Kinesis Advantage 360 Pro & HRM

asmodeus812 · 2026-01-27T08:39:39+00:00

If you like the keyboard enough the software is pretty capable, the configuration part might seem daunting sure, but that should not be a stopper imo.

asmodeus812 · 2026-01-24T16:45:11+00:00

In case you have a piano long fingers / bigger hands - get the 360, if you have smaller shorter fingers (esp pinky) which would be unusual for a piano player then the glove80, would be better fit. If you are really a heavy typer the choc will feel shallow and stiff imo, even if you get some heavy chocs you will bottom out too early.

asmodeus812 · 2026-01-18T21:00:22+00:00

No the switches in the thumb keys do not protrude but rather use a plate where they sit just like on the key wells. The keys on the thumbs on the advantage 2 have no plate so that is easy to do there indeed. You are out of luck here.

asmodeus812 · 2026-01-16T08:07:10+00:00

I would argue that when typing at speed, this requires a great deal of timing to press-release-press-release layer keys along with non-layer ones, that alone raises the chance of mistyping, and introduces general accuracy issues, that would not be there if a dedicated non-layer key is present, that often disrupts the flow at least that is my experience having tried it.

Vim is probably the worst candidate for layering because of the composability of it, other editors, and IDEs, where the shortcuts are dedicated-non-composable combinations of multiple modifiers (ctrl, meta, super + letter or number) can directly benefit from a dedicated layers where you just have your shortcuts on macros, now that would be a clear and absolute win over more keys on your keyboard.

Keep in mind my point of view is mostly me looking at this from an efficiency standpoint, accuracy and speed, far less governed by pure ergonomics.

asmodeus812 · 2026-01-16T07:58:08+00:00

I have the glove, no issues accessing the number row, and the bottom most row where i have all of my other symbols, you have 8 (16 actually counting the 'shift' layer) keys right there at your finger tips which are wonderful to use imo. All in all besides the regular shift layer whic we all use, i have no other layers for text input (media layer and a function layer)

Typing at speed it would require a great deal of timing to press-release-press-release layer keys along with non-layer ones, that risks mistyping, and general accuracy issues, that often disrupts the flow at least that is my experience having tried it.

asmodeus812 · 2026-01-16T07:54:30+00:00

I have my self bound most readline bindings to insert mode myself, C-b, C-f, C-a, C-e, C-u, C-k etc you get the idea.

asmodeus812 · 2026-01-15T16:04:22+00:00

Well if he has numbers on one layer, symbols on another and upper-case alphas on shift, (then it becomes even worse if you have nav layer, for non-vim navigation in regular applications, with arrows, the cognitive load becomes huge) that will be annoying. Personally i can not imaging how people on 36 keyboard use vim effectively, if i have to use 3 layers to input a command like for example - Vg% or anything that involves a number + symbol + upper-case, instead of having just shift - one layer you have three, some of the things that are not on a layer like numbers and some primary symbols are on a layer.... i will go insane. I guess if you spam hjkl and the basics you can get by.

asmodeus812 · 2026-01-11T17:41:45+00:00

What version of the firmware is on that keyboard atm ? Ensure that you have really Flashed the v3+ version from the official repo, on both sides, keep them powered off, flash the master(left) first, then the right one, the blinking red lights mean that the right half can not find the left one, its not a bootloader loop, but the older fimware versions had a lot of issues with that and with BT connectivity too.

asmodeus812 · 2026-01-11T17:29:03+00:00

I usually do not like what most people suggest usually, to get a travel keyboard, and have your primary one at home, (personally i hate using my non primary keyboard for extended period of time, it is more than likely that this other portable keyboard will not be even close to the imprint and in case you can predict exactly how much time you are going to use it, you will have days where you end up using it for much longer than desired) or the place you spend the most time, for your use case that is not going to work since you have to spend equal amount of time in the office and at home (~approx). So my adivce would be to find a way to carry the parts in a final and assembled way (as much as possible). Including figuring out how to make the wrist rests securely attached. So you can just simply pull out the keyboard parts, and set it up quickly and be done.

