I think it looks cool at least and I learnt lots of skills while doing it!

I think it looks cool at least and I learnt lots of skills while doing it!

Hey all, My name is David. I'm a Canadian primary care doctor who used to have a chronic pain practice. I built a concave split ergonomic keyboard I'm launching June 2nd. You can find it at taiko.taikohub.com. If you sign up for the waitlist now, you can get a discount on top of the promotional launch price.

I posted on here maybe like 4-5 months ago about my progress with the TAIKO-01 if you're thinking this sounds familiar.

1. How this keybord started

A bit about me. I developed carpal tunnel syndrome and wrist tendinosis back in 2020, tried a bunch of things like physio, wrist brace, etc that helped but didn't fix my problems. I ended up looking into workplace ergonomics and made my own split dactyl-like keyboard. By sheer coincidence, I ended up making keyboards for people for the past 4 years. I've talked to a ton of awesome users over those years, made a ton of iterations. I quit my job this year to create the TAIKO-01 based on their feedback.

2. Updates for the last 4-5 months

Since the last update 4-5 months ago, I did a full redesign of the keyboard. This was to optimize design for manufacturability. But now it's finally done, so everything is ready for injection molding. Since I've been doing this for years, you wouldn't think it'd take this long. But it ended up taking an entire year 😱. It's humbling how hard it is going from 3D printing to injection molding.

3. What's special about this keyboard

You might've seen split concave keyboards like Kinesis Advantage, Glove80. Here's how the TAIKO-01 is different:

1. It's more compact, which makes it easier to transport.
2. It has a thumb cluster that's easier to reach because it's oriented at a downward angle. This lets you use thumb abduction instead of thumb extension, clarified by this diagram. Thumb abduction is much more ergonomic than thumb extension, which is what happens with Kinesis Advantage, Moonlander and Glove80. This is because thumb abduction puts you in a handshake position.
3. Layer keys (LOWER and RAISE) are offset at a lower height compared to other keys on the thumb cluster so you won't accidentally hit it. Note that layer keys let you toggle or temporarily switch to a different keyboard layout.
4. It's hotswappable. It's also QMK compatible.
5. If you want to see a side by side comparison with the Kinesis Advantage, I made a quick video here: https://youtube.com/shorts/GId4orK1fn0

4. The ultimate goal

But it's one thing to be confident from anecdotal evidence and another to be confident from clinical evidence. The goal is to save enough from sales to do a clinical study so we know how split concave keyboards helps people and what exactly it helps with (carpal tunnel, wrist tendinosis, de Quervains, epicondylitis, etc). From user feedback (n>120), there seems to be strong feedback it helps people with their wrist/hand/elbow pain. It's just what exactly it helps and under what circumstances it helps (used with standing desk, augmented with physio, etc) is muddled.

If you're interested, please check out taiko.taikohub.com.

Hey Fediverse,

I’ve been a long-time fan of split keyboards, but I always hated two things: the annoying bridge cables (TRRS) between the halves, and the bulky 3D-printed/acrylic cases if you wanted to go wireless.

I wanted a clean, zero-cable desk setup but with the premium feel of a custom CNC mechanical board. So, I spent the last few months developing this project: Elytra.

Here are the specs I managed to hit:

100% Truly Wireless: Powered by ZMK. No wires to the PC, no wires between the halves.

Ultralight CNC Aluminum: To keep it travel-friendly, we applied a biomimetic cutout design on the underside. The whole full-metal chassis weighs only 420g (0.93 lbs).

Low Profile: Designed for better posture without needing massive wrist rests.

I just got the website up and running for early pre-orders: https://elimkeys.com/

I'm currently working with my manufacturing partner to refine the hardware tolerances and tweaking the ZMK firmware. Since this community knows ergonomic boards better than anyone, I would absolutely love your raw feedback on the layout, design, or any questions about the manufacturing process.

Cheers!

Blacked out Charybdis

Specs

• Charybdis MK2 by Bastard Keyboards
• Case: Prusament Galaxy Black PLA
• Switches: MX Linear (Gateron yellow)
• Keycaps: Ducky Blank Black MDA Profile Singleshot PBT
• Trackball: SANWA 34mm/1.34in Black
• Bearings: MR63 roller bearings
• TRRS cable: UGREEN 3.5mm Braided 4-Pole TRRS Hi-Fi Stereo Jack Shielded Male to Male AUX Cord

Thoughts

The two main features that attracted me to the Charybdis were its curved keywell and integrated trackball. But while the trackball is very useful compared to using a separate standalone trackball device, I definitely understand why people often dislike thumb-operated trackballs like this. The way the Charybdis is designed to be used is with the fingers in the home row position and thumbs alternating between the thumb cluster keys and operating the trackball as needed. The problem there is that during long sessions of a pointer-heavy task, operating this trackball with my thumb as designed makes my right forearm sore. For whatever biomechanical reason, operating a trackball with my fingers is just much more comfortable than doing so with my thumb. I can mitigate this issue on the Charybdis a bit by simply adjusting my hand position on the keyboard only during pointer-heavy tasks.

