You can read the article about this here.
I tried to make a keyboard that is easy to use and compact. For this it has an (oversized) 9-key thumbfan and a (non-oversized) 4x6 matrix.
- 9-key thumbfan
- 4x6 matrix
- 2 trrs jacks on each side (four in total) for flexibility: on each side you can choose which one to use
- 2 elite-c controllers -> usb-c
As soon as I had soldered the keyboard, I noticed that the 4 outer thumb keys (On the right on the picture) were hard to reach and I am still not using them after a month of using this keyboard. The 2 that are just next to the thumb home (the next 2 on the left of the previous) are easier to use but I prefer to use the 2 inner. In short, that means I could have saved 6 keys on each side's thumfan.
I would let the matrix as is, remove the 4 outer thumfan keys and add a few degrees to the angle added to the next 2.
This was my first attempt at making my own PCB based split keyboard. The result didn't turn out great for this one, but I made a new keyboard I find much better to use, the Triboard.
This keyboard has far too many keys on the thumbfan: the three keys below the matrix are easy to reach, but others are not: you could train your muscles to reach for the one a bit more to the middle, but the five others are just superfluous. If you really want that many keys in a keyboard:
- You don't need that many keys. They are useless. Really.
- If you still want a keywell so large, at least put it closer to your wrist and increase the angle compared to the keyboard. Then, use MX switches instead of choc ones to make the outer key well easier to reach.
You have been warned.