Building my first mechanical keyboard

Re:Building my first mechanical keyboard by Symbiote on Saturday May 21, 2022 @05:15AM (#31456439)

I'm mostly-maintaining a mechanical split keyboard gallery [1] to help with this. There are a lot of options, from keyboards you can buy from a major retailer (or easily get your IT department to buy), to hand-soldered kits where you need to 3D print the case.-

[1] https://aposymbiont.github.io/split-keyboards/

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Re:Building my first mechanical keyboard by 0xCAP on Saturday May 21, 2022 @05:43AM (#31456554)

I've always been interested in buying one, but since I'm curre tly budgeting for other major investments I'm not willing to spend like 350€+ for an ergodox. Are there decent sub 100€ non diy (i have never soldered anything in my life) split keyboards around afayk?

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Re:Building my first mechanical keyboard by rgoulter on Saturday May 21, 2022 @06:00AM (#31456618)

If your main concern about DIY keyboards is experience, most DIY split keyboards only require through-hole soldering, which is easily doable even with a cheap soldering iron.

The Sofle keyboard is a popular split keyboard. https://github.com/josefadamcik/SofleKeyboard I haven't checked, but I'd believe it's possible close to that budget. e.g. Keyhive have a DIY kit https://keyhive.xyz/shop/sofle

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Re:Building my first mechanical keyboard by KolenCh on Sunday May 22, 2022 @05:00AM (#31466202)

Microsoft Sculpt is quite good. It is not mechanical, not truly split. But one that my hand can agree with. It is also the one I travel with because the mechanical split I have is too heavy.

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Re:Building my first mechanical keyboard by Symbiote on Saturday May 21, 2022 @05:51AM (#31456583)

I don't think you'll find anything non-DIY for under €350. The cheapest options are probably the Chinese/AliExpress ortholinear ones[1], but even those still cost more.

[1] http://www.koolertron.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=keyboard

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Re:Building my first mechanical keyboard by jjmiv on Sunday May 22, 2022 @09:58AM (#31468249)

novelkeys has a LOT of great quality keyboards for under lower prices. I have the milkshake nk65 and it is awesome.

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Re:Building my first mechanical keyboard by noir_lord on Saturday May 21, 2022 @10:16AM (#31458131)

Ergo 4000 are good if you don’t require mechanical keys, I’ve used them for years and years.

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Re:Building my first mechanical keyboard by CTDOCodebases on Monday May 23, 2022 @10:32AM (#31479525)

I recommend getting into keyboard groups on discord and facebook. In Australia I've seen people selling second hand assembled split boards for less than cost of the parts.

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Re:Building my first mechanical keyboard by girzel on Saturday May 21, 2022 @12:54PM (#31459519)

This is incredibly helpful, thank you! It's going to save me hours of research.

I have a Das Keyboard that I am very fond of, but over the years have definitely started to wonder why a) the rows are staggered, and b) it isn't split. There's just so little reason to stick to this form-factor.

Thanks again!

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Re:Building my first mechanical keyboard by DoingIsLearning on Saturday May 21, 2022 @09:12AM (#31457571)

Thank you for putting this collection together.

This is exactly the kind of 'old web' site that I wish I would find in modern search results.

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Re:Building my first mechanical keyboard by aeturnum on Saturday May 21, 2022 @01:20PM (#31459810)

Oh wow - this is a much more extensive collection than the one I used to buy my last split mechanical (a perfectly functional but unimpressive Kinesis Freestyle2 Blue). Thank you!

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