When it comes to key-heavy tasks (e.g. writing code, drafting email), I use the keyboard as designed, like the mock-up above. Of course, during these key-heavy tasks, I do occasionally need to make a small movement with the trackball, so I can just move my thumb over onto the trackball as needed. For small occasional pointer adjustments like this, operating the trackball with my thumb is no problem.

But during pointer-heavy tasks (e.g. photo editing, web browsing), I move my right hand down so that my middle finger now rests on the trackball and my index finger and thumb operate the thumb cluster, like the mock-up above. When in this position, my left hand handles all the clicking, modifier keys (control, shift, etc.), and most of the occasional alpha keys that I need to press. Just like how I occasionally need to make small pointer adjustments during a key-heavy task, I do occasionally need to briefly adjust my hand into the normal home row typing position during pointer-heavy tasks.

This concept of moving my right hand between these two positions is still much better than the more traditional method of moving my hand between a keyboard and separate mouse/trackball. With a separate mouse/trackball, I have to move my entire arm several centimeters to the side each time I want to go between pointing/typing. But with the Charybdis, alternating between my two different hand positions is just a matter of moving my fingers down a couple of centimeters. This takes less time, and more importantly, less effort.

How do you like to bind your arrow keys, and why?

Ergo boards don't typically have dedicated arrow clusters, so we're left to bind them on some alternate layers one way or another.

Here are two prevalent layouts, along with some initial thoughts:

Homerow

Binding them linearly to a homerow on some layer.

Pros

• Arrows directly underneath your fingertips

Cons

• Less intuitive
• Pinky may be weaker when going right repeatedly

Pyramid

Bind arrows in a traditional pyramid shape, likely based on a homerow as well.

Pros

• Familiar layout
• Extra key available for pinky, e.g. a tab might be handy

Cons

• Finger movement required for up arrow
• Takes space on the row above, which might matter if you'd like to have a full row of other things there

Post pic is original art by the author, public domain, commission queue is already full.

Started having some pain after days of work + evenings of gaming, so I decided to get an ergonomic keyboard.

• Board: Corne Choc wireless from Typeractive
• Switches: Ambients Silent Choc Switches 20 g linear Nocturnal from lowprokb
• Keycaps: MBK Low Profile PBT from lowprokb
• Controllers: Supermini NRF52840 from Aliexpress
• Tenting: Magsafe metal rings and phone holders from Aliexpress
• Solar panels: Ixolar panels that are nearly the exact same size as the keyboard controllers from Digikey
• Solar harverters: Solar harvester for Li-ion batteries on Tindie

It tents:

It sticks together:

All thanks to Magsafe rings and small magnets on the bottom:

And if I ever want to Switch up the color scheme:

This is an expensive, but worthwhile upgrade. The trackballs now move incredibly smoothly with negligible static friction (stiction). All that this upgrade required was six Bosch ball transfer units (BTUs), two 3D printed trackball holders, two static bearings, and a bit of glue. It is definitely louder than the stock configuration with only static bearings, but not as bad I had been expecting based on comments I had read online. As mentioned, it was rather expensive, costing me about 100€ after shipping for the six BTUs alone. But reading comments from other users who have done similar upgrades, it is well worth the extra cost (over cheaper BTU models) for something that you use daily. Printing the trackball holders (which were modeled by a fellow user) was also extremely simple. Printing certain Svalboard components requires a tightly calibrated printer, but the trackball holders do not. I was able to print these after dusting off an Ender 3 that has been sitting unused on a shelf for a couple years.

• BTU used: Bosch Rexroth R053010810 Ball Transfer Unit Ball Transfer Unit Ku-B8-Ofk
• Public Onshape repo for the trackball holder 3D model: Svalboard Open Trackball BTU HACKING - PMW3360/3389 - 2025-09-10
• Stabilizer bearing: 1/8-inch Ceramic Bearing Balls ZrO2 Zirconium Oxide Ball G5

After working on it for more than a year, I'm starting to see the finish line of this project. So it seemed like a good time to share an update and some renders on my GitHub development branch. If I don't hit any major snags, I expect to build the first prototypes in March or April and publish the final design and a build guide later this spring.

