Glove80: split ergonomic keyboard on Kickstarter

[ai212983]

Hello guys.

A short foreword first. I am not affiliated with MoErgo in any way (except backing their campaign), which puts me into weird position. On one hand, I feel it is not right to speak for them. On other hand, it would be unfair to express views/thoughts which are not mine. Thus, a text given to me by Stephen (one of two MoErgo founders) will go first, then my own thought afterwards.

Introducing the wireless split contoured ergonomic Glove80 keyboard. It is now live on Kickstarter!

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What is this you ask? It's the next evolution in ergonomic keyboards: split contoured keyboards. Oh, and wireless to boot!

The Glove80 keyboard is super comfortable for a wide range of hand shapes and sizes, allowing you to type faster, type longer, and keep your hands and wrists in good health.

Glove80 follows how we naturally move. The finger keys are arranged in smoothly curved columns to match the fingers’ natural motion. Six accessible thumb keys put even more of your commonly used keys in easy reach.

Glove80 is the most compact contoured keyboard ever made. Pop yours into your carrying bag and take it with you to the meeting room, local café or on the road.

The 500+ prototypes it took to get Glove80 to this point demonstrates our dedication to the cause of ergonomics.

Technical specifications:

• 80 Key split contoured keyboard
• Bluetooth LE Wireless ​or wired connectivity via USB C
• ZMK open source firmware for full customization and keyboard layouts
• Kailh Choc low profile mechanical switches
• Premium POM keycaps
• Built-in tenting kit
• Detachable sculpted palm rests
• Independently controllable RGB LEDs for each key (stretch goal)

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Glove80-12-medium.jpg (922.34 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

Sorry for the pictures, anyone wanting for more (and/or videos) is welcome to the Kickstarter page.

So. I am a long time Kinesis Advantage (10+y), then Ergodox EZ (4+y) user. Anyone who tried Advantage knows an ideal keyboard should have keywells. But it is also should be split (so Ergodox was always a compromise for me).

Bad thing there were no keywelled split keyboards in production. The only option was 3d printed stuff like Dactyl Manuform et al.

That's why I've bought Advantage360 on Drop immediately. But few weeks later, after seeing the Glove80 followed by few hours of talking to Stephen, I've backed the Glove80.

Low profile switches. Awesome thumb claster. Better keywell profile. Extremely low with low center of gravity. Individual controllable LEDs. It seems this keyboard checks all my boxes. And Stephen seems to be extremely knowledgeable and competent guy. So backing was a no brainer for me. (Even if I have to explain my wife TWO new keyboards)

That doesn't mean this keyboard ideal. There's no fully wired setup (ZMK limitation), no hotswaps (problematic on concave keywells), no blank black keycaps (yet, but promised by the end of KS campaign). But it looks like a worthy rival for Adv360 and I'm eager to compare them in person.

One more thing - there's lively community on Discord, discussing all kind of stuff, low profile artisan keycaps, Kailh Choc springs, electronics, ergonomics, ZMK, you name it. Would be nice to see you there.

That's all for now, thanks and have a nice day!

[stratokaster]

I really wish creators of all those ergonomic keyboards thought about languages that have more letters than English.

I mostly type in English these days but I still use Russian occasionally, and any keyboard that does not have keys to the right of P (namely, '[' and ']') available without modifiers is completely useless for Russian and some other languages.

[Muirium]

O, c'mon. Who in the world uses keys like that?

[stratokaster]

Who indeed...

[ai212983]

@stratokaster I am a Russian living in Germany, so I feel your pain, бpо

With keyboards powered by firmware like ZMK, QMK et al (Ergodox EZ, Moonlander, Planck, Keyboard.io, etc) you almost always create and/or tweak your own keyboard layout/configuration.

It has some learning curve, but once you are get used to customizing your config, it's a chore to use a keyboard without them. With your own config you can move symbols you rarely use (like Ё or Ъ) to separate layer or assign to custom keys combo. Like press "e" twice fast, it will print "ё".

I have a Planck EZ as my travel keyboard. It has Russian layout on its 47 keys just fine. Of course it is something to get used to. For some it's just not their thing.

[stratokaster]

With keyboards powered by firmware like ZMK, QMK et al (Ergodox EZ, Moonlander, Planck, Keyboard.io, etc) you almost always create and/or tweak your own keyboard layout/configuration.

