My CRAZY 36 Key 5x3 Moonlander Layout (But It Works!)
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- Опубликовано: 14 июн 2024
- This video is a walkthrough of my new 36 key layout (almost 30%!) that I'm using on my Moonlander split ergonomic mechanical keyboard. It also adapts well to the Planck EZ and of course any other customisable mechanical keyboard.
I actually removed all the keys that I'm not using from the keyboard here which is a pretty interesting way to set up the Moonlander. The advantage of having the keys removed completely is that it avoids the chance of your fingers hitting the keys accidentally as well as making it easier to 'find' the keyboard and have your fingers land on the right keys.
There were several failed attempts that came before this in my pursuit of avoiding having any key more than a single place away from the home keys, including for the thumbs.
Most of the issues arise from setting up a layout and then finding some kind of keyboard shortcut isn't possible. This layout, at last, doesn't seem to have any of these compromises.
It still supports all the common use-cases like command clicking, various multi-modifier keyboard shortcuts and has lots of neat productivity boosting features added in too like super fast access to awkward keyboard shortcuts like force quit and copy screen selection etc.
Here is my keyboard layout featured in this video:
configure.ergodox-ez.com/moon...
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I like having the outside column, honestly, but yeah, love the small layout.
Many thanks Ben, excellent video and this gives me some great ideas on how to simplify my layout (even though I'll likely keep the number keys in place)
just wanted to say Ben, I see this video as a birthday gift from you to me, great, I didn't know you were going to come up with a 30% configuration so fast, I'm pretty sure this is not the final form, really liked it.
Happy Birthday!
@@BenVallack thank you :)
Something I have done and recommend you to try, is to move the pinky keys down by one row. So in your case that'd mean '/' goes down, 'o' takes its place, and backspace moves as well (same on the left).
The home position of your right pinky would follow the 'o' and now it should be possible to align your keyboard with your arms and still reach the backspace nicely.
It's certainly worth a try.
I'm with you, as I share here: ruclips.net/video/h5PwhzI_6PI/видео.html
This is some great work.
This is nuts! I just got my moonlander yesterday and it’s my first split, and first non-staggered kb. I gotta say it’s been a HUGE challenge but you’re giving me some great ideas. My main issue is that I switch between a MacBook Pro for work and a custom gaming pc for play. I’d like to be able to use the moonlander for both but it’s really tough to come up with layouts that work for both
Ah yeah interesting, I'm sure you'll pull it off. A lot of people set up a dedicated gaming layer that you can switch to. So you could do that and then have your mac-centric stuff on normal layers.
That is insane, love it!
good video I'm also inti ergo keyboards. Got a question though, have you tried miryoku layout? Seems like what you're looking for, I'm also tempted to try it but havent tried yet
Have just ordered one. If I'd go this route, I'd probably 3d print squares to ose rhe openings, which would be translucent, letting the led light shine through without blinding. Inspiring!
I tried using tap dance but the delay was way too hard to dial in to the right timing so I couldn’t cope with it. Maybe as I get more comfortable with the moon lander I’ll give the ctrl+key combo a try one key at a time
This was a great video, and an interesting concept. I would love a video showing older versions to get both ideas of problems driving changes, and to get ideas about a slightly less aggressively minimalist layout. While I have the utmost respect for such an extreme design, I finished my first programmable keyboard last week, and I'm not ready for such a drastic shift from my 104 key safe space. That said, I am already making changes to my layout with ideas from this video.
It never stops heh! I have made some more changes since this too so a new layout ideas video would be great. Will see what I can do.
@@BenVallack would that be ruclips.net/video/WA_GUYS8UJg/видео.html ?
You clearly need a Corne Keyboard. I've been through dozens of keyboards and I landed on the corne specifically for the reasons you've described in this post. Also, you can make a Corne Split Keyboard fully wireless if you have the DIY mentality. Layers and all that good stuff work with ZMK. I have to hand it to ZSA though, the tap dance features are great!
very innovative, lots of good ideas here for Windows as well
Man this keyboard is fantastic. Glad I found them through you. Got mine last month and have to say it is amazing for both gaming and general productivity. My rsi issues are near gone after having switched. Also what made you go to colemak?
