Hi, I’ve been meaning to make a travel-friendly ergonomic keyboard setup for a couple years ago after starting /r/ergomobilecomputers, so far just been on a raised tablet setup with a regular keyboard (a setup I’ve enjoyed, but will confess I’ve some slight pain from using a standard keyboard with it)
What kinds of recovery stories have you experienced yourself or heard from others in using a certain ergomechkeyboard?
Were there things outside of having a more ergonomic setup that helped (i.e. just better sleep, diet, hygiene, mood) too?
Basically curious to hear some stories of how these things have helped fellow jank-embracers!
I did try searching around the original sub for ‘pain’ and ‘rsi’ but feel like it may be worth asking again on here.
UPDATE: Thanks again for all the stories so far both here and on the related reddit thread! Made me revise a brainstorm keyboard idea that could facilitate redirecting pinky use on the left control key + right arrow keys to something that uses the thumb + index finger instead.
Not really. Ulnar nerve issues. I’m on the wait list to see specialist. Ergo consultants think my setup is spot on. Use Kinesis Advantage 360 Pro a Glove80 and a basic TKL at the moment. Mixing it up is best, but the TKL causes the least amount of pain heh.
Not RSI but I had pain in my pinky before my crkbd. Switching to it and moving most used keys to the thumb keys made a pretty immediate difference. Some minor wrist pain from keeping them bent also disappeared since its a split keyboard. (I also use a vertical mouse so the wrist bend isn’t an issue there either.)
I had wrist pains every now and then over the years. They never felt bad enough so find a doctor, so it never had a specific diagnosis.
Then I had a worse brush with wrist pain I decided to try several split keyboards (Microsoft Sculpt on and off, Kinesis Freestyle Edge, Ferris Sweep, Kyria) and they didn’t really improve things and sometimes gave me new pains. Only after switching to a Kinesis Advantage2 I saw large improvements and wrist pains mostly going away.
I also started to be more mindful of taking breaks (sometimes it works out, sometimes I am so focused that time flies by) and do some hand exercises during breaks. I also got an easily adjustable standing desk (just a press of the button), so I can tune it to have exactly the right height and switch between sitting and standing.
I could have stopped with a Microsoft Natural keyboard and been fine pain-wise, but I had already started down the mechanical rabbit hole and missed the feeling of mechanical switches. The basic ideas of split, tenting, and reverse tilt helped a ton, but I could have been fine without column stagger or a reduced layout.
I now use a 40-key low profile column staggered split with Colemak-DH and it’s a joy to type on. Learning Colemak-DH was probably the lowest benefit to effort of all the changes I’ve made, so I don’t exactly recommend it. Now that I’ve already spent the time to learn it, though, it’s definitely comfy to type on. If you want a mobile setup though, I think a split board like a Corne, Sweep, or Totem, or one of the many derivatives would be a great upgrade for your tablet setup. There are a few solutions for tenting but you may find you don’t need it - while it was essential for me at first I’m now fine using a split board flat on the desk.
I also found a vertical mouse made a big difference- I used the $15 one from Anker for a few years. Trackballs can be good too. I also noticed holding my phone put my wrist at an awkward angle, so I got a pop socket and that was helpful too.
Yes, but I think mostly because it’s split and tented more than having a columnar stagger. I’m currently using a Sofle rgb v2.1. Using a vertical mouse also saved my right elbow. Whenever I travel for work and use my laptop’s keyboard, I have to take long breaks every 90 minutes because my joints flare up that quickly.
