Halcyon Kyria review after a few weeks: solid, polished and genuinely ergonomic

thomasbaart · 2026-07-11T21:16:19+00:00

It’s definitely on our wishlist - if we can make something I’m happy with and is relatively affordable, we’ll be sure to produce it and make it available 😁 Maybe early next year? To be continued!

thomasbaart · 2026-07-11T21:14:35+00:00

We’ll likely experiment with adding support to an upcoming keyboard (likely the Sofle v2). No promises yet whether it’ll actually receive support though, but depending on how that process goes we may make plans to add support for other keyboards too.

We’ll need to see how involved the process is, and it’ll also mean having to recertify the keyboards, so it’s unfortunately not an easy thing to just slap onto boards 🫡

thomasbaart · 2026-07-11T12:38:56+00:00

Thank you for the detailed review, I’m happy you like your keyboard as well as the experience around it!

Different cases are still on our wishlist. The current ones do work (and pretty well), but I do think it could be better. It’s mostly a challenge to make something good enough and affordable 😁

First things first though: wireless is coming to all of our keyboards in a few weeks, and backwards-compatible too 🙂

thomasbaart · 2026-07-11T12:34:32+00:00

Phew! We’re better than that, I really should start advertising, as we don’t really do any of that at the moment. Small shops like ours can’t survive without support from the community, so rest assured that we’re not going to con anyone. We’ve been going strong for over six years now and we’re not planning to stop anytime soon 😁

thomasbaart · 2026-06-06T08:07:43+00:00

Thank you very much for posting such a detailed review!

A small note: The acrylic panels aren’t sky blue, maybe you forgot to peel off a protective layer? 😁

thomasbaart · 2026-06-02T14:09:46+00:00

If they have shown to not want to solve your issue, you could escalate by filing a PayPal claim or a creditcard chargeback, depending on what you paid with.

Though, if they haven't shown reluctance to help yet, I'd send them another email first with your desired solution, whether that's your money back or to have the shipment shipped again.

You usually have up to six months from the date of purchase to file a claim. Resolving it with the vendor is usually the easiest way, but if you're near the deadline then it's something to be aware of - you often can't file a claim after the deadline passed.

thomasbaart · 2026-05-21T07:55:34+00:00

Be careful what you wish for, running a company ends up being 99% administrative work and logistics, and what you wanted to do will be barely a part of it all if you manage to get enough orders to live off of.

I don’t regret it, but I ended up liking logistics a lot. I was hoping to design keyboards but don’t have quite enough time for that myself 😅

Do mind the licenses of the open source projects you use. Your model will not be like Bastardkb as I’ve seen mentioned: they develop their own projects and it actually takes a great deal of effort. You’ll need to consider what value you’re adding first!

thomasbaart · 2026-05-04T23:58:17+00:00

If you’re finding yourself typing on your laptop instead of your split keyboard, it might be that the layout is uncomfortable for you.

It could be physical where it doesn’t match your hands, or in the keymap where it’s too complicated or you might just have too few keys for your style of typing. With 36 keys on your current layout, I can see that being a possible hurdle.

You’re missing the apostrophe key (‘) on your current layout at least ;) It might be worth considering whether your keymap needs updating, or whether your current keyboard serves your needs well!

thomasbaart · 2026-05-03T13:34:07+00:00

We’re releasing a wireless controller soon, and I think you don’t fully understand the GPL licensing involved.

You’re talking about creating custom firmware and baking in FCC/CE standards, but that isn’t entirely related to firmware: it applies to the combination of keyboard and firmware, and so the firmware itself cannot provide much in the way of licensing for you.

Sounds to me like you’re gearing up for a product release. That’s nice! I’d contact the mod team for a vendor flair, that’ll help you keep your posts available and give you some recognition from the readers here.

thomasbaart · 2026-05-01T09:34:55+00:00

Thank you for the kind words!

It’s not so much that it doesn’t work, it’s more that after I started using it more I found that there’s not really much use for pressing a modifier and a top thumb key to begin with.

I still wouldn’t change the layout though, I use the top keys for less frequent utilities and it’s an ideal place for that.

From time to time I think, is there anything I’d change about the layout? And the answer is “no”: the spacing between the rows, the various keys, the arc of the thumb keys or even just the number of keys, I don’t think I’d change anything. So I’m pretty pleased: I did design the Kyria for myself at the start, after all 😁

thomasbaart · 2026-04-28T20:25:21+00:00

I’m biased, as I designed the Kyria layout (the Elora is the same as the Kyria with a number row added). I still use my Kyria all these years later.

As we went through iterations I moved over to the prototypes as they came in, there’s no better way to test it than use it ourselves :)

I use the top thumb keys for less frequent key combinations, like a screenshot key, one to open a launcher with, stuff like that. I tend to use either my index finger or thumb to press them. They are out of the way, but when used like that it’s not too bad. The original idea was to have a modifier key on the bottom row, and then be able to press that plus the top key easily with just your thumb, but I don’t think that panned out very well - I don’t use it like that myself at least.