I hit a ceiling with Workman. Will look at this in another video too.
Tap dance seems great for em dashes (a three key chord on Mac), cut/paste/copy can all go as long presses on the corresponding key. I… think I need this keyboard.
This is a great idea for a layout, thanks for the demonstration! I tried it on my own moonlander though, and I get a very noticeable delay on single tap for all tap-dance keys... Have you noticed the same? Is there some trickery in the advanced settings that can make it better? Obviously I could reduce the hold time significantly but that would cause a lot of clashes between hold and tap.
Thanks! Stick with it, it's super strange initially but I found my brain just learnt to ignore it!
EDIT: You need a Minidox! They should make a Minidox EZ.
Or a Kyria
As a question, why not have tap dance on the shift, so you have enter normally, and shift on hold? Given that you usually want to hold it for shift anyway?
Also, I really love this idea, but man, I swap from windows to mac a lot, and it drives me batty that everything that's cmd+ on one is ctrl+ on the other.
Hi! Thanks very much for this video, it helped me a lot to plan my own 36 keys layout!
Could you make an updated video of your layout? I'm sure it must have changed substantially since this video :)
Hope you’re sitting down 😆 ruclips.net/video/5RN_4PQ0j1A/видео.html
I'm using a 34 key ergo board called Le Chiffre. You should check out some 40% ergo boards
Thanks for this man, amazing
Great video! Subscribed :)
Would this work well in a QWERTY layout? What layout do you use in the video?
Thanks! Yeah it should convert to qwerty fine I think. I switched to colemak :)
If you are ever looking for a new keyboard to review, I would love to hear your thoughts on the CRKBD keyboard. I'm considering it as my next keyboard, and it seems pretty similar to what you've made here. I'm going to have to give your layout a try to see if that's something I enjoy. It looks very comfortable.
It's on my radar for sure!
Great video! This gave me a ton of inspiration for my new moonlander. Question though: Can you make the “Hold” action for Tap Dance NOT repeat? For instance, if I hold “T” I’m going to get tens of new tabs 😂
I’m interested in this too… This feature would be nice, cause at the moment, 06.19.2022 there is not…
My thoughts as well.
we need the Ben Vallack edition.. I was still thinkin well the Planck as a split would be perfect.. and here we go..
Nice. I will have to check out the layout. I missed when you switched from Workman to Colemak. I’ve been using the PlankEZ with Coleman from the start and after your tap dance video, tried assigning brackets, braces, parentheses to the same keys. I’m hesitant to assign q and w hold to perform cmd versions as if I type a little slow I could close or quit something and lose data. I’m liking the c,v,x, and a hold versions though so I may try more.
Yeah Q and W is a bit risky. Switched to Colemak-DHm as I felt like I was hitting a ceiling with Workman. Switched to it at the same time as adopting this layout actually.
Love your videos. Thanks for sharing this. I couldn't find your layout at Oryx; would you be willing to make it public there?
Just saw the link below your video, thanks!
@ben how did you get the chorded keys to be configured to get you to layer 3? Moonlander newbie here. Great ideas and Great layout BTW!
It‘s not quite a chord, just that the second key takes you to layer 3, the first key puts you in the layer where that key does that. However, check out this which avoids they on-hold layer keys altogether: ruclips.net/video/WA_GUYS8UJg/видео.html
Thanks for posting all these. I'm a new subscriber, but I am wondering what you do for a living? As an active programmer / design doc writer with some keyboard-induced back issues, I'm looking for improvements continuously.
Programmer too. I am constantly trying to prevent and limit health issues too. I am exploring treadmills/cycle desks at the moment so will definitely share my findings. I’m pretty happy I’m not going to get any issues from my keyboard now though, I hover type so no pressure points and have drastically reduced finger movement. Take a look at some of my more recent videos.
@Ben, where did you get this delete, control and alt key caps 😮 they’re gorgeous ! I need them for my moonlander!
Could be wrong, but I think they're from the Planck EZ set
Yeah I stole them from my Planck EZ - they sell spare full sets of the Planck keycaps if you want them!
@@BenVallack I don’t see that option anywhere :(
cool having the shoutout in the new moonlander hole covers announcement (the zip kit)
They are sending me the kit so I will be doing a video on that soon!