How are you guys, gals and catpeople doing this? Are you using Sway or Hyprland for this? Anyone else using udev already?

Recently assembled my first split keyboard - keycaps are from Yuzu Keycaps, and the case is 3D printed in wood PLA and then sanded, stained, and varnished.

PCB ordered from https://fingerpunch.xyz/

Maybe slightly off topic, but does anyone know anything about any DIY ergo mice projects?

Curious if anyone else has reached out to frame.work about the idea for a more ergonomic option on the keyboard & touchpad deck? I really hate switching to standard QWERTY on my surface device provided by work, and I'd be very interested in a better option.

They already offer some international options with more keys on the 13, so I don't see why a modified layout would pose any further challenge. Let alone on the 16 with the modular deck

Just wanted to share a render for a keyboard I'm making. It's coming end of this year. I didn't show it in the pictures, but it would have legends on the keycaps. I've used dactyls and dactyl-likes before and I've always wanted one that feels solid with high quality injection molded cases instead of the 3D printed ones.

Join the waitlist here: https://taiko.taikohub.com/

Our discord is here: https://discord.gg/ByZyyZDb

Materials: Injection molded ASA plastic.

Target price: ~$350.

Wired/Wireless: The product would come wired. Wireless module to come afterwards.

Hotswappable

I am looking to buy my first split keyboard. My first option was the zsa voyager and I was going to buy it until I stumbled on the whole world of split keyboards and now I can’t make up my mind. I have no experience in soldering or anything and I would prefer to get it fully assembled but if it’s way cheaper to get a kit I guess I can learn but I’m scared to mess it up. I’ll be ordering it to France so I’m looking to get the keyboard with shipping and taxes and duties for a maximum budget of 300-350€. There are so many options and websites and I don’t know which one to go for and which will be worth it. I know the quality of the voyager is the best but I’m okay with not having the greatest quality if it’s a good keyboard. Let me know if you have any advice for me since I really need the help and hoping to order the keyboard soon.

I’ve been looking at the voyager for close to a year now and I chose to order it. But now that I’m about to order it, I’m considering maybe getting a corne keyboard instead. This will be my first ever split keyboard and I’m very excited to get it and start the journey and I know a Corne has less keys which will make the switch even harder but I’m up for it. Now I just want some advice if anyone has tried both and can help me make the decision easier. I just found that having 3 thumb keys on the corne instead of 2 on the voyager would make things easier to navigate but feel free to correct me if that’s not the case. Any information can help!

My daily driver setup. Using clamps like this allows me to mount to the chair without having to drill into it (or any other permanent modification like that). My biggest complaint about this setup is the USB cable reaching from the chair to the computer. I always need to be aware of where the cable is when rotating the chair and whatnot.

• Svalboard Lightly with 52mm trackballs
• Herman Miller Embody
• SMALLRIG magic arms and crab-claw clamps

• Kinesis Advantage360 Professional
• Kensington SlimBlade Pro

Modifications:

• I remapped the Kinesis to Colemak layout, both in the firmware and by just swapping around the physical key caps. I do not necessarily mind the fact that the lighter home row keys are now out of place.
• I used a tiny dab of hot glue on each half of the Kinesis to add tactile homing bumps
• On the function layer of the Kinesis, I set the T, S, and R keys to left click, middle click, and right click (respectively). I do not use the buttons on the Kensington at all; I just make use of its trackball for pointing/scrolling, then click with the Kinesis
• I tented the Kensington using a double magnetic ring phone stand. I also placed a sheet of scrap metal under the desk mat to help keep the magnetic stand in place

I tend to have a very pointer-heavy workflow, so it is important to me to have an efficient pointing solution. Because of that, I do prefer my Svalboard with its integrated trackballs situated just millimeters away. But this is a sufficient secondary setup that has the bonus of being wireless.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/37481146

I'm making a custom keyboard with a Raspberry Pi Pico as the MCU, and i don't understand what all the different pins are for and how they should be wired up to my key matrix and trackpoint.

My current understanding is that GPIO are normal pins that can be wired to the rows and columns, but what of VBUS, VSYS, 3V3, and all the others that aren't just GPIO or GND? And how should the ground pins be used here?

The schematic currently doesn't include the trackpoint because i'm planning to hand wire it and the MCU to the PCB, so i can put them under the PCB in the case and i don't have to try to fit them onto the board. Is there a better way to connect these that won't require adding a bunch of space to the board to fit the MCU?

