Help for 40% keyboard

[n33dcc0ff3]

Hello guys, I'm new at this forum so first of all Hi to everybody.

I am a programmer and recently I started to have pain in my wrists so I started to look for an alternative keyboard. I was looking a lot on inet and I decided to mount a 40% keyboard in a Dvorak distribution.

I want to start making my custom keyboard and I want to ask some things before I start to expend money.

I want a 40% keyboard (I was looking this PCBs: Planck, BM43a and Daisy). I don't know if it's possible to work with this keyboards in a DVORAK distribution, because I'm thinking about making the new keyboard in this specific distribution.

Other thing is that I'm working on Linux (ubuntu) so I will need a firmware with linux compatibility.

[Arch4Life]

Hello guys, I'm new at this forum so first of all Hi to everybody.

I am a programmer and recently I started to have pain in my wrists so I started to look for an alternative keyboard. I was looking a lot on inet and I decided to mount a 40% keyboard in a Dvorak distribution.

I want to start making my custom keyboard and I want to ask some things before I start to expend money.

I want a 40% keyboard (I was looking this PCBs: Planck, BM43a and Daisy). I don't know if it's possible to work with this keyboards in a DVORAK distribution, because I'm thinking about making the new keyboard in this specific distribution.

Other thing is that I'm working on Linux (ubuntu) so I will need a firmware with linux compatibility.

hi there,
since you're into 40% keeb, it's worth a shot to get the Drop planck v6 keyboard, the ortho layout will give you less RSI than the staggered ones like daisy or bm43, about keyboard layout, the board run on qmk, so you can easily program it to any layout you like (qwerty, dvorak, Colemak ... ), all of em in one keyboard (and qmk docs is comprehensive). More more good news: qmk is written in Python and C, so if you're a linux guy, you'll feel right at home (trust me, I use linux too).

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[n33dcc0ff3]

Thank you for ur help, I will give a chance to this keyboard. I will bring it to the forum when I am done

[sapisoi]

hello, can you tell me the advantages of 40%?

[parkedhampster]

I'm currently using the Planck and have been using Dvorak for years
The Planck comes pre-loaded with the Dvorak language as a layer by default when using the single, 2u spacebar layout
I'm looking to get a Preonic because of the slight hassle of typing numbers by holding down the layer up key to type numbers
my actual keys are in the QWERTY layout but it would be simple enough to just swap them around, though the apostrophe key and the forward slash key would be the wrong colors based on their placements.

I personally have found that having an ortho layout has been super nice, except that hitting the c key (j in dvorak) with my index finger has been a bit of an annoyance, but that's a habit I've been pushing out of my typing habits, albeit slowly

I will say, I'm EXTREMELY new to the keeb world so my experience with keyboards in general isn't super extensive so take my praises and qualms with a grain of salt

[n33dcc0ff3]

Yep, I saw some Plank reviews and I realise that it comes with a Dvorak layer, but all the keyboards that I seen are mounted on a Qwerty distribution, so what I want is to mount it on a Dvorak distribution for learning (at first I supose that I should see the keycaps in some moment hahaha). So, do I mount the keycaps as in a qwerty keyboard but using Dvorak distribution or should I buy specific keycaps?

Other thing (about what u say of the key C and J) is that with Dvorak I should change the vim configuration. Otherwise is gonna be weird to work with it hahaha. But I guess that is better to get used to the new positions on the keyboard.

Sapisoi. This is personal preferences, for me I want to try the 40% keyboard because I prefer to learn the commands on the keyboard to do things and don't move my hands as much as I do in a TKL keyboard. I use in my computer a windows tiling manager as BSPWM with Sxhkd and rofi and I am used to work with shortcuts and commands, so I want to try this type of keyboard for trying to optimize more my shortcuts. And as I want to move less my hands I think that a 40% keyboard is gonna be better for me. Instead to move my hands to the keys I want to move the keys to my hand.

[parkedhampster]

if you mount it as dvorak, the provided / and ' keycaps are going to be different colors than what their neighboring keys are, as the ' key is on the far right in qwerty
it might also be important to note that on a normal dvorak keyboard, the key that is in the place of the ' key is normally a - key, which will not be on the base dvorak layer on the Planck, instead that key is set to /

if you aren't worried about the home row guides being in weird places and aren't worried about the ' and / keys being the wrong colors then I would say go ahead and mount it as dvorak - but those are the reasons I mounted mine in qwerty

[n33dcc0ff3]

Well, btw I will buy my own keycaps so is not a problem. I want to mount as dvorak because I want to learn, so I think is gonna be easier. 

[suicidal_orange]

If you want to mount keycaps in dvorak you need to get a special set (usually only in a group buy which means 2022 if you're lucky) or a flat set (DSA, RA row 3 or G20)  If you use a qwerty set some letters will be on the wrong row and the caps will be sloped wrongly, which looks and feels weird.