TECK notes

[Architect]

Great keyboard, dorky name and bad service ... Anyhow some notes on the TE keyboard of things I've discovered

• Under Windows there is a scroll lock LED under the central Fn key, accessed via Fn-`
• On the Mac, oddly Fn-` is screen dim instead of Fn-F1. TE chose to not map screen dimming in firmware, but this oddity shows up.
• On Mac scroll lock and Num lock aren't available (may be by Apple design)
• On Mac ControllerMate works perfectly in my testing and can be used to provide USB kernel level remapping (almost as good as firmware - CM has it's own USB driver that can piggy back on other devices. )
• AutoHotKey (TE provides a default script) works just as well for Windows in my testing.

[Architect]

Additional thing I noticed this morning, I'm getting much more comfortable with the arrow keys. For TE owners: try this (in whichever hand is your dominant), but the example is for the right (dexter) hand

• Place the thumb on the Down arrow
• Place the 1st (pointer) finger on the left arrow
• Place the  middle (baddie) finger on the up arrow
• Place the finger next to the pinky on the left arrow

May be an obvious point, but with a small hand shift to the lower right (for the right hand) you can use all four fingers for navigating including the thumb. Faster and better ergonomically as it spreads the work around to four fingers, and you don't have one finger doing double duty, as for the typical non-star arrow key block configuration.

Pretty neat, I'm practicing with it and it's a very natural and fast hand shift and thumb tuck to get this position.

[Architect]

OK - if you haven't tried remapping the left shift bar - DO IT NOW and remap to Control or Command!!!

• You need ControllerMate/Mac or AutoHotKey/Windows
• Unplug your keyboard
• Flip DIP switch #3
• Plug back in
• In ControllerMate create a device programming block ('C' icon), go to International6 and remap to 'Left GUI'
• Put the following line into Auto Hot Key (without quotes) "SC05C::LControl" (you should be using the TE default mapping file they posted on the site)

Done, now the left space bar is the best Command/Control key I've ever used - the thumb naturally rests there and is always available. The right space bar is space as usual.

[Architect]

Aieeeeee! Just discovered a new trick, use your thumbs for the arrow keys. I have a large hand so its not a problem to keep the fingers on the home row and just tuck the thumb under a bit to reach the arrow, but I'm curious how it would work with somebody with a small hand. But this is interesting, and it seems to be working well and I don't have to leave home. That makes the following keys controllable

• Return
• Backspace
• Tab
• The two keys above tab (Delete forward and `) are also reachable by my thumb but may not work for most people. **** now that I think of it I might thumb the Delete forward key too ... maybe remap it
• Space
• Control (with the left spacebar)
• Home/Page up/Page Down/Bottom
• Left/Right/Up/Down

13, 14 or 15 thumb keys depending on how you want to count it.

Wheeeee!

[o2dazone]

Damn dude lol

[Architect]

Damn dude lol

Type as many hours per day on a keyboard and see how you feel when you can get this much of a productivity boost :->

Some notes on the physical board

• I pulled a few keycaps and verified that they're metal plate mounted, explaining the solidity (it's like a brick, even more  solid than even the new Filco) It seems to be the least clacky of all the mechanical keyboards I've used.
• The plate and key well is all black, appears to be powder coated
• Interesting - psychologically the solidity seems to translate to a stiffer mechanism in my mind. Or maybe the keyboard isn't broken in yet, but the Browns seem stiffer than usual
  
• The plate and above assembly appears to be at least water resistant, looking at a few representative keys the seams are tight. A liquid spilling prone modder could go further and pull all the caps and apply a bit of silicon to ensure it's spill proof.
• Due to the plate construction and key gaps it's a relatively easy keyboard to clean of dust and dirt, similar to the Filco in this regards.
• The LED keys (top three center below Function) are Cherry with LED style
• As noted elsewhere when assembling and disassembling the wrist rest the top three screws are longer than the rest, take note of that when reassembling the wrist rest.
• I've heard from an EE friend that DIP switches can't take too many throws, so avoid switching yours too many times.

[dorkvader]

I've heard from an EE friend that DIP switches can't take too many throws, so avoid switching yours too many times.

