For the Piantor you can use beekeeb’s ready-to-go firmware from https://docs.beekeeb.com/piantor-keyboard
It’s QMK with support for Vial, so you can use the AppImage to define key mappings, layers and many other stuff without having to code and compile QMK. https://get.vial.today
So far that was enough flexibility for me, dodging a compile.
I’m truly very happy to hear that you found a tool which helps you!
Just keep in mind to be focussing extremely and solely on accuracy, no speeding, no bursting.
Drill the keys, the rest happens by itself.
(Up to a speed where you can comforatbly type. Then and only after that, come the specialized trainings for 2/3/n-grams, burstings, read-aheads, finger swaps, etc. - but you need an extremely solid basis for that, where even complicated words just flow out of you without any thinking. Pace yourself, get to at least a constant and repeatable 60 wpm with 99,5+% accuracy on a bad day first before going further)
Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, doctor, mechanic, milkman or whatever. People are different and different things work for different perks. I am just telling my personal experiences and the learning plan I chose for me (which probably is ultra-conservative) but which I believe fits my style and brain.
Looks a bit like BÉPO but not quite. Honestly, I could not find out what layout that is.
Oh, and keybr is brutal and frustrating. Personally, I don’t like it and wouldn’t recommend it. Others do, so that seems to differ.
I remember using it for fun in my QWERTY-times and drilling the same key on a pinkie got me stuck on 98+% confidence over and over and over and over again so I got pain and cramps. I told me it’s not what I would consider improving my typing but want out of my life.
Typing accurate but slow had me repeat the same keys again and again. Typing fast but with very bad accuracy got me through all the keys in no time.
That’s stupid. It’s harmful to your typing skill and makes you feel bad, physically and mentally, when you should just enjoy the new hobby! I hate keybr.
When learning Colemak I therefore switched to https://first20hours.github.io/keyzen-colemak for which exist many forks, probably also for your layout. Makes you type the letters, learning one after the other. If you mistype, it has you type the wrongly pressed and missed key repeatedly correct before it proceeds to the next letter.
Once I could locate all the keys well I used https://gnusenpai.net/colemakclub to engrave the homerow and additional letters in increasing stages.
Today I still use those sites to refresh key positions or as a warmup exercise.
After that came monkeytype 1k (skip 200!), always correct errors, always retrain mistyped words.
I use english 1k, 100 words and only aim for accuracy with currently 99,82% avg acc. Speed improves all by itself, but it does not interest me (yeah, it does, because it is shoved in your face just everywhere, but I know being accurate is my true metric)
Don’t rush, there are no prizes of meaning to win on any site. What you gain and may keep are the many new skills: a cool new layout, focused typing, improved concentration, better frustration tolerance, better stress resistance, well developed confidence and a proudness of what you have achieved all by yourself.
Currently I am training with https://problemwords.com and Amphetype (automatically fail and repeat a lesson if below 98,5% acc, considering higher but some interpunctuation is really hard) but I am revisiting all of the above to get a mixture.
Your keyboard looks awesome, indeed! Very smooth and soft, may it calm and comfort you a little on your learning adventure.
Myself, I have switched from manymany years of touch typing QWERTY to Colemak DH some months (already?!) ago. The first days were brutal with constant headache, deep thinking before pressing a single key and really no wpm to speak of. Now I am much better so let me tell you: hang on, it’s a steep climb but you. will. get. there.
Do not let you tell yourself you are bad or dumb or worse or slower than other people. I did that. But - the facts speak for themselves, I constantly improve in my own speed.
Focus on accuracy. Everything below 98% is not good enough to attempt a speed run (okay, once in a while to loosen up or for fun, but don’t take it as a measurement of your progress). Just slow down, take your time, try to enjoy. Don’t be fast, be accurate, because that’s the only thing that carries you the long way and opens up later improvements. Try to avoid adopting bad habits because you want to be fast - be accurate. Especially at the beginning this is extremely important. When switching layouts you get the unique chance to train yourself again good form, don’t let this pass.