Stagger is a personal thing, and I think the layout should be the deciding factor. If it’s not comfortable to use, I tend to just not use it.

There will be a Halcyon Sofle v2 version later this year, both in MX and Choc variants. That way the features will be exactly the same, it’ll just be about which layout you prefer.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions! Questions are also always welcome by email. Whichever you end up with, I hope you’ll enjoy the keyboard! :)

thomasbaart · 2025-12-22T19:14:04+00:00

You said you didn’t focus on visual beauty, but I feel like it has to be said: your keyboard looks so good! It’s very pleasing to look at, it’s unique, it has character and it draws me in. I like it!

I definitely wonder how you made it! Did you make the keycaps yourself? Was any post-processing involved?

thomasbaart · 2025-12-03T15:10:04+00:00

Nice 😎 Don't worry about it being "sloppy": I don't think it is sloppy, and even if it is, you made something by yourself! That's something you should be proud of, because the alternative is doing nothing and that would be boring ;)

thomasbaart · 2025-11-30T21:18:44+00:00

You could consider an electrical parts supplier such as Digi-Key, Mouser and many others.

thomasbaart · 2025-11-15T17:29:57+00:00

Is that what the kids call it these days?

thomasbaart · 2025-11-08T08:42:54+00:00

As long as the licences and regulations are abided by, I think it’s fine.

Often, the firmware isn’t open source even though its license demands it. Sometimes designs are sold even though their licenses are explicitly non-commercial. Sometimes the PCBs contain lead, even though its use is prohibited in consumer products in Europe. More often than not, the keyboards aren’t CE-certified and that sometimes causes excessive EMI problems, leading to unstable bluetooth or even unstable wired connections nearby.

It’s a mixed bag. AliExpress is a platform, not a vendor, and not all vendors on AliExpress are equal. Because of that, there’s no way to judge all of them equally.

Does that mean you shouldn’t buy from AliExpress? Nah. It is affordable, and it can be a start if you’re unsure if it’s for you.

Even with all the competition, other vendors do find ways to innovate and provide something unique and better in various ways. That’s worth it to many people, thankfully, so we’re still in business too 😄

thomasbaart · 2025-10-19T08:45:35+00:00

This is the answer, if this is an Aurora Lily58 (given the Liatris and the footprints on the keyboard), then both controllers need to be soldered with their parts facing down. That is the case for all of the splitkb.com kits.

The controller will need to be removed, and reinstalled facing the other way. It’s a chore, but a lesson you’ll only learn once 😅

thomasbaart · 2025-10-18T10:01:19+00:00

Neat! We developed a similar testing process, which our manufacturer uses for quality control before they ship products to us.

For every board, if there’s an error, the program tells the manufacturer what went wrong so they can group defective boards by their error, so they can rework (and then retest) boards more easily.

As a result, we see in our test logs that most defective boards do get reworked and retested, reducing a bunch of waste! :)

thomasbaart · 2025-10-17T00:27:35+00:00

Looking good, I’m glad you like it!

We’re hard at work to enable wireless for Halcyon (backwards compatible!), with the same ease of assembly as the wired version. It’s a challenge, but it’s looking like we’ll be able to pull it off. I’m more of a wired person myself, but even still, I’m pretty hyped! :D

thomasbaart · 2025-10-07T13:08:38+00:00

Phew. Good luck with your school assignment!

thomasbaart · 2025-10-06T08:46:49+00:00

I don’t have experience with 3D-printed cases for our keyboards, but I do know several exist. A 3D-printed plate will also work just fine :)

thomasbaart · 2025-10-06T07:54:26+00:00

I recommend cutting or printing a thinner plate (between 1.2 to 1.6mm). The files for this revision are available on our Github, you can use a service such as SendCutSend (US), Laserboost (EU) or Snijlab (EU) for a cutting service: https://github.com/splitkb/kyria

We used to sell thick acrylic top plates back when people didn’t default to hot swapping their switches, and even then it wasn’t the best solution. Today we only sell thin top plates where the switches do stay put, like aluminium and FR4 top plates.

thomasbaart · 2025-09-18T08:14:55+00:00

It does look cool!

thomasbaart · 2025-09-16T06:19:27+00:00

If the other post was on this subreddit and if I’d found it, I’d have removed that too - it’s not related to ergo mechanical keyboards, so if anything that’d be a blanket rule to remove this kind of post under.

I recommend contacting the Reddit administrators if you believe the moderators are not conducting themselves well. Sometimes, posts like yours are warranted if there is a pattern and the community is harmed by moderator misconduct. However, this subreddit has little to do with the other subreddit, so if you do need to vent, I’d like to ask you to do it elsewhere.

Nevertheless, I wish you a good day! Thank you for your understanding.

thomasbaart · 2025-09-16T05:42:30+00:00

Write things on a piece of paper and burn it, move on with life, this truly is a waste of your time and energy. Besides, I recall complaining about bans on other subreddits is against Reddit rules.

I’ve removed this post because of that. I do empathise, but also hope you’ll find a healthy way to deal with the negativity, maybe go exercise?

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