According to the three datasheets I looked at, they last 1000(omron)-3000(alps) cycles, minimum. They also wear out electrically before mechanically. Mechanical failure (from an ALPS datasheet) was listed at 5000 operations.

I'm surprised: they really can't take too many throws, but 1000 should be good enough for most.

[Architect]

Here's what I'm settling on for a keyboard mapping. Very similar to the normal keyboard mapping, on both Mac and Windows, with a key or two left over for other uses. Requires the 109

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 38803[/ATTACH]

[Architect]

Here's what I'm settling on for a keyboard mapping. Very similar to the normal keyboard mapping, on both Mac and Windows, with a key or two left over for other uses. Requires the 109. For me at least this is seems to be the ideal keyboard mapping

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 38803[/ATTACH]

[Architect]

Here's what I'm settling on for a keyboard mapping. Very similar to the normal keyboard mapping, on both Mac and Windows, with a key or two left over for other uses. Requires the 109

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ] 38804[/ATTACH]

[Architect]

Lifted from a discussion on another page, my personal comparison between the Kinesis and TE and why I like the TE better

• Size - the Kinesis barely fits on my keyboard tray (I need a graphics tablet, side hotkey keyboard, trackpad, and mouse). The Kinesis is so high that it prevents me from using a low profile boom arm for my voice recognition microphone, necessitating a overhead boom arm which blocks the screen. This means that I have to pull the overhead arm out when I want to use voice recognition, which means that I don't do it as often, which means using the hands instead of the voice. With the low profile TE the voice recognition is always available (the quality of the mic makes a HUGE difference)
• TE - dual symmetric arrow blocks! As close to the home position as possible. I use eight fingers to navigate - WITH THE PINKIES AVAILABLE FOR CRITICAL Option (Mac) and Control (Win) modifier with the arrows for word jumps. This is huge! On the Kinesis it's four fingers for one blocks, the other is two thumbs which share modifier duty.
• TE - dual symmetric modifier blocks! And a thumb Command/Control left spacebar. This is huge, there are so many times where I need a modifier in the other hand, or a combination of modifier keys (Command-Option, Command-Shift, Command-Shift-Option) which is difficult on the Kinesis. If it takes longer than a quarter second (say) then I won't make the key combination, and just use the mouse instead. I complained about this once to a Kinesis rep, he just came back at me and said why he thought it was the greatest keyboard on the planet. "But it only has ONE control key and ONE modifier key", didn't register with him. Anyhow, in OS X Terminal (where I do significant work) I need the emacs bindings for the bash shell and emacs (Git source control management) and need full access to the control key. When running VMWare I need full access to control and Alt, and need Command, Shift and Option full access when in Cocoa.
• Kinesis Bowls - plus and a minus. On the plus side they provide easier hand centering, but that matters little I think. As a pianist I get very little guidance from the piano keyboard (other than the 3D black keys) and have to do huge hand shifts in a millisecond, and it goes fine. I've adjusted to that on the TE, though I had difficulty for a while. The negative with the bowls is that they encourage you to rest the palms while typing, which my ergo dept keeps warning about and for me causes pain. I can't stop from doing it either, actually considered putting sandpaper (upright) on the rests to remind me (this was an idea from the ergo dept., who have worked with a lot of kinesis users)
• Kinesis function keys. Little rubber erasers. Enough said.
• Thumb keys, the Kinesis has 12, I'm regularly using 15 (the center row and bottom row minus the modifiers) on the TE without trouble.
• Dual hand, I can drink with one hand and take action (start a build, start a debug session) with the other on the TE. Couldn't manage that on the Kinesis due to the layout, the bowls and the non dual symmetric modifier blocks. I'm doing this a lot again (I used to do this when I had a regular keyboard) on the TE, gave up the habit when I was on the Kinesis. Me, programmer, must drink tea ....
• TAB KEY. The tab key is all important, used in programming, used in program switching. On the TE it's in the center and usable by both hands and the thumb with a half inch or inch hand movement. On the Kinesis (as all other keyboards) it's relegated off to the side. One hand, only the pinky. The center keys on the TE are equivalent to dual symmetric - meaning they are usable by both hands but you don't need two blocks due to the placement.
