DISCLAIMER: This is not an ad, everything is open-source. All links go to GitHub.

Hi everyone,

A few months ago, I made an engine to find a (near-)optimal one-handed Lily58 keyboard layout, linked below. From that, I selected what I believe to be the best of the best and called it my prototype.
The Engine: https://github.com/aaa308-aub/lily58-anneal
The Prototype: https://github.com/aaa308-aub/Lily29

The prototype has 4 layers: one main layer, two layers for symbols, and one backup layer for QWERTY -- mainly for people who game. The home position (e.g., what used to be WASD on regular keyboards) is now HTNE here.

This project might be for you for a lot of different reasons, in order of importance:

• To stop moving your right hand between your mouse and your regular (two-handed) keyboard. I noticed that we do this all the time and it distracts us in the moment, and that people who have certain disabilities or challenges may find that really annoying.
• To deprecate most functional keys: F1 to F12, Print Screen, Home/End, Page Up/Page Down, Insert, Alt, Tab, Shift, etc. Yes, there's a real disadvantage here where you have to rebind all your favorite shortcuts like Alt+Tab, but the idea behind this is to personalize your shortcuts using only one "Super" key to do all things functional. For best compatibility, that Super key should be Ctrl.
• To reclaim space on your desk. You don't have to move your keyboard away just to place an A4 paper in front of you.

This may not be for you for also a lot of reasons:

• Your main preference is typing speed over flow, where a two-handed keyboard (split or not) is obviously better. Or, you program without a mouse in Vim-mode and find that superior. Sidenote: This is why I chose a software remapper (called Kanata -- also open-source) instead of flashing all the layers in firmware; for people who already own a Lily58 split and want to use this without abandoning their old layouts.
• The learning curve is obviously pretty high, and you may not like that. I tried to keep it to a minimum by not introducing fancy functionality, like chording, and only apply basic toggles/holds we're all familiar with.
• Not all of us own a mouse with two side-buttons, which is a functional requirement of this prototype. All the PRO's and CON's and other requirements are listed on its GitHub page.

Please feel free to comment whether it's for a critique or a question, or whether it's about my engine -- I haven't discussed the details on that to keep the post short.

I've had a Microsoft sculpt for a long time, and am looking to upgrade

I really like the layout and size and profile of the sculpt, so something that is as nice as it would be the natural progression (i think the ridge and negative slope are the important parts for me)

Idk anything about split keyboards, but I'm not really for diy, and ideally it will be something i can return if it's not fit for me...

Argh, I spilled water on my board and now at least two keys are misbehaving.

Is there a Vial-compatible split board that I can get quickly in USA? I am not a DIY guy.

I wanted a keyboard that could be used at a desk in full ergo form (fully split), but also easy to take around (unibody) if I wanted to work somewhere else. I designed this to satisfy both needs, in addition to having a trackpoint since integrated pointing devices are great!

It uses a single microcontroller with a GPIO expander on the other side over I2C and a 4-pin magnetic pogo connector and USB C connectors to bridge the two halves together. Even though the magnets on the pogo connector are small, I designed the enclosure and interface to be sturdy enough to be picked up by one side.

Design is open source and can be found here: https://github.com/justinmklam/dabao

For people doing their own design, I'm curious what the ordering and shipping side looks like in practice.

A typical build seems to be boards from JLC or PCBWay, controllers and hotswap sockets from one shop, switches and keycaps from another, a printed case from a print service or your own printer, and screws and magnets from Amazon. Each one has its own shipping, and the cheapest PCB order is 5 boards when I only need 2.

Do you split group orders with friends, buy kits to skip all of it (and if yes from where), or just accept it?

I’m building my own split keyboard using a Chinese STM32 Blue Pill clone (STM32F103C8T6). I etched the PCB myself at home, assembled everything, and flashed the firmware. Almost everything works, but the far-left and far-right columns don’t register any keypresses. All the other keys work perfectly.

I’ve tried:

• Continuity check with a multimeter from switch pins through diodes to MCU pins.
• Reflowed all solder joints on those columns.
• Re-routed the column trace to a different MCU pin and updated the firmware pin mapping.
• Verified firmware matrix size and pin definitions.
• Checked for shorts between adjacent columns/rows.

Could you help me identify the problem? I can send over the assembled board.

Hi everyone,

I'm building my own split keyboard using a Chinese STM32 Blue Pill clone. I etched the PCB myself at home (garage fab), soldered everything, and it mostly works. However, the two outermost columns - the far left and far right - are completely dead. All other keys/columns work perfectly.

I’ve tried:

Continuity check with a multimeter from switch pins through diodes to MCU pins.

Reflowed all solder joints on those columns.

Re-routed the column trace to a different MCU pin and updated the firmware pin mapping.

Verified firmware matrix size and pin definitions.

Checked for shorts between adjacent columns/rows.

I got gifted a bulk set of Azoteq TPS43's from Digikey. What overlays do you suggest to use with them? I read online that most laptops have a frosted glass or a mylar finish. Which one do you prefer? How do I go about sourcing these?