Kitaab

34 Keys

keyboard blog nix

published 2024-09-28 18:19

updated 2024-10-05 00:51

I've been using this keyboard daily (but not full time yet), and I can say confidently that it's working very well. I adapted much quicker than I thought I would. I'm typing at about 50 wpm, which for week one is not too bad. I could adapt my layout from the atreus pretty easily, so I didn't have to learn everything from scratch. Using the home row mods has been interesting, and it works better than I thought, though I still have some key combos that don't work on the first time because I specifically press them too fast. Which makes me think I'm not doing timerless correctly or something.

being able to lie down comfortable with my hands at my side is not quite new, but being able to use a terminal at any time certainly is. plugging into my phone is still a little bit of work, and doesn't always work flawlessly, though being able to use vim again on my phone is pretty nice, and I type a lot faster on this compared to when I had an FX Tec

There are still a few things I would like to have on my zmk config:

  • combos for the following:
    • underscore
    • dash
    • caps word
    • equals?
    • question mark?
  • better home row mods (faster when I press another key, rather than having to hold)

I recently acquired an Urchin to get closer to my desire to become a Gargoyle, and I'm certainly doing some nerdy things with magnets to make these portable.

Some History

But what sticks out to me most is the feeling of being incapable of using a keyboard that I own. I've spent lots of time relearning key layouts over the years, despite only owning 2 keyboards before this one. I learnt dvorak when I was still a teenager. I spent most of winter break relearning how to type for fun, because I thought qwerty sucked. I made it through university changing the keyboard layout on every machine I used (temporarily if it wasn't mine). Then got an Ergodox EZ in my early twenties. My first serious mechanical keyboard was a split one. I had developed an RSI injury before that point already. I spent a long while tweaking the config before I found a layout that worked for me. Then many years later I wanted a portable keyboard, I acquired an Atrues. A similar process took place, despite being somewhat similar keyboards.

ZMK features

Now I have an Urchin, and am on a similar journey once more. This is the fewest keys I have ever used, so I'm thinking of doing something a little differently this time. There's lots of tips and tricks to accomplish working comfortably on such a small keyboard:

  • Combos / Chords
  • Layers
  • Hold-Top
  • Home-row mods
  • Caps word

Helpful References

Akshay's blogpost has proven invaluable to me so far. In addition, since the keyboard I'm using only supports ZMK, I've found some helpful ZMK repos with building and learning about the firmware. Both my other keyboards had GUI customization interfaces from the seller, so I used those. With the Urchin I need to use the ZMK builder itself.

Troubles

Being used to GUI editors (I know, very off brand for me), I find it quite difficult to visualize my layout and understand how it works in just text, but I haven't be able to find enough information about the urchin.info JSON file that ZMK Keymap Editor seems to need to visualize it (despite it being effectively identical to the Sweep / Ferris??)

I've also struggled with bluetooth connection. Having overwritten the default config, I lost access to bluetooth keys by mistake, and can not connect with devices other than those already paired (which is my phone 😮‍💨)

These are all before I've even started using the keyboard! I am a little worried 34 is still too few keys. The Urchin also has a pretty heavy pinky stagger that I'm not used to on either the Atreus or the Ergodox, which may be a little annoying. I'll have to see once I've made the switch to using it daily.

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