geekhack
geekhack Community => New Members => Topic started by: Fatteh on Thu, 28 November 2013, 02:52:47
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Hello all
Thanks to you lot - and the need for a new home workstation - I'm now using a Matias Quiet Pro to type this message. Seems lovely so far, but I'm not sure if I should be using the raised rear feet as newcomer to mechanical keyboards and a typing amateur.
I couldn't find any threads here specific to keyboard angle, so I thought I'd ask. Is there generally accepted wisdom about the angle of a keyboard, or is it more a case of overall ergonomics? At first it felt like using the higher tilt was more comfortable. Not so sure about that now. Any tips would be most appreciated.
Callum
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Hey there, no one seems to have answered your question so I'll pop in. When I bought my first mechanical keyboard and didn't use a wrist rest, I ran it without extending the feet. However, I now use a Grifiti Fat pad and I've found that since my wrist naturally rests on the plane of the board, rather than slightly below it, I prefer to have the keyboard tilted up a bit. A some of the hot rod Korean boards come with a pretty significant slope (14 or so degrees), and I tend to see those paired with wrist rests as well, so keep that in mind. The most important thing is very personal though: you have to be comfortable and not feel like you are straining yourself, so keep experimenting, maybe buy a cheap wrist rest and then play around tweaking your setup.
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Thanks for the advice. The Matias is quite tall, so a wrist rest may be a good plan. There doesn't seem to be any general consensus on tilt. Will play around with the setup and try a few different things.
Chur
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I don't know why they put those feet on the back. It's a bad idea for ergonomics because it makes you more likely to bend your wrists up. Ideally, your wrists should be level with the rest of your arms when typing. However if putting the feet up is more comfortable, your desk is probably too high or your chair is too low compared to your desk.
Keyboards aimed more at ergonomics don't have feet on the back. Some even have a method to raise the keyboard on the front.
If it's the case that your desk is too high, I'd recommend looking at adjustable height keyboard trays. I have one and it's great.
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Yea it really depends on your desk height. If you're comfortable and don't get fatigued after typing then thats good. You will find that personal preference comes into play with almost anything keyboard related. There is no best switch, best board, best profile, best layout, best anything. Welcome to geekhack!
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Hi, welcome to GH and good choice of keyboard!
While I'm no expert on ergonomics I have seen that typing training video on Youtube that was produced for the navy and they stressed that your desk, and seat height should be just right so that when you are typing, there should be a 90 degree angle between your forearm and upper arm and your forearm and wrists should be parallel with the slope of the keyboard. So whether you opt for the keyboard raised or not this should be your proper posture. Note in those days they typed on manual typewriters some of which were quite steep.
Cheers!