Here's what the layout should look like when it's done, and what the schematic for the right half looks like now. I've seen Joe Scotto's tutorial on the subject.

I'm currently making a schematic for this keyboard in KiCad v7.0. The schematic has the power & backspace keys moved down near the thumb keys to use one fewer pin on the controller, hence the slightly messy wiring.

• What controller should i use for a keyboard like this? How many more pins will it need than just the 5 columns and 6 rows on each side?
• What USB connector ports should i use? What are the differences between one USB-C port and another?
• Do i need a controller for each part of the keyboard, or only for the part that plus into the computer?
• Where can i get KiCad files for a trackpoint so i can add that to the schematic and PCB?
• I've only ever owned one mechanical keyboard (Chouchou by dlip) and it doesn't look like it has any diodes. Do i need those or not?
• Can i hide the controller and ports in a case if i'm using low-profile switches and caps?

Thanks in advance.

I have made myself a wireless, 30-key keyboard, and have decided to make things more complicated by learning a new layout as well. This was my first time ordering PCBs and sourcing components locally, so am feeling a bit chuffed. I had to bolt everything down to a board, as the case snaps around the PCB, and was tight enough to start bowing the sides up, but this fix works and I'm happy with the aesthetic.

Check out my modified Hands Down Vibranium-f layout.

My current project is a "Writer Deck," a low-powered computer that boots directly to a text editor or word processor (RPi Zero booting to Wordgrinder, btw). Being the weirdo that I am, I also want to use this as an opportunity to try a split layout again, and see if I can get myself used to something other than the "Advanced Hunt and Peck" that I do now and that tops out at 60 or maaaaybe 70 wpm. The deasign I've come up with is a split monoblock based heavily on a Corne, but with a very modest split angle and the thumb cluster (1) shoved a bit farther under the hands and (2) built around 1.25u keys because they can be adapted to switch-stabilized 2.25u or 2.75u (see the green outlines). The whole thing fits in the Pok3r/GH60 footprint.

So, ergo-mech people, is this a completely silly layout? I have always felt that "literally never moving your hands" isn't necessarily as ergonomic for the average typist as has been promoted, and I do like a good nav cluster, but I also wonder if I've compromised too much to hit that footprint, especially with moving the thumb cluster away from the center. The intended use case will be much more prose (journaling and other creative writing) than code, so I'm less concerned about optimizing for programming. I've never had major RSI issues myself, just needing to switch from a mouse to a trackball for a little bit every year or two.

Like many of you, I've wrestled with the tap-hold dilemma: set a short TAPPING_TERM for quick holds at the cost of accidental activations, or lengthen it for more reliable tapping, which can make holds feel sluggish. While there are many clever settings to tweak, I often felt I had to significantly adapt my typing style to the algorithm, rather than the algorithm to me.

To explore a different approach, I'd like to share a QMK community module I've been working on called Predictive Tap-Hold (PTH). To predict whether a tap or a hold was intended, PTH analyzes event sequences, timing between presses, and which hand is used. For ambiguous cases, it relies on generated decision trees and evolved functions.

With the training dataset, these functions reached about 96% accuracy in distinguishing taps from holds. With another dataset, they still performed similarly. While that number might not sound ideal, it's important to know that the dataset included a wide variety of typing styles and required a lot of filtering (77,614 of 168,593 participant datasets were used). While better data will lead to future improvements, no prediction is flawless, and there will likely always be an adjustment period.

PTH is also highly configurable, which I hope makes it easy to handle edge cases and match your personal typing style. For instance, an Instant Hold feature allows the hold function (even LT) to activate the moment you press the key, which is useful for things like holding LCTL_T and using the scroll wheel to zoom without any delay.

The module is designed with ergonomics in mind. By default, when a key like RSFT_T(KC_H) from the right side is pressed, it will only choose hold if the next keypress comes from the other side and no third key is pressed. This can help prevent same-hand fatigue and make taps more reliable.

I've also aimed to make PTH compatible with other great QMK features like Combos and Tap Dance.

My hope is that this module might help make powerful setups like home-row mods feel more accessible and intuitive. It's now available as a QMK Community Module if you're willing to experiment. Thank you for checking it out, and I would genuinely appreciate any feedback you might have. If you run into any problems, I'd love a message or a report in the repository.

I have adapted so quickly to using 34 keys on my Re-gret, that it feels awkward going back to 46 keys on my Hillside. So, am now considering even fewer keys. Is anyone using a Hummingbird or Rufous? Anything similar in a wireless version? What has your experience been? Other suggestions?