My Journey From Mechanical to Ergonomic Keyboards | The Story of Kaly

In this video I share with you my journey from a 100% keyboard to a DIY split ergo keyboard that I designed and built. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments, I will read all of them for sure!

---------------------------- Kaly Resources -------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are the other relevant links mentioned in the video :

------------------------- Keyboard Layouts -------------------------

------------------------------ Ferris Sweep ----------------------------

-------------- ErgoMechKeyboards Community ------------

----------------------------------- Cantor ---------------------------------

------------------------------- Ben Vallack -----------------------------

------------------------------------ Music --------------------------------
Intro typing montage: Tokyo Cafe by TVARI

------------------ And, once again, thanks to ------------------
@KyekOfficial and @BenVallack for the great videos!
Obosob for moderating and keeping the EMK community alive!
and my father and friend for being there for me.

[ciruspunk]

hey guys, I'm planning on build this keyboard but I would like to have the hotswap feature on it, do you know is possible to use the millmax sockets? and which versions of the millmax?

[malpern]

Thanks for sharing your story. I hope you do the in-depth video series as well.

[dvg]

Love the expressive way you're gesturing throughout the whole video, it feels much more personal like that. Please keep this up for your other videos! :D

[oPrussiano]

Amazing tech mate, keep the nice work, you are awesome!

[jonatan.cirqueira]

I just met this guy in college using an ergo with a unixporn worthy setup (which is also good video material I'd like to see) and I had to ask him about it. Good thing he already has a youtube channel. Keep up the good work bro!

I'm currently with a 60% customized keyboard and almost moving to an ergo (right now inspired to even build one) but for now I'm saving money since I have no wrist pain.

[Julileu]

I entered the video with curiosity and left with a new phobia. Great video!

[RanLottem]

I love the video! The editing, music, gestures, and of course the keyboard. Thanks for making this and I'd love to see more from you about the process of designing and making the keyboard.

[KyekOfficial]

Thank you for the shoutout, I really enjoyed hearing how passionate and excited you are about your project!
If you still want to work on it, I have a few improvements to suggest:

1) Add some holes where you could screw the keyboard to a 3d printed case with a tray-mount system.
2) Add some way of tenting the keyboard, the latest trend is magsafe magnetic sticker and magsafe tripod mount
3) Take advantage of the copper layer for your logo so you can make some parts shiny

[SmittyWerb]

Just got my kaly42 pcbs delivered over the weekend! Waiting on a few more components to be delivered before I start soldering. Thanks for open sourcing the project!

[sayo]

I too have been down the rabbit hole of custom split keyboards and not finding one that I like coz of their thumb clusters. Kaly looks great and would love to build it. Thanks for making it opensource 😊

[Loren]

thank you, i have had a very similar journey and have been daunted by designing a keyboard, and your video made it seem a lot more doable.

[williamvictorr]

Very cool stuff man, I love it. I'll look into this project with more detail later maybe I could build one too

[snspark-public]

😅I just stumbled into the rabbit hole of ergo split keyboards myself for similar reasons. As a software developer with 25 years of work behind me, all the typing has definitely taken a toll. I’m very excited about finding a design that suits my physiology while downsizing to 34 keys - I started with a low profile Cantor but am ordering a Ferris Sweep, as it fits my hands better. I’m also learning Colemak DH! Who knows… I may even end up designing a few keyboards myself before the dust settles. Thanks for the vid!

[kajahtaa]

Ordered from JLC and it's shipping tomorrow. Thanks !

[lesoares]

That's impressive buddy! Great work!

[WDGKuurama]

Got a Zsa voyager and started wondering about the Totem keyboard.

Opening hands column sounds very cool to me.

[bagfleet]

I'm very close to placing an order on pcbway of this keeb! Do you have any unpushed revisions that I should wait for? 😀

[BoopyTheFox]

I am currently in process of transitioning from conventional 75% to Sofle v2.1.
- I've found that, even despite conventional board stagger supporting RIGHT hand, my LEFT hand always rests on the table and feels most comfortable typing a lot and using all the mod keys, while the right one is always "hovering", and flying over the board suspended like that. And i manage to pull comfortable consistent 80wpm, or occasional 100wpm with that "awful" position and not a good posture. And pinky is not even used, while ring finger "turns off" when i go into "speed mode" (even though it should become more active???)

- While i type on Sofle, both my hands usually rest on the table, because the very way i type, subconsciously, is different, even though i use the same QWERTY layout
- There's no difference if i put the halves closer or more apart, apart from novelty factor and feeling more comfy in the shoulders, but there IS a difference when i change the tilt angle of the halves.

Also, conventional kb's have some pros that ergo boards actually lose!
- Long modkeys means you can slide your pinky over them, both feeling them and accessing most of the board by stretching the hand. Not ergonomical, but functional.
- Doing a big move of right hand to press the enter with the "center mass" (middle/middle+ring fingers) is more conscious and less accidental than ergo's "lightly put your thumb down".

Had an opportunity to try charybdis for 2 days and found it VERY comfortable, but also, unfortunately, unusable, because i can't touch-type (yet)

[samesensei]

imagine putting the wooting switches on this bad boy holy cow

[its.opendev]

Would love to see the complete journey - from testing the design on paper/tablet, over designing in KiCad til firmware design. Thinking about starting the same journey since weeks/months, but unfortunately did not had the time. So maybe your journey would give me a kick in my backside seatingplate to start. Thanks for this video.