A $14 “ergo” keyboard from surplus parts | Hacker News Reader

A $14 “ergo” keyboard from surplus parts

thecraftstudio.com

23 pointsp93220 comments

Well that's literally a hack.

On OS X though, https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ will, among many other features, share the state of modifier keys between keyboards. That way you don't need to get out the hack saw.

I'm not sure how much keeping your wrists straight helps with RSI. When people thought it carpel tunnel syndrome the idea was to keep your wrists straight. The real problem seems to be the cheap rubber dome or scissor switches that only activate when you bottom out the keys.

Varies from person to person.

In my case switching from a regular mechanical to a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 at home and work completely relieved all the issues I was having with wrists and forearm pain.

Easily the best 100 quid I ever spent (for the pair).

I did a radical switch to an Alphagrip keyboard, which is still membrane switches (as far as I can tell). No more random twinges of pain. The primary difference is that I no longer wrest my wrists on anything (even a gel type pad), but it could also be that I don't use as much force to activate the keys when my fingers are already there.

This "game controller"?

http://www.amazon.com/iGrip-Ergonomic-Keyboard-by-AlphaGrip/...

How effective are you with it? Looks like a bit of a learning curve.

Yep, that's the one! I can get around ~60wpm (100wpm on a qwerty keyboard) with normal text and passable at programming. Took about a month of daily typing lessons to get that fast and I still need a regular keyboard around for annoying key combos.

A more expensive but less error prone and a better looking solution would be extending the link between this split keyboard http://www.amazon.com/Kinesis-Freestyle-Solo-Ergonomic-Keybo... I am frustrated with mine that I can't place the halves wider and was considering something similar.

The Matias Ergo Pro uses a standard TRRS connector between its two halves. You can buy essentially any length on <insert your favorite commodity cable dealer here>.

Is there someone who sells assembled open hardware ergodox or variant keyboards already? You can DIY but my time is limited. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ5qWBOG8Oo

Massdrop.com often has a pre-built option for their ergodox sales. (You do pay a premium for that service, though)

There's currently an Indiegogo campaign going on for pre-assembled Ergodoxes [1]. I'm not really comfortable with early-stage hardware crowdfunding, so I'll still be sourcing and building my own.

[1] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ergodox-ez-an-incredible-...

Datahand are also an alternative to traditional keyboards: http://octopup.org/computer/datahand

You can't buy one new anymore, you might be able to find one on eBay or something.

I'm a little late to jump in but I've been watching this project with interest over the past couple of years:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=41422.25

It's not complete yet, but most of the pieces are there.

I was thinking "ergo" was like, I have hands, "ergo" I have a keyboard. And now I feel silly.

This would be a good way to mount an ergodox.

$100 says we'll see this on Kickstarter within the month.

Seems unlikely. This page is at least 16 years old.

This guy is a bit much between the hair, the kneeling chair, and the custom keyboard. And yet the world is undoubtedly better off for having people like him around, tinkering.

Hooray!

You are taking potshots at the way he looks? Congrats, you are a bullying asshole.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com