I’m quite tall and have rather long arms. As a consequence, I rarely find myself sitting at the desk with the elbows bent at a proper angle while typing. I figured out it would be more comfortable for me to work with the keyboard sitting on my lap, tented if possible, but I couldn’t find a stable configuration with my split 34-keys board. Is there anybody that came up with a smart solution to this?
I’m also considering building a small unibody like the hummingbird, but I guess it may be too small to comfortably sit on the lap.
I just bought an oak board about 1/4 inch thick and 6 inches wide, sawed it off about two feet long, and made sure my keyboard was rubberized on the bottom
I find that something with more texture on my lap helps, like a towel of some kind, or a board with an exposed PCB helps a lot. I’ve also heard the Atreus works really well on the lap.
The exposed PCB and towel could be a neat trick when I work from home, but I’d like to find a slightly more refined solution, possibly portable. At some point, the endgame will probably be a set of clamped mounts at home and one at work, to which magnetically attach the keyboard I carry around. The Atreus is an interesting option in the meanwhile, but I have a few concerns. First and foremost, too little pinky stagger. I don’t even find the one of my chocofi to be enough and operate the upper pinky key with my ring finger instead. Not a big deal tho, I could ignore the additional keys and I will probably move to a 30 keys layout someday. Next, there’s the software: I’m not sure moving away from zmk is worth it. And lastly, I have no experience with mechanical switches apart from the keychron bananas (which I hate) and linear chocs. But I don’t like long travels, so MX style switches is probably not my cup of tea (and honestly I’d like a shorter travel for chocs too). Actually I’m on the look for a way to reproduce the feeling of the latest MacBook Pros. I’ve never used an apple keyboard before (fortunately, it seems), but I really enjoy the tactility and short travel of the one on my laptop. I’ve heard good things about kailh speed switches, but I never tried them.
I’m interested in something like this that allows something like split keyboard tray mount. The Glove80 also has a pretty elegant tripod mounting option, since you mentioned low profile switches. The Ferris Sweep also has a greater pinky stagger, and you may also consider using Ergogen in the future to make something that properly matches your hand curvature!
The glove80 has way too many keys for me. And, as far as I know, the stagger on the Sweep is the same as the chocofi. But yeah, I’ll probably create my own design sooner or later.
Ben Vallack made a video really close to your question. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOupyi-lQZM annnnd of course ~14 months later he found a better way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT3TToFqqEU
My keyboard designs are unibody with a slight split, very similar to the lumberjack. when I break it apart , a slight angle really makes it comfortable to use. but nothing really beats having your arms shoulder width apart, as it helps put the shoulder blades sit in a more natural placement.
I think I’ve seen every single video by Ben Vallack, he’s actually the one that got me into the hobby. And the idea of the magnetic clamps I mentioned in another comment partly comes from his ideas. Strapping the keyboard to my legs didn’t work well for me instead, too wobbly. I’d be curious to have a look at your designs.
That’s an interesting design! But yeah, I agree there’s too many keys. How do you like the X switches?
For the price, at the moment I would say they are not worth it. 2$ a switch for X vs 1$ a switch for Chocs
The brown switches feel good, blues need a little bit too much force for my liking. The keycaps have no shape to them and was not a good experience stock. I resin printed a slight dish shape to glue on top, night and day difference in typing feel.
Maybe I will get some pictures, and make a second post… eventually.
Thank you for the info!
May not be what you are looking for, but I’d look into either a chair mount or an under-the-desk keyboard tray.
Here’s my setup! The Moonlander and trackpad are stuck to a bamboo board with little Velcro dots, and the board sits on my lap sometimes and on an under-mount keyboard tray other times. The Moonlander is tented with an OEM kit from ZSA (The Platform).
That’s an interesting setup and probably what I’ll end up doing - at least at home - until I pull the trigger on some smallrig arms.
Stenography keyboards sometimes come with a camera tripod screw in the base. That allows you to mount the keyboard at lap height in a stable way.
For example: https://docs.stenokeyboards.com/customize/tripod.html
I need a more commute-friendly solution, but that’s an interesting approach nonetheless. Thank you for sharing!
Corne-ish Zen with “magfrotto” tenting. Rests surprisingly comfortably and stable. Have had a few long sessions on the couch and a poang chair. Technically I could attach it magnetically to my pants as described here https://evantravers.com/articles/2023/04/06/magsafe-tenting-and-wearable-keyboards/ , but haven’t needed to.
Okay this is very exciting. And is so happening. 😍
I wouldn’t have bet a dime on the stability of those things. That’s great! I was planning to join the magfrotto gang using the z-tripods, but I might as well opt for these ones instead if they can really be used like that.
Yeah, I mean, don’t slam them, but they hold OK. Very convenient.
I’m using a non-ergo keyboard, but to note I still use this setup on the lap: https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/comments/tcwep0/raised_tablet_setup_weight_comparison/ - Someday want to switch to a monoblock ergo keyboard.
You may want to consider the folding tentable keyboard design btrfld: https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/comments/119b5gi/v2_of_the_btrfld_a_foldable_low_profile_tenting/ -> https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/118nzbs/v2_of_the_btrfld_a_foldable_low_profile_tenting/
Super interesting setup you have there! And thank you for bringing back to my attention the btrfld, I had forgotten about it. Far too many keys for me, but that’s a design idea I should look into if I’ll ever try to design my own keyboard.
