pixelprimer
For a silent and portable keywell you’ve basically only got the Glove80. Their new Cherry Blossom silent switches is where I would go. Voyager is also an option but only slightly less expensive than the glove and you lose the keywell. I’d definitely go for that if you’re willing to drop the cash. There’s usually a few used ones up for sale on the MoErgo discord
Holding the highlighted red thumb key(s) will activate layers. So left thumb is nav, right is symnum, both is fun.
The shift on R is only used for shortcuts, and acts as r when tapped and shift when held. For typing I use the two sticky shift combos on ring+middle homerow.
There is nothing like that in the market. You can just never turn on the rgb and swap to blanks. That being said it’s a uniform profile so you can move them around wherever you want to match your actual keymap.
Happy to answer as someone on the low key count side, simply put the benefit for me is comfort. Having a two key inner column reduces that awkward reach which is a pretty big improvement. I personally have pinkie pain so reducing pinkie keys completely down to just one key each lowers load and any reaches.
As noted you get rid of having dedicated keys as a side effect. By design those keys are low frequency or fit well with combos. Q and Z for example are super uncommon.
V is an almost a special case that works really well as a combo. V almost exclusively interacts with vowels, especially “e” and “i”. So with optimized layouts, it gets pushed to one of the worse positions on the consonant side. Usually top pinky or top inner.
The combo position is easier to reach and use over the pinkie or inner index. It is predictably preceded and followed by a vowel (or space), it is easy to keep a typing flow with the combo. (This V explanation is stolen and reworded from jcmkk3)
I’d say the same for / and quotes ring and middle move together and those combos are very comfortable compared to using your pinkies or at least my pinkies.
Designed in Ergogen and KiCAD. Basically remade the Zilpzalp using the rufous Ergogen config then cut down the thumbs. Build the rest with jcmkk3’s great footprints and using the hummingbird matrix. Made firmware for ZMK but should also just work with standard hummingbird firmware. Lot’s of love to apfel, weteor, and PJE66 as well.
Soldered them all, and now designed my most recent one myself.
Nocturnals were actually my first choc I knew they were coming and waited. That being said they are great, very quiet, satisfying to type on and have better tolerances than standard chocs leading to less stem wobble. Out of choc and MX ambients are genuinely one of my favourite if not favourite switch. Definitely recommend, especially if you need the silence. I work from home so that’s not an issue for me but still a nice bonus.
If you like the weight and feel of sunsets, the sunrise switches are coming soon which will be silent tactiles and is aiming for the same feel.
