geekhack

geekhack Community => Ergonomics => Topic started by: Forsaken on Tue, 13 July 2010, 02:40:23

Title: Kinesis Advantage adaptation for lap use
Post by: Forsaken on Tue, 13 July 2010, 02:40:23

I'm not sure how many of you guys might be interested in this one, but anyways...

I got a Kinesis Advantage almost a year ago, and love it over all, except for one little detail that always bugged me. Due to an unusual usage environment, I'm always using keyboards on my lap, and the Kinesis has an extremely curved bottom that rolls around on a lap, which is significantly less than ideal.

So I brainstormed up a way to make the bottom flat, and even padded, without actually modifying the keyboard itself. =D I came up with the idea to attach a flat bottom piece to the keyboard by way of pegs with magnets on the ends that stick to the screws that hold the keyboard together.

I finally set out and put it together today, using plain plywood, dowel, rare earth magnets, superglue, polyurethane foam, faux leather, and staples.

The result:

This is the side of the base that attaches to the keyboard, showing the magnet tipped pegs:
(http://oraclenine.net/keyboardnbaseupsidedown.jpg)

This is the plush side that rests on my lap:
(http://oraclenine.net/keyboardnbaseupsideup.jpg)

Here's the base attached to the board:
(http://oraclenine.net/keyboardwbasebottom.jpg)

And here's a shot from the top/side:
(http://oraclenine.net/keyboardwbase.jpg)

It's worked out quite nicely i think, though I'm having second thoughts about the foam and faux leather padding. I'll give that a while, and possibly end up ripping it off and replacing it with a piece of giant mousepad, with the fabric side out.

BTW, the spiral cord on it is also a mod related to lap use, the regular cord bothered me either hanging down and getting tangled, or being too short if I bundled up slack, so I replaced it with telephone handset cord.

Title: Kinesis Advantage adaptation for lap use
Post by: ricercar on Tue, 13 July 2010, 03:53:59

Nice. I just use plywood. Yours is classy.

Title: Re: Kinesis Advantage adaptation for lap use
Post by: TranslucentGold on Thu, 24 September 2020, 05:50:30

Thanks for that. The phone cord is cool too. Does anybody else use it on their lap?

I saw a review also that said this keyboard had a hard bottom out and that it hurt somebody's fingers (who had sensitive fingers). Anybody else?

Title: Re: Kinesis Advantage adaptation for lap use
Post by: impaktor on Thu, 10 December 2020, 04:47:05

I place my kinesis on top of my laptop keyboard, and have the laptop in my lap. I have a script that intercepts all kernel events equivalent to laptop key presses, thus I've disabled the laptop keyboard, so no accidental key presses are registered.

Title: Re: Kinesis Advantage adaptation for lap use
Post by: cheater on Wed, 16 December 2020, 18:06:02

i use my keyboard in my lap as well, and I think any sort of pleather or foam mouse pad would heat my legs too much and make me uncomfortable - I'd much rather have plastic instead, I think.

Title: Re: Kinesis Advantage adaptation for lap use
Post by: Rayndalf on Thu, 28 January 2021, 19:17:06

That's pretty neat. I've used my Kinesis on my lap, but I found the bottom side of it was already pretty comfortable.

Title: Re: Kinesis Advantage adaptation for lap use
Post by: impaktor on Fri, 29 January 2021, 01:38:19

In case anyone is interested in disabling the laptop keyboard (except ESC key, to gain back function), to allow putting the kinesis ontop of the laptop keyboard, as mentioned above:
https://github.com/impaktor/disable-keyboard