It has some learning curve, but once you are get used to customizing your config, it's a chore to use a keyboard without them. With your own config you can move symbols you rarely use (like Ё or Ъ) to separate layer or assign to custom keys combo. Like press "e" twice fast, it will print "ё".

Yes, I am using QMK in a couple of my keyboards. I guess I could remap Х and Ъ to other keys, the issue is that I will have to get used to this new layout -- and I'm just not using Russian enough these days to make learning a new layout worthwhile.

[mmm]

It's a bit of a shame that there is not an extra column to the right, making the transition smoother.

My solution to not having Danish letters available on my keyboard (34 keys) was to map Æ Ø and Å to key combinations (au, oe, ue), which came surprisingly natural, and is now my preferred way of writing Danish while using a split keyboard, even with an extra column available. But moving to the layouts with fewer keys is almost an hobby by itself.

[Muirium]

A pØtic trick! I haven’t a clÅ what problems that might cÆse.

[mmm]

Surprisingly I haven't run into any issues with any other words than blue (The Danish word for blue is blå, so at least there is some truth to the error). The keys have to be pressed within 45ms of each other with my current configuration.

[Findecanor]

That layout isn't worse than the Kinesis'. The keys for the "NORDE" languages' ÅÆÄÖØÜ characters are present. I think the thumb cluster could be better than the Kinesis' even.
If I were to use that keyboard I would consider remapping the keys next to Return to the topmost row, and put the function keys on a layer.

BTW. Kinesis is also having a new split model: Kinesis Advantage 360; with a wireless variant, also running ZMK firmware.

[mmm]

That layout isn't worse than the Kinesis'. The keys for the "NORDE" languages' ÅÆÄÖØÜ characters are present. I think the thumb cluster could be better than the Kinesis' even.
If I were to use that keyboard I would consider remapping the keys next to Return to the topmost row, and put the function keys on a layer.

BTW. Kinesis is also having a new split model: Kinesis Advantage 360; with a wireless variant, also running ZMK firmware.

It was not my intention to imply that - The example with æøå was more to tell how I decided to tackle not having enough columns, like Russian speaking people would have on the Kinesis/Glove80. Æøå works excellent with 6 columns, and the symmetric layout is pleasing to look at.

That being said I'm excited about both projects. Glove80 brings printed POM keycaps to the choc world, which is pretty nice, given the quite limited selection of keycaps currently - and then even in one of the best materials. And besides that, it's an ergo choc keyboard that is pretty accessible compared to most of the ergo choc world, which is usually <40% (I love small keyboards, but I wouldn't exactly recommend them to friends & family).

And it's super cool to see ZMK being used in a commercial project, where I have only seen it in hobbyist-driven projects before now. Hopefully this will mean that ZMK gains even more traction and more people take interest in contributing to the project. I was positively surprised when I learned the new Kinesis would be using ZMK.

While I haven't ordered either, I'm still excited to hear more about them once they land in the hands of customers - and maybe try one out at a meetup if I'm lucky!

[ai212983]

That layout isn't worse than the Kinesis'. The keys for the "NORDE" languages' ÅÆÄÖØÜ characters are present. I think the thumb cluster could be better than the Kinesis' even.

Kinesis thumb cluster is a bummer for me, as well as on Ergodox EZ. Only 3 buttons out of 6 are easily reachable. It seems ZSA understand the problem, so their newer Moonlander have 4 buttons on thumb cluster. People owning Moonlanders says only 2-3 of those are really reachable.

I've talked to MoErgo guys (they are all Advantage 2 owners), they claim all 6 thumb keys are reachable on Glove80. They did dozens of prototypes to ensure that.

Quite a bold claim, frankly, so I am a bit suspicious. Will see though. Worst case scenario, all my layouts are optimized for 3 keys thumb cluster anyway

[oofers]

I really wish creators of all those ergonomic keyboards thought about languages that have more letters than English.

I mostly type in English these days but I still use Russian occasionally, and any keyboard that does not have keys to the right of P (namely, '[' and ']') available without modifiers is completely useless for Russian and some other languages.

Good point, even modern 65% keyboards usually lack the right alt key which I very often need to type things like ' [] @ & # <> etc. Thankfully I was able to rebind on the 65% that I'm currently using.