Thumb Keys

[mozaiq]

Hi,

I just had the opportunity to try Roccat Ryos for two weeks. Not my board, especially not the blacks it has, but that's not what I wanted to talk about. I really liked one feature this board has: thumb keys. Unfortunately, the way they are implemented seems not that good to me. They are flat and imho very hard to press, much harder than I would like. But that makes wonder: are there any other mechs out there, that have "real" thumb keys, i.e. mechanical keys? I found some that are similar to the Roccat, but besides this the only thing I found was this: http://www.gamdias.com/en/p/hermesgkb2010/ Never heard of this brand before, and I really dislike the fact that it is full size, but it's the only board I managed to find. The only other alternative I know would be split board like Ergodox, but I would highly prefer a normal shape in TKL or smaller. Any suggestions on this?

[IvanIvanovich]

Tex Yoda, but it's probably not easy to get a hold of

Not sure about the programability of the thumb keys as they are meant to be mouse buttons for the trackpoint really.

[Findecanor]

I think the mouse is separate from the keyboard's microcontroller, unfortunately.

[yasuo]

i think this is better

lowpoly design thumb keys behind spacebar with microswitch )

[mozaiq]

Not the answers I had hoped for, but what I suspected. It seems that thumb keys are only used in gaming boards. I guess I'll stick to SpaceFN then. But thanks for your suggestions anyway.

[yasuo]

or like this not really game only, modiefer on thumb keys more effective

[Findecanor]

There are a few keyboards that have the Spacebar split into two parts, where one is an additional Backspace.
The Matias ErgoPro is one, but it is also split. There are vintage full-size keyboards from NMB where the additional Backspace is called "Erase-Eaze".

Then there are some keyboards from Japan that have some special keys for Japanese in front of the space bar, but I think that those are mostly rare vintage keyboards that may not work with a modern PC without a special adapter. One example is a FM Towns keyboard which is in TKL form factor.
Regular modern Japanese keyboards have a small Space bar and the Japanese modifiers on the left and right sides.

[mozaiq]

Hi,

thanks for your suggestions. I already gave a thought to those Japanese boards, or bottom row styles that reassemble them. The problem is though that I seem to have big hands. Well actually I don't think that they are that big, but I just can't press alt with my thumb comfortably. With JIS the spacebar becomes smaller, but I am not sure whether those modifiers are near to thumb or not.
Also a drawback is that it is pretty hard to grab a hold one. Or really expensive.
I will let this slip for now I guess. I just customized SpaceFN to my needs and realized how many possibilities this single key offers. Maybe that's even enough for my needs. Or I will build a custom keyboard Although according to the time you can spend doing this, my girlfriend would probably kill me

[jacobolus]

Too bad there aren’t really any keyboards along the lines of..