kinesis advantage first impressions

[okyup2]

Si far I an liking ut byt uts hard as **** to type on. Keys luike c and backsoave are really hard for my fimngers to adjust to. cntrl wull probably be the worst in the long ryn as its in such a weird position. My pinky is still too short to hit the P key, but ither than that, I thin, this keyboar wuill really forve me to yse the correvt keys whivh i obviously havent been in the past bevause i keep typing v instead of v and y instead of u.

[sth]

Nice review.

[okyup2]

This keyboard has been a lot easier to get adjusted to so far than I expected. The finger positioning is very natural. At first I thought the lightness and plasticity of the board was a turn off, but I can see myself using this over the Topres soon if all goes well.

Also it rocks for learning to have the backspace key under your thumb.

[shibbyllama889]

I found one of these in my office the other day. They bought it for an intern apparently. I need to take advantage of that generosity...

But I've been using it the past couple days, and I agree you get used to it fairly quickly. I still have the most trouble with numbers, tab, hyphens, "n", "m", and "c". Some keys are just shifted much more than others. Part of this comes from having to move my fingers more on a standard layout, I overshoot the keys on the Kinesis. The numbers are difficult for me because I have small hands and this keyboard makes you want to leave your hands in one spot and never move them forward and backward (which I do all the time on a regular keyboard).

Have you noticed the keys being especially wobbly? This is the first mechanical I've ever used, so I'm not sure if it's an issue with a keyboard or mechanicals in general. I love not bottoming out the browns on this thing. I barely press the keys and barely move my fingers or hands, I could type all day!

Also, what's up with the Caps Lock making some weird system speaker buzz every time you press it?

[okyup2]

Haha I wish my office would buy me this.

Keys seem normal to me. It's my only keyboard with cherry browns but they feel amazing, perhaps even better than topres.

I haven't even attempted numbers and odd symbols yet, but I was never great at those on a normal keyboard so I'm hoping to learn them better / the proper way on the Kinesis.

[Input Nirvana]

You can turn the speaker sound on/off.

Here's a link to the entire manual so you can see EVERYTHING that awesome keyboard is capable of:

http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/support/advantage-usb-manual_09-11.pdf

[shibbyllama889]

Haha I wish my office would buy me this.

Keys seem normal to me. It's my only keyboard with cherry browns but they feel amazing, perhaps even better than topres.

I haven't even attempted numbers and odd symbols yet, but I was never great at those on a normal keyboard so I'm hoping to learn them better / the proper way on the Kinesis.

Interesting...and good luck learning numbers on the kinesis! I type "properly" and have all kinds of problems on the kinesis! You might have the opposite issue going back to a regular keyboard if you learn the correct finger placement this board!

[okyup2]

AFAIC the problem is with normal keyboards, the keys are angled in a ridiculous way so if I wanted to be "proper" on such keyboards I'd likely have hand problems.

I have plenty of problems on the kinesis still, such as about 10 wpm, but nothing a few days at the gym for linux won't
help us resolve. gl

[iMav]

I bought a Kinesis a while back for the sole purpose of trying to connect with the ergo GHers a bit more.  Lo and behold, the Kinesis has been my daily driver ever since...

Absolutely LOVE it!

[adreamer]

Sorry for an unrelated question. It is related to footswitch and macros. Can footswitch be used a "modifier key" for macros? For ex: Can I map "Footswitch + t" to Alt + tab(or Command + tab in mac)? Or it can be only used as shift?

[okyup2]

^ idk rtfm

Update: Just did typing lessons for common letters and capitals, and I'm able to type fairly coherently at this point. Had some problems with O and C which have been worked out by the lessons. Left wrist is feeling pretty sore, hope this is a one time thing as no keyboards have given me wrist troubles before so I hope an ergonomic one won't lol.

