This is what was left after I kept cutting things away
reddit.com/gallery/pt8kabPosted Sep 22, 2021, 2:21 PM UTC
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Love this so much. What you get when you cross a squid with a hummingbird.
I designed a layout for Hummingbird, based on Japanese phonetics, that would sing on this (Called Ingulish). Currently using a personalized Hands Down variation that would fit easily here. Z Q J are not on the main layer, but readily available via combos (and layers). Got any spare PCBs? (I've not yet figured out how to order PCBs myself)
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I would love to know what these layouts look like! I've been trying to think of good ways to modify your gold and platinum layouts for 26 keys excluding thumbs.
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I feel like your missing keys for b and n? What lay out are you using?
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It may ot e the est solutio ut I ca usually make myself uderstood.
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Why use lot letter when few letter do trick
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What will you do with all the time you saved by using fewer letters?
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Bild smllr kbd
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Haha ! I see
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Check out a book called 'Ella Minnow Pea'.
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This is super cool; nice work! I, for one, would never be able to use it, however. I've tried to come up with a way to go from 42 keys to fewer and I just can't come up with a good way to do so without really compromising.
For example, I've tried key combos like o+p to emit backspace, l+; to send ', etc. and those key combinations inevitably end up being part of a word I type and things get frustrating (like typing stop which ends up being just s because op triggered backspace).
I'm stuck at 42 and I'm fine with that. :)
Post your layout when you're happy with it!
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The early combos PR has been merged into the QMK development branch. It has a tonne of useful features not the least of which is per combo timings. I've found 15-20ms works well for common finger rolls.
This board uses ZMK, which also has a good combos implementation.
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You're not the first to mention ZMK; worth a look, thanks!
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As someone that now uses ZMK with a 36 key layout, 3 key combos are the only way I’ve made it work. I haven’t had a roll issue yet. Sometimes I mistime hitting all three so I end up with gibberish, but much more preferable to dropped letters. And since the combo keys can overlap, lots of room for them. I only use about 4 currently. Most stuff is just on layers. That’s worked pretty well for me.
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I haven't tried 3-key combos; will take a look. Thanks!
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It is the future.
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Cute board! One day I’ll be brave enough to combo alphas
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It takes getting used to that's for sure. I don't know how the artsey folks do it.
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Love it
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Best keyboard ever
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nightmare material! in all seriousness, I'm just not brave/disciplined enough to try to learn how to type on something like this. 60-80 key range is my sweet spot.
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Like all idiosyncrasies, this didn't happen overnight. My first mechanical keyboard was a Tofu and my first split a Levinson. I then got a Sofle, then a Corne and then a Ferris. After that, I started designing my own keyboards.
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I've used an ergodox for about 5 years, and have an ergodash on its way. We'll see what my next step is. The sofle seems like a logical transition from there.
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I'm at the sofle step, just starting. Previous boards were tkl and 75% (vortex race). I had hoped that sofle would be end game, but I think when I'm used to it, I'll think that there are too many keys and could have fewer.
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Well, this bodes poorly for me then. I'm planning to start using a dactyl manuform corne with two extra thumb keys and two extra keys on the ring and index fingers, but it's still quite a small board, I'm not sure how much shrinking room I'll have
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Do you have a link to that board?
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There are a lot of (open source) ergonomic keyboards out there now, so plenty of directions to go in. Fewer keys mean less stretching and make it easier to find home. I also found a perverse satisfaction in optimising my keymap. But there are also downsides to smol keebs. Anything that needs another peripheral (eg, games, or graphics or CAD software) become very awkward.
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I applaud your audacity. So nice. The finger travel gives me chills.
Have you considered adapting it to a dactyl-manuform-style chassis? Not asking because I’m considering your creation (I don’t think I can handle a layout other than QWERTY). You’re someone who’s obviously dedicated to similar ergonomics as me, so I’m curious what your opinion is. The thumbs in particular, for me, would be more comfortable I think.
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Thanks. I have thought about it, yes, but don't own a 3D printer. This repository (not my work) is still under heavy development, but should make it possible: https://github.com/geoffder/dometyl-keyboard.
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Again: so cool. I want to believe that I could adjust to those 30 key locations, but it’s such a daunting task.
A lack of printer has held me back as well. I don’t think that my tendency to iterate through versions of projects would conform well with outsourcing the printing.
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looks nice, but severe. (i have 52 keys and use 48 all the time; you have 30 here.) what's your layout?
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I use two extra layers, homerow modtaps and lots and lots of combos.
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Where are the alphas located? Clearly there's just enough keys for the entire alphabet, but no matter the layout something has to be shuffled around. Curious what the ideal layout would be considering bigrams etc
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I have struggled to come up with an alpha-only base layer that I like enough to want to break in. While by no means ideal, I have been using a Colemak variation with the Z and J keys assigned to vertical bichords.
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Yusss
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Nice! Interesting that you ended up with thumb keys. I also ended up on split 30 key, but 3x5 on each side, no thumb keys. I found thumb keys uncomfortable due to thumb orientation which was only exasperated by high tenting angle.
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My focus was on trying to minimise the use of my pinkies rather than my thumbs. The choice of keys is borrowed from PJE's Hummingbird.
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Where's the battery on that diminutive darling?
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It is sandwiched between the nrfmicro and the PCB.
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The Midge is a bluetooth-only 30 key split keyboard with column splay and an aggressive pinkie stagger. And for the small number of people to whom this design appeals, it's even open source: https://github.com/jimmerricks/bugs/tree/master/pcbs/midge.
Love it! Looks a lot like a split Hummingbird.
I had the Hummingbird in mind when I designed it. The other main influence was Tapi's Architeuthis dux.
Yeah, definitely can see it. Nicely done!
Open source appeals to everyone - what better way to make sourcing parts easy, and view the design? The ability to collaboratively improve our designs appeals to more then a small number of people :)