I have not seen the video
That's very honest from you. Type "youtube ergofip", it's 4mn length. Not a big deal. I honestly dont understand why people make comment about something just by relying on 2-3 pictures. Weird.
I have now watched the video, there was very little in it that wasn't available elsewhere. A few details about the configurator, and that's about it.
on my Keyboardio: I press a "RECORD MACRO" key (or combo), tap the key I want to assign the macro to, tap the keys for the macro, hit "RECORD MACRO" again. Done. Okay, this code is fairly new
"Okay, this code is fairly new". So one year and a half - when I've started my project - it didn't exist? So my project - at the time - could be legit?
Similar solutions did exist, adding the same feature to QMK for example would have been reasonably straightforward too. A dynamic macros feature already exists in QMK (though it works a bit differently, as far as I remember), and while that's newer too, it shows that building on existing software is often easier than starting from scratch.
Key remapping and LED configuration can be similarly done, without an external software.
I don't know how you could easily do LED configuration by layers so simple. Seriously, just give a try to the configurator! Maybe you'll change your mind on this side.
Watched the video, the color configuration there is, indeed, easy. Best is to have both, so you can reconfigure LEDs without software, if need be, but use a tool when that's the better option.
Easy configuration is not unique: UHK has a GUI Agent, Kinesis has its tool as well (granted, the Kinesis tool is not open source), and Keyboardio is working on one too
They are not online = on the web. This is one of the big advantages I've worked on: (1) you go to the online configurator, you log-in. (2) you have all your configurations online, ready to share. (3) you modify it, click "generate" and you upload the configuration file (4) you click on "reset" on the Ergofip, it's detected as a harddrive, your dragndrop your configuration, the Ergofip reboots and tada! It's done.
Well, the Kinesis tool comes with the keyboard. You don't have to go anywhere, you don't have to install it, either.
The ErgoDox EZ configurator, qmk.sized.io work similarly to yours: they generate a firmware online, and you re-flash it. The reason Kinesis, UHK, and Kaledioscope are going for a non-online version is because re-flashing sucks from an end-user point of view. Not to mention, having to log in somewhere means that I don't have the data locally, unless I export it - meaning, I rely on a service that can go away anytime, to be able to configure my keyboard. No thanks. I've been bitten by similar things before, I'm not trusting my configuration to a single point of failure (instead, I put it in git and mirror it everywhere).
Thus, for both non-techie end-users (who will hate flashing), and tech-savvy people (who prefer the source), the online configuration is no good. There are people somewhere inbetween, for them, a mixed architecture can work: the same app that would run locally, now runs online, and instead of uploading the configuration, it generates a HEX. With an Electron-based app (on which both UHK's agent, and Kaleidoscope's Chrysalis is built on), this is within reach.
Did they exist a year and a half ago? Kinesis and qmk.sized.io did.
So yes, I do 100% agree: there are thousands of configurators. Even the Razer configuration for my Chroma Ornata is very powerful but you have to install it on the PC (not Linux compatible), and it works only on that PC. It's not online. And even though it's very powerful, it's not easy to grasp.
I disagree here. I find UHK's agent a lot easier to use than qmk.sized.io (which bears a lot of resemblance to the app I've seen in the ErgoFip video). Yeah, I have to "install" it, as in, download and double click it. I can do that. It's easier than registering on a website. Runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows too.
(and the GUI is designed in a way that it will work for all keyboards supported by Kaleidoscope, with little glue code required)
"with little glue code required" -> maybe this is easy, and not a big deal for you, but it's always very hard for beginners. I've spent 4 days with a writer who bought the Ergodox, explaining how to do this and that. You're right: it's easy, but the problem is that it's not easy for everyone. It's easy for 1/100000th of the population.
The glue code would need to be written once, by whoever ports the GUI to a keyboard. End users don't see that. From that point on, you just click around, assign keys, colors, and whatnot. Granted, it did not exist a year and a half ago, but again, a lot of others one could start from, did.
