Hello everyone! I recently open sourced the Kaly42, a cheap split Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard and, to celebrate the occasion, have decided to tell the story of how I went from a standard mechanical keyboard to the CSTC40 and eventually to designing and building a new keyboard! The files are available here and the video here! If any of that interests you, please check them out, it would mean a lot to me!
Very cool! I really like the ergonomics since carpal tunnel from long time use is a concern. The price point is also very welcoming.
Is there a version that could include the function keys as an additional top row? I understand the keys can be programmable, but having the f1-f12 keys on the top row would be preferable since I use them often.
Sadly, to make a version like that, the cost (mostly of the switches and keycaps) would go up and you would need to add diodes to the build and config files. I don’t wish to deal with that currently, so sadly that project has been put on hold. (see my reply to the other comment too!) However, the Kaly42 is indeed cheap, if you source the parts well it can come in at about 50$!
ps: Thanks for the kind words!
There’s many keebs similar to what you’re describing! Check out for example the Lily58 or Sofle, available e.g. from splitkb.com.
Thanks for the link! Down the rabbit hole I goooooo!
Those are indeed great suggestions! However I feel that there is a missing market for keyboards with that size that have strong columnar stagger. If you know of any, please do inform us!
Sofle v2 (not the rgb version) has a descent stagger of 1/2u.
I see, that is indeed much better! Although I do prefer stronger stagger (the Kaly is at aprox 0.9u IIRC). Thanks for the info!