My old keymap.click project existed
to showcase this layout for an ErgoDox keyboard,
and explaining how it helped my RSI,
in the hope that it helps others in the same place that I was.
Since the project is now retired,
I’ll keep the layout here.
The ErgoDox is an open source keyboard which you can get many places online, including by soldering together yourself. I bought an assembled ErgoDox-EZ from ZSA, and I recommend that option. All boards run the QMK customizable keyboard firmware, providing the ability to remap keys to any position on the keyboard.
The ErgoDox helps manage RSI in a few critical ways:
- It keeps my shoulders square by allowing the two halves to be positioned independently
- It has a slight “tenting”, which keeps my hands in a more natural orientation with my thumbs slightly higher than my pinkies
- It allows me to move commonly used keys from weak pinkies to much stronger thumbs, which is described by the guide above
In the future, I plan to post more about how the layout has evolved and what boards I’ve used since 2020, but I still recommend my original layout tour to anyone who wants to know if a split keyboard with thumb keys like an ErgoDox would help them with repetitive stress -related wrist pain.
If you’re interested in writing your own keymap for KeymapKit, you can see the source for this layout as an example.