Ergohacking, Filter for ergonomic hacking keyboards.

[Muted]

Earlier this year I finally bought a decent keyboard (Kinesis Advantage). I  learned a lot by searching this forum and it helped me decide which one to get. While I was searching for what I wanted, I put together a list of keyboards with some features and have just put it online at http://www.ergohacking.com. Hopefully it can help others in search of a good keyboard. I'm sure the list is incomplete (both in terms of keyboards and listed features). I'll be adding keyboards in the coming days. Feel free to give feedback and suggestions if there are certain things missing.

(e.g. I was thinking about adding filter for cherry mx key color)

[davkol]

Nice site, but updating it is gonna be tough, I'm afraid.

Some feedback:

• The Results button should be more visible (at least so that it's obvious, that filters don't apply immediately).
• The choice under Switch is confusing. "Membrane" and "capacitive" are "contact" mechanisms (and all respective listed keyboards use rubber-dome "switches"), whereas buckling spring is indeed a switch (that may use a membrane or capacitive "contact" mechanism). I would rather use "rubber dome", "rubber dome over capacitive…", "Cherry MX/clones", "Alps/clones" and "buckling spring".
  
• You're splitting Alignment into Staggered and Vertical. I recommend using Symmetrical (symmetrical row staggering, column staggering, no staggering=grid) and Asymmetrical (the usual schtick).
• The Design parameter… I'd rather use Non-split (=standard), Curved (MS Comfort Curve), Fixed-split (some hand separation, like TM2030, MS Sculpt Ergo, TECK, Kinesis Advantage) and Fully-split (ErgoDox), and add a separate switches Flat/Contoured (most keyboards are flat, whereas IBM Model M, Kinesis Advantage or Maltron are contoured) and Tenting (MS Sculpt is tented, Kinesis Advantage is slightly tented, Matias Ergo Pro or ErgoDox are fully tentable).
• Include DIY and discontinued keyboards.

[Muted]

Thanks a lot for the feedback! I've made most of your suggested changes.

• The results button I'll do later on as this requires some more structural changes.
• My reasoning was that all keyboards under "membrane" and "capacitive" had rubber dome switches so it was redundant. I couldn't just put "rubber dome" because then there was no distinction between the membrane and capacitive rubber dome. I changed it to "rubber dome membrane" and "rubber dome capacitive", hopefully that makes it more clear.
• I updated this. I'm wondering, what is a keyboard that has for instance symmetrical row staggering but not column staggering? Or a symmetrical keyboard with non vertical keys? When thinking about a symmetrical keyboard I can only picture keyboards with vertical key alignment.
• I updated this and also added "staircase" as one of the contour possibilities for e.g. HHBK.
• I'll do this in the following days!

If there's anything else, let me know.

[QuincyJones]

Oh boy, your site is going to be an uphill challenge!

[xtrafrood]

If you're going to use your Amazon Affiliate links you should specify that you are part of the affiliate program. Visitors might think it's obnoxious but doing so will appease the great Amazon Affiliate gods.

[QuincyJones]

If you're going to use your Amazon Affiliate links you should specify that you are part of the affiliate program. Visitors might think it's obnoxious but doing so will appease the great Amazon Affiliate gods.

ahh... you know, I thought it was spammy, but couldn't be arsed to actually go to the website thinking it seemed a little... advertisey. OP - you'll make hardly any money (if anything) doing what you're doing. Either continue trying to progress in a market that is driven by startups, or get out now, or monetise it some other way.

[davkol]

All "staircase" keyboards are flat, but have contoured keycap profiles, which is the same as on majority of "flat" keyboards (without scissor switches).

Goldtouch keyboards are "fully" tentable.

Keyboards with symmetrically staggered rows are most notably microTron and some older Japanese keyboards; there such modern DIY projects too (one is called Katana IIRC, and bpiphany makes a new generation of Phantom PCB, that should support this).

I believe the general consensus is that a keyboard is "fixed split", when there there's another key or empty space between G and H keys on QWERTY. Thus, I'd put TECK, TypeMatrix and the wireless MS Ergo 4k there.

[Muted]

If you're going to use your Amazon Affiliate links you should specify that you are part of the affiliate program. Visitors might think it's obnoxious but doing so will appease the great Amazon Affiliate gods.

ahh... you know, I thought it was spammy, but couldn't be arsed to actually go to the website thinking it seemed a little... advertisey. OP - you'll make hardly any money (if anything) doing what you're doing. Either continue trying to progress in a market that is driven by startups, or get out now, or monetise it some other way.

