Mechanical Keyboards

TL;DR: This is a ramble about my old and new keyboards, with some finger pain along the way.

• Hotswap has it's drawbacks
• QMK is nice
• I like macro keys

Due to my job and love for gaming, I spend quite a bit of time in front of a keyboard. With that in mind (and also some enabling colleagues) I went on a big long search for the perfect keyboard. Quickly I became interested in split designs and finally pulled the trigger on a Mistel Barocco MD770. It's now 1.5 years later, and this text was not typed on the Mistel.

The old

The Mistel Barocco MD770 is a super nice keyboard. I like the clean look, the split form factor and the fact that I can 'merge' it into a 'normal' keyboard. This saves me from messing with the whole keymap when gaming. What I had to fiddle with however, was the keybinds while not gaming. There is no GUI for that and you have to do it by combinations of key presses. It worked, but I had to check the manual every time I wanted to change something. Also the bluetooth connection often took some time (no issues when wired) to get going. So it had it's minor drawbacks, but not enough for me to go out searching again. After over a year with the board however, an issue pressing enough came up.

The issue

Being a gamer all my life, I never really had issues with hand or finger pain. But getting older and/or really diving into FPS about half a year ago messed with that. After longer gaming sessions I started to notice pain in the fingers of my left hand. Since I also do climbing, it took quite some time for me to figure out, that in fact the gaming is the issue. It seems I press WASD like a mad man when running around. Press less hard then - duhhh! I tried, but the MX Brown switches just didn't give the feedback my fingers needed.

I like climbing, I like gaming and I wanted this fixed quickly. My best idea, apart from tying to press less hard, was to find switches with a clearer feedback. This is when I discovered, that the Mistel sadly does NOT have a hotswap PCB. Which leads us to chapter three.

The new

With virtually endless options for keyboards and some money to throw at the problem, I was not quite ready to desolder my whole keyboard. So I went out there with my requirements figured out:

• split layout that can mesh together (for the reason above)
• hotswap (because that's what made me end up here)
• staggered is fine
• QMK support
• (macro keys)

The rest was mostly a gut decision - I found the Keychron Q11, liked the mostly clean look and the macro keys and just went with it.

With it I ordered some Cherry MX ERGO CLEAR, some cheapish keycaps that at least support this split layout and some O-rings. Most important answer first: Yes it helped with the finger pain! The actuation point is way more recognizable and the O-rings make the bottom out a lot less hard. I love the switches and also the sound is quite nice. The dedicated macro keys including a GUI to set them all up are also a major improvement in my books. I use them for media management and some undo-redo action which is super convenient. The keyboard itself is also quite beefy with its aluminuim body - not a super big deal but it feels nice. Last thing I want to talk about are the hotswap sockets: You just push in your switches and are ready to go - sounds super easy. And it is. Unless you don't have any feeling in your fingers (duhhh again) and just smash them in. I broke some sockets. Nothing that could not be fixed with some solder, but I was not even aware that this is an option. My fault but still something to watch out for at least.

I bought a cheap Durgod Hades with the intention of sticking the QMK/VIA firmware on it.

First issue was getting it into the bootloader - the instructions didn't seem to be working, so I was trying different connection points and implements until it finally kicked into life. In doing that I suspect I may have killed the STM32... but I'm not sure.

Using dfu-util I've tried :unprotect:force and :mass-erase:force to try and recover it, and also downloaded STM32Cube to see if I have more luck with that.

dfu-util, no matter what I do, hangs at the erase point 0%. Eventually it times out with an error.

STM32Cube connects to the keyboard but complains it's in read-only or reset held. If I try again with the suggested Read Unprotect option it says I need to power off and power on the device, and the cycle continues.

So I think I've somehow bust it, is there anything else I can try before admitting defeat and getting another one?

My Ergodox #mechanicalkeyboard and CST #trackball @mechanicalkeyboards

My favorite layout got hall effect support so I had to pick up another one. Very surprised with how they feel as this is my first hall effect keyboard

Someday I look forward to having the tools and knowledge to custom build my own, but in the meantime I've been enjoying the feel and form factor of the RK series.

The one downside is I'm having trouble getting wireless (both dongle and Bluetooth) to work with Linux.

