awesome-mechanical-keyboard VS splitKbCompare

You should build something you would want for yourself no? Have a look here for some options: https://github.com/BenRoe/awesome-mechanical-keyboard

I have found two different GitHub repos that have a database of open-source mech keyboards. Most have plate files available as well, I’d start there.

I'm very late to this party, but here's an amazing list of buildable keyboards[0], specifically linked are the split ones (like Ergodox).

Most of these today run QMK and specifically the Configurator[1].

I recommend most people stay away from the Ergodox unless your hands are larger and have a specific reach. While a great keyboard back in 2012-2015, the thumb cluster is outside of comfortable for most people and there have been a lot of improvements in this area over the years.

If building a keyboard yourself isn't your thing, I highly recommend the keyboard.io crew.

[0] https://github.com/BenRoe/awesome-mechanical-keyboard/blob/m...

[1] https://config.qmk.fm/#/hotdox/LAYOUT_ergodox

I'm in the middle of designing my own ergonomic split keyboard. The way I do it is to put my hand over a sheet of paper and curl up my fingers like I would if I were to use a keyboard efficiently, then I draw where the fingers are in the home position. I check the location where my thumb is most relaxed as that will be the location for the spacebar (on one hand). Then I check and draw in the arc of my thumb as it moves with little or no strain and mark off the other thumb keys that will be comfortable to use. (My thumb can with relative ease cover 4 keys from under my middle finger and out, but not as far out as e.g. the Moonlander). Next I check where I can most comfortably move my pinky, which seems to be in a diamond shape. Next, can I move the middle finger both 1 key up and 1 down or should I go for 2 keys for the ring finger and therefore shift the column a bit? For the index finger I also check what stagger the second (inner) index column needs, and I can only comfortably hit 2 of those so I focus on getting good positions for them. I then draw the location of the keys with the amazing ergogen software, and printed it first on paper to test. Next I bought some sample choc key switches and I use their footprint in ergogen, exported to kicad pcb and made a color printout. I cellotaped the printout to about 3mm of cardboard and made through holes with a pin and mounted the keys and tested a real physical model. To get mm precision I needed to do one iteration as the tenting and height of the keys will affect what's most comfortable. This is where I am at right now. I still need to draw the rest of the PCB. From my second iteration I can see that there are a few keyboards that closely match my thumbfan position, but only 1 that has a vaguely similar pinky cluster. Since I also want low profile keys it looks like the best option is to continue to make my own design. But if you are in luck and you know what you're looking for you might be able to find something that closely matches your specs in a previous design. There is a pretty large list here https://github.com/BenRoe/awesome-mechanical-keyboard/blob/master/docs/README.md GL

here's a list of keyboard builds you can check out.

This GitHub repo is a good source to find tutorials and open source projects https://github.com/BenRoe/awesome-mechanical-keyboard

There’s a whole bunch of small boards listed here — https://github.com/BenRoe/awesome-mechanical-keyboard/blob/master/docs/README.md — but most are one-off or small runs. The only commercial 36ish-key ones I can think of right away are split keyboards:

Many of these are pro-micro based: https://keebfolio.netlify.app/

The tool is built in an unusual fashion - the images are in an adobe Illustrator file, and then exported as pngs for the separate layers. I suspect you can open the source files in AI and pull out the vectors your after. Here's the repo: https://github.com/jhelvy/splitKbCompare

I used a Kinesis Advantage as my main keyboard for 10 years. A few years ago I got an Ergodox EZ, but just couldn't get into it. I've been using a NiZ Atom68 as my main keyboard for over a year now and am rather happy with it. I have plans to build and try

These days I think that there are so many good community designed keyboards [0] that it behooves anyone who has the notion they'd like something better than a standard layout keyboard to do a bit of research and testing. For any keyboard layout it is fairly trivial to make a printout and stick it to your desk to get an impression of how it fits your hand size/shape and your preferred resting/neutral position.

Recently I've found Ben Vallack [1] to be an excellent resource on keyboard customization and his philosophy echoes my own, though he shows much more dedication to the craft and exploration of keyboarding than I could ever hope or wish to. He has an excellent series on designing and making your own keyboard [2], as well as well thought out explanations and explorations of creating and learning personalized keyboard layouts [3][4]. His more general explorations of usability in computing and beyond have been inspiring as well [5].

  0: https://github.com/jhelvy/splitKbCompare

Try some split layouts on paper to get an idea https://github.com/jhelvy/splitKbCompare

alright, i've informed jhelvy (via github issue) about my plan to move his useful tool to a wiki entry. so let us wait for some days before someone make the thread about keymap and stuff.

The keyboard will also be added to the split keyboard layout comparison site. It's been added in the queue.

Hi again, just wanted to update you that I've opened and issue to add Manibus to the splitKbComparison website: https://github.com/jhelvy/splitKbCompare/issues/60