Matias Ergo Pro vertical on its own

[chx]

This is an ongoing project to get rid of my tripods and simply stand the keyboard halves on their edges. Supported by what? Each other, of course! Today I bought

• Manfrotto 259B Extension pole 6"-10".
• 1/4" Male to 3/8" Male Threaded Screw Converter Adapter. Edit: I bought a five pack from "Foto&Tech", these are the right size.
• On-Stage MA-125 1/4-Inch Male to 3/8-Inch Female. Edit: do NOT buy this, the Amazon page is misleading this is an 5/8 to 1/4 adapter. Since I have a quick release plate in the mail I will just wait for that.
• Shepherd Hardware 9973 3/4-Inch Surface Grip Adhesive Foam Non Slip Pads, 12-Pack. Edit: these are nice, however the keyboard has a slight curve so you need two of these on top of each other to form legs so altogether you will use 8 of them.

Edit: the setup in 2018 is now real simple, a male 1/4-20  to 3/8 male, the Manfrotto 259B, a Triopo Short Column I got for cheap on eBay, and finally a female 3/8 to male 1/4 converter screw. I am using item 182856890073 from eBay for pads, the round, 48 works well and costs nothing. Note the rightmost  screw tends to get stuck hard but a small plastic strap wrench makes short work of it.

[chx]

Yes this works! The whole contraption:



A Smallrig micro rod on the left side, there's a 1/4"-20 Male- 1/4"-20 Male screw there and a 1/4"-20 Male to 3/8"-16 Male as well



The Vktech (Manfrotto knock off) quick release plate I've gotten on the right hand side, it came with a 3/8 M-1/4 F converter  screwed into the base plate, this I have took out so now it serves as a 3/8"-16 Female to 1/4"-20 Male converter as well.

[Matias]

Very cool!

Since the side edges are curved, any problems with it rocking back-and-forward?

[chx]

See the opening post: that has been taken care of. I didn't realize the curve but I do know my desk is shiny and slick so I grabbed some pads to grip and then realized they are rocking so I stacked two for legs. These are absolutely essential, the Gorillapod I used for one half was sliding around which was quite annoying. These pads are an important reason why this thing stays put.



Your poor keyboard

[Matias]

See the opening post: that has been taken care of. I didn't realize the curve but I do know my desk is shiny and slick so I grabbed some pads to grip and then realized they are rocking so I stacked two for legs. These are absolutely essential, the Gorillapod I used for one half was sliding around which was quite annoying. These pads are an important reason why this thing stays put.

Oh ok, great, the picture explains it.   

[chx]

Since then I changed the left side to a 1/4" 3/8" spigot (like the Impact SRP-109) for light weight and added a "Triopo Short Column Ø24mm for MT-128 and GT-128 tripods" to the right because I found it was not wide enough otherwise and this what I found for cheap. Now it is. I might ditch the QR plate for a simple converter screw.

[jacobolus]

Cute.

I wonder if you could build a similar contraption of a rigid rod with ball joints + mounts on each end, and get the keyboard to stay at a different tent angle. Would take differently positioned gripper feet.

[chx]

Omitting ball joints was an important part on my side. I have no desire of a tenting keyboard and I felt ball joints would make it less stable.

[nemui]

Hi chx, I wanted to tell you this project actually inspired me to try to do the same with my Matias Ergo Pro. Just curious - how is the typing experience on the vertical keyboard so far?

[chx]

I have been using a vertical keyboard , a Kinesis Freestyle + Ascent since 2009. I love the experience, the Matias is even better, of course.

[nemui]

Thanks for the reply, chx! I finally got the last piece of equipment I needed today and just assembled my poor imitation of your setup. Hope you don't mind me sharing some pictures of it.

I went with an adjustable monopod AKA selfie stick with a 1/4 male screw on top and a 1/4 female screw slot hidden in the bottom.


Which I then stuck a 1/4 male to 1/4 male screw into.


Assembled.


Would really appreciate help/advice if anyone has any, especially in the area of dust management (I've been using cling wrap so far, please don't laugh). The two sides are a bit wobbly at the moment so any advice on how to make it better would be most appreciated!

[chx]

The left side of your setup is the problem. Such heads are wobbly. They are not designed for this. Note how my setup has zero moving parts. I didn't go with monopods because I was very much unsure of the stability of them. You'd need some super high end monopod which has awesome locks and perhaps a removable ball head (or whatever that gopro head is called) to get to the same place where I am. Also it would need to fold to 12" or even lower, my current separation is exactly 12".

[nemui]

The left side of your setup is the problem. Such heads are wobbly. They are not designed for this. Note how my setup has zero moving parts. I didn't go with monopods because I was very much unsure of the stability of them. You'd need some super high end monopod which has awesome locks and perhaps a removable ball head (or whatever that gopro head is called) to get to the same place where I am. Also it would need to fold to 12" or even lower, my current separation is exactly 12".

Thanks for taking the time to give me feedback about my setup! I've folded the monopod to somewhere around 12" like you suggested and this is indeed the sweet spot! I'll also try to adjust the setup so that it has less moving parts, but for now tightening the screws harder seem to reduce the wobble by quite a bit. Maybe an antislip mat for the keyboard tray might also help. I'm not sure, but I'll try it too. All in all, thanks for posting your great hack and inspiring me to do my own. Being able to type with my wrists at completely neutral is doing wonders for that dull ache in my shoulder blades!

[chx]

Here's a photo of the largely simplified setup:



Still four pieces but the bulky quick release plate has been replaced by a screw which is smaller and lighter but has the tendency to get stuck in the keyboard very hard, we are exploring tool https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,72349.msg1491522.html options here. I will test http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?cat=1,70373,70375&p=61101 and report back.

[chx]

I promised to report back: a strap wrench works extremely well. I use the smaller one from the Performance Tool W54059  set. It's plastic (noone cares at the airport), lightweight, quite cheap, doesn't scratch anything and provides immense torque compared to what's necessary here. Where I struggled with various tools before, it requires zero effort now.