All I want is a low profile, wireless ergodox, with an aluminum chassis. I would willingly pay $500+ for such a keyboard, but it just doesn’t exist.
With DSA keycaps (the shortest possible one) the total height is 29mm (including rubber feet).
You can see the details of the earlier laser cut prototype here (and subscribe to the mailing list for updates): https://www.xudongz.com/blog/2020/ergoblue/. The details of the aluminum version will be announced when the group buy is officially announced.
You can find also my contact information on my homepage for questions and feedback.
What's a controller? It sounds like some sort of combined battery pack/bluetooth adapter... How much extra desk space does it take? Do you have photos of that?
Also re: battery life, I assume the reason why having a "central" half reduces battery life is the same as the first version. Why can't the computer keep track of modifiers/layers? If you have two keyboards plugged in, you can press shift on one and type on the other and you'll get capital letters.
Is the group buy just for parts or is it for (partially) assembled keyboards? I'm not a DIY eletronics sort, both from an equipment and know-how perspective.
- The dongle is reasonably small. If you're traveling with it, you can toss it in your bag with a battery pack and it acts as a Bluetooth keyboard (for your phone/tablet/laptop/etc). You can plug it into your desktop, in which case it acts as a USB keyboard in addition to Bluetooth for other devices (phone/etc)
- Modifiers work fine but layers don't because some software still needs to maintain state. For example you might have the layer switch key on the left but want the next key to be on the new layer on the right. Theoretically one can do this with custom software on the computer though an external controller/dongle is straightforward and doesn't need to account for OS/platform differences. It also lets you connect to multiple devices simultaneous via Bluetooth.
- There's an option for hot swap switch sockets, in which assembly is putting the case together, soldering some header pins, and popping in the switches. There will be an assembly service for people who just don't want to do it but the process itself has been thoroughly optimized that it shouldn't be difficult.
So basically all the smarts so to speak are in the dongle, which you reprogram, etc?
I was recently in the market for a Filco Majestouch Minila keyboard. I was very scared off by a few reviews which said that bluetooth just stopped working after a while. Is $500 worth it if it could break after a year? Maybe if it was under warranty. Anyway I opted for the wired version.
Never mind my Logitech MX Master 2 mouse which I could never get to work using Bluetooth, and even disconnected all the time with the USB receiver.
I guess this is why you don't really see many attempts.
But maybe something like this will do the trick?
I use the Redox Wireless [1], maybe check that one out? The receiver has an incredibly small range though, and it's not low profile unfortunately...