Very interesting layout! Looking forward to trying it on my Moonlander when it gets here. I’m curious, would there be any advantage to removing the legs and thumb clusters completely and then swapping left and right boards and mappings? I know you’ll lose the tenting but might get the thumb row a little tighter? Plus might make the whole board a little more portable?
This is an amazing idea! I've just set it up here, typing this on it now. configure.zsa.io/moonlander/layouts/VYNpM/rdlBb/0 The thumb keys are better like this I think. Might have to make a video on this!!
Nice, I would love to see a video! It might help curb my curiosity while I wait for my Moonlander to show up. Is removing the thumb cluster rather easy? Maybe you could show the steps to completely strip down the Moonlander? I can’t seem to find any videos on removing the thumb clusters.
🤯
Interested in mapping this to an Ergodox EZ layout and give it a shot. I don't think there's a script for that, but hope to get around to it soon.
Did you get around to it? I'm also interested in that.
Did something similar. I build a core keyboard and add additional keys just for convenience
Hi, Ben, love your videos! Question ... am I missing it, or is there no question mark key in your layout?
Thanks! I think I was using the shifted forward slash for that on this one.
I am also going through configuring my new keyboard which is the ergodox EZ. I am getting used to and liking the homerow mod which puts win/alt/shift/ctrl
on the ASDF keys and mirrors it on the jkl; Like anything it takes time to get used to but certainly helps avoid the little finger jumpting all around the place. Now I suggest we both find a youtube video on how to better organise our inbox
Haha!! Yeah that is one of those things I have to fix. The issue is it's faster to ignore an email than delete it! Interesting idea with home row mods!
My Moonlander is coming tomorrow 🤩 So this is another fantastic video of yours to collect ideas.
I wonder about two things though:
1. What kind of letter-key layout is this. This is not workman anymore.
2. Do you use vim? And if so, how do you map regular homerow-movement (normally hjkl) keys and ESC?
Thanks for your comments.
1. Yeah I switched to Colemak DHm as I seemed to hit a ceiling with Workman.
2. Yep. This is basically the gist of mapping it for VIM. This started off as my Workman maps so it might still need more work for Colemak.
noremap n j
noremap e k
noremap m h
noremap i l
noremap k n
noremap h o
noremap o i
noremap j m
noremap K N
noremap gn gj
noremap ge gk
noremap gm gh
noremap gk gn
noremap gh ge
noremap gl go
noremap gN gJ
noremap gY gH
noremap gK gN
noremap gH gE
noremap gL gO
@@BenVallack Awesome! That's really handy to know. Thank you very much for sharing.
this layout looks like it would work well on the Corne 42 key keyboard, which adds the outside row to the left of the home row, but otherwise mimics your physical layout.
mine is coming soon, I was thinking about tackling workman, while also learning to work with a dramatically reduced number of keys.
I have switched from Workman to Colemak DHm now. Seems much nicer to use and reduces same finger bigrams compared to Workman. I have a 36 key Corne on my desk which is a very cool setup, videos to come. Built for me by www.3dkeeb.com - really top notch service making custom keyboards much easier to get hold of.
This looks great; I wonder if there are some blanks you can apply to the empty switch areas. Like a switch base without the box...
That's what I did with my 30% layout on Planck. Got blank flat keys from F10. They look great next to Cherry profile keys I actually press.
They sell a Zip Kit now, which includes smaller blank key caps
Hey, looks like you got some keycaps in addition to what comes standard with the Moonlander. What did you settle on? I did a look, but didn't find what you found.
These are ones I stole from the Planck!
How do you do Ctrl-Shift-letter? This seems problematic with both of those modifiers assigned to the right thumb.
love it, love it, love it but did you miss the hash key?
Should be on there somewhere - might need an alt key though.
up next: Ben tries a ten key keyboard and learns ASETNIOP
Just waiting for my moonlander to arrive. Have you changed your layout since making this video?
Just a bit 🤪 ruclips.net/video/5RN_4PQ0j1A/видео.html
Hey Ben, how do you remove the big red thumb buttons safely?