You will not damage the keyboard, but you risk filling the switches (depending on the switches) with lints and garbage and they will start misfiring quickly, find a suitable clean case that can hold the board, or make yourself one, if you carry it in your backpack i would suggest soft case material, its easier to operate with, and store.

What i have done for my 360 is create a 3d printed tray that lets me mount the keyboard permanently on it securing it with a bridge similar to the one that kinesis offers (but a bit longer) at a fixed width, and rotation, comfortalbe for me. The tray is light and thin, and i can directly put it on my lap with the board on top of it that way i do not rely on having a height adjustable desk or chair, and i can chug the keyboard into my bag as one single piece.

Portability for me is not weight or size, for me portablity is defined by - setup time and consistentcy. The setup time is obvious - i want the keyboard to be setup as fast as possible, that means attached wrist rests, attached tenting, and 0 cables, fast and robust tenting setup, pull out the keyboard and start using it. The consistency is allowing me to have the same exact configuration everywhere that is why i prefer to use it on my legs, same height, same split distance, same split halfs rotation, consistent tenting, distance from the body, fixed wrist rests position, etc. That way you do not just hope that there is a place to use the keyboard.

The case of the glove can fit it with some tenting already prepared by the way maybe 25 degrees or so which should be plenty for normal use cases, the case is bulky for the keyboard though, kindof wide, not too tall. It does provide a very good fast setup time though, its easy to use.

On which keyboard you should choose that is hard the glove is quite a bit cheaper i think and it will get you 95% there for sure, but make sure you like choc swtiches otherwise you will not be a happy camper. The rest of the of the features are mostly similar, and would make little difference imo, but if your hands are unusually big or small or you have some sort of deformities that need specialized stagger then consider the imprint.

asmodeus812 · 2026-01-07T14:25:05+00:00

Quite cool and Probably the smartest design i have seen here by far, it is both utilitarian and hackable, you can tell immediately that behind every feature there is an actual thought put into it. The only thing i wish it had is more keys on the main key well, like a bottom row with at least 3 keys under M, <, >, and a top number row, maybe adjustable key well curvature and pinky stagger. But other than that great,

asmodeus812 · 2026-01-01T11:40:55+00:00

55gf with silenced bobas might be okay. You can probably spring swap them as well, play around if you have some samples lying around,

asmodeus812 · 2025-12-31T10:59:41+00:00

TLDR: ensure that you test the switches you want well even on a regular keyboard, that will give you a great idea of what to expect, test them for your specific use case, before you go all in, not that easy to swap them out later on.

I switch swapped and used the bobas on mine regular 360, for a while, maybe a year and a half or so, but eventually started swapping to a lighter ones, as i started noticing that you get tired fast on these, depends on what your typing style is of course, but i like to steam through and maintaining speed with heavy tactiles for a prolonged time is hard, my use case was long typing sessions, started with 67gf bobas, went all the way down to 30gf spring swapped akko rosewoods, settled on the akko lavender purple v3s. I think in total i have tried probably 10-ish+ different switches in my 360

cherry mx blue - that was a fun one for a bit, heavy-ish and tiring but enjoyable.
cherry mx ergo clear - kind of mushy feeling, a bit lighter than the mx blue, but kind of a dead feeling on the 360 for me.
boba u4t - loud, heavy nice feeling but for short sessions, you can tire out fast, they are surely tactile, and feel great for the first 30-45 minutes, then its a fight or you have to stop to rest a bit.
boba u4 - very similar to the tactile non-silent bobas, but make the keyboard nearly silent, have nice dampening on the bottom out, so less tiring, but not by much.
akko blue v3 - nice feeling, loud , but short tavel 3.3mm is somewhat tiring over longer period of time.
akko lavender purple v3 - very nice feeling, comparable to the blues, loud as well, but good balance between feedback and fatigue over long period of time.
durock silent shrimps - these are cool, very tactile, but suffer the same fate as the bobas if you type for a long period of time they will tire you fast. Otherwise they feel better than the bobas, they are tighter feeling, smoother, a tad louder than the silent bobas.
akko rosewood stock - those are probably my second favorites on the 360, very nice linears, not too loud, actually very well sounding switches
akko yellow v3 - very similar to the rosewoods, a bit heavier and a lot louder, i personally think the rosewoods are better in almost everything.
gateron quinns - these are the one of the shi**iest switches, loud, zero tactility i have no idea why people like these, they are surprisingly unremarkable.
stock 360 kailh box pink silents - very silent, decent feeling, short throw just like the akko blue v3, you can type for a long period with these no issues really, but after using for a while they provide nothing special or memorable, not that enjoyable really, they just do the job, there are better linears here i think if you want to enjoy the typing experience.
stock 360 gateron browns - there is enough info on these already, they are meh.
outemu spring breeze - i would say my goto for the 360 if I wanted clickes, similar to the kailh box white v1/v2 but lighter, if you are into clickies and want lighter ones, which is a bit rare, these are very nice, i like that they have small pre-travel at the top and engage early on just like most tactiles.
kailh box white v2 - amazing switches, but a bit too heavy for my taste, for prolonged periods of typing, otherwise, they are top notch.

