netstat curl and git

PopOS is definitely a great first choice distribution. I would recommend Linux Mint over it for people coming from windows who wants something rock solid with a great community

I was at a similar place with colemak-dh plus a swap to ergo. Stuck at 60 wpm for a while. I stopped testing for a few months just typing for work and then did a test and hit 80WPM I think 60 shows good comfort and then just more time you’ll get faster

Linux Mint

Designed in Ergogen and KiCAD. Basically remade the Zilpzalp using the rufous Ergogen config then cut down the thumbs. Build the rest with jcmkk3’s great footprints and using the hummingbird matrix. Made firmware for ZMK but should also just work with standard hummingbird firmware. Lot’s of love to apfel, weteor, and PJE66 as well.

https://github.com/grassfedreeve/akohekohe

Yup all MJF I love the look and feel. Yours looks great, I like how light this came out though. Yup ZMK with Nice Nano’s 3.5 has pointer support and a great community member just released a driver for the PMW3610

Happy to answer as someone on the low key count side, simply put the benefit for me is comfort. Having a two key inner column reduces that awkward reach which is a pretty big improvement. I personally have pinkie pain so reducing pinkie keys completely down to just one key each lowers load and any reaches.

As noted you get rid of having dedicated keys as a side effect. By design those keys are low frequency or fit well with combos. Q and Z for example are super uncommon.

V is an almost a special case that works really well as a combo. V almost exclusively interacts with vowels, especially “e” and “i”. So with optimized layouts, it gets pushed to one of the worse positions on the consonant side. Usually top pinky or top inner.

The combo position is easier to reach and use over the pinkie or inner index. It is predictably preceded and followed by a vowel (or space), it is easy to keep a typing flow with the combo. (This V explanation is stolen and reworded from jcmkk3)

I’d say the same for / and quotes ring and middle move together and those combos are very comfortable compared to using your pinkies or at least my pinkies.

Logitech Trackman Marble for pointing

I'm in Australia so this will be in AUD with Australian shipping.

I got the PCB's from JLPCB for $23.85

The keycaps diodes microcrontroller switches etc came to $50.17 total. I just used the ones linked in the github, as well as probably knockoff holy pandas and a knockoff soya milk set? They were both super cheap hahah.

So that's $73.22 AUD total, so a bit less than $50 USD!

https://github.com/tompi/cheapino

I've done some soldering in the past but never built a keyboard or anything like this. I was quite nervous but it was quite easy! Hardest part was making sure the switches were straight, but following the build guides tips I managed to do that pretty well (better on the right half then the left half I tried first hahaha.) Highly recommend this keyboard and project.

Really happy with the end result, I plan on building a Charybdis nano or Flow36 in the future to replace my trackball mouse but this is a great first step.

26-key, column-staggered, wireless, reversable, split keyboard made with Ergogen and KiCad https://github.com/grassfedreeve/pueo/

Great job. I’m so happy the Cheapino is getting popular, amazing to have such a low cost to try out and get access to ergonomic keyboards. Now that I’ve got used to mine I can justify upgrading to a Charybdis nano knowing I’ll use it and 34-35 keys is usable.

I’ve got quite a few combos on my keymap while still typing in a standard way. More combos than keys haha https://keymapdb.com/keymaps/grassfedreeve/

I may or may not like ever smaller unibody keyboards. Grumpy is next then hopefully a 26 key.

Might be better to ask on [email protected]

If that’s how you refer to communities on here hahaha. I just swapped from basically a TKL down to a Cheapino which is 3x5 with 3 keys on the thumb. It was a really steep learning curve but tbh I only really use 4 of the 6 thumb keys so if you want to go down to 34 keys I say go for it. It will be more difficult to transition though.

It is definitely a transition. I swapped from a tkl down to a Cheapino as well. My suggestion is to continue to use the tkl at work to maintain productivity, but swap in throughout the day to do some monkey type etc. Then use it in your personal life until you build up some comfort. Took me like a week to start using it at work (I also swapped to Colmak-dh kind I’d recommend that to setup a different set of muscle memory) and I kept my old keyboard close hahaha. After a few weeks I could never go back. Moving my fingers to arrow keys functions numbers backspace etc just feels way to far away and slow. Maybe making your own layout for symbols etc will help? You can set it up to be closer to a regular keyboard https://youtu.be/yiwUjLaebuw?si=pWlr8h7JtgrERTzV

Might be also easier for you to swap to something like the ZSA Voyager where you would have more keys at first. Good luck!

No comment 😂

Currently using these and they work pretty well. https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqz9UNE

Cheapest would probably be cardboard https://golem.hu/guide/cardboard-prototyping/

If you look at my post history I just built a Cheapino for ~$50 USD https://github.com/tompi/cheapino

Although I think that’s not cheap and dirty, it’s more cheap and pretty. Probably easier to do than hand wiring as well.

You can get the PCB from JLC https://github.com/jcmkk3/trochilidae

I’ve also got 3 pcbs left I’d give away for the cost of shipping Australia. Last I checked it was 15 usd to the US

Memmy