I'm curious how you deal with the input delay that is added by tap dance... is this just something you get used to? I found it very distracting from my brief testing (and then I promptly disabled it)
I look at this in a bit more detail here: ruclips.net/video/pTMbzmf2sz8/видео.html basically though yeah quite easy to get used too, in fact I tested something else with it turned back off the other day it seemed really strange the other way around!
Are you considering getting a custom 36 key split keyboard?
Also, are you using a similar layout on the planck?
Yes (stay tuned) and yes. Switched the alt key for shift (due to not having the other thumb key) then pulled out all the others :)
Which one do you use as daily driver, which want do you prefer - Moonlander (split keyboard) or Planck. I got a very weak left pinky and ring finder (ulnar nerve damage, cannot use pinky and ringer finger that much or they grow more and more numb and cannot move with them till i rest), So i was thinking of getting a new keyboard with light linear switches. Split sounds great for the body and overall, but not sure if you can use PALM to press CTRL as you showed in your Planck review (I do it on my current keyboard all the time). PS i got small hands
Moonlander for the fulltime work on a desk, Planck for use on iPad when in a car/away etc. But if you only had one and still needed it to be portable I think the Planck would work full time too. Yeah I'm moving towards lighter and lighter switches too. The palm pressing thing does seem easier on the Planck although not quite sure why! One thing you might want to explore is changing the layout to reduce pinky usage. i.e move backspace to a layer, and move Q to where comma is, Z to where full stop/(period) is etc. Custom layouts is where these things really get fun!
@@BenVallack Also with so few kes and use of layers, didnt you think of using some DIY keyboard like Gergo, lily etc.?
I'm getting there :) I'm actually coming at all this in the pursuit of productivity (and reducing effort) so spending ages building and programming keyboards isn't really ticking the boxes. Although I'm sure it is fun! But, Corne and Gergoplex are very much on the horizon in pre-built form.
As you started down this rabbit hole, did you use any default layouts, websites, blogs, etc. as "research" for how you started? Or was the particular layout (outside of Colemak-DH) trial and error based on your own usage?
The ZSA blog and newsletter are good for shared layouts to look at, they’re good for inspiration! Then yeah lots of trail and error!
@@BenVallack Signed up! Thanks. As I've started to think about where to put things (for letters I feel good with Colemak), I wanted to see how much I actually used certain symbols, numbers, and combos. I tracked my own key usage to see and it's kind of wild to see the data first hand. For me, the 8 Colemak under-finger, home-row, lower-case letters (a, r, s, t, n, e, i, o), plus , , and + account for 54% of all my keystrokes! (That's after tracking approximately 100K keystrokes during everyday, work + personal computer usage.) I was kind of blown-away by how much is accounted for by just those eleven items (plus, how much I'm app-switching/multi-tasking! Alas). I'm using the results to determine where I'll put certain symbols (e.g. "How much do I really use '_' versus '-' versus ") and whether they're "worthy" of base-layer placement, home-row placement on a layer, etc. github.com/Ga68/benign-key-logger
@@jeelliovuscow5522 Thanks for this!
Hi ben! Whats your favorite layout ?
The possibilities are pretty staggering if one is willing to forgo ease of transition between a custom-optimized ergo board and conventional ones!
Yeah exactly, that‘s the bottom line.
What's the layout you are currently using ?
I was looking at adapting this to the Planck, but the two thumb cluster keys you use would map to the single "space bar" on the Planck. I would probably make both those keys space/shift and forego the tap dance hold for Spotlight, to make switching to the Planck easier. You at least have a backup keyboard. I'm starting to realize that it will be painful if something happens to my one Planck considering how long it takes to get a replacement. I did notice that I had problems with the "space bar" being the hyper key with tap dance, but it works fine for the normal key programming with the dual function hyper and space as the command. I tried selecting shift in tap dance hold and adding the other modifiers, but there was a problem with the order of the key codes sent to the OS that did not look like a hyper key was pressed. I like the concept you are doing as I found it hard to leverage that bottom row of keys without moving my hands or worse looking at the keyboard. So restricting it to the three keys on each side is easy for my thumb to reach.
you could try this layout github.com/manna-harbour/qmk_firmware/blob/miryoku/users/manna-harbour_miryoku/miryoku.org#planck_mit
some very interesting ideas in there.
