Mechanical Keyboard
Noppoo Choc mini
My first mechanical keyboard, 84-key, 65%, cherry blue switches.
profile is dsa I believe, which is quite unusual.
I've been using it everyday for few years, it works very well.
however, for mac os x, needs couple software in order to make it work.
also, it's almost impossible to find keycaps for it, especially the 5u spacebar is super hard to find.
IKBC Poker
61-key, 60%, cherry blue switches.
IKBC Poker has a few variant, mine is China made, not TaiWan.
no arrow keys, not a problem for me since I don't need them in either emacs or vim.
another nice thing about it is standard size keycaps, only requires the minimum keycap sets (cheaper).
Progrestouch Retro Tiny
66-key, 65%, cherry blue switches.
"The FC660M with doubleshots"
it's the perfect layout to me, with high quality keycaps.
the only drawback is keycap size, it has two non-standard keys: 1u left win and 2.25u right shift.
which needs extra set of keycaps just for these two keys.
HHKB Pro 2 Type-S
60-key, US ANSI layout
I played this in electronics store every time when visited Japan. finally got one one on black friday sale.
it's almost perfect, I just two minor issues with it
first is the backspace key, put it at the end of top row will be great
second is I wish spacebar could be shorter, easier to reach modifier keys
NuType F1 Wireless
64-key, kailh white switches
this one's selling point is you can just put it on top of macbook pro
even though it's already very thin, but I found it's still too high when put on top of macbook
and the 1u right shift key (besides arrow up key) is very bad design
but it's still better than macbook pro's butterfly keyboard
Vortex Core
47-key, 40%, cherry speed silver switches.
I'm a blue switch guy but I'm quite enjoy this silver swtich, not clicky but crisp and fast, comes with beautiful keycaps too
a huge pain to use, almost all special characters required key combos
there is a new version of firmware that can fully customize keys (the mpc), instruction and the firmware can be found on vortexgear.tw
once with mpc, use Much Programming Core configurator to re-design the layout
because I also have a OLKB planck, so I also match the layout to that
another advantage is core is much cheaper than planck but better quality IMO
here's my layouts, the idea is avoid pinky fingers and group common keys to thumb and index/middle fingers
can use Keyboard Layout Analyzer to see the heat map
OLKB Planck V6
47 or 48 keys (depends on 1u / 2u) spacebar
fully programmable, via qmk/qmk_toolbox
I just used few layers, can't remember so many keys, numnbers are the most troublesome part, I don't have a perfect setup yet
ErgoDox EZ
got my ErgoDox EX, the original, no glow or shine etc.
I still need to get used to the columnar layout, even though I have a olkb planck, but I used to type the b key with right hand ...
the software is great, very easy to setup and super clear
at this moment I may still use my 40% keyboard, I assigned keys almost the same
