finish the documentation:

The "Mark 2" - my first lasercutting experiment. A fixed-split keyboard designed to de-emphasize pinky usage.


Homebrew Mark 2

The "Mark 3" - a symmetric stagger 60% (or so) board:


fully operational mark 3 keyboard

I'm still working out an ideal layout. It'll likely be based on the BlueShift chorded layout I posted last week. I don't have a whole lot of keycaps on hand. Ignore the label on anything red,white,yellow or green.

Neat! I like your Mark 3 concept for a compact ergonomic keyboard. So, what are your thoughts on the ErgoDox ? It seems that it's better / more flexible than your Mark 2, since it's not fixed, so if you have an ErgoDox, what prompted you to do something so similar?

sordna wrote:Neat! I like your Mark 3 concept for a compact ergonomic keyboard. So, what are your thoughts on the ErgoDox ? It seems that it's better / more flexible than your Mark 2, since it's not fixed, so if you have an ErgoDox, what prompted you to do something so similar?

I type with my keyboard in my lap. Turns out that two pieces floating around isn't as awesome there as I'd hoped.

Also, I don't think the ErgoDox gets the column staggering right.

(I'll note that I totally blew it on the angles for the Mark 2)

Looking at what I did, I'd probably claim that I was more riffing on a flat Kinesis or Maltron than on the ErgoDox there.

The next evolution of the Mark 2 line is likely to look at lot more like a TK1 (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categ ... N_keyboard), though I'm waiting on a paper copy of some of the TK1's design writeups before I actually head back to the lasercutter shop.

Hmm, you could mount your ErgoDox to a flat surface in a fixed position.
Or you could build a pyramid like shape stand to fit your lap, and have the ErgoDox sides inclined... I bet it will be very comfortable to type that way.

sordna wrote:Hmm, you could mount your ErgoDox to a flat surface in a fixed position.
Or you could build a pyramid like shape stand to fit your lap, and have the ErgoDox sides inclined... I bet it will be very comfortable to type that way.

Indeed - I could probably even use the metal plate designed for just such a purpose that came with the Touchstream.

I have a Touchstream as well. It would be wonderful if it had a sculpted surface so you could "feel" keys even if not depressable. But it's very hard to type on it without looking. The mousing is amazing though.

sordna wrote:I have a Touchstream as well. It would be wonderful if it had a sculpted surface so you could "feel" keys even if not depressable. But it's very hard to type on it without looking. The mousing is amazing though.

"Kinda like an iPad" -- no wonder Apple bought them and borged their tech.