I gave it a try with the Planck moving the ctrl and opt keys to the thumb positions, but I found I like them better on the home row where I could use the opposite hand. With Emacs and default bindings, I use ctrl and meta/opt a lot. Using the Oryx dual function keycode I can set all the modifiers on the home row. from inside out each hand gets alt, ctrl, cmd and shift. I kept the tap dance for copy, cut, and paste with the Colmak-dhm layout.
Are you still palming the bottom corner keys like in your Planck video? I think if I do end up removing the need for the pinkie to stretch to the far column, I would use the layout @Demetris Mina mentioned and shift the keys towards the outside of the Planck to give more hand separation.
Maybe you could do a video revisiting the Planck once you get the Moonlander dialed in.
Thanks
I'm drawn to using a layout like yours for typing, then filling up the rest of the key spots with macros. That would suit my work well 🤔
I just got mine yesterday and my shoulders are thanking me already. Love my 60% keychron but posture and ergo make a difference as much as these awesome keymaps and layouts do
Very inspiring. Especially the tap dance with the cmd key. What I wonder however, did the tap dance mess up your typing? This looks very much like a mini dox keyboard
It caught me out a bit at first but I increased the hold delay a bit and became aware not to linger quite quickly, haven't accidentally fired them for several days now.
@@BenVallack I would like to thank you again for this video. You inspired me to go to a 36 layout on my current preonic. I plan to build a new keyboard with 36 keys called the gergoplex. I didn't do what you suggested and use the tap dance feature, but I am using the combo's feature in qmk to execute common commands. I think it is less error prone. For instance I use 'op` for escape or 'qs' to make quotes and enter text in them. I think this isn't possible with oryx, but qmk is quite powerful, but programmer heavy
You're welcome! I have a Gergoplex on its way too!
@@BenVallack did you order a kit? Or are you going to solder it yourself? I ordered a kit, so I wonder if I can do the soldering myself, but even that should be a nice challenge
I almost went for the kit but decided I didn't have time for soldering! Let alone the fault finding etc when I mess it up! Def a good option if you have the skills though!
At this point why not buy a corne or GergoPlex board?
(Oh, wait, you need custom cases for those if you want to tent them...)
Still, could be something fun!
Seriously though, great job with this!! Loved the video!
Stay tuned :)
@@BenVallack Ooh, will do!
Time for you to build yourself a corne, Ben!
Was very tempted but wanted to work without the side colomns.
@@BenVallack Did you know you can snap off the side columns of the corne pcb? This leaves you with the exact layout/number of keys you are working with now. The side columns are completely optional!
@@GirdEmUp Ah no I didn't realise that!!! Very interesting.
@@BenVallack I started off with an ErgoDox EZ from ZSA, but 7 keyboards later, I'm clear down the rabbit hole. You seem like the kind of guy who might enjoy building your own keyboard, but if you'd rather not, I'd be happy to build you a custom keyboard and ship it over to you. Maybe you could even feature it in one of your videos.
Can you drop me an email via the link in the about tab - lets chat about this a bit more, cheers!
I bought a Corne keeb :D
I have something like this layout but I'm still on qwerty and no tap dance.
You should look into trying out Corne keyboard coupled with the Miryoku layout. It feels like that's the direction you're going into.
Have one on my desk right now. Sent to me by a really amazing guy with a new custom keyboard website www.3dkeeb.com
Miryoku does look interesting but it relies on home row mods which makes me very nervous, I can’t seem to get them working in a way that lets me type fast rolls.
@@BenVallack Oooh. I'm using a Lily58 pro with a rotary encoder (mapped to mouse scroll and media volume). I took inspiration to Miryoku but didn't quite end up exactly with it.
Will you upload a video regarding Corne? I've been thinking of getting myself one as well. But I wanted to know what you think and in what way (layout, etc) you'd end up using it.
I like your videos btw! Been watching since day 1. lol.
@@yhevrah Yep definitely will do some videos on the Corne. Rotary encoder sounds cool! Awesome thanks for your comments!
OK Damn it! I'll subscribe... gosh..
Why did you choose Colemak over Dvorak?
Am I missing something or there is no mapping for the function keys? As a dev, I use them all the time on my Mac.
