Top: KBt RE: 66, Akko Mod 005 Middle: Zoom 65, Qazimodo Bottom: Vault 35, Daisy 40, mISO 34
Can't imagine using full spacebar again after tasting split spacebars and 40's. I'm never typing with 9 fingers again.
this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
115 points (98.3% liked)
Mechanical Keyboards
8873 readers
83 users here now
Are you addicted to the clicking sounds of your beautiful and impressive mechanical keyboard?
If so, this community is for you!
Here you can discuss everything about mechanical keyboards (and only mechanical keyboards).
Banner by Jay Zhang on Unsplash
founded 4 years ago
Tell me more. What do you mean by 9 fingers? Is one split a regular spacebar and the other a mod key?
Yes, you can bind something to the other spacebar. Shift, a FN key, backspace, enter, a letter, whatever you want. Normally you would have 8 fingers on the alpha cluster (the letters) and use a thumb for space thus using 9 digits (before someone comes after me for calling thumbs fingers lol). By splitting the space you effectively gain the ability to type with all your digits by giving each thumb a separate key. You can also split the space in more than two keys. Personally I quite like two keys per thumb.
But then you can’t double tap the space bar machine gun style. Jk, sounds smart. Which side do you usually leave for space? I imagine that gets significant more user than the other.
People usually use either their left or right thumb for space (some bring a finger down instead of using a thumb). Whatever side you are used to, you would keep space at in your split space layout. For me that is the right side. The other one is shift for me so it does also get a lot of use, but yes the right one gets used more frequently.
Qazimodo offends me every time I look at it. That 005 looks a lot like my drop entr
It’s honestly really useful having the three keys off to the right. You can just map them to macros or something.
Rational arguments do nothing to quell such emotional response. For the record, it offends me deeply as well.
This picture is very concerning due to the lack of letters and punctuation on some of these keyboards. One has "QAZ" in the wrong place, two more lack those letters entirely, and one has gone so far as to remove "L" too. What psychopath designed these?
Look up layers, each physical switch can be used for multiple keys.
For letters and punctuation though? Seriously? Like, okay, lesser used punctuation like carets, tildes, lesser/greater than, stuff like that seems reasonable to stick behind a layer. Letters though?
I write JavaScript on the tiny ones so I have to type a lot of () and {} and stuff. It took me a little while to get used to.
Also I have them mapped so that QAZ are Esc, Tab, Shift. So all letters are accounted for on layer 0.
chording (using multiple hotkeys to redefine the char set) requires retraining and mental overhead and can lead to errors. no thanks. I don't even like the superset buttons on laptops, fuck fn keys etc.
That psychopath would be me (for the pink one and the black one, the green one is a vault 35). If you want to have your eyes opened, the black one with the QAZ on the right has an interest check going on now.
I understand removing numpads for people who don't enter a lot of numbers since you have a second set, but removing things beyond that, I don't know, I don't get it. I don't even think I can give up my function row (f1-f12)
I can see using Fn+# for function. I’d keep F11 for the full screen shortcut though.
Excellent taste!
Thank you!
Could you share your keymap for the qaz boards? I'm curious to see what those look like
Here's the map I've been using for the past month or so. I use pretty much the same layout minus the macro keys on the Vault 35.
I also have used this unhinged map and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It's the default map that I wrote for the firmware.
And then I started trying out this gaming layer on the Vault last week. Still getting used to it.
So few f keys mapped :O
Have you looked into home row mods at all? I find them quite nice to use once you get used to them.
Edit: wtf is that second keymap LOL
That, my friend, is the keymap of the future.
I haven't tried home row mods, but I really should. I use a Mac most of the time, so most of the stuff I would do with F keys is just mapped to media controls on the third layer. I've barely even used any of the QAZ boards on Windows since I pretty much only use W for gaming.
Thanks a bunch for sharing :)
Aesthetically they look great. But my wrists hurt from carpal tunnel syndrome just looking at them. Especially the small ones.
Aren't they uncomfortable to use?
I've never found them uncomfortable, but I'm pretty small so maybe that helps.
As someone who uses a 40s keyboard (no numbers row, kinda similar to the bottom middle keyboard in OP's pic): my wrist pain that I got from typing 4-6 hours a day was gone once I started using them, because they're compact and I don't have to move my hands/wrists at all. When I type with a full-sized keyboard, I have to move my wrist when I want to type numbers, for example. Now I can type for 8+ hours a day without worrying about pain.
Of course, keyboards are all personal preference! That's why I love the mech keyboard community, seeing all the different layouts and shapes people tailor to use for themselves.
Scale for these is sometimes hard to give in pictures. Their use case is also important, as generally, you’re not typing a novel with these.
I got a few friends who work in IT like me who have keyboards line these. I wouldn't last an hour using those for daily programming.
So far my favorite keyboard for work has been the Microsoft Sculpt ergonomic keyboard. I haven't had any other keyboard match it's comfort.
They discontinued it but Lenovo now has a similar one.
They're not very good for gaming though. And the mouse is usually pretty lousy in terms of DPI.
Oh, the mechanical keyboard hobby has a rabbit hole for damn near every preference you've ever idly entertained for even a moment. There's an antire category of boards "Alice or Arisu" that does a similar split, though only a few have any slope along the left-to-right axis.
Then here on lemmy there's !ergomechkeyboards@lemmy.world which is a little corner of the ergo community. They are NOT fucking around with their typing devices.
So about gaming… A couple weeks ago I had a dream that I was gaming and my friend told me I was playing poorly because of my keyboard so then we got in a fight. I usually use a 65% for gaming but last week someone convinced me I could use the Vault 35 (green one on the bottom left) so I tried it last week. It went okay after I got everything mapped the way I wanted but then at one point I accidentally turned off my gaming layer and the friend who I got in a fight with in the dream started to get annoyed so I pretended my game was messing up. Then I came clean the next day and he said "fuck you".
Moral of the story is I'm going to continue gaming on the 35%.
KBt RE: 66
When you want OG Mac (and HHKB) on the left, but an 8u equivalent on the right.
What are we looking at for switches and keycaps?
It's got lubed KTT Strawberries in it right now. I was going to go with North Poles but I could not get them to fit so I put those in the Mod 005. The caps on the KBt are Drop Dasher which I fell in love with after watching Severance.
Dasher SA, nice, but pricey