Try to enjoy the time, nobody judges your progress. Be proud. Calmly accept this takes a while. It’s fine. 🐣
I don’t know the optical ones but maybe this helps:
Kailh Choc
Red Pro: linear, 35gf
Purpz: linear, 25gf
Light Blue/Pink/gChoc: linear, 20gf
All have 3 mm travel and trigger at 1,5 mm
I suspect the homerow is still ARST… so I wonder.
Colemak has two columns on the digit finger, this layout here however seems to have two columns on the pinkie finger, putting more stess to them?
Or are the keys shifted so the homerow here is VARS, but that doesn’t seem to make sense as the Colemak layout has been designed with the most common keys at the homerow… also the staggering would be weird then.
Any insights here?
Thank you for your write-up, especially how the coating changes the texture.
I hope the engravings stay bright for a long time. Do they make filled engravings? So, take a black cap, engrave, then fill with white paint?
I’ve seen the possibility to order custom caps at FK some time ago and found that mighty impressing for a manufcturer to provide this service. Tons of combinations possible. They sure know what the keebnerds crave :D.
Enjoy your new caps :)
After getting used to the mental effort is similar to pressing Shift or Ctrl but you get to keep the physical comfort and the reduced travel.
Additionally you are able to press any key without looking or moving and repositioning your hand, be it symbols, numbers, fn-keys, all of them.
Congratulations! Was it difficult to do? What are those keycaps and which keyboard layout is this?
You’re welcome und viel Erfolg 😊
keycapsss had me covered. It’s a german shop that stocks everything needed for a Piantor (and of course other keyboards).
Aliexpress might be cheaper but I did not want to risk a hassle and the long shipping.duration. keycapsss’ delivery took only a few days and their service is awesome, nice contact too. Support your local dealer.
A single full set of Piantor PCBs sets you back 15 EUR plus shipping. Switches and keycaps are also priced reasonably.
Looks nice and clean, great! Could you tell us a bit more about it?
There’s a dot in your URL giving a 404.
Bongocat approves 🪘😸🪘
Wow, they really show some dedication! The problem for me is not unintented misfires but more the long delay until I trigger the mod, so the opposite of what their problems seem to be :D I already reduced the holding duration from 200 to 160 milliseconds to get to the Shift key faster as it breaks my flow when waiting for the uppercase keys to become available. Especially noticeable at the start of a sentence or when typing “I” or getting to the other layers or symbols (shifted numbers)
I have seen your zilpzalp on my journey and it looks funny and happy in a positive way :) Nicely done
Yeah, me too :D Taipo probably is not for me, mad respects!
Thanks :) Miryoku’s home row mods are a little troublesome, especially as there is no dedicated Shift key. I adjusted the timeouts a bit, so it’s better now, but I am still not entirely won over.
That’s tricky to describe. The MX keys are on my more substancial keyboards that are quite heavy and have metal plates in them, so they can take quite a punch :D and I feel more confident when being a little more forceful when writing.
On a laptop keyboard however there is much less travel but still a solid frame so the keyvoard does not move when typing as it is fixed in the frame.
On the ergo mech both halves are very light so they would move around if I’d heavily press down. So I am more tapping than hitting, thus the lighter switches (35g) really make sense and I personally would not use a stiffer key spring and consider going even lighter.
The Choc have a key travel of 3 mm and trigger after 1,5 mm (+/-) so they actually feel neither like MX nor Laptop switches as they are lighter than MX but have more travel than Laptop switches. It’s difficult to describe.
Overall I like them and my brain can differentiate between all three keyboards, which is great because Laptop+RowStagger=QWERTY and Choc+ColumnStagger=Colemak and my brain accepts this and is able to switch the layout. My QWERTY skills have taken a hefty hit in the meantine and while training Colemak. I plan to retrain QWERTY once Colemak is much better but that will still take a long time.
The Chocs feel nice but the spring is resisant even in the first sub-millimeters so they feel stiffer and harder as they really are as they resist against your finger more than a wobbly Laptop keyboard, that gives a few sub-mm before pressing against the spring. I hope I could describe what I mean with this.
PS: typed on my mobile so probably full of typos, sorry :)
Great transparent neon retro style!