I’m a complete novice to mech and ergo so I apologize in advance for any sins lol
The 3 I checked are Kinesis 360 (https://kinesis-ergo.com/keyboards/advantage360/), Glove80 (https://www.moergo.com/collections/glove80-keyboards) and the Moonlander (https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/).
These below are what I got from watching reviews:
- Kinesis is difficult to customize and sometimes has connectivity issues
- Glove80 feels cheap
- Moonlander doesn’t have many keys and thumb cluster is on odd position
Considering the prices, the moonlander is about US$100 cheaper than the others, so feels like a better option.
I am interested in options with keywell, as they feel way more comfortable, but anything will be better since I use an conventional non-split keyboard.
The right menu links to a compare tool but there are so many.
My hands are small, so it may constrain the options I have. Or maybe not.
What are your opinions/suggestions/experience with these types of keyboards?
It looks like you’re focusing on prebuilt boards. Most ergo mechs are sold as DIY kits with a fair amount of soldering required, and for keywell boards it’s very common for them to be fully handwired.
You can also buy assembled keywell boards, for example from bastardkb and there are a few folks who build dactyls for sale. These options will probably be relatively expensive as they are basically handmade by one person.
Flat ergo boards will be cheaper in general than keywell ones. If they have a tenting option and you use keycaps with a strong sculpt like SA or MT3, that might get you a fair bit of the way towards keywell functionality. But you’ll still need to find a good layout for you (which is totally personal).
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kukkurovaca/52064906373/in/photolist-2njNfKx-2oBeHCK-2njQEqG
It will be somewhat easier to find fully assembled or easy-to-assemble flat ergo boards, like the Keebio Iris or Boardsource Lulu.
I looked mainly on prebuit since the DIY didn’t feel to fit what I was looking for. When I was searching for ones with keywell, no DIY models came up.
What I noticed with the one you suggested and some others I found when looking around is that they don’t have many keys.
Is it common to have a separated numpad?
Also, out of curiosity, what are uses for the thumb knob? I saw that in some models and also on yours.
When searching for DIY Keywell models, use “dactyl” in your search terms for most results. Most DIY Dactyl builds are handwired, although there are some models that make use of flexible PCBs such as the ones from BastardKB. (My keywell board is a TBK Mini from them.)
Re: the number of keys, this is pretty personal. Most ergo mech users are using something in the ballpark of a 60%, 40%, or 35%ish layout. (My objection to the Glove80 is that it has way, way too many keys for me)
Most ergo users have numpad on a layer. (Here’s how I have my layouts)