• BRACKET KEYS. The all important bracket keys (to a programmer). If I had a penny for every time I hit (,[ or {. On the TE these are easy to get to and all near by, these keys are used not just in programming but in navigating tabs in OS X, for example (With the Command key, or Shift Command). The Kinesis relegates these to the lower corners, harder to get to. In 15 years of use I still have to pause and look to get them.
• Kinesis - curved circuit board is less solid and stable feeling than the metal plate TE.
• Kinesis, the firmware probably hasn't been changed in 20 years. I've had issues with it, I hate the beep when doing a caps lock or any operation, I've locked it up (a rare occurrence but it did happen to me), and I've had two other Advantages that just died and needed to go back to the factory. Time will tell with the TE, but I have zero doubt they'll release the firmware with reprogramming software as promised. Additionally, you have access to the original chip manufactures dev kit. The ultimate hackers keyboard, you can do whatever you want with this. Want in keyboard macros? With a little bit of programming you can do that now.
• Price, Advantage Pro is 320, TE is 220
• Key switch availability, can get brown, red and blue on the TE, only brown on the Kinesis.
• Blank keycaps - can get these on the TE! I love it, I never look at the keyboard, I love my stealth look, I've always disliked the goofy keycap prints (especially the attempts at icons on media keys)
• Options - six on the TE, 3 on the Kinesis (black, white and metallic with more memory, mostly cosmetic frankly, which is important because the non metallic Kinesis pick up a lot of plastic crud in my experience).
• Hand separation - I don't see this. The bent TE design, in what, a month or nearly of typing and my RSI has gone down. The separated design of the Kinesis wasn't that great an advantage and took up tons of precious desk space. It also pushes the mouse/trackpad further away, a big no no.
• Kinesis has a footpedal. Doesn't matter to me, I find pedals hard to use (not fast enough for me) and the Kinesis design squeaks and is hard to use generally (I've heard this from others and in reviews) There is a new foot pedal design out, check out XKeys, I'd like to check out. Purports to be easier to use. But with ControllerMate and a pedal on the mac at least you can use a pedal with the TE if you wish.
• Keyboard cover - Kinesis does't have one, the TE does
• Wrist rest. Removable on the TE, not on the Kinesis without a dremil (which I considered)
• Center space - a lot of wasted real estate on the Kinesis in the center. A few people have modded it, I haven't managed to do anything, too busy to mess with it. They should do a Maltron key block there IMO. I perched trackpads and track mice there in the past but it's too damn uncomfortable. The Kinesis, by separating the hands, takes the wrong road in my opinion. Mousing needs to be straight out from the body, not keyboarding. I'm happier with a central bent design keyboard. When I mouse - more hand damaging than keyboarding in my experience, it does much better when the hand is straight. For navigation at least, you want the trackpad or mouse parallel with the screen if possible, and on the Kinesis that space is taken up with key wells.
• Crud. I don't want to share what I've dug out of my Kinesis, and you'd be surprised what makes it into the main body of the keyboard after 10 years of banging away. Not possible with the tight seams and key well design of the TE.
• Kinesis has a USB hub. If I recall this was added about 10 years ago, and rather poorly if I recall. They just punched a round hole in the body and mounted the hub. Doesn't add anything to the keyboard, I'd rather have the board be a board, and my hub external if it craps out.
• Compatability, to this day I have trouble with the Kinesis and OS X. I have a lot of computers running around here, about six or 10 macs, and they nearly all have trouble with the Kinesis (but none with the TE so far). Wake from sleep, goofy this, goofy that. Kinesis blames Apple. Maybe so, but Kinesis is the smaller company and should get it to work with them IMO.
• Double shift caps lock. This is an old, old, old standard. On the Kinesis if I hit both shifts accidentally the keyboard goes into caps lock. I forget what I found about this, maybe it's the operating system, but it's annoying. Doesn't happen on the TE, and frequently happens on the Kinesis to me frequently, indicating it's the keyboard. Maybe it can be turned off, not that I recall however.
• on the plus side, Kinesis customer service kicks TE's ass

[cashshadow]

I don't get it Architect, if you're using emacs on the mac, why keep Control way out in the pinky boonies?

[boli]

Lifted from a discussion on another page, my personal comparison between the Kinesis and TE and why I like the TE better

People who are interested in follow-ups to this TrulyErgonomics and Kinesis Advantage comparison/discussion can check the replies here (several posts).