Yeah I have never found a use for them - I would say another layer that you get to from my layer 2 - so it behaves like a modifier to turn the numpad keys into their f key equivalents, could work quite nicely in this layout.
Where do you get those alt/ctrl/backspace keys?
Stole them from the Planck!
I mentioned a couple DIY boards, but I could actually 100% see you getting a corne-ish zen to replace your Planck EZ for on-the-go use, since it basically has this layout, is insanely portable, and has bluetooth! It uses low-profile (choc) switches, which actually fit a bit closer together than mx switches since they take less room on the board (and have slightly smaller keycaps to match!) The group buy (basically, the period where you can buy them) ends on March 31st, though!! Take a look soon if you're able to!
Do you have a link?
@@BenVallack I do, but it seems like RUclips won't let me send it... Weird...
Either way, if you google "lowprokb corne-ish zen" it should be the first result!
@@sommeone That is so tempting! I already have a few new keyboards on their way to me so I will pass this time but it‘s an amazing looking thing!
@@BenVallack Fair enough! I felt like it fit the channel and your workflow pretty well, and would allow for an interesting discussion about layouts using the adjacent-key tap chords that become possible with close-set choc switches and light springs (If you look up gchoc switches, they're 20g switches that only work with low-profile boards, and they're super cool)
That being said, they're very expensive and not super accessible (since they'll be sold out/unavailable by the time you make a video on them)… I'm personally not getting one because I'm literally building a choc-spaced corne board right now, so it would be a bit redundant (aside from the Bluetooth… Dang, that Bluetooth is impressive!)
Yeah totally, I'll be looking at all that stuff when my Gergoplex arrives :)
I know it's a weird takeaway for this video... but where did you get the ctrl and alt keys that match? My moonlander didn't come with those. Stolen from the Plank?
Yep :) They do sell the Planck keycaps separately too though.
@@BenVallack ah cool, I didn't realize they did - you just need to ask support ($50 + $20 for shipping though, ouch). Thanks!
What about repeating command keys? Eg command+d to scroll down on vim. I would imagine it might get a bit annoying waiting for the tap dance?
I use ctrl+d in Vim - I don't think I have found any situations where I've needed to repeat any of the command keys yet but definitely something to keep an eye on.
Gotcha. Thanks Ben.
Another q: have you thought about moving your pinky row down one since you have the space now? You talked about those issues with reaching keys. Maybe this will help.
I briefly had every key assigned to a tapdance function, but really didn't like the feel of letters appearing on screen on the upstroke rather than downstroke.
Yeah it's really strange at first but now I don't even notice it. You definitely get used to it.
@@BenVallack that's really good to know! I'll have to give it another shot.
ZSA needs to make a moonlander with less keys 😍😍😍
I‘m trying to do something similar but one-handed (need one hand to hold the baby, pet the dog, use the mouse..) but i can‘t find any option with bluetooth. Koolertron makes small keyboards, that are even mechanical, but they need a cable.. do you know an affordable, small keyboard with at least 24 keys that has bluetooth and be connected to at least three devices?
Yep, if you check out my latest video you can make one yourself with relative ease!
@@BenVallack oh nice! thank you
@@BenVallack i‘m afraid that‘s more than my skills and my time can offer as a first try. do you know another wireless solution? or something like a wireless planck?
Is it more ergonomic for the thumb to extend outward or inward?
both feel pretty awkward to me, I basically want to have to move my thumbs the absoulte minimum distance away from their neutral position
@@BenVallack hmm interesting. Do you consider the key on the thumb cluster the neutral position? I asked that because I’m currently using the same layout as you but with 6x3 on the home rows instead of 5x3. I rest my thumb on the thumb cluster key and extending them inward for those two bottom keys feels kinda awkward. Didnt see many ppl talking about the ergonomics on the thumbs so wanted to bring that up. I know thats a pretty popular layout
How did you get alt keys, and other custom keys?
Stole them from the Planck!
36 keys, and three of them are F.
Respect.
Haha!!
they should make a smaller version of the moonlander
I'm curious as to how you go about using function keys?
Personally I’ve never had a use for them so I left them out here. An alternative might be to recreate the numpad layer with all numbers along the home row and function keys along the top row.