Building a product around the configurator would be silly.
I'm a developper, and you can see with my 15k+ contacts on LinkedIn, and the 3 latests books I've been asked to review by Packtlib on MeteorJS and Django that I'm not on the electronic side. I wanted a nice configurator, and to know on which layer you are visually. The Infinity Ergodox solves the second problem, but there's no editor for the macros, and the way the LCD works is a non-sense to me (I've already explained this), and would require a lot of rewriting of the firmware. When I got the Infinity Ergodox (8 months late, I was one of the first buyers) it had a contact failure on the LCD and I was so disappointed that I started looking for an electronical engineer.
As a fellow developer, when I encounter a problem, I try to fix it first, in the existing software (if it is open source, which it is in case of the ErgoDox). I agree about the LCDs, mind you, and a visual indicator of the current layer is also a good thing. But I still maintain that doing this with either QMK, or even the Infinity's firmware, would have yielded better results in the long run.
There are many, many people who made their own keymaps AND macros with QMK, even though they are nowhere near being seasoned developers.
This doesn't mean it's easy! Maybe if there are 1000 people who did manage, there are 100000 who did not buy the keyboard because of this! Look at the ErgodoxEz: that's exactly the proof of that: maybe there are 1000 people who like to solder, but 10000 would like to buy a pre-soldered keyboard, and that's why the ErgodoxEz is a success.
There are a lot of people who used either the Massdrop configurator, qmk.sized.io, or the ErgoDox EZ configurator. There may have been users who didn't buy an ErgoDox, because of the shortcomings of the configurator, but I doubt that would be a significant number (seeing the number of people who do use the existing configurators).
I've helped some of them with trickier ones
...see?
There are things you just can't do with an online configurator, and you have to write custom code. The fact that this can be done, with a little help, by people with very little programming experience, is telling.
One of the big complaints about the ErgoDox is about the thumb cluster. Putting more keys there just makes it worse.
I totally disagree on this: I do have the Ergodox, the Infinity Ergodox, and the Ergofip and a 1u key is far easier to reach and tap than a 2u.
Lets agree to disagree here then =)
I can comfortably use two keys on each side, three if I stretch a bit
That's what I wanted to read, and I thank you again for being so honest: "if I stretch a bit". You don't have to stretch to reach the 1u key on the bottom of the Ergofip.
I think you misunderstood: I can reach the 2u keys fine, and the bottom most 1u with a very tiny stretch. Replacing the two 2u keys on the thumb cluster with 4 1u ones would make things worse for me, because my thumbs rest around the middle of the 2u keys. To reach the bottom 1u, I'd have to bend them, to reach the top 1u, straigthen, while taking care not to press the bottom one.
This appears to be a similar setup to the ErgoDox80. Some people swear by it, I find it annoying. But this is personal preference, really. :]
Of the eight thumb keys on the ergoflip
It's the Ergofip
Sorry about that! Brain did an autocorrect mistake, it seems =)
The easiest route here is to work on a way to make it easier to configure the screen. That's a bit of firmware work, kinda cheap, too.
Again, for you it's easy, it's like a walk in the park by a sunny day. For 99,99% of other ones it's not. I'm sorry, if you think you're like everyone but you're not: you're good at keyboards and it seems you dont realize how bad at hardware and firmware "everyday people" is.
I'm not saying everyone should do it. I'm saying that someone building a product (ie, you) should, so your users don't have to. If you have something that is almost good, but not quite there, I believe it is easier to extend it to do what you want, than to start from scratch.
Maybe I've never mentionned it, but I didn't talk about the micro SD card reader and the HUB behind, because it was not working but it was implemented in the design, only the electronic "routes" were problematic (sorry for my english) and it wasn't working.
Now, a micro SD reader is something that would have been terribly useful, indeed. So much storage for layouts, LED themes, and whatnot! (And one could ship the offline variant of the configurator on there, too