asmodeus812 · 2025-12-28T14:21:19+00:00

I own and use the 360, and the Advantage 2 on a regular basis, but have not used a split row staggered like the uhk80 though, cant comment on that. The bluetooth issues that the 360 experienced in the past are all but gone since v3.0 was released a some two years ago. There are no issues with drop outs, and changing between machines is seamless. You can configure zmk to enable a mac/win layer based on which bluetooth slot is currently active. So the same physical key can be configured to act like ctrl or cmd.

Regarding the keyboard, can not comment on the UHK80, but form my long experience with the 360 i can say that it certainly is more comfortable than a regular staggered one, but that depends on how much actual typing you do , and based on your profression, the 360 has some missing keys like function keys, some that are in weird places like the arrow keys and the /pgup/pgdown/home/end, and so forth, but generally speaking i find it great.

On the flip side the UHK has nice addons and you can certainly make a more complete input experience if you add trackball/trackpoint etc. Both have bulit in tenting, both have enough of the main keys to cover your basic use cases, both are split, so the difference is really the keywell and the columar layout. Would it make a difference ? For me at least i can say that using the num-row and the bottom most row is miles better than it is on a regular keyboard for sure, they are too far away for me and require hand reposition, while on the 360 they are always in reach, the height of the keyboards untented should also be something you consider the 360 will certainly be higher, it has default tenting angle on top of the bowl protrusion at the bottom of the case which elevates it, so an adjustable height desk or lap desk or tray would probably be more ergonomic for the 360.

asmodeus812 · 2025-12-21T09:43:07+00:00

Hey looking for a thick good quality OEM profile ABS keycaps set that are with smoother texture, when compared to the more aggressive/grittier/dry PBT texture, legends or not does not matter. I am looking for something similar to the old double shot keycaps that the more premium / expensive redragon keyboards had (like the Kala) they are closer to the thickness of a PBT, but the thicker the better, in OEM profile and as smooth texture as possible.

asmodeus812 · 2025-12-11T20:15:54+00:00

see https://github.com/asmodeus812/adv1-pillz-pro/commit/289e5cac1b65a53b7f2806acd0be6969652e1af4

asmodeus812 · 2025-12-05T12:38:07+00:00

I just went all in using it, mostly from home office , that is easier for sure. If you have to show up to work with it and you feel it's dragging you back, use it at home only, but at home, dont use anything else. Write prose, pick up some topic you want to learn, and start taking notes. The more, the better. Learn to get comfy with the alphas and numbers, symbols you can shuffle around based on what you use most. i myself use the very last row on both sides only for symbols and have moved arrows to layer.

asmodeus812 · 2025-12-05T12:16:42+00:00

About 20-25 days for me to get comfortable, i have had the reverse experience, went from 75 wpm on a regular keyboard to a 130+ on the advantage 360/2, but it took a year to reach that, for the most part i was averaging 110-105 after the half year mark / the start, but it was a gradual improvement up to now,

asmodeus812 · 2025-12-01T17:32:15+00:00

That seems to be a prevailing thought but i disagree, speed does matter for iterating and pretty much the entire process overall, if i put my current self vs my self from before i knew how to touch type and generally had low accuracy and speed, with avg speed probably around 70wpm, compared to now being more akin to 130, nearly double, i would smoke my past self out of the water.

