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geekhack Community => Ergonomics => Topic started by: mathieubolla on Mon, 08 August 2016, 09:53:34
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Hi everybody,
I just released the S.I.K, a mechanical, ergonomic, compact keyboard.
It is on GitHub, you can download it. Customize it. Build it. Share it back...
https://github.com/mathieubolla/sik_keyboard
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mathieubolla/sik_keyboard/master/doc/images/final-1.jpg)
I hope I didn't make too many mistakes (in the design, the ergonomics, the layout, the firmware... the grammar in the docs?) I'm open to comments (and even better, to pull requests)
I still have to decide on a licence (that is compatible with T.M.K licence, it's my firmware base, and Technomancy's Atreus licence, because its matrix reading code was so inspiring...) Any help on this side will be greatly appreciated...
Mathieu, developer, from Paris, France
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Interesting. Do you have a video on how you use this? Specifically those keys on the side
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That would be fun to do, I'll try tonight (may need some setup, like camera mount, I don't have at hand right now)
While waiting for a video, I'll try to explain basic usage:
- You put your indexes on the blue keys
- Your three other fingers will rest on the same row
- That involves the pinkie rest on the outer pads
- For the 6 innermost fingers, use the keyboard as any other
- For the pinkies, you mostly use it in rotation, which I find is easier to do than extension/protraction
- For the thumbs, you have the thumbs cluster at the bottom (I'm not fully satisfied with this one, at usage it seems my thumbs are better at rotation than going over one key to get the other...)
Does that sound correct?
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I get all the others except the pinky part. I can't wrap my head/fingers around it, so a video may help. Looking forward to it!
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Hey,
Here it is: A small demo (not really typing anything usefull, the USB cable is not even plugged in...) with all fingers doing their best.
Hope it makes the thing more "visual". If you need, you can also download the SVG, and print them (the exact measurements are inside), to get an idea: It fits on a single A4 sheet of paper.
Mathieu
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Hey,
Just a short message to tell you about the updated layout (after an interesting conversation on the subject at deskthority). Here it is:
(https://github.com/mathieubolla/sik_keyboard/raw/master/doc/images/layout.png)
And the (work in progress) incoming en-US (is it? if you configure your machine as so, will match the visual...) layout:
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mathieubolla/sik_keyboard/sik_en_us/doc/images/layout_en-us.png)
It is still on a branch at github, but will make it to master as soon as I figure out how to swap shift behavior on some keys (I want an & at fn-W, not a 7, and a 7 at fn-shift-W, not an &)
Thank your,
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This seems like a really fun layout, but I have one question:
Wouldn't the 'é' Key be better right of 'P' instead of bellow it? Or using that empty space for another key?
To me at least it is easier for the pinky to move sideways than to fold inwards (but I also have a much shorter pinky than you judging by the video)
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I clearly have no idea. There is the ! currently, but even with one month stats about what I use most, there is not enough to decide between these... While learning typing I often think I should put P below, and group è and é in its stead. These are rarely used anyways...
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I still have to decide on a licence (that is compatible with T.M.K licence, it's my firmware base, and Technomancy's Atreus licence, because its matrix reading code was so inspiring...) Any help on this side will be greatly appreciated...
As far as I see, TMK is under the GPLv2+, and Atreus is GPLv3+. The GPLv2+ allows upgrading to GPLv3+. Any derived work that combines or derives from both, must satisfy both licenses, which is only possible by licensing the derivative under the GPLv3+: it satisfies the TMK license, because GPLv3+ is allowed by GPLv2+, and it satisfies the Atreus license, because it is the same license. So, it looks like you do not really have a choice, if you want to comply with both licenses, but to use GPLv3+, the same license Atreus uses.
Hope that helps!
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I think you misunderstood me, I wasn't talking about the logical layout but of having the pinky keys arranjed like so:
[attach=1]
I don't speak french at all so I will refrain from any comments about optimizing for it :p
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That's a good idea. I Think it may prevent hitting "," and ";", but I'll give it a try on "paper model keyboard" to check. I'll try to make a video, so we can further discuss the matter...
Thank you!
Another idea I had while using mine is adding a fourth thumb key, centered vertically between alt and meta, one to the left of fn1, and one to the right of space. Don't know yet what that means on logical layout, but my thumbs are definitely capable of this motion. Will give it a try as well...
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can you explain why there is one middle column and not 2 or 0?
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I designed the keyboard after drawings of my hands at rest. I had about 60mm separation, and thought I could pack a "small numpad" at the center to get at least 10 numerics + 12 function keys. So, there is no "one middle column", but more "three column numpad in empty space".
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Very nice. Question: how well does the "num block" in the middle work in real life ?
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As a arrow/home/end bloc, it's quite cool, I mostly use forefingers on left and right column. As a numpad, I don't use it that often. It works for sure. Center column for occasional use is a bit far from forefingers homing, for instance Alt-F5 shortcut requires lifting right hand. But so does the same shortcut on stock MacBook keyboard...