What has two thumbs and an ErgoDox?

This guy!

I started using a mechanical keyboard about two and half years ago and the immediate feeling was awesome, much better than the bland membrane that I was used to, even if my last one, a Logitech Comfort Desktop Split, was an improvement thanks to its particular layout. So my first mechanical keyboard was a Truly Ergonomic Keyboard 227 model equipped with Cherry MX Brown switches and yes, that is the real name of the keyboard.

I really enjoy the Teck. Apart from the mechanical switches I like the fact that the keys are arranged in straight vertical columns instead of the staggered arrangement of the mainstream keyboards, this produces a sensible reduction of lateral fingers movement when typing. Another great thing, especially if you use Emacs a lot, the keyboard is symmetric; it has the same number of modifiers on the same position on both of its sides. This is way better than remapping Ctrl to the Caps-Lock.

Finally, the keyboard is programmable, every key can be reassigned to a different character or modifier, the firmware supports two different layouts selectable with a dip-switch located in the back and both layouts can have two layers (three if we count the numlock too). The only thing that in my opinion is not that good is the quality of the plastic used on the keycaps: it's not hard enough and after possibly a couple months of usage some keys started to lose texture and became shiny.

After my experience with the Teck I wanted to try something more exotic, a split ergonomic keyboard called ErgoDox, the result of a group of keyboards enthusiasts that designed it from scratch and is completely open source, hardware and software.

There is a problem though, getting one at the moment is not that simple cause it's normally available only as a DIY kit and one is supposed to build it himself. For all the people out there not skilled with the soldering iron there is at least one Indiegogo campaign with the aim to provide assembled ErgoDox; it should be near completion of the first batch for the backers.

Or there is eBay.

Anyway, after a few days of use I can frankly say that getting one was definitely worthwhile. The split design allows me to keep the shoulders in a more relaxed position and even when leaving the two halves flat on the desk is the most comfortable keyboard that I've ever used. To be honest, I haven't yet had the opportunity to try the Kinesis Advantage or a curved Maltron.

Software wise it offers a lot more customization than the Teck, as you would expect from an open source project they cranked the programmability dial to eleven. At the core there is a Teensy 2.0 AVR microcontroller and there are a few firmwares available to choose from, right now I'm using the TMK and I'm still experimenting with the keys arrangement, for example I'm considering to swap the numbers with the symbols as first selection in the topmost row. I'm also trying again to switch to Colemak though the physical layout is still Qwerty cause I don't have the homing keycaps for the letters "T" and "N".

The only drawback that I've found and was complained by other ErgoDox users, is the less than ideal thumb keys placement, as I can't reach with ease all the keys in the two thumb clusters. Things somewhat improve when keeping the two halves on a tented configuration, i.e. inclined with only one edge in contact with the desk.

For the people interested on the details of this build, the switches are Cherry MX Brown like in my Teck, the case is black molded PVC, the keycaps are the "EVE" set from Signature Plastic in "double shot" ABS, the firmware is the cub-uanic TMK fork and for the curious reader I've added the layout of the default layer to the photo gallery below.