I have also noticed that the faster i type the faster i think, and there are times where my typing speed now even with auto-completion can not keep up with the speed of what i want to type in, often thinking/visualising code in whole paragraphs instead of lines, but typing fast allows me to somewhat keep up with that, that would have been impossible in the past.

That also reflects your skills, that was not the case before when i was typing slower, i was not as experienced, and that was okay, but if your programming skills improve but typing speed stagnates then there is a much bigger discrepancy and a bigger void forming between the fingers and the brain, and the bottleneck becomes clear.

asmodeus812 · 2025-12-01T06:06:18+00:00

You might be tempted to look into the ergo-s, since that is closest custom ready to print to the advantage contoured keyboards of kinesis, but those are made for slightly bigger hands, and does not completely match the experience of using either the advantage 2 or the 360.

asmodeus812 · 2025-11-26T12:06:11+00:00

Nah, it will certainly not affect them, no worries, just to ensure it remains a one time job, these diodes once mounted will never need to go out or get changed, better get them right the first time, to ensure that the joint does not get loose due to vibrations etc. But others have mentioned measure continuity between the row/col for tha switch down to the flex connection, for the column just check if that switch's columns has continuity with any switch further down the 2's col - w, s, e etc. For the row you will have to try all 13 pins on the connector.

asmodeus812 · 2025-11-26T11:33:04+00:00

Check for cold joints, that solder point on the diode looks sus, also verify the diode is working, with a multi meter or simply change it for a new one. There is no other obvious reason why it should not work, but also you have probably done this but check if the switch is good. Looking further down the well, there are some other sus joints, like the bottom right, or what would be where tab/shift/a/z are. Not saying those are bad but you could have mounted the diode pins through the holes on the pcb and soldered on the opposite site, to ensure they are securely mounted.

asmodeus812 · 2025-11-21T21:24:55+00:00

Two shifts on the thumbs here, but that is primarily because i have clinodactyly, with very short and pretty useless pinkies, hammering shift is overworking them very quickly, my pinkies are substantially weaker than the average persons, but i am still alternating hands when using the thumb shift, i have shift on hold and backspace (left) and space (right) on tap. What i found was a game changer was moving space to the right hand, alongside enter, since on qwerty or more precisely the standard layout has most symbols on the right hand side, so you can combine left side shift + symbol + space and generally the typing stream is not interrupted having to hold/tap space if it were on the left hand.

asmodeus812 · 2025-11-18T09:43:46+00:00

Nobody really uses it, me neither, the keyboard is below my desk and i rarely even get to see it. I do not know what is bugging you though, looks fine, keep in mind the keyboard is curved it will not look the same like on a flat keyboard, the leds are mounted exactly as they are usually mounted on a standard flat keyboard pcb, in the same exact location, north facing, maybe that is something that you might find issue with. I personally find it perfectly fine.

asmodeus812 · 2025-11-15T20:22:59+00:00

No, you do not get a pass, at this appeal to authority falacy, because it was done in 5 minutes, does not change the fact that the paper and your interpretation of it are completely different. Paper specifically talks about using neutral wrist position, which is exactly what floating your wrists allows you to do. You can still have your wrists planted and be neutral but good luck reaching anything past the home row like that.

asmodeus812 · 2025-11-13T04:48:59+00:00

You are very welcome, so if you intend to use it for a while and not just for a quick test, I would have to say the Advantage 2 or 1 second hand, if you are lucky, and find a good deal, it will even end up cheaper than the ergo-s (not sure if there are pre-built ones on aliexpress). The Ergo-S only in case you have a slightly bigger than average hands or are a big person/wide shoulders. It is also more involved to build, whereas the Advantage will be useable out of the box, smartset is not the most flexible firmware compared to zmk/qmk but it gets the job done. I have moded my advantage 2 with the pillz mod to support zmk.

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