ergogen VS ErgoWarp

ergogen online

If you decide to go down this rabbit hole (which is a totally doable thing, by the way, as the others have already noted), then you might want to look into Ergogen. To be fair, it won't save you from KiCAD, but it could make the journey a bit easier.

Contractual PSA: if you're willing to get your hands dirty, you could try Ergogen (tool, Discord). There might already be a pretty close starting point that you only need to modify a bit if you ask around. Alternatively, there might be people in the server who'd be willing to do a commission - some are fucking machines when it comes to curning out great designs one after the other...

Howdy y'all! 👋 Ergogen, the ergonomic keyboard layout generator app, recently hit v4! I've been enjoying using this tool for a while now, so I decided to collect everything I've learned into a series of step-by-step articles outlining the basics of Ergonomic keyboard PCB creation.

Hey thanks! Ergogen made this entire project super approachable. Also thanks for being so quick to fix #86

Doing more research I couldn't find anything that really fit what I was looking for. At this point I decided to build my own keyboard, from the design of the PCB to the 3D model of the chassis. I used Ergogen to get the layout and outline of the plate, KiCad for the PCB, Fusion 360 for the chassis, and QMK for the firmware. All in all it took me probably 2 to 3 months of work in my spare time (I had next to no "Electronic Engineering" experience and had hardly used CAD before) from the idea to having the thing to type on. I learned a lot, and already have a list of things I wish I had done differently for V2 😅.

If you can't find one you like you can also design your own. I don't advice for your first build though. Perhaps your second. Ergogen and Kicad are vital tools for this. https://ergogen.xyz/

Sorry, forgot the link.

Another option would be designing the layout yourself with http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/ and https://kbplate.ai03.com/ or maybe https://ergogen.xyz/

I tried to PCB design and it's a harsh learning curve without electronics knowledge. I'm trying to do mine with Ergogen

A Dactyl handles some of the press angle, and splay is the term to describe pinky (and other fingers) outward motion angles on the horizontal plane. I have yet to see a keyboard implement both besides the really interesting ErgoWarp. https://github.com/pseudoku/ErgoWarp/blob/master/Photo/Proto6.jpg

The ErgoWarp has an arch in the x-direction.

I am intrigued by the thoughtfulness behind https://github.com/pseudoku/ErgoWarp. Like, enough that I'm tempted to build one. But it looks like a PITA to build, and even more so to get used to, and project looks dead... Has anyone tried one and would you share your experience?

The ErgoWarp has finger joint lengths as parameters. But it seems to me to be numerically fragile, and even after being based on hand measurements and some kind of fancy interpolation, it still has a section for tweaks. That means the fancy math isn't quite good enough to directly generate a perfect keyboard!

The ErgoWarp has a slight negative horizontal curvature. It's also the only one I've seen where you shave down your keyswitches and keycaps so you can fit more. I want to explore that.

This diagram would place the ErgoWrap on the seabed.

ErgoWarp

https://github.com/pseudoku/ErgoWarp probably, but this project looks to be dead.

Ergowarp, adjusted to my hands