[solved] TEX YodaII, keyboard: opinions?

[legacy]

does anywone use it? if so, it'd like to hear what you think, and your feedback, especially if you are a programmer and use vim or emacs on the text console.

edit:
solved

[jadew]

It looks stupid.

[LeonR]

If I was to pay US$300 for a keyboard it'd better be using telepathy to read my mind and type stuff for me. 

Seriously, I can't see the point on a higher investment than a good rubber dome keyboard. Mine lasts at least 10 years without a hitch (I'm using a A4Tech G600 ATM). I've tried a mechanic keyboard before and couldn't see what's all the fuss around it is about, and sold it a couple months later.

If you're looking into models with macros there are options that costs a fraction of that price.

[Black Phoenix]

does anywone use it? if so, it'd like to hear what you think, and your feedback, especially if you are a programmer and use vim or emacs on the text console.

I use a similar keyboard, the NightFox by Input Club, 65% (the difference is that includes arrows and PrintScreen, Delete, Page Up and Page Down) in terms of layout.

It's exactly as a normal keyboard but without the extra line of F keys (available in the second layer, with 8 layers to program with different functions, changeable with FN and number).

Compared with this one that includes the trackpoint and I suppose that the buttons under the space bar is for left, change to scroll and right click right? Also the backspace is on the number row, as a normal keyboard. In the Nightfox is like the HHKB, in the QWERTY Row, so it may need some training to get it right.

I can't give feedback in terms of the use of the trackpoint and the scroll, but I love the 65% layout in terms of extra space available. My next step will be a trackball (and learn how to use one) and I can even have more space available for other stuff. Also a mechanical keyboard helps to type faster, specially if the keys are tactile, were you don't need to bottom out the key like in membrane keyboards, just press enough until you feel the tactile bump, and you can move your finger to the next key knowing it activate it.

If I was to pay US$300 for a keyboard it'd better be using telepathy to read my mind and type stuff for me. 

Seriously, I can't see the point on a higher investment than a good rubber dome keyboard. Mine lasts at least 10 years without a hitch (I'm using a A4Tech G600 ATM). I've tried a mechanic keyboard before and couldn't see what's all the fuss around it is about, and sold it a couple months later.

If you're looking into models with macros there are options that costs a fraction of that price.

Or a Topre, or as I call High Class Rubber Dome (and I open the can of worms with Topre Fans).

Mate, once you use a mechanical you don't go back. Mine costs near US$200, but I saw keyboards in the order of US$500 and even more. It's a hobby as many others, with quality products and normal products. Just like Automatic watches, you have Seiko's and Citizen's and even other brands who use SII Movement (Seiko) or Miyota Movement (Citizen) in the lower end (and High End) and brands like Hublot and Patek Philippe who costs thousands.

Some people are happy with the Casio F-91W, other prefer an Omega Seamaster.

[LeonR]

Mate, once you use a mechanical you don't go back.

I must be a special case then. Got a Meka G-Unit some good years ago and sold it after a couple months since all I got was more noise while typing (it used black switches).

I used to buy Logitech mice (G500, G600, G700, G402, G403) as soon as they were released. Sold them all after some time and stuck with my trusty G400s. Sometimes less is more.

The classic Realforces are beautiful, especially the ones with grey and white keycaps. Simple and elegant, but I'm wary to splurge the asked price on them.

[SiliconWizard]

A 60% keyboard is just too basic for my needs. I've tried one of those before, and it was just not usable to me. Keys (especially for arrow keys) too close to one another, important keys missing... But if you're comfortable with that, go ahead. Some people are. And yes, it's very expensive for what it seems to be, but it's your call. The pricing is understandable for a low-volume production.

I personally have a 88 keys (often called "10KL") keyboard, basically an ISO keyboard with no num pad (which I find adds too much width to the keyboard, making the use of a mouse more uncomfortable). I have an additional num pad, but I rarely use it! This keyboard is the first one I actually made myself. It uses Cherry MX brown keyswitches, and custom-designed aluminum plates. Works great (and it always feels good to type on your own creation!) For the controller, I used a Teensy 3.2 and I customized the following firmware: https://github.com/kiibohd/controller

[Black Phoenix]

For the controller, I used a Teensy 3.2 and I customized the following firmware: https://github.com/kiibohd/controller

Same as the WhiteFox/NightFox. I also used TKLs for a while, my last one was the Logitech G Pro (Yes I like the Romer-G switches that most keyboard enthusiast hate with passion) until I had the chance to get a NightFox to try, and now TKLs look too big to me. Since it's a 65% it have arrows and most used keys in the home/end cluster. Plus since I don't use the F keys most of the time, they are OK by using FN + 1 for F1, Fn + 2 for F2, etc.

All aluminium build with Input Club Hako Clear (Medium weight Tactile switch with a standard 75g spring) that get very heavy after the actuation point, discouraging bottoms out.

[legacy]

This keyboard is the first one I actually made myself

pic?

[legacy]

My next step will be a trackball

(Ametek Traxsys TrackBall 50mm, PS/2)

like this one? 

it's a trackball found in a military installation in Greenland. It's really heavy and big. Too big, and solid like a tank. In the pic, it's compared to a pound coin.


