ErgoDox thumb clusters - working with what we have...

[pitchshifter]

Hi guys, long time reader but now commenting since I finally read enough to pull the trigger on a couple of keyboards.

Now, have a TECK at work and actually love it. It's a good compromise between radical approach and ergonomics. I find it really comfortable to type on and it has solved some of my RSI problems.

At home, I am currently trialling an ErgoDox (EZ). The excessive distance of the thumb keys very quickly became apparent, with my thumb naturally resting in the gap between the main cluster and the thumb cluster.

Currently, I am making do with using the two bottom inner keys from the main cluster as space bars - whilst this works, my hands feel cramped rather than stretched this way, the target area is too small, and my arms are still getting fatigued all too quickly from having to be so precise...

With all the discussion (for years) about various proposed revisions to the thumb cluster, I cannot for the life of me see the (to me) most obvious solution of working with the existing design by creating a single keycap that spans from the current Right/Up buttons (on the default ErgoDox EZ layout, Advantage style) to the outermost thumb button. Then map only one of the down presses (whichever is hit most cleanly and consistently by a thumb down in between them) to Space, and just deaden the other one...is this impractical? The only potential blocker I see is the need to cut out the little 'peninsula' in between these two keys....but this does not really concern me if it means I can use this keyboard without discomfort!

With the multi-layer design of the board, I have way more keys than I need (arrow keys fall under my home row on another layer) so losing one key is a very insubstantial tradeoff for the net gain of being able to more easily use the most frequently pressed key!

If this already exists...then I'd totally expect it to, and please point me in the right direction!

Thanks!

[Findecanor]

There are programmable keyboards such as point-of-sale keyboards (cash registers) and for specialty applications that do have keys that are 2× units and are made to be mounted onto two switches at once.
You could very well mount such a key onto the two 1×2 thumb keys' switches.
The total force will be higher than normal though, so you might want to change the springs in those switches to something very light.

In this picture, the two rightmost keys are such keys. They are flat and relegendable - with a clear plastic lid. (You are meant to put a piece of paper underneath)

[pitchshifter]

Hi

I'm not talking about bridging the two 1x2 thumb keys - that would just be fusing the already too hard to reach outermost thumb key with the more inner one, making the outer one even harder to push for the loss of a key.

I'm talking about (/asking what is the best way to) bridge the 1u keys on the innermost bottom row with the outermost thumb key. This would require an actual custom key cap, or a nice way to put something over both with some comfortable material.

If anyone has some suggestions or thoughts on how to do this, I'll implement it. Otherwise I'll need to sell my ergodox as the thumb key is too far but my substitute thumb key is too small.

[bcredbottle]

Can I ask, how big/small are your hands? I have an ergodox and never once felt like the thumb keys were too far out.

[pitchshifter]

Fairly big, I'm 6'5". my thumb naturally falls in the gap between the keys. If you look through the archives, there's tonnes of posts dealing with the excessive distance of the thumb clusters for most people and various proposals to fix it in "version 2.0" as this is the most frequent complaint.  I guess my question is directed more at those such people who already perceive this issue and have thought about ways of fixing it.

[steve.v]

Thus, i went to the planck.

[RominRonin]

Fairly big, I'm 6'5". my thumb naturally falls in the gap between the keys. If you look through the archives, there's tonnes of posts dealing with the excessive distance of the thumb clusters for most people and various proposals to fix it in "version 2.0" as this is the most frequent complaint.  I guess my question is directed more at those such people who already perceive this issue and have thought about ways of fixing it.

I have been working on a revised plate for my own use, this is what I have so far:

http://imgur.com/QDgFx9e

Revision one and two (left, right). I'm going to print a mirror of the second revision in order to build a split keyboard. I suspect that the arrangement I have settled on will be fine, but I want to use it for a couple of months to be sure - if I eventually make a pcb I want to make sure the shape works.

I also noticed that by adding additional keys to the bottom right hand side, the plate/case design can be made symmetrical - another potential advantage over the ergodox.

[pitchshifter]

Hey, thanks for the more relevant response that looks much better than the original setup.

I'm guessing from the response that no, there has not already been a mod made to just bridge the two keys on the existing setup. I'll give it a shot...

[berserkfan]

Fairly big, I'm 6'5". my thumb naturally falls in the gap between the keys. If you look through the archives, there's tonnes of posts dealing with the excessive distance of the thumb clusters for most people and various proposals to fix it in "version 2.0" as this is the most frequent complaint.  I guess my question is directed more at those such people who already perceive this issue and have thought about ways of fixing it.

see? See? You guys! As I always say, the ergodox has thumb keys too far out. Even such a big guy has difficulty. Ergodox was the worst purchase I ever made. It was the only keyboard that within 2 seconds I knew I could not keep.

[Findecanor]

I have been working on a revised plate for my own use, this is what I have so far:

http://imgur.com/QDgFx9e

Yeah, but that one is not using any ErgoDox parts ...

When I built my ErgoDox ("Schmergodox"), I modified the PCB and used a custom plate. I removed the outer thumbkeys and added an inner thumbkey on each side, sacrificing the innermost key on each bottom row. I did however have to cut the keycaps to make them fit.
The width of the keys is the same.