Haha totally understand!

It’s not for everyone but you do get used to it surprisingly fast.

I first got into 40s because I wanted more free desk space and then I moved to a 35%. My friend always said my 35 didn’t have enough keys so I designed this layout as a joke but enough people liked it that I decided to actually make it.

In my default layout, QAZ are mapped to Esc, Tab, Shift and I use the keys on the right for macros.

Does this mean you won’t be joining the GB?

Thank you!

It’s my daily driver. I was using the original prototype up until this one was delivered. Same layout, just a slightly different case design.

Haha you are correct, I have used it with QAZ on the right side.

My friend always says my Vault 35 doesn’t have enough keys so I made this layout on Keyboard Layout Editor as a joke and then he said I should make it a real keyboard and then I posted it on the 40s discord and they said I should make it a real keyboard and next thing I knew I was making 3d printed prototypes and shopping for manufacturers.

It’s very ergonomic, I swear.

This is a really good read, thanks for sharing it! I'm currently in the process of deciding how to move forward with the sale of the keyboard I designed so this is all really relevant information for me.

Here it is! (Sorry I’m guessing imgur wasn’t really what you had in mind when you said not a centralized platform)

Honestly it was a joke that got out of hand

Oh yeah I can upload it to imgur or something

Well said

Haha it was at my wife's family cottage for decades and we tried to sell it in a garage sale but nobody wanted it so it's been sitting in our basement for several years. I had a SNES and N64 hooked up to it for a while but didn't play them much so now it's back in the basement.

Also getting a screenshot of a typing test on it was kind of a huge pain and I probably did it in the most convoluted way possible. But in the end I was super happy with how the shot turned out, especially since a friend of mine made this insanely cool video out of it.

In a good way or a bad way?

I'm almost always on Mac so I don't need Ctrl much but it is in a layer when I do need it.

It’s honestly really useful having the three keys off to the right. You can just map them to macros or something.

I write JavaScript on the tiny ones so I have to type a lot of () and {} and stuff. It took me a little while to get used to.

Also I have them mapped so that QAZ are Esc, Tab, Shift. So all letters are accounted for on layer 0.

That, my friend, is the keymap of the future.

I haven't tried home row mods, but I really should. I use a Mac most of the time, so most of the stuff I would do with F keys is just mapped to media controls on the third layer. I've barely even used any of the QAZ boards on Windows since I pretty much only use W for gaming.

Here's the map I've been using for the past month or so. I use pretty much the same layout minus the macro keys on the Vault 35.

I also have used this unhinged map and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It's the default map that I wrote for the firmware.

And then I started trying out this gaming layer on the Vault last week. Still getting used to it.

So about gaming… A couple weeks ago I had a dream that I was gaming and my friend told me I was playing poorly because of my keyboard so then we got in a fight. I usually use a 65% for gaming but last week someone convinced me I could use the Vault 35 (green one on the bottom left) so I tried it last week. It went okay after I got everything mapped the way I wanted but then at one point I accidentally turned off my gaming layer and the friend who I got in a fight with in the dream started to get annoyed so I pretended my game was messing up. Then I came clean the next day and he said "fuck you".

Moral of the story is I'm going to continue gaming on the 35%.

It's got lubed KTT Strawberries in it right now. I was going to go with North Poles but I could not get them to fit so I put those in the Mod 005. The caps on the KBt are Drop Dasher which I fell in love with after watching Severance.

I've never found them uncomfortable, but I'm pretty small so maybe that helps.

That psychopath would be me (for the pink one and the black one, the green one is a vault 35). If you want to have your eyes opened, the black one with the QAZ on the right has an interest check going on now.

Thank you!

The 40s gang would love to have you.

Even for people who do touch type, there's a definite learning curve when you move to a 40% or lower board. I found that the muscle memory starts to build up pretty quickly so after a bit of stumbling around I got used to smaller keyboards without too much trouble. The main problem now is when I try to write code on anything larger than a 40% I make constant typos.

It started as a joke for my friend who doesn’t understand how I use a 35% but then some people seemed interested so I actually made it.

I’ve been using it for about a month now and use the QAZ keys for macros. I have tried actually using them as Q, A, and Z, too and it was actually easier than I expected.

😘

I got like 90wpm with this layout one time.

I think I did and then she flipped me off. But I might be remembering it wrong.

Thank you!

Oh I was very worried that something wouldn't fit right once I got the prototype; mostly the USB cutout. I did like 20 printed prototypes with little adjustments to the cutout until I was as confident as I could be, but I still wasn't positive it would fit because of differing tolerances but thankfully my printer was pretty much spot on with what I got from the manufacturer.

When you hit Q, A, and Z at the same time it spits this out

You guys always kill me because it's like you come up with a funny idea for a keyboard meme product and then someone spends actual effort mocking it up or making a CAD model and then someone decides to actually make it and you spend real money on it because nobody had the sense to just say "this is actually stupid" somewhere along the way.

For sure! As far as process, I came up with the layout using keyboard-layout-editor.com and from there I designed the PCB in KiCad and the switch plate and case with Fusion 360. The case took a lot of trial and error to get everything fitting right so I made a lot of 3d printed prototypes before I was satisfied with it. After I had my printed prototype done I basically went on Alibaba and searched for manufacturers who had keyboard cases listed as products they could make and I messaged a bunch of them asking for quotes on 1, 3, and 25 cases (I was trying to decide on 1 or 3 prototypes and then 25 will be the minimum order quantity if it makes it to group buy). The one that gave me the lowest price was also the company that someone I've been getting advice from has used on group buys he's done, so I ended up going with them since he vouched for their quality.

The cost goes up quite a bit as the order quantity decreases, so this prototype was expensive. After shipping and fees and everything, it was over $600. I probably wouldn't have paid it if I hadn't just gotten a tax refund honestly. Some of the other manufacturers that I talked to had slightly lower prices for smaller order quantities but they were too expensive for the group buy quantity.

It takes some getting used to but I’ve been using a 35% for work for almost a year now and I don’t think I can go back.

Numbers?

People kept asking me how I use a keyboard without QAZ so I threw them on there to appease everyone.

What if we’re all just AI