Truly ergonomic keycaps profile

[naz]

I prefer to put this on the ergonomics subfurum:

So i bougth a Truly Ergonomic Keyboard and is great. It doesn't get much love around here, but is a great keyboard (i did order it from The Keyboard Company so I don't have to worry about the bad customer servive the Teck guys are known for.... just in case).

Anyway, I wanted to change the keycaps to a blank dcs pbt set but didn't find the exact profile anywhere. So I took off the keycaps and made a complete profile. I wanted to share the result, here it is a diagram with indication of row, key size and stabilizer presence:



The stock caps are abs oem profile with laser etched leyends. It doesn't have F row keycaps, the c row has two B row keys and the botom row is a combination of the A, B, C and D keys. Here is the final count:



all the key can be change except the 2 exotic ones at the bottom (enter and tab by default).


By the way, Signature Plastic doesn't sell the F row (any idea why is that?? or where can i get them???)



 

[SonOfSonOfSpock]

Thanks for the info!

I'm surprised you can change any of the keys in the middle column.

[naz]

Yes, the 3 upper keycaps from the middle column are just place on a swich, so you can change them. The problem with the other 2 from the botom is the stabilazers, which are not align with the swtich.

By the way, the original dsc profile is 5,1,2,3,4, but i wanted to try 5,5,1,2,4 (an alteranative profile which allow easier reach to the upper rows). Signature Plastic doesn't sell the 5 row by default, but they do sell them as part of a custom order. This is what they answer me:

Thanks for the request! We unfortunately the only way to get full blank DCS keycaps in specific colors is to place a custom order - pricing for this is usually around $500 for one complete blank set.
Thanks!

So the 5 row (or F row) can be purchase, but is REALLY expensive. Guess i'll just have to use a 1,1,2,3,4 profile.

[naz]

Update:

So it turns out the Signature Plastic people misunderstood my request. Here is the real deal:

- DCS Row 5 keycaps (F row) are not in stock. They have to specially make a batch for this order. The minimum amount is 100 keycaps and the cost of this is 100 USD as long as they are the same rom (Row 5 in this case) and is just one color. I wanted to use this keycaps on my F and number rows (a 5,5,1,2,4,4 profile), that is 28 caps in total, leaving me 72 caps to sell to someone else.

- All the rest are available on the stock section and are about 90 USD. By the way, the color option is very limited on the stock keycaps. I don't think is posible to have the same color on all of the caps i need.

- So the whole project of upgrading the TECK to pbt keycaps would be around 200 USD (100+90+shipping). That’s a lot less than 500 USD, but is still a lot of money.


That's all for now.

[nomaded]

Is the only reason why the bottom two 2x Exotic *B* caps  cannot be replaced is due to the stablizers? What if you removed the stablizer, and went with a smaller key like 1.5x to accommodate the case?

[naz]

Yes, if you remove the stabilizers then you can place a keycap up to 2x if you also remove the palmrest, it seems to me the palmrest would limit the size of the new keycap up to 1.5x because of the angle it has (don't how to do this though.... open the keyboard and desolder something??).

Anyway, I knew this before buying the board so is OK. I also forgot to mention that this is one of the older models, when they still use cherry switches (another reazon not to buy from their website if you don't like the khail switches).

Regarding ergonomic, here are a few observations:

- If you have a tall chair or a low desk (your elbows close to your body), then you can feel that some tenting would be more comfortable.
- But if you have a taller desk or use your chair on a lower position (like I do), then your elbows move naturally a bit away from your body, rotating a bit your forearms. This makes the tenting unnecessary and is actually really comfortable to type.
- I prefer to type using the palmrest instead of hovering. I read somewhere that palmrest are OK as long your wrist are not being the one supporting the weight. The Teck palmrest is hard and only the bottom of my palms touch it, so is really comfortable to type (to me at least, this is one of the things that is not for everyone).
- The angle of the keys (between halves) is ok if you place the keyboard away from your body (i have it at around 15 cm from my chest), anything closer would require to curve your wrists.
- The Fn location is great!.

[qihqi]

The 2 bend keys in the center row is super super weird. The 3 stabs are not collinear, so you there is no way to put a normal 2x key there.

A (not so elegant) solution is to replace those 2 stabilizers to wire (costar) stabilizers. The inserts for wire stabilizer have a side, so if you flip it around you can fit a 2x key on it. like in this pic you see there is more plastic in one side of the stabilizer insert than the other. So with normally you put the big side downwards, for the bend key hole you put it upwards. and you have to unbend the bending part of the metal wire so the switch doesnt get in the way. A good thing about this mod is that if you ever want to go back to the original key caps you can too.

Though getting caps for TEK is still very hard even without considering the bend keys, there are not many 2x keys in a keyboard, specially not in the correct profile.

Anyways, with replacing the stabilizers, I managed to populate the keyboard with PBT DSA keys, and I love it. There is when I did the mod; and here is it with deep space keys (my current setup).

[hicolour]

Refreshing topic a little bit


How to map this cherry profiles A B C D E to something you usually see on keycaps stores so the  rows based axis body R1,R2,... ?

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Cool-Jazz-mechanical-keyboard-PBT-blank-keycap-cherry-mx-switch-OEM-height-red-green-grey-R4/1806079_32796948135.html?spm=2114.12010612.0.0.b7YANm

[hicolour]

@naz did you manage to order something ?

[naz]

Actually, I didn't order any keycap from Signature Platic. I did order this set from geekkeys:

http://www.geekkeys.com/geekkeys-gradient-purple-blank-thick-pbt-full-keyset/

It look nice on the keyboard, but I had to leave some of the original keys on (thumb key and middle row).

Right now I'm waiting for the keyboardio (I'm a backer, so I should be getting one soon).

Regards

[tp4tissue]

the higher your elbows are , the less tenting is needed..

Buhhh.. to have ANY tenting, that's not the best.. hahaha

35-45 degrees should be minimum for any split design.

55 is maximum possible without adding counterweights.

70 is approximately neutral wrist angle.