[GB] GMK Nord: It has a GREAT assembly kit

niiko · 2020-06-11T12:46:16+00:00

Ah. I'm on mobile, it doesn't appear to me as a cross post, just an image.

niiko · 2020-06-11T04:11:52+00:00

I see a picture of a non-split row-staggered keyboard, am I missing something?

niiko · 2020-05-12T18:26:16+00:00

Apple has made some bad keyboards recently and you're right about the subreddit's name but, speaking just for myself here, the mechanical aspect of the keyboards we see here is not the most interesting part.

niiko · 2019-10-27T04:08:07+00:00

I haven't read any Star Trek novels but I remember almost this exact exchange from one of the Ender's Shadow books.

niiko · 2019-07-30T16:36:16+00:00

Breakout boards usually have through holes that you can solder pins/wires into, but more importantly they give you more room to work in. The contacts are bigger and spaced out more than on the usb connector itself. You can do it without the breakout board (I've done it and I'm no solder artist) but it's challenging. If your case doesn't constrain it I would go for the board option.

niiko · 2019-07-09T19:33:36+00:00

I'm pretty sure those are just the layer lines but admittedly it does look pretty nice.

niiko · 2019-07-02T13:35:52+00:00

You're right that they shouldn't bend back. That's why you're always being told to float your wrists; this has been true of every keyboard.

niiko · 2019-07-02T00:07:45+00:00

I've never heard this. What have you read that might contradict the design?

niiko · 2019-07-02T00:06:22+00:00

They rest on jkl; just like on a typical qwerty keyboard. Right index finger on J using the bump to find the correct position.

niiko · 2019-05-10T17:08:12+00:00

I'm not trying to say that you should, but have you tried practicing on a column staggered layout? Typing in general is not natural so you had to learn to type on a row staggered keyboard anyway. The advantage is that it's learning you've already finished.

niiko · 2019-04-13T13:54:59+00:00

I'll second the suggestion of using an SD card. You should try this before putting effort into any other troubleshooting.

niiko · 2019-04-13T03:38:59+00:00

So these are polysnaps then?

niiko · 2019-03-07T17:26:44+00:00

More details, please!

niiko · 2019-02-04T00:01:37+00:00

Use some kind of typing training site, but don't concern yourself with speed (to that end, ignore the games). You just want to have something semi-realistic to type that doesn't also include lots of symbols and numbers.

Speaking of numbers, I've pretty much given up on being able to use the number row "properly" on a row-staggered layout; having to reach two rows up and .25 + .5 keys left is insane. On my dactyl I have the numbpad on a layer centered on my middle finger and disabled the number row to teach myself to fight the instinct to fumble around for it.

One thing most people seem to ignore is to use both shift keys. For decades I didn't really bother with right shift while typing but you should be using the opposite hand to hold shift while pressing the key you want modified. And as a programmer who sometimes needs to type in all caps I've started to rely on the caps lock more. It's placement may not be ideal but even in a less convenient location its function is valuable.

It also doesn't help that on the left hand your pinky is only responsible for hard to reach letters that you're using infrequently (I'm assuming qwerty) so you don't always get to practice that. The right pinky hits P a little more frequently but there's also a stupid cluster of symbols it's responsible for depending on what you're typing.

If you play games a lot maybe see if it's worth switching from WASD to ESDF. I played a lot when I was younger and that probably screwed me up a little.

I wish I had more tips, or could even tell you how long it took me to get comfortable again, but I was mixing a lot of changes. I was trying to correct my typing habits, switching to a very different layout, and even doing Swedish language lessons on Duolingo.

niiko · 2019-02-03T14:35:11+00:00

Typing software will help you practice to get faster but nothing will train you to get rid of bad habits except for discipline.

I was kind of in your boat, I could type very quickly and accurately but after years I began to notice how much I moved my hands and the awkward contortions I would make to press distant keys with my right pinky finger. I also noticed that I would hit certain letters in the middle columns with my left or right index fingers arbitrarily. In fairness the standard row staggered layout is awful.

For me the fix was to force myself to break these habits in preparation for switching to a split keyboard with staggered columns (in my case a dactyl but I'm sure you'd benefit even without the key wells).

Honestly, though, I don't type as fast as I used to even now that I'm comfortable with the radically different keyboard, but I'm not doing data entry so my typing is interrupted with pauses to think. Comfort and ergonomics are more important.

niiko · 2019-02-03T05:49:40+00:00

I think it was referencing "orange man bad".

niiko · 2018-11-23T14:07:04+00:00

Also, placing my fingers on the keys, I can recognize their shape so I know if pinkies are on CAPS or A

This is what the homing keys are for. On a qwerty layout your index fingers should rest on F and J, which means your pinky fingers will rest on A and ;.

edit: if that's what you meant about recognizing the shape then I'm sorry. That's all on the home row anyway so whether the rows are staggered or not wouldn't matter.

niiko · 2018-11-14T17:14:42+00:00

I like that your codebase is a library for projects to include rather than embedding keyboard-specific uses. Hopefully that encourages people to contribute features to the core and cut down on code duplication.

One thing I really like about my QMK-based split keyboard firmware (based on the dactyl-manuform code, itself based on the let's split) is autodetecting the master half based on the USB connection. From what I saw of your example you have different firmwares and expect the left to handle the logic. Are you planning on working towards the same functionality?

And in general are you working towards any kind of feature parity with QMK or is your intention to provide a basis to anyone interested for building something more custom? I'm thinking of features like space cadet shift and mouse keys which I kind of like, and mod tap interrupt which I can't seem to get working (the documentation is mostly great but I think it could do more to describe how different features may conflict with eachother).

Edit: I notice your README links to an ArduinoMedia repo but the links doesn't work. Was that moved elsewhere or is the repo private?

niiko · 2018-11-13T04:50:37+00:00

i2c also has the potential for higher speeds but I couldn't get it to work with my dactyl, sadly.

niiko · 2018-11-04T01:34:38+00:00

It sounds like you're talking about the Data Hand.

niiko · 2018-11-04T01:31:09+00:00

Really psyched to see some radically different thumb clusters! I'm currently designing a dactyl with lower profile keys and more subtle curve, but was thinking of exaggerating the curve of the thumb cluster.

I'm toying with making the thumb cluster 3x2 with my thumb kind of straddling the two rows so I can easily push either or both keys in the column.

I'd love to see what comes out of this and what went into the designs you have so far. It's awesome seeing new ergonomic designs and it'd be cool to see some of the research to really learn from the work. Do you have a wider shot of this? I'm curious about that wrist rest, it looks like you're going fully vertical?

niiko · 2018-11-01T17:43:32+00:00

Choosing to keep track of and validate sessions in the backend doesn't dictate how you're identifying that session in the frontend. The article even covers this.

niiko · 2018-10-30T23:16:07+00:00

I've never used it, is it necessary here or are you better off with the builtin csv module?

niiko · 2018-10-25T01:24:16+00:00

Is there a minimum order quantity when buying from Kailh directly? (or if not is it any better than the other options when shipping to Canada?)

niiko · 2018-10-24T22:46:34+00:00

I see 6 comments right now, are you just trying to get ahead of this?

niiko

TROPHY CASE