I really like this but the command tab is clunky from what I can see, if I want to select a particular app by holding down tab and using the tap dance feature, it just scrolls through all my apps super quickly and I would need ninja like reflexes to land it on the app I want, I am still trying to evolve it though to see how I can fix that.
Yeah that tap dance version is really just for the quick jump to last app use-case. To use the actual app switcher you can use the command key on that layer and tap tab as normal - however that is also pretty clunky as it's three keys. What I'm really trying to do is to use the dedicated app launcher keys (via Keyboard Maestro) for almost all of my app switching.
@@BenVallack everything else is near perfect though, it's a really interesting idea, my only other very slight issues were around the slight delay on all the keys because of the tap dance feature, really minor but I reckon I could get used to that. another one was when I press and hold W to close a tab, if I hold it too long it nukes all my tabs super fast hehe.
My final issue is that it highlighted some bad habits in my VIM workflow, for example, if I hold HJKL down to move around a few lines or characters, it sends me into CMD HJKL
Thanks for sharing this though, it's a super interesting concept that I might try and tweak a bit more for my own workflow
Yeah I found all those issues too actually! Didn't take me long to iron them out though. Thanks for your comments!
Did you see the other video I did on tap dance specifically?
@@BenVallack thanks for sharing, love your videos, keep up the amazing work. I have the ergodox ez, I want the moonlander but don't see much point with what I have at the moment.
Personally, I think a 42+ key layout is probably better for the average person, I'd never recommend this level of minimalism.
My first ergo will have thumb and pinky mods, and 2 additional layers.
If I make a 36ish key board for portability, I might do something super minimal, but will probably leave out essential keys to keep it simple.
Are you still using this layout today? If so, have you changed anything from the video?
Ah, it looks like there's a new version with some significant changes: ruclips.net/video/WA_GUYS8UJg/видео.html
Yep that’s it, same basic layout but removing the on−hold layer toggles.
This works beautifully on the Planck too! ruclips.net/video/vv98LPMA7-M/видео.html
Your split Planck setup is very compelling!
you might like the corne split keyboard
Hoping to give one a go soon!
Hi man! why did yo switch from workman to colemak?
It seemed like I was hitting a ceiling and I think it was because of the issues discussed here: www.reddit.com/r/Colemak/comments/j9pxcb/colemak_dh_vs_workman/
@@BenVallack my comment got marked as spam since it didn't get posted, probably because I included a link. But wondering what your thoughts are on Shai Coleman's own Colemak mod to reduce center column usage. Was it something you considered but decided to go with Mod-DH instead?
@@PotentChr0nic This is news to me, I will check it out thanks!
Colemak DH is objectively more efficient that Workman by every well-regarded metric in the keyboard community.
I’m surprised you took off the other two thumb buttons on each side. I would prefer hitting those with my thumb over bringing my thumb inside
I did actually try that - if I had the thumb cluster nearer I think it could work but felt like a bit of a stretch for me in full tent mode.
So when are you getting a Corne?
With a bit of luck hopefully soon!
My reticence for doing something like this, especially the vim key bindings, is making it so you can’t use a normal keyboard.
Yep definitely a case of all in. I can’t use a normal keyboard at all now.
Are you going to saw off the unused key slots
I wondered if that would work, is it possible?
DOES ANY ONE KNOW HOW TO SAVE CUSTOM MOONLAND ONLINE?
Nice keymap. don’t you need f1, f2, …, f12?
Nope not needed them so far!
Ben Vallack, you need to put "moonlander" in the title :) How else should a non-subscriber with a moonlander keeb find this!
Done :)
difficult to thumb key to 2byte language people , we need thumb key assign lang change
is that a 3rd party set of caps? my moonlander just came with the alphas and arrows....
He has a Planck as well
Yeah I stole them from my Planck EZ - they sell spare full sets of the Planck keycaps if you want them!
Jesus, at this point you've basically installed VimOS on your Mac.
Take a look at Draculad keyboard = )
Oh boy, def love the look of the key positions on that one.
Just noticed you have 3 or more F keys... lol
waste of space
This is just making things more difficult. Must be a mac thing - one button on mouse, one button on keyboard...