BOARDWALK

• Personal mechanical keyboard journal

Layout

Mechanical Layout

Mitosis

• columnar stagger (ortholinear)
• split keyboard layout provides tremendous benefit to typing posture
• three rows per finger (favorable switch proximity for all fingers)
• ergonomic thumb cluster (inward reach is easier than outward reach)

Resources

• Design: reverse_bias
• Vendor: flashquark

Functional Layout

Qwerty (current layout)

• Being the de facto functional layout of most operating systems/keyboards makes it hard to move away from

Norman (debating whether to fully pursue)

• Close similarity to QWERTY layout allows for fast and easy learning
• Least used letters focused on inner two columns so that index finger is not strained
• cons: similarity to QWERTY means you lose QWERTY muscle memory

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Switches

Capacitive

HappyHackingKeyBoard Pro2 (Topre)

Mechanical

Burnt Orange BOX - purchased April 2018

• first personal mechanical switches
• tacile
• not too heavy, but heavier than brown (browns feel linear to me)
• okay switch
• a bit scratchy
• subject to BOX switches' keycap issue

Zealio v2 67g (assumed R1) - purchased December 2018

• introduced to zeal switches by friend
• Nathan Kim (TaehaTypes) review convinced me to try them out
• current favorite mechanical switch (of the 60+ variants I have tested so far)
• incredibly tactile, and smooth, has a clean bump in both press and release.
• a bit loud to type at home at night
• spring/leaf sound is not the most pleasant to hear

Zealio v2 67g (assumed R2+) - purchased March 2019

• bought another set from zealpc only to find out the switches are different from my original set (confirmed through email)
• bump on release is lighter than original Zealio v2 67g (I prefer the original, more prominent bump more)
• is still incredibly tactile, and is smoother than original v2 set (as a trade off to the lighter release tactility)
• a bit loud to type at home at night
• spring/leaf sound has improved vs original v2 (again, as a trade off to the lighter release tactility)

Zilent v2 67g (assumed R2+) - purchased March 2019

• silent version of Zealio switches
• purchased for night/home typing purposes
• impressively similar feeling to Zealio switches

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Key Caps

Profile

Anything but DSA

• I need the profile to create a concave shape since my keyboards are flat

Material

PBT

blank OEM profile keycaps - colors: Black, Dark Grey

ABS

GMK Metropolis

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Journey

HHKB Pro2 (topre, 60% layout, little hand movement to reach all keys)

• great compatibility with Vim binding

Attempt to have identical set up at work and home

• HHKB-BT vs HHKB Hasu mod research
• into rabbit hole of mechanical keyboard world

First Mitosis keyboard with BOX Burnt Orange switches

• very satisfied with mechanical layout
• QMK firmware is very convenient
• Wanted hot swappable set up for my Mitosis keyboard

Second Mitosis Keyboard with hot swapability

• first personal build (still outsourced soldering to Flashquark)
• used gold holtites for hot swap functionality
• using holtites is more reliable than Kailh hot swap sockets in my personal experience
• plate no longer soldered to pcb, which allows for utilizing any plate material

Third Mitosis Keyboard (replica build of second Mitosis)

• in progress
• planning on making a detailed build log
• planning to use metallic plates

Projects

• Hot Swappable Mitosis
• Different material plates for Mitosis
• AES128 for Mitosis wireless communication