Any suggestions on a keyboard brand that is friendly to Linux? A little built-in control dial for volume is a plus. Thanks!

I wanted a dedicated keyboard to control my home assistant for lights and stuff. Inside the junk drawer I had enough extra switches and a spare RP Pico, so I printed this enclosure.

This time I kept it super simple, just soldered right to the switches, no lights, 3x4.

Now it's up on my desk, and I've got a few unused keys for expansion!

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I’ve been eyeing the Cerakey Nada 65 Keyboard for a while now and I’m curious if anyone here has tried it. It looks great on paper, but I’m wondering if it actually lives up to the hype. 🤔

I've been into custom keyboard layouts for a couple years now, and from there it makes sense to try different shaped keyboards instead of just different key arrangements. I decided i want a Chouchou keyboard with Taipo and i have questions before i go buy a bunch of parts i don't know how to use.

dlip (who made Chouchou) recommends low profile choc switches and keycaps. I know what a switch and keycap are, and that low profile is just a shorter key than what's standard, but what does choc mean here? This is hard to even research without knowing what non-choc switches are called.

The thumb keys look like normal switches with slightly longer caps, and i'm guessing 1.5U means it's 1.5 units along two of its sides. Is that right?

Is there anything else i need to know about PCBs or QMK? Or about mechanical keyboards in general?

More pics: https://pixelfed.social/p/wjrii/838255973232132267

I messed up in a million ways, but I managed not to screw it up too badly to be happy with it. This was also my first build with QMK and then VIAL. Some lessons:

• ALPS stabilizers are a pain.
• Don't let sleepy English majors design PCBs after midnight. Seriously, the thing barely works for this layout, but should be slightly better for Cherry MX switches.
• One is strangely zen when one accidentally deletes all the PCB design files for such a flawed PCB. Still have the fabrication Gerber, but with half a dozen errors that's very near to useless.
• Don't be a coward with your woodworking. There is a bigger gap between case and keys than I'd like.
• On the other hand, don't be stupid. The pecan inlay on the back may be there to cover up where I sliced right into the dowels joining the frame together.

I picked up a Durgod Fusion Steam at a decent price, to use with my MiSTer. I like it so much that I've been using it with Linux too.

I swapped some keys round - the Super/Windows keys with Alt to get them in the proper places (this keyboard doesn't come with a RWindows or WinMenu key so I repurposed RCtrl); Ctrl to where Caps Lock is, and where it is supposed to be. Fn+Ctrl is now Caps Lock in case I need it.

I moved Home/End to Fn+PgUp and Fn+PgDn to free up a key (I rarely use Home/End anyway) which I mapped to Win+F12 (MiSTer's OSD on all cores).

I then wondered what I could do with the old LCtrl key. After some deliberation I decided a dedicated Compose key was best. This is where Compose was on some old keyboards (which also had Ctrl in the right place!)

I ordered some custom keycaps and made my Super/Win keys into Amiga keys. Didn't fancy trying to colour match the keys, so made Ctrl/Amiga/Amiga blue (Amiga owners will know why I decided those three keys should be the same colour as each other) and (MiSTer) Menu and Compose green.

Perfect Amiga/MiSTer/Linux keyboard!

Hey guys, in the last few days my current one has started having some ghosting / unresponsive key issues and I am looking for a replacement.

The current one is a logitech g910 with programmable keys, which sadly don't work under Linux (I bought the keyboard when I still used windows). Now I know most keyboards with programmable functionality require software on the computer to work, and windows software at that.

Can someone here make a recommendation? I need

• full Linux compatibility
• 3-8 programmable keys
• full layout with numpad
• media / volume controls would be nice to have
• (obviously) mechanical keys with good feedback, I mostly use it for gaming

Thank you in advance 🙂

E: thanks everyone for the useful responses, i landed on a keychron k3 (after some comparing i decided i could do without the numpad). Had to buy it from amazon sadly because their own store is like 3/4 sold out and didnt have the german layout i need in stock.

