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geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: ricercar on Sat, 12 December 2009, 11:20:50

Title: Maltron Ergonomic 2-hand
Post by: ricercar on Sat, 12 December 2009, 11:20:50

http://cgi.ebay.com/Maltron-ergonomic-two-handed-keyboard-retails-600_W0QQitemZ150395868542QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA_Mice_Trackballs?hash=item23044ad57e

No trackball. Starts at $100 USD.

FWIW my Maltron is curiously not manufactured as well as my Kinesis, the materials and machining appear inferior. Overall I'm disappointed in Maltron, considering the retail price is twice the Kinesis retail. Review pending.

Title: Maltron Ergonomic 2-hand
Post by: Rajagra on Sun, 13 December 2009, 00:22:34

Quote from: ricercar;141712

machining appear inferior.

Maybe because they are hand-made (http://www.maltron.com/maltron-cherry-mx.html)?

Quote

They are hand made from sheet materials which are formed and punched to make the shell or body of the keyboard. Individual Cherry MX key switch are individually fitted by hand. The switch contacts are wired up into a scanning XY matrix by hand. In fact everything is done on an individual basis by hand.

Title: Re: Maltron Ergonomic 2-hand
Post by: bsvP585hUO2Y6 on Sun, 13 December 2009, 06:16:52

Whoa, they actually mean it when they write "wired by hand", not just
soldered to a pcb by hand:

,----[ http://www.maltron.com/maltron-kbd-flat-assembly.html ]
| The key-modules are then wired up in an XY matrix. Discrete wiring
| rather than a dedicated PCB is used as this allows complete
| customisation of the keyboard's switch arrangement.
`----

There's also picture in this article where you can see the wiring.  It
looks like they use polyurethane enamelled wire to make this process
economically feasible.