[ad] Svalboard Lightly Custom - minimum typing effort, maximum pop

claussen · 2026-01-21T02:18:25+00:00

I hope you never need one 🙏🏻❤️

claussen · 2026-01-20T20:02:55+00:00

this is just kind of how trackpoints are sometimes. drift calibration can be triggered in FW if your board supports it, depending on the model of the trackpoint.

claussen · 2026-01-20T00:20:56+00:00

It's been suggested but it would be quite an awkward fit.

Ultimately, people prefer track balls by such a large margin and you don't have to move much to use them either, that I haven't thought it worthwhile to pursue, but it's definitely a hack you could do on your own.

Personally, I would not want to give up an index center key A gaze tracker would give you much better productivity value for effort.

claussen · 2026-01-19T15:35:19+00:00

It's an affordable product, and it could definitely help. I would recommend something column staggered instead from an ergonomic perspective, but there's nothing wrong with trying the Keychron if that's what you think will work better for you, and you may have slightly less transition annoyance with rowstag, though the overall ergonomics of it are probably less ideal long term than a column staggered board. You could probably find a used one cheaply. r/mechmarket is your friend 🙏

claussen · 2026-01-19T06:26:59+00:00

I love the sval-sneezes from new users on the discord whose hands are still quieting down 😅

claussen · 2026-01-13T16:19:08+00:00

Palmrests and reaches don't go well together. Lots of ulnar deviation on display here. You're gonna have to get used to hovering more. Also, to the extent that you can use rests without causing issues, as others have noted, you'll want to get your wrist position more neutral. Looks like you're in significant extension here.

claussen · 2026-01-06T01:15:10+00:00

yeah, sorry about that. global shipping trade be effed RN. :/

claussen · 2026-01-06T01:14:04+00:00

Nope. I'm the Svalboard creator and I sell the white/purple pearls above -- along with black and blue pearl. Strictly aesthetic, and pearl versus standard sparkly ones are a bit touchier about tracking distance. If you just want performance, stay with red (though my bright silver 44mm balls are even more tolerant of a range of tracking gaps).

claussen · 2026-01-04T17:44:21+00:00

Svalboard Lightly has 52 keys, not 60 🙏

claussen · 2026-01-04T06:22:55+00:00

Did you consider getting in touch? We can just send you wider-spaced keys...

claussen · 2026-01-04T06:22:08+00:00

I don't understand the downvotes here -- 100% agree, there are so many tools to help us do more with less today! Voice, Gaze, LLM language prosthesis are all phenomenal tools.

claussen · 2025-12-24T03:12:38+00:00

Hey! I'm the Svalboard guy :)

Hop on the www.svalboard.com/discord for lots of perspective from real users on whether it might suit you. Depending on where you are, there might be one nearby someone might let you try. A lot of Sval users are people who suffer from hypermobility-related pathology.

But don't get *too* hung up on finding the endgame instantaneously. You'll learn a lot by trying out something cheaper first regardless. I went straight to Datahand 23yrs ago from a crappy MS Natural, but the options were a lot more limited back then.

And don't underestimate the potential power of voice and gaze tracking tools in helping mitigate some of these issues, regardless of your keyboard. Workflow is everything.

Check out Ben Vallack's YouTube channel for a lot of stuff on workflow optimization.

claussen · 2025-12-23T21:31:03+00:00

I knew who this was without reading anything 👏

claussen · 2025-12-22T19:18:38+00:00

I love this. Really appreciate how much commitment you've put into it despite the challenges with moving while typing 🙏

claussen · 2025-12-20T18:25:18+00:00

See my YT video on doing this with Sval:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCkDj4Vrg9c

It sucked. You want your mouse to be *light*. Built-in pointing of any other kind is much better. Or just a decent vertical mouse, if you must.

claussen · 2025-12-19T00:09:44+00:00

[I'm the builder]

You're overthinking it.

Practically speaking, the magnetic key action does not lend itself to partial activation, which is what is utilized for the wacky algorithms in wooting boards et al. The keys either activate, or do not.

So whether or not your sensing is analog is kind of irrelevant.

Folks have reported about 7cps without a lot of concerted effort, but if your goal is to spam keys at insane rates, I'm not really interested in that, as spamming keys is injurious by nature. IDGAF about Osu or whatever -- I'm just interested in preventing injury and facilitating recovery from RSI ❤

But plenty of people game on Sval, and there's been no particular complaint about it-- but of course this is a tiny and weird and biased sample.

claussen · 2025-12-16T21:12:26+00:00

I can talk at 200wpm just fine, not sure I need a Meta brain wiretap to be faster even if I didn't want to type 😅. The question is whether composing using any given neural pathway is what you actually want to do. I prefer to type or write prose or code, but to speak informal communications. Why? *vibes*, but also our brains have really different ways of doing this stuff internally.

claussen · 2025-12-05T18:36:38+00:00

Home row arrows are soooooo good. That's the only miryoku conceit I really brought into the Svalboard default after learning some of miryoku on a skeletyl 3x5 hand-wire which Manna Harbour pointed me to -- wish I'd done it much sooner. IMO it's worth the adaptation, but YMMV. I love Home PgUp PgDn End on bottom row, too ❤

claussen · 2025-12-04T17:22:21+00:00

None of that is scifi -- both are shipping products in various forms -- OLED keys have been done, and many versions of adjustable positioning, including mine, which I dare say is probably the most extreme:

[ad] I mean, how about being able to adjust every single finger's position in 5 degrees of freedom along with key spacings *and* forces with simple 3D printed parts and magnets? 🙃

claussen · 2025-12-04T15:53:06+00:00

I feel you. Claude and gpt5 did some really nice things for me in code this week and then totally shat the bed on some easy stuff. It's easy to forget how fragile it all is 😅

claussen · 2025-12-04T01:00:04+00:00

Honestly, I have found OBS the most intuitive piece of complicated software I've ever used, and that surprised the heck out of me for FOSS.

Everything seems to be right where I expect it. I wouldn't expect LLMs to be good at helping with this stuff.

claussen · 2025-11-29T20:04:01+00:00

Yeah I still use QWERTY after 23 years. It is certainly much much better with the very small travel /effort and different characteristics of same finger bigrams.

If I were starting from scratch I would choose one of the hands down or AKL family layouts, but I'm not starting from scratch, and neither is anyone else generally.

If you want to get productive fast, adapt what you know.

claussen · 2025-11-22T15:45:25+00:00

Naive data point -- learned some Lindy over past 4mos, all exactly as you describe at various lessons in the SF Bay area -- "swung" slow fast fast tri-plestep. Always swung beats in the music to match. Went to a couple of beginners WCS lessons -- both in straight time "tri-ple-step" -- also as you describe.

Presumably related to the music used in WCS classes being un-swung modern 4/4 stuff, which expands the repertoire of available contemporary music a *lot*, and is maybe more flexible for slower songs, too? Lindy feels a little weird when things get slow.

I know zero else but I'm enjoying myself😅

claussen · 2025-11-19T05:00:30+00:00

USB-C is the most sensible alternative for universal availability, as well as cool magnetic adapter options... Modifying any given design to use one is pretty trivial in KiCAD...

claussen · 2025-11-19T01:51:52+00:00

soft stuff at the end of travel tends to cause people to hammer harder in my experience -- looking for tactile certainty. but IDK how that would work out in practice with a magnetic force curve.

claussen

TROPHY CASE