Bayleaf · Building a low-profile wireless split keyboard

Could you share the name of the battery you used?

I have been working on a very similar build.

One feature I decided was a requirement is holding me up. I really want pogo pins on the sides of the keyboards, so that they magnetically attach and the left will charge the right.

How do you charge the left and the right since they require separate cables?

Fantastically beautiful keyboard!

Keyboards are such a good hobby project. The scope is comparatively small, yet within that scope you get in contact with many different and highly interesting subjects and challenges. And you can more or less pick and choose, which ones you engage with (wireless vs wired, soldering vs hand-wired, custom firmware vs. ZMK/QMK, split vs. traditional).

Nice write-up.

For something so thin, your soldering woes aren't surprising. The standard way to manage that would have been to solder everything in one go on a hot plate (reflow soldering).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QarizoUnRfk

Bravo! You have elevated a honed tool to a truly engaging artifact! I think the large challenge in design is mitigating the breaking point between ruthless efficiency and endearing novelty.

I picked up a Let's Split v2[0] when it came out years ago and never soldered it up.. maybe it's time!

[0]https://shop.beekeeb.com/product/lets-split-v2-keyboard-pcb-...

This is beautiful. I'm a "Let's Split" style keyboarder as well so this made me giddy! There's a distinct lack of solid cases out there for this layout style.

You mention possibly mass producing the next round. Please add a notify email list or something. I'd be all over this.

Wow, it looks amazing!

I needed an enclosure for a project recently and went with modifying a stock ABS enclosure - but I'd love to use machined aluminium! You mentioned you're in the EU - did PCBway deliver from the US, or from closer to home? Also, how much did the enclosure cost please?

What parametric CAD tool did you use? Thanks!

Yes. Agreed.

Also, should you prioritize ergonomics over function or form, the Kinesis Advantage 360 Professional

Another opinion:

I want this keyboard to put on a bookshelf and never use, haha. It is really nice looking. It sounds like it was an incredible learning experience and making something so polished and professional looking is a real accomplishment. But low profile, no pads, ortho layout, and no tenting… my eyes ache for the beauty of the thing but my hands just ache.

But anyway, ergonomics are personal so I can’t really judge.

My take is that finger muscle are really different from person to person, to a degree that can be surprising.

I might be at the other extreme end, but even typing on glass doesn't bother me much, and laptop keyboards are a good compromise to have just enough travel and not too much.

I tried a nuphy low profile and it was tiring after a while. The thinkpad standalone trackpoint keyboard has been my go to for a while, and tgis keyboard also looks great to me.

>> Can I buy this keyboard? > Negative, this singular prototype is not for sale.

:sobbing:

I hope someone builds / sells this! Instant buy for me, if so.

To reduce mouse hand travel I got a roller mouse pro slim about 6 months ago. Not great for fine motor tasks but exceptional for other general uses. Alleviated a lot of pain in my hands and fingers.

I use this with a small slim keychron keyboard and with a kinesis advantage 360.

The roller seems to be getting a bit sticky after 6 months of heavy use and transporting it between work and home. Nonetheless, would get another in a heartbeat.

Perhaps worth a look?

I had all those issues too, until I remembered my high school typing class where the teacher would slap our wrists with a ruler if they were resting. Now I lift my wrists like I was taught, and use non-split keyboards with better results than I used to get with splits.

There is always Glove80, choc switches have very little travel.

Partly because they're a niche product and making legended keycaps is more expensive, and partially because ergo layouts are so varied that it's hard to accommodate everyone. Especially if the keycap profile has different shapes for each row so they're not entirely interchangeable.

There are a few low-profile legended keycap sets around but they typically only cover the "top" layer, which is the easiest to remember anyway. If you want legends which show every function of every key you'd have to get them custom laser etched to match your personal keymap.

Just friction. All it takes is commitment to a particular keymap and few minutes on a laser engraver, but that commitment is not insignificant to builders.

You can buy ZSA split keyboards with labels on the keycaps. Its great while you are still learning to type on these rather exotic keyboards. As you get more proficient, you start to rely more and more on the "central" keys (using layers toggles to put, say arrow keys on the home row). Muscle-memory is often more than enough.

That said, I have kept the number row labelled. These keys are not obscured by your hands and they can give you the necessary frame of reference. The ideal trade-off for me.

when you have so few keys, there are none that you don't use often. When you customize your layout, you have keys that don't really correspond to caps anyway, and you may want to mess around with their values as you get used to it. Typed from my Iris with key caps from an Apple Extended Keyboard II that look nice and don't really tell the whole story for each key they're on.

All ergonomic mech keyboards running QMK/ZMK firmware are programmable and most users prefer their custom key/layer mapping over defaults.

Realistically you've got about 50 or so keys and you are using all of them all the time, so you're not really forgetting where anything is. Many also customize where symbols, media keys, etc., are - so they are positioned where it makes most sense to you. Outside of maybe a 2 week learning period I haven't needed to look up where a key is at all

The other thing is that many keys will have multiple functions - so what do you print on them? e.g. my j key also doubles as # and the down key. Some are maybe even more frequently used key combinations, e.g. I have a ``` and a => key

When I forget where I've stashed a specific symbol or similar I just check the Via QMK configuration tool, similar to when you're trying to learn the shortcut keys for a piece of software. Eventually it's muscle-memory, but it's nice to have a reference guide whilst you're building it.

I have the ultimate hackers keyboard (silly name, I know)

It's a really good split keyboard with symbols printed (optional).

https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/