geekhack
geekhack Community => New Members => Topic started by: Haevuus on Fri, 17 October 2014, 03:06:49
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This is my first post here, so if I somehow stray outside of protocol with this, please guide me!
I have long wanted to try wider separation for a keyboard a la Kinesis Freestyle or, if I were ever brave enough, Ergodox. I just happened to have a ratty old Goldtouch around with a broken hinge. In a wicked moment of boredom last night, I took it apart, removed the hinge altogether, and very carefully unwound the rather remarkable stress relief twists and turns inside. I closed the patient up, gave it some current and... “Bwahahahahah...It’s ALIVE!” At least I didn’t break the tiny wires. No blue smoke from keyboard or computer....
My first impression is that my hands instantly smiled! I still would like to get some more outward tilt and raise the touchpad level with the tops of the keys.
Optimally, in a perfect world -- or if I had deeper pockets -- I would really like a matrix layout with Shift, Tab, Return and Delete on the centerline. They are the only things left that feel a little strange and slightly uncomfortable -- reaching further to the side to hit them.
But just clicking along, pouring out text, is really smooth and comfortable!
Enough of my “mad scientist” moment. Thanks for the venue to share this in! Lurking around here the last several weeks, watching some REAL “keyboard wrenches” at work, gave me the impetus to start experimenting.
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Cool, good job.
Interesting little project, don't know if I could ever pull something off like that. :)
Do you think you can mod those keys you were talking about into the location you wanted, yourself? That would be the next big thing with this board, I'd say.
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Thank you, NeedAFix! I appreciate your confidence in me! :D But any more than I did is a little bit above my pay grade. The last time I did any real soldering, I almost burned the house down! As Clint Eastwood said: "A man's got to know his limitations." What this did prove to me is that I really like the shoulder-width placement of my hands and the center location for the trackpad. When this lab-rat of a keyboard flames-out, I think I'll try for a Kinesis Freestyle for a while. And then...maybe I'll go for an Ergodox project, the logical pinnacle of keying technology, it seems!
I sure am glad I found this community! :thumb:
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Welcome to Geekhack!
Very ergonomic! You know we have a section (http://geekhack.org/index.php?board=125.0) for that? You might post a thread there, if you haven't already, as not everyone checks the new members area, and a few people would be very interested in this kind of mod.
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Rowdy, thanks for the welcome...and the suggestion. If you think others might be interested in my entry-level hack, I'll go over yonder and post it there. Again, thanks to the community for what I have learned so far, and for what I'm sure is left to find out.
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Definitely!
A big part of this community is ergonomics, including modified and resurrected older ergonomic keyboards, and helping other members with problems that might be caused by poor ergonomics. Your mod might inspire someone else to do something similar. I think this is the first time I have heard of a mod such as this, not that I frequent the ergonomics section that much :p