The reason for using amazon is that I can use their api which automatically gives me a title, images, updated price etc.

All "staircase" keyboards are flat, but have contoured keycap profiles, which is the same as on majority of "flat" keyboards (without scissor switches).

Goldtouch keyboards are "fully" tentable.

Keyboards with symmetrically staggered rows are most notably microTron and some older Japanese keyboards; there such modern DIY projects too (one is called Katana IIRC, and bpiphany makes a new generation of Phantom PCB, that should support this).

I believe the general consensus is that a keyboard is "fixed split", when there there's another key or empty space between G and H keys on QWERTY. Thus, I'd put TECK, TypeMatrix and the wireless MS Ergo 4k there.

Thanks for your help! I've done all the updates. I've also added some discontinued keyboards like the model m, datahand, opensource like ergodox, and new ones that still need to come out like UHKB and keyboardio. I'll keep an eye out to add more.

[lee+]

One thing important to me would be whether the keyboard is "cut off" around the space where the keys are, or if it has room to put things onto it.  When I look at, for example, the CM Storm QuickFire TK, which is categorized as "full sized", I'm looking at an apparently very small, cut off keyboard which isn't anywhere near full sized.  It doesn't even have cursor keys, so it won't even qualify as full sized if it had room to put stuff.

[algernon]

One interesting property one may look for in a keyboard is the switch type: Cherry, Alps, Topre, etc. Having that on the site, would make it even more useful.

Oh, and a suggestion for an additionaly fully spilt entry: Diverge 2.

[Muted]

One thing important to me would be whether the keyboard is "cut off" around the space where the keys are, or if it has room to put things onto it.  When I look at, for example, the CM Storm QuickFire TK, which is categorized as "full sized", I'm looking at an apparently very small, cut off keyboard which isn't anywhere near full sized.  It doesn't even have cursor keys, so it won't even qualify as full sized if it had room to put stuff.

I wasn't sure where to but the CM storm quickfire TK since its not TKL, and not compact hence I put it under full size, maybe I should make an extra categorization for everything in between TKL and full size. I definitely agree that this is not really a full sized keyboard, I'm just not sure on how to solve it.

One interesting property one may look for in a keyboard is the switch type: Cherry, Alps, Topre, etc. Having that on the site, would make it even more useful.

Oh, and a suggestion for an additionaly fully spilt entry: Diverge 2.

This is somewhat the case now except that there's no distinction between cherry and alps. "capacitive rubber dome" is essentially Topre since there's only topre switches listed there. If I understand correctly, you are suggesting something similar to what davkol wrote?

I would rather use "rubber dome", "rubber dome over capacitive…", "Cherry MX/clones", "Alps/clones" and "buckling spring".

Would it be useful then to go further and distinguish between the type of switch? E.g. cherry MX blue, brown, green,.... Or is splitting mechanical into "cherry" and "alps" enough?

I added the Diverge 2 along with the Diverge TM and Terminus mini.

 

[algernon]

One interesting property one may look for in a keyboard is the switch type: Cherry, Alps, Topre, etc. Having that on the site, would make it even more useful.

Oh, and a suggestion for an additionaly fully spilt entry: Diverge 2.

This is somewhat the case now except that there's no distinction between cherry and alps. "capacitive rubber dome" is essentially Topre since there's only topre switches listed there. If I understand correctly, you are suggesting something similar to what davkol wrote?

I would rather use "rubber dome", "rubber dome over capacitive…", "Cherry MX/clones", "Alps/clones" and "buckling spring".

Would it be useful then to go further and distinguish between the type of switch? E.g. cherry MX blue, brown, green,.... Or is splitting mechanical into "cherry" and "alps" enough?

davkol's suggestion is perfect. No need to distinguish further, as some of the keyboards can come with either. For DIY boards, you can use pretty much any switch, as long as it fits. For other boards, like the ErgoDox EZ or Infinity, you can choose your (cherry or clone) swithces when you buy the keyboard.

[davkol]

The "rubber dome over capacitive" category has been renamed to Topre, but that isn't quite correct, because Noppoo/PLUM/RK makes Topre clones,, that capacitance sensing.

[Muted]

The "rubber dome over capacitive" category has been renamed to Topre, but that isn't quite correct, because Noppoo/PLUM/RK makes Topre clones,, that capacitance sensing.

Yes you are right, good point. I don't think there are currently any topre clones in the database but i changed it anyway to prevent future issues. I added the "clones" part as you suggested with the cherry and alps.  Hope that's ok =).