[Input Nirvana]

I knew just looking at the Kinesis it would serve me well. I was 95% sure. I had a PC Concepts ergo board before so I had an idea of what the drawbacks were and what I needed more of. Typing on a flat board has NEVER worked for me. I guess my size and shape and angles and bendability just don't jive with regular typing. Laptops are a PITA.


My first ergo keyboard which I just found in the garage. I need cash so maybe a $20 price tag on ebay will get me a few gallons of gas

[okyup2]

Been a few weeks and I'm feeling very comfortable on the Kinesis. I tried using a standard layout yesterday and wanted to stab myself due to the staggering of the keys and leaving my Kinesis at home. This is just sooo much more comfortable. Typing about my original speed, around 70wpm, for letters, but quite a bit slower with complex symbols and stuff. On the positive side, I'm now typing the "proper" way and using all my fingers for the first time in my life as this keyboard really forces it. I even finally bothered to memorize where all the symbols are without looking so I can only see myself improving in the future.

Using the Cntl key is coming along. I can do copying, pasting, saving, searching etc semi-accurately.

Took a few days to be able to function at all in vim due to the heavy amount of shortcuts combinations and obscure keys to re-learn. I'm still working on improving my general vim efficiency and keyboard accuracy for symbols, but no longer want to pull my hair out continually.

Challenges: Hitting ] and ` wrong lots. I don't understand why they're so low, I cringe when I have to use these symbols which is practically on every line.
Arrow keys! I'm considering disabling them entirely as I sometimes hit DOWN instead of M then have to figure out how to undo what I've typed go UP again and find the right cursor spot.
6 and 7, I sometime hit the wrong ones.

At any rate I think I'm addicted to this keyboard already and I really hope I can master it. Still not entirely sure about cherry browns, they're decent switches but I think Topres were a lot better. Can foresee myself buying a second one for home and work in the near future...

[sordna]

The arrow keys are *great* once you master them. For me I had to swap Up and Down so they match vi's JK; this helped me master the arrow keys in a few days and I absolutely love them.

[moonie777]

I'm considering an Advantage LF.  It would be my first mechanical.  I have terrible arthritis in my thumbs - one joint replacement in the left and pending joint replacement in the right - with growing hand and wrist pain from my MS Natural and Kinesis Freestyle but am a bit worried about the increased demand of the thumbs with mechanical keyboards. 

I do medical transcription and am constantly backspacing as the doc changes his mind while dictating.  So, actually my right pinkie is fairly strong and well used. 

Can I program this board to take the enter and backspace back off the thumbs, potentially using the foot pedal?

Thanks for any input!

Michelle

[sordna]

Hello, and welcome to Geekhack!
Yes, you can map any key, including backspace, to a foot pedal. Up to 3 foot pedals are supported.
You could also map the top right key (the minus key) to do backspace so it feels like a regular keyboard in this respect, but you would have to move the minus symbol where the backspace is, or somewhere else.
The good thing about this keyboard is it allows you to move keys around any way you like.

Another thing you can do is push the thumb buttons with your fingers. While I use thumbs for space/backspace/enter, I frequently use my index and middle fingers on Alt and Ctrl keys (especially when I have to hold them both down at the same time) as well as use my index finger on PgUp/PgDown Home/End sometimes.

Anyway, this keyboard does try to utilize thumbs much more than other keyboards do, so if you have thumb problems it may not work too well for you, however it has a 60-day money-back guarantee so you have nothing to loose trying it out.

[moonie777]

I was thinking from your posts on several other threads that I would have a tremendous amount of flexibility to customize the keyboard to meet my personal pain/medical issues.  And I do think red keys are likely going to be best - will probably also mod with o-rings (mm suggestions welcome).

I'm really leaning toward this board, but I'm open to suggestions if another board might be a better option.  I've considered the 3D but lean toward this one because of foot pedal and program-ability, especially since I'm already accustomed to using a foot pedal with transcription work.

It's a lot to put down sight unseen, but I need to make a move on this before I'm forced to just chop off my hands and be done with it!