I am looking for an open hardware PCB Ready to send files for oshpark, seedstudio or jlcpcb like places

A PCB with the following features

wired of an MCU supported by mainline QMK/ZMK/VIA and or VIAL correctly wired for bluetooth/2.4G and wired battery powered USB-C port surface mount diode and individually addressable LEDs

Has anyone ever made such an open hardware PCB ?

Last month I purchased a keyboard, it is physically very nice and has all the features I listed above, except it runs it's own unmodifiable proprietary firmware, so the whole thing is garbage.

Pity because physically this keyboard is everything I wanted

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Many years ago I got the KBD75v2 and I love that keyboard, it's still my main keyboard for my home office. I now need another keyboard and was shocked to find that KBDFans doesn't sell it or anything like it anymore. I also cannot seem to find a keyboard that is 75% and has the possibility of split-space and QMK/VIA. Is there one available out there? Closest I can find is some Keychron Alice boards but I would like a non-split board and just have the space split into multiple keys. I've seen on some sites that the Wobkey Rainy 75 has an add-on for split-space but I cannot find that add-on anywhere and from youtube videos it doesn't seem to be included in the box(?). I'm also totally fine with soldering and piecing together parts. I just can't seem to find anywhere to start with that. I feel like the custom scene has reduced and the prebuilts have gotten better but with less customizations like split-space.

Has anyone ported, or recreated, urob's timeless homerow configuration for ZMK to Vial, or to vial-qmk?

I have a Piantor Pro, built by BeeKeeb; it is a QMK keyboard, and specifically uses vial-qmk. Vial, or flashing directly from the vial-qmk repo, is the only way I've ever successfully flashed or configured it.

I've never been able to use the homerow for anything other than layer switches because they're the only things I can put a long enough delay on that I don't get unintended modifier hits. urob's Timeless Homerow mods for ZMK looks like just the thing, but given my failure to flash the board with anything other than vial-qmk (including vanilla qmk), I'm assuming ZMK is going to be a no-go.

Is anyone who's a fast touch-typer using homerow keys for MACS with Vial, or vial-qmk, and if so, what's your magic sauce for avoiding mis-keying?

Edit 2025-05-19

I was looking at Paul Getreuer's very nice page mechanical keyboards, where he discusses homerow mods on a variety of firmwares, and it mentions using the *_T Quantum keys for homerow mods as being better than tapdance. Maybe it is, but it doesn't completele solve the mis-strikes; they're what I used when I hacked together my version of Miryoku for Vial. They were better, but not foolproof, and from reading urob's description, the ZMK mods go a lot further than Vial's *_T mods. So I'm still looking.

Quick followup

I went back and reviewed Paul's notes, and I'd had Permissive Hold disabled, because it'd brought me nothing but grief in other configs. After enabling it, my 5th run of typioca came away slower than normal, but not unacceptable:

Having only to focus on the new shift location helps; I slow way down when I need layer shifts or in environments like Helix, with heavy ACS and arrow key use. That'll improve with practice. I'm also still getting a lot of accidental layer shifts with those thumb keys, but I think I can fix that with a layer shift delay. I also do not like the repeat delay on some thumb keys that having the layers introduces; backspace, in particular, is a PITA. Again, I hope that this is fixable by tweaking the layer switch mechanism -- I may have to resort back to tap-dance for layers. The key win is that the home row modifiers seem to be working well, and that was my main blocker.

The upshot is that I believe, for now, that my question is answered. Hopefully this post will help someone else on the same journey.

Here's my Vial config. It's basic (not "programmer") Dvorak for the Piantor Pro, with home row mods and heavy right-hand dominant. It attempts to preserve inverse-T movements (arrows) and layer shifts on the right hand; I use a track ball, and use keyboard mouse movement only rarely, so that's a layer relegated to the left hand. There's a layer dedicated to switching to QWERTY, for games, that's not currently bound to anything; I used to have it bound to LShift+RShift, but I'll need to find a new home for it since that's no longer possible. I'm attaching it mainly as an example that's working for me.

I have an Alice Keyboard (space split in two). I remap left space to the Super key (windows key for nerds) but when I want to play some games I have to remap again with the VIA gui.

I want to automate this process with a bash script (I use arch btw) but I can't find any info related.

Someone with the same problem? Any solution?

Ty :)

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