Ergo60 Keyboard

Description

An ergonomic keyboard with a minimal component count and minimal footprint.
Consists of two symmetrical hand clusters with 25 keys each measuring 10cm x 10cm, two reversible thumb clusters with 5 keys each measuring 5cm x 5cm, and one central control board measuring 5cm x 5cm. The controller is based on a Teensy 2.0. All of the boards are interconnected using cat5 wire. The software is a fork of TMK which provides the features needed to support the reduced key count.

Components

1 × Teensy 2.0

60 × MX1A-11NW Switches and Relays / Switches

60 × CD1206-S01575 Discrete Semiconductors / Diodes and Rectifiers

60 × keycaps I'm using blank white DSA PBT keycaps from Signature Plastics from their standard product inventory.

Project Logs

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Ergo60 compared to ErgoDox
Warren Janssens • 09/27/2014 at 15:55 • 0 comments

Here you can see the difference between my Ergo60 and my ErgoDox (with custom cover plate).
Project wrapup
Warren Janssens • 05/21/2014 at 20:43 • 0 comments

I got the case pained and everything put together over the long weekend and I've been using the keyboard both at home and work since then and overall it's extremely usable; of course I'm coming from Kinisis Advantage and Ergodox so I'm already used the the basic form factor.
Today I took the opportunity to merge my local git repo for the project into the projects repo at digital cave so the source is now available online.
The layout I've settled on which seems to be working quite well for me is based on Dvorak with the following adaptations:
the bottom row of hand keys serve a dual purpose with both key actions and modifier actions: -_/shift =+/ctrl left/alt right/cmd fn fn up/cmd down/alt [{/ctrl ]}/shift
the ;: key and zZ key are dual with shift since as well
the thumb cluster top row is /? \| `~ §±
the thumb cluster bottom row is bksp del esc tab return space
The fn layer is fully populated as well with a numeric keypad, function keys, dpad, and media keys.
For those that are interested the layout header files in the source code show this information in a far more readable way.
Top panel cut
Warren Janssens • 05/08/2014 at 14:03 • 0 comments

It still needs a bit of sanding in some of the tight spots but I now have the top panel openings cut. (with Photos)
It's alive
Warren Janssens • 04/14/2014 at 16:42 • 0 comments

Over the weekend I got all of the diodes and keys soldered onto the PCBs, and connected all the PCBs together. There were a couple of small problems: one unconnected pad on the right thumb cluster (grrr!); and the left thumb cluster columns were swapped (so just incorrect silk screen). I also got the bottom plate of the case made and all the boards mounted. I just ordered key caps from Signature Plastics, and I still have to cut the openings in the top plate of the case.
Boards and Components
Warren Janssens • 04/07/2014 at 19:04 • 0 comments

Boards arrived from Seeed Studio today. They look fantastic. Placed the order for switches and diodes just now with Digikey so those should arrive tomorrow.
Case Design
Warren Janssens • 04/01/2014 at 16:37 • 0 comments

Designed cutouts and routing for case. The case is going to be cut out of MDF for now.
Boards Ordered
Warren Janssens • 03/12/2014 at 16:00 • 0 comments

Ordered boards from Seeed studio on Monday.

View all 7 project logs

Discussions

Paul_Beaudet wrote 06/18/2014 at 22:20

Neat project! are you using this as a daily keyboard?

Are you sure? yes | no

Warren Janssens wrote 06/30/2014 at 19:26

Yes, I'm am using this as my daily keyboard at home. I have also used it for a couple full days at work as well. There was a bit of a learning curve since -_, =+, \| and /? have moved to locations that are weird for me coming from a Kinesis Advantage but now that I'm through that it's no problem for me to switch back and forth between different layouts.

Are you sure? yes | no

Paul_Beaudet wrote 07/01/2014 at 02:14

Neat, I found sometime similar layouts with a few off keys is a real grind, but with oddballs like the underscore and such I'm sure is manageable. Have my caps as a backspace and it really makes it impossible to use typical layouts now that I have got used to it. Backspace is too important to do finger gymnastics for.

Are you sure? yes | no

Warren Janssens wrote 07/01/2014 at 21:18

On my Kinesis Advantage I swap Esc and Caps which is super nice and makes it hard to use standard keyboards. On my Ergodox and this keyboard having Esc on the thumb is even better. Caps is almost totally useless so having it on the second layer is fine for me. Having backspace and delete on the thumb is also totally awesome. Having the other oddball keys on the thumb is totally fine for normal typing but does start to become a slight problem when programming.

I think 60 keys is the absolute minimum needed to get all of the important keys onto the first layer. It's too bad it can't be done with 54 keys since that would make buying caps a lot cheaper.

If you're interested in even smaller layouts, this is the layout that convinced me that it was both possible and desirable to have a minimal layout: http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/a-reduced-matrix-layout-for-ergodox-kinesis-maltron-etc-t4820.html. However my final layout ended up being more influenced in what was possible with 10x10 and 5x5 boards since those are the standard size boards you can get from places like Seeed which was important to me since that helps to keep the cost down.

Are you sure? yes | no

Ergo60 Keyboard

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