ErgoPlanck? Planckodox?

[Analogy]

http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/layouts/c125fc4b7218a55d725fb025f42bf0ff

Inspired by Shamelessly ripping off the Ergodox and the Planck, intended to bring the best of both keyboards. Smaller than an ergodox by using planck-style layering, while keeping the vertically staggered matrix... And attempting to come up with a better thumb cluster.

* Eliminating the bottom row means we can bring the thumb cluster closer and give the thumb easy access to 6 keys. I've tried this with a maxkeyboards keyswitch tester I had sitting around, the trick is putting the right profile keycaps on the buttons so that you can control which button you hit. A tactile keyswitch helps, you don't wanna be using reds on this.
* Eliminate any keys that can't be easily reached from the "home" position, because why move your fingers to the keys when you can use layers to bring the keys to your fingers?
* Try and make it so that modifiers are hit by the opposite hand as the key they're modifying. i.e. f-keys are on the left hand and reached through the upper modifier on the right hand, brackets on the right hand are reached through the lower modifier on the left hand. Include both left and right shift, ctrl and alt for this reason, put shifts on pinkies and ctrl and alt in a row where they can both be hit by the same thumb, so that you can still perform any combination of ctrl-alt-shift modifiers on any key.
* Reach !@#$%etc using lower+shift, because shift is on the pinky so it's not as awkward as on a planck, also makes firmware more straightforward.
* Use all 1x1 keys to make it easier to acquire keycaps.
* Include 10-key functionality. Reach the numpad by pressing both upper and lower at the same time, exit numpad mode by pressing either.
* Do we really need F13-24?
* Engage capslock by pressing both shifts at the same time
* Not every key on a 104 is accounted for yet, this is an early concept for now so that you can all tell me how horrible my ideas are.
* Colemak because what's the point of an ergonomic keyboard with QWERTY on it.

[Analogy]

BTW sorry for the double post and props to the mods on the swift removal, I had an error on submitting and didn't think it went through.

[PieterGen]

It's nice. Two questions:
1. do the thumb clusters have to be rectangular?
2. how about combining thumb keys, "Oobly style" ?  Oobly uses 4 keys per thumb, if you allow hitting 2 keys at a time per thumb, this gives for the left hand:
a, b, c, d, ab, ac, ad, bc, bd, cd = 10 possibilities. For the right hand the same, which gives in total 10 x 10 = 100 possibilities. Which should be enough for most users...  ;-)
 

[esoomenona]

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[Analogy]

Nothing is set in stone until I go and carve a keyboard case out of stone. Or acrylic or whatever.

The thumb can't really reach or curl like a finger can, so thumb buttons have to be reachable using its lateral motion instead. In this cluster the near buttons are pressed with the knuckle, the far ones with the tip. I have no idea how well this holds up under fast typing till I try it.

I'm hesitant to use chording because I believe it makes things less approachable and harder to memorize, and also chords can't be recognized till you release the keys and I'm a gamer so I like things to be recognized instantly. Also, without using oobly's tented case shape you can't hit two side by side buttons with your thumb very easily this way, only a near and a far at the same time (which is why alt is above ctrl, to make ctrl-alt combos possible with a layered key like del).

If anyone's got a better layout idea feel free to show me.

[davkol]

No AltGr. Basically a dealbreaker for almost anyone but majority of 'murricans and alikes.

[Analogy]

There's no reason it can't, what I'm really doing is throwing an idea out there for a basic keyboard design and layout, the exact key mapping isn't really the point here. If AltGr works the same as Alt for the purposes of things like alt-tab/alt-F4/ctrl-alt-del, then you can just replace the alt on the right thumb with altgr and be golden.

[davkol]

It doesn't. If I remap one Alt to AltGr, I obviously can't alternate hands anymore. AltGr+Shift+letter becomes awkward in about one third of possible cases, not to mention AltGr+Shift+number on a 40% layout.

[SonOfSonOfSpock]

Reminds me a little bit of the Atreus keyboard. The biggest difference being the thumb keys.

http://technomancy.us/
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=54759.0

[Oobly]

Nothing is set in stone until I go and carve a keyboard case out of stone. Or acrylic or whatever.

The thumb can't really reach or curl like a finger can, so thumb buttons have to be reachable using its lateral motion instead. In this cluster the near buttons are pressed with the knuckle, the far ones with the tip. I have no idea how well this holds up under fast typing till I try it.

I'm hesitant to use chording because I believe it makes things less approachable and harder to memorize, and also chords can't be recognized till you release the keys and I'm a gamer so I like things to be recognized instantly. Also, without using oobly's tented case shape you can't hit two side by side buttons with your thumb very easily this way, only a near and a far at the same time (which is why alt is above ctrl, to make ctrl-alt combos possible with a layered key like del).

If anyone's got a better layout idea feel free to show me.

Overall it's a nice layout Don't take my comments as criticisms as such, more like suggestions for things I learnt through my experiments.

The way I do it isn't chording, the combinations of keys work just like modifiers, so Layer+Shift is a different modifier to Layer or Shift on their own. Key press and release events come when you press and release the key. The code sent depends on what combination was pressed at the time of the keydown event. The controller can be programmed to do things any way you like.

You're already using combinations like this with Lower+Shift. Better to use Lower+Win for this combination (or even better, put Shift in place of Win and move Win and Menu to a layer), since pinkies are not good for holding down modifiers despite the way you are forced to on a normal keyboard.

IMHO there's no need for the modifier alternation, so you can reduce the number of thumb keys. Makes combinations easier to remember also. Put space onto your dominant thumb, the one you use most often when typing. Having only 4 thumb keys makes it easy to train your muscle memory and is easy to get used to. Don't have to move your thumb much. IMHO, 6 is too many. Even with normal flat layout and normal keycaps you can hit 2 thumb keys at the same time (one each from the upper and lower row and this gives you enough layers for a full 104 key set of characters/functions), just invert the upper row keycaps (using middle row caps so the angles aren't too different since you're using them flat). You don't need legends on these since they'll be covered by your thumbs most of the time.

For arrow keys on a layer, I have found the positions of your NEI, keys to make a nice cluster. Putting up arrow on U feels a bit too high compared to the left and right keys.

I like your layout and it's good to see more attempts at properly ergonomic layouts!