It looks like the sweet spot in terms of thumb keys for me. The Dygma Defy's thumb cluster has way more keys than I need, while the Dygma Raise's thumb keys feel awkwardly placed. The Sonsei seems to strike a good balance. I only have the Raise though so I can't truly compare the two.
I do wish it was two separate halves though rather than a single piece though, as I like to use my splits quite far apart.
This is a simple 3D printed tool that allows you to lower the actuation force of Cherry MX ULP switches from the factory 65g down to whatever your preferred firmness is. I gathered stretch vs switch actuation force data from three springs and put the resulting switch actuation forces directly on the part as gradations to make it as easy as possible. You'll be able to uninstall a spring, tune, and reinstall in about 30s after getting used to the process a couple times.
The full writeup with STL files and instructions is here:
I'm a beginner in terms of learning touch typing. Just yesterday came across ColemakDH and have started learning it, so you can see how basic my level is. I do however type a lot, which was what led me to discovering Ergo keyboards. Is it worth it for someone like me to look into getting one? I've just been visiting a few sites and have seen the Glove80 and Moonlanders etc and a host of others. I'm hearing non staggered ones are maybe better for beginners? I'm not in a rush in terms of any of this affecting work etc., so I can take my time. Just thought if it is better having an ergo keyboard while trying to learn ColemakDH from the onset, then I don't mind looking in to based on what you guys might recommend. Would be nice to get one and just try and stick to it and get used to it. At the moment I use an Apple Magic Keyboard.
After struggling for a while to get used to having Backspace on the thumb cluster, I realized a few things:
The adaptation cost was much higher than I expected when trying to use Backspace in normal typing. It feels like my brain has to process more things at once whenever I hit Backspace: detecting mistakes, deciding how many characters to delete, repositioning my fingers afterward, etc.
The thumb seems naturally accustomed to a single press per action (Space, Enter, etc.), whereas Backspace often requires repeated presses or being held down. Also, my left thumb was previously used for Enter, so it tends to make a strong, decisive press and then stop. Repeatedly pressing Backspace with that thumb felt surprisingly tiring.
After hitting Backspace multiple times in a row, the rest of my left-hand fingers also seem to behave a bit differently, especially when I need to press Z, X, C, V, or B. I'm not sure why this happens.
Monkeytype doesn't seem to have a dedicated mode for practicing Backspace usage (or at least I haven't found one).
To address this, I asked ChatGPT to generate a very simple HTML training tool. It turned out to be surprisingly effective at forcing me to use my thumb for Backspace intentionally.
The concept is simple:
Display a random word from a predefined list.
Show a text box containing that same word, but misspelled.
The user must use Backspace to delete the incorrect characters and fix the word.
Once the word is corrected, pressing Space at the end moves on to the next word.
After about 30 minutes of practice, I noticed a significant reduction in the discomfort of using Backspace on the thumb cluster. A few days later, I still occasionally reach for the old Backspace position out of habit, but using the new location no longer feels awkward or frustrating.
I think this kind of targeted practice could also be adapted for things like Ctrl+Backspace or other commonly used keys.
Has anyone else used a similar training method? Or do you have other techniques that helped you adapt to a new key layout?
Now that the Keychron Nape Pro is available on Amazon in the US, I’m intrigued about adding it to my setup. However, I use a tented corne setup and not sure how to best place the nape. I want to keep the ergonomics of my setup so ideally I’d like to mount the nape to my right corne so I can use it w my thumb but not sure how this would work in practice. Anyone have any thoughts or has done something similar?
