Author Topic: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?  (Read 2436 times)

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Offline Insy

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Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« on: Wed, 05 September 2012, 13:09:46 »
So here's the story. I type faster than most people can possibly imagine, but my typing has two weaknesses: commas and periods. Because of my strange fingering, I end up using my right index finger for both of those (on qwerty).
3717-0
3719-1
(Yellow = Pinky, Green = Ring, Blue = Middle, Orange = Left Index, Red = Right Index)

There seemed to be no solution except to completely change my layout so that I could more easily reach period and comma, which would blow my efficiency on the rest of the keyboard. At least, that was until I saw this:
3715-2

My question is, has anyone ever done a mod like this themselves? I'd love to add 2 keys in front of my keyboard for comma and period, since my right thumb never does anything anyway.

Offline digitalleftovers

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Re: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 05 September 2012, 13:58:36 »
That keyboard does exist.  A member here (lowpoly)made it several years ago.  Last I heard, he was trying to sell it as a product, but I'm not sure how that's going.  Here is the thread: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=4917.0

EDIT: On that board, those are mouse buttons, but I suppose you could assign them to what ever function you wanted...
« Last Edit: Wed, 05 September 2012, 14:02:52 by digitalleftovers »
Keyboards:
Filco 104 MX Brown (Otaku) - FKBN104M/NPEK 黒い空
Ducky TKL MX Brown/Blue 80% (White) - 1087-F 白の空
KBC Poker MX Red with PBT Key Caps - PFCN6000


"Consumers use touch screens.  Producers use keyboards."

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« Reply #2 on: Wed, 05 September 2012, 15:54:43 »
How fast are we talking here.

I mean, this is a keyboard forum.. you can't come in herez and just toss around a comment like that  :p

Offline alaricljs

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Re: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« Reply #3 on: Wed, 05 September 2012, 15:59:55 »
The mini guru project has been picked up and dropped so many times.... I think the current status is dropped however.
Filco w/ Imsto thick PBT
Ducky 1087XM PCB+Plate, w/ Matias "Quiet Click" spring-swapped w/ XM Greens

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« Reply #4 on: Wed, 05 September 2012, 16:03:40 »
The mini guru project has been picked up and dropped so many times.... I think the current status is dropped however.

I don't see how those thumb buttons would make a huge difference.

And it would probably push the keyboard forward if the table gets dusty.

Offline Insy

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Re: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« Reply #5 on: Wed, 05 September 2012, 23:10:54 »
How fast are we talking here.

I mean, this is a keyboard forum.. you can't come in herez and just toss around a comment like that  :p

150wpm average, 200 is my fastest.

Offline dorkvader

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Re: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« Reply #6 on: Wed, 05 September 2012, 23:41:49 »
How fast are we talking here.

I mean, this is a keyboard forum.. you can't come in herez and just toss around a comment like that  :p

150wpm average, 200 is my fastest.
That's pretty quick.

I would say that switching to Dvorak is a good option. It'll take you years to get that speed back, though. (in Dvorak, the punctuation are in the top left, where QWE are in QWERTY.

If that doesn't sound appealing (I totally understand, I only switched because I could only type 40WPM in QWERTY) you should look into the Kinesis keyboard, It has thumb key, which is awesome. One issue is that it's much more conducive to "normal" touch typing, but the keys are easier to reach, and the typing experience is very nice. Myself, I use a "strange" method to type, and it took me a while to get used to. Still, it might be the best option.

If the miniguru doesn't get made, you might look into the ergoDOX. It will get made though it might take a bit to get proper cases designed. It has thumb keys, and you can probably translate your interesting typing habits to it without too much difficulty. Here's the topic about it:
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=22780

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« Reply #7 on: Wed, 05 September 2012, 23:49:09 »
How fast are we talking here.

I mean, this is a keyboard forum.. you can't come in herez and just toss around a comment like that  :p

150wpm average, 200 is my fastest.

LOL, on highly practiced text maybe.  :-X

What's your hi'games test 5 min?

But, yea, you can't just play typeracer for 3 years, type the same 30 lines or so thousands of times, and say I type 150

I'm not saying your slow, but I am certainly not impressed to the point of "can't even imagein"  :-*

Offline DasHHKBProM

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Re: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« Reply #8 on: Wed, 05 September 2012, 23:53:59 »
if you dont have any luck on that  KB setup
maybe you can try pinky[.] and middle [,]...thats what i use =/

Offline Icarium

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Re: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« Reply #9 on: Thu, 06 September 2012, 02:30:07 »
How did you end up with this extremely weird finger placement?
I had a sig once but it's gone. It used to display an icon of a Kinesis. Just imagine that.

Offline Insy

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Re: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« Reply #10 on: Sun, 16 September 2012, 12:15:36 »
LOL, on highly practiced text maybe.  :-X

What's your hi'games test 5 min?

But, yea, you can't just play typeracer for 3 years, type the same 30 lines or so thousands of times, and say I type 150

I'm not saying your slow, but I am certainly not impressed to the point of "can't even imagein"  :-*

How sassy. On typingzone, which either doesn't count spaces as part of a word or has a different estimation of the average length of a word, I average about 125 wpm. I have a 135.7 registered on their site, putting me at #30 worldwide for the english text there. I've only done the test a few times.

I'll admit, I tend to be faster on things I've typed a lot. But even things I've never typed or only typed once or twice before, even the longer races, I do score around 145-150 average. First you act like it's not fast, then you're skeptical that I'm even capable of such speeds. I'll download the new java and next time I restart I'll do that 5 minute test. If it's not complete sentences though, the difficulty goes up dramatically.

How did you end up with this extremely weird finger placement?

As a kid I went to a typing class every day over a summer where they would put a sheet over our hands and make us type things like the alphabet and texts repeatedly. Without seeing my fingers or looking at which keys they were hitting, these are the keys I evolved instinctively to hit.

I wrote an application that compares distance traveled among various keyboard fingerings. On average my fingers travel about 10% less than standard QWERTY placement, but according to my app it's still not as efficient as Dvorak's standard fingering (incidentally, using this fingering on dvorak is even less effective than QWERTY). Unfortunately I don't feel like I could switch to an entirely new layout AND fingering without having to basically reboot my entire typing muscle memory.

Offline dorkvader

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Re: Thumb switches for full-sized keyboard?
« Reply #11 on: Mon, 17 September 2012, 12:35:08 »
LOL, on highly practiced text maybe.  :-X

What's your hi'games test 5 min?

But, yea, you can't just play typeracer for 3 years, type the same 30 lines or so thousands of times, and say I type 150

I'm not saying your slow, but I am certainly not impressed to the point of "can't even imagein"  :-*

How sassy. On typingzone, which either doesn't count spaces as part of a word or has a different estimation of the average length of a word, I average about 125 wpm. I have a 135.7 registered on their site, putting me at #30 worldwide for the english text there. I've only done the test a few times.
Doesn't typingzone use 6-character "words" instead of the usual 5?
http://seanwrona.com/typing.php