Sofle v2 keyboard is cheaper than a wrist exam

Introduction

I am one of those programmers who type at list 8 hours per day and still prefer shopping on a PC rather than on a phone rsrs. Yes, I need the big screens.

Even tough I did not count my words per minute (wpm), I considered myself a good typist with my 100% keyboard: I was able to memorize the shortcuts that I needed and did not have to look on the keyboard to type.

When the pain started

But as time goes by, I started to feel that my hands started to get rust, like some oil was missing between my hand bones 🤖. Three years later, I paid US$ 100 in an ultrasound that showed me that I had tendonitis 🤕. I started to the physiotherapy for my wrist, which gave me some relief, but at the end of day, I felt sour on my right hand due to labour.

Looking for a new keyboard

So, I started to look for a new keyboard. I was willing to buy a simple used mechanical keyboard; it would be a lot better than my membrane keyboard. But the pain would still remain. Then, I decided to buy an Ajazz Alice AKS068 Pro from a Brazilian Fellow online:

• The price was great.
• The change would be small because it is a 70% keyboard.
• I loved the colors.
• There was a Knob button that I would use as a volume controller.
• It was “ergonomic”.

HOWEVER, he did not want to send the keyboard over mail.

Then, I found pricy this keyboard new, here is way:

• The keyboard was not ergonomic at all -> It only had curved keys in a fixed position;
• As time passed by, the pain increased, and I felt that I need something more complete;

Mechanical ergonomic keyboards

A week or later I discovered the Moonlander keyboard from Fabio Akita, for US$ 400, no way. But I realized that this was the kind of technology that I needed. So I did a vast research and I found out that eFeXx built a Sofle v2 keyboard by himself step by step. There was even a ready to go shop list. With this keyboard I would have a real ergonomic keyboard, that’s way:

• The keys are columns oriented: They respect the different length of the fingers.
• The thumb finger receives 3 keys to use on each split. Being it the strongest finger is a waste to use only for space in a regular keyboard.
• I could place the keyboard at any angle that I wanted: as long as I respect the ergonomics.
• The splits can be placed far apart from which other.

It also has two knobs (one for volume and another for page up/down), two screens, and can be powered with leds, bluetooth and much more from the creator. But it was not still perfect, here is way: the case for the keyboard on the video did not work and had to used a flat one.

Building my own keyboard

That’s when my friend Seiji enters into the history. I got so excited about building my own keyboard, that I not only convinced him to make one for himself, but he also developed an angled support case based on this one, with a better support for the PCB. This was the Gran Finale of ergonomics manual.

Then, the next step was to buy all the parts from AliExpress, one by one, and assemble them together:

This whole process took me 1 full Saturday and other 3 months of “CI/CD” that I had to fix some welds. Considering that I had no previous experience on weld, it was a learning process, and I liked.

In summary

This is what I got from this process:

1. I made a new friendship! Not only one, two: Paludo showed me his lilly keyboard and all the advantages of having a split keyboard.
2. Learned how to (and not to) weld.
3. I recommend it, specially if you are familiar with weld;
4. Like when we are new to programming, when I finished, I figured out that there was a better way to make it. I could have saved a lot money and time if I had bought a ready to build sofle RGB mx kit2 by 50 US$. But as part of my learning, I could not know that it would work before doing it.
5. Lots of stories for a Sunday in family.
6. A Blog post 😂;

This whole process made me remember that, to be a master, you gotta get your hands dirty!

Now, better coding, with better keyboards!!