(RadioShack - A4TECH WT7, PS/2)

I bought this one for my RiscPC, just because you need three buttons to operate with RiscOS. This trackball is cheap, and smaller; it's "OK", but not good as a primary pointing device.

[legacy]

(CHERRY G84-4400, PS/2, pic made by my friend, I have exactly the same keyboard)

This is the keyboard I am currently using. It was found as second hand, very cheap, paid 50 euro for it. Keys are very good; the trackball is not so good, it's "ok", better than the RadioShack - A4TECH WT7, but it tends to be a bit "scratchy" and I am not really sure it's really 400DPI, and it has only two buttons.

[Ampera]

So a 10 keyless Cherry MX keyboard?

It doesn't seem anything special at all besides the nub.

I have a 100 dollar Ducky One with Cherry MX Greens (yes greens), and I quite like it. It's solid, the right price, and feels great.

[rsjsouza]

I had elbow muscle pains from the repetitive typing and tried many alternative keyboards. I then got a NOS IBM model M keyboard from Unicomp and my elbow pains are fully gone.

The year I did this move was 2015 and to this date the pains haven't come back. I haven't tried the cherry or other mechanical ones, though (at home I have a Microsoft 2000 rubber keyboard but I don't type there as much).

[Black Phoenix]

(Ametek Traxsys TrackBall 50mm, PS/2)

like this one? 

No, I'm torn between this 2:



Logitech MX Ergo


Elecom M-XT3DRBK

[magic]

Cherry is a silly fad and 60% is the dumbest fad, get a Model M

They are (somewhat) ergonomically curved, they are loud, they are designed to survive liquids (within reason) and they won't drive you nuts if you ever try to use LTspice

[Zucca]

Black Phoenix I bought a Logitech MX Ergo two months ago with great expectations.
After two weeks I sold it, it did not work for me and went back to the old good mouse.

[tszaboo]

Here is the relevant subreddit for people who spend more money on keyboards than regular people on computers:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/

[Black Phoenix]

Black Phoenix I bought a Logitech MX Ergo two months ago with great expectations.
After two weeks I sold it, it did not work for me and went back to the old good mouse.

That's what makes me thing twice, since I was always a mice guy, I can count with the fingers of my hand the times I used a trackball. To spend a lot of money on a trackball and then have to sell it on deficit it's something I'm really not interested.

[rsjsouza]

Black Phoenix I bought a Logitech MX Ergo two months ago with great expectations.
After two weeks I sold it, it did not work for me and went back to the old good mouse.

That's what makes me thing twice, since I was always a mice guy, I can count with the fingers of my hand the times I used a trackball. To spend a lot of money on a trackball and then have to sell it on deficit it's something I'm really not interested.

I was a heavy user of Logitech's old marble trackball. I think it is much more accurate than a mouse, but it has the drawback of having to clean the ball regularly.

It dropped out of favour when I started to have muscle pain in the tendon of my thumb. I got an ambidextrous mouse instead.

[legacy]

Cherry is a silly fad and 60% is the dumbest fad ... won't drive you nuts if you ever try to use LTspice

I bought my CHERRY G84-4400 only because found for cheap, and I needed something compact with a built-in pointing device.

I don't like it as the definitive device, but it's not too bad. At least it doesn't cause me any problem with LTspice, Tina, ISE, EagleCad (trackball-events intensive), even if I do spend more time with VIM and Geany (keys pressing intensive), and as a premium, it's so small and compact that I can put it into my suitcase and bring it with me on traveling.

[LeonR]

It dropped out of favour when I started to have muscle pain in the tendon of my thumb. I got an ambidextrous mouse instead.

Give MX 518 Legendary a try. I think it's one of the greatest shapes ever created since it just "flows" with a relaxed hand position.

I also suggest using a large mousepad that you can rest you wrist and some of your arm into it. I use a qck Mass and the extra thickness absorbs most of the pressure you put into it while using it.

https://i.postimg.cc/9FhbbB2g/IMG-20191204-101509.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/TYJ94WYd/IMG-20191204-101531.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/MZRt1FCj/IMG-20191204-101539.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/25tRLKPK/IMG-20191204-101806.jpg

[legacy]

guys, is there any TrackPoint standalone kit?

[Black Phoenix]

guys, is there any TrackPoint standalone kit?

For what I know, no, it's only integrated in IBM/Lenovo keyboards. Although some years ago there was mice with trackpoint nibs:





There was also something similar in Kickstarter some time ago:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/swiftpoint/tracpoint

[SiliconWizard]

This keyboard is the first one I actually made myself

pic?

There you go. It's a very "bare" design. But it just works.

[calin]

Go find an IBM Model M keyboard and try it ... you will never go back after you had it 

[legacy]

There you go. It's a very "bare" design. But it just works.

is it CNC cut? how did you desin the mechanics, and how did you cut it? is there a service?
besides, what about the PCB? I am considering something similar because an homemade keyboard potentially might allow extra features, like a smartcard reader for the login.

Cherry has similar keyboards (with a built-in smartcard reader), but they are big, ugly, and not comfortable at all