I had already posted this on the other keyboard community but after a few beers tonight, felt I should share it here too. I built this last weekend and test drove it at work all week. I think I really like the Robins but probably not as much as my beloved Sunsets.

The layout is for my Ferris but it’s mostly adapted to 36 keys as well. It’s based a bit on Miryoku and KKGA(I think that was the name). I also took heavy influence from Mental’s symbol layer with the finger roll bigrams. I do have a gaming layer but it’s sort of always changing depending on the game I am playing. Right now it’s Dyson Sphere Program so my second gaming layer is shortcuts for like belt levels and copy/pasting buildings.

  • TerrestrialSpaceship@lemmy.world
    3·
    11 months ago

    How do you like the thumb layout, in particular the innermost key? I just built my first corne and it is a bit awkward for my thumb to reach under my palm. The Sweep seems less awkward, but curious if it feels natural to you.

    • roux is a libOPEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      So that key on my left half is Tab right now and that is mostly for muscle memory going between 34 and 36 keys. On my right half it’s my gaming layer toggle so that is barely used. Where Tab is isn’t great and I am considering swapping it for the outer key which is Esc. It’s not bad for shorter typing sessions but as a software developer I use Tab a ton.

      If you can manage 34 keys, I would really recommend a Ferris Sweep. It’s thumb cluster really has been the best out of all I’ve tried so far.

  • epocsquadron@kbin.social
    2·
    11 months ago

    Do you have links to the referenced Mental symbol later and kkga? I have a similar layout in mind for a Waterfowl I’m building and would love to check out some 36 key layout tricks. I’m already quite familiar with miryoku but I struggle with symbol and number layers.

    • roux is a libOP
      3·
      11 months ago

      The only thing I really don’t like about Miryoku was the symbol layer so it’s been a journey trying to find something that works. I should have shared those links when I made this post. Sorry about that.

      Obosob took down the keymap pin on reddit so I forget Mental’s full user name but here is his blog post about the layer: https://getreuer.info/posts/keyboards/symbol-layer/index.html

      This is the guy that developed Capsword. He has other posts that are worth checking out.

      Here is KKGA: https://keymapdb.com/keymaps/kkga/ I mostly borrowed the vertical brackets cluster. I wanted (); in homerow but also { accessable. [] isn’t used as much so it went on the bottom row. And } is usually handled by intelesense/autocomplete so I put it a bit out of the way.

      I was also eyeballing Hypership as well and tried setting symbols up similar but then saw KKGA’s and got curious about it. I can’t find Hypership right now but if I do I can share it too. I think someone made a comment on this community a few days ago.

      Found it! Hypership: https://keebogram.pages.dev/hypership/

        • roux is a libOP
          1·
          11 months ago

          Not a problem. I try my darnedest to provide the info, especially for this aspect of the whole keyboard hobby since it’s sometimes hard to navigate.

          keymapdb.com is just great in general to browse the layouts for inspiration. I would suggest if you are about to do a bunch of layout exploring when you build the Waterfowl, to look into using Vial instead of vanilla QMK. If you don’t know, it gives you a graphical interface that let’s you hot-swap what keys do what without having to reflash your firmware. I just checked and the firmware does have support for that keyboard.

          The github for Waterfowl: https://github.com/vial-kb/vial-qmk/tree/vial/keyboards/waterfowl/keymaps/vial

          and Vial if you need it: https://get.vial.today/

    • roux is a libOP
      2·
      11 months ago

      Yo, I am so pleased with how they turned out. I have always dug neon pink with black together so was really wanting to see how this turned out. The wait was worth it imo.

      I am hoping to do a batch of purple sometime soon and have plans for an A.Dux build with them.

        • roux is a libOP
          1·
          11 months ago

          I’ll post it after it’s built but first I wanna try and get the firmware ported to Vial lol. I was hoping it would have been done by now so I wouldn’t have to learn a new skill.

    • roux is a libOP
      1·
      11 months ago

      We have an old crockpot that my wife uses to dye yarn with. I used that with a packet of iDye Poly since that dye can be used for plastics. I dumped it in with some water and let it heat up to medium-high-ish. You can go fairly hot but too hot might warp the plastic(I think this more applies for MX style keycaps though). I let them soak in the warm dye for maybe 25 minuets, but scooped some out occasionally to check the color. They start to take almost immediately but you will get a pastel color. The longer you go, the deeper the color.

      If you search YouTube for dying plastic with iDye Poly, you will get a lot of hits.

      This is what I used for these caps: https://www.amazon.com/Jacquard-IDYE-456-iDye-Poly-Grams/dp/B00C1JVYHG