Model 01 after 3 months
I moved from my Ergodox EZ to Model01 about 3 months ago and I thought, it’s time for an update.
loud vs silent?
That was a journey… The loud switches had a problem with the actuation force, some keys felt stuck sometimes and the main problem was, that the force differs between keys. This actually made typing a lot harder. I tried to lubricate the switches, but it did not fix the problem.
So I switched the keys. This is working, although taking some time. It is not that hard and if you are careful, nothing will break. I did it a couple of times, and the keyboard is still working fine. here you’ll find a thread about that switching.
First I thought, if switching, why not use the red silent linear switches. And I tried… a while.
For me, this was causing more getting used to, than I would like and I did a lot of typos by accidentally hitting a key. So I switched again, back to the silent click ones. And it feels really good. No difference to the one that was directly equipped with those switches.
iterative getting used to
Yes, this is something most people do not like to read about their upcoming keyboard: You have to “learn” your keyboard, and you have to create your custom firmware. Everything else would defy the purpose.
But this will take some time, even for me coming from a similar shaped keyboard. But especially the outer keys of thumb cluster (right side keys on the left half Of the mldel01 and vice versa) needed some getting used to for me. Still not there yet, though.
I could not wrap my head around thumb shift, so I put it on a more “standard” location.
But that is exactly the beauty of it. It’s all about customisation.
Iterating to your “perfect” layout
And this getting used to will happen more often, than you might think. So you have a layout you start with. And you think, it might be useful to put a key somewhere else.
So you end up with some kind of loop:
- get used to the layout
- find out, what might be improved
- change it in firmware
- goto 1
this is never ending, but one iteration will take longer over time. You’d probably start with iteration of days, later is weeks or months.
And then you play with the other cool features, the keyboardio has.
my layout
So, my layout is a mixture of ideas. I tried the default one for a while, but I could not get used to thumb shift and I needed a German Layout with all those fancy umlauts 
So, I started with the layout I had at the ergodox and adapted that to the Model01 - but as the Model01 has less keys, it was a bit hard to use.
I have the Shift-Keys on the outer most keys on both halfs, using Qukeys to also have them do + and <, so that it feels a bit like a standard keyboard.
I also have a Hyper and a Meh key, Meh on the left half, Hyper on the right. could actually be the same, because you tend to use only the opposite half of the keyboard when pressing a modifier like Hyper or Meh. So, no real benefit here. This is actually one thing I need to improve my layout on.
The thumb cluster on the left is (inner most key to outer most): Backspace, Delete, Alt, SHIFT-Special-Layer. The Special-Layer is my programmers Layer, that I use for all kinds of braces and such.
The thumb cluster on the right is (inner to outer): Space, Enter, ALT, SHIFT-Special-Layer
The CTRL-Keys are located next to the Shift-Keys also using the QUKey-Plugin, so they are also - and y. The latter one is actually causing some trouble when typing. Often I get a wrong CTRL-Modifier instead of an Y and vice versa. My typing is not consistent there.
Gaming Mode
I do have different modes on my layout, one of which is the Gaming Mode. There I changed some keys to make them more accessible on the left half of the Keyboard. So I changed the left PAlm-Key to do shift - this is awesome in Ego-Shooters!!!
The first thumb cluster key I changed to space, backspace next to it. The outer most key on the lower row is CTRL - easy to reach with the pinky.
And I added some F-Keys there. This is not final yet, but for gaming once in a while it is good enough
XOY-Mode
I was experimenting with alternative layouts also. QWERTZ is not the best layout when it comes to ergonomics. There are a bunch of alternatives, one of those is ADNW which is a variant of NEO. This layout is optimized for German and English Texts. I decided to use the XOY variant.
But as you might have guessed, it was hard for me to get to thumb shifting, “shuffling” the keys around is not easy to get used to. Acutally, I never did. But I like my keyboard to have this layout in order to practice a bit with it…
Well, I will probably never move to XOY, i am just way too slow. I type about 450 characters per minute on QWERTZ - using XOY it drops down to about 50… a long way to go. I am a developer, I am impatient.
Switching between those modes is done using the Magic-Combo Plugin: Hitting both Palm-Rest-Keys and the left most key on the lower row switches to XOY, the rigth most key to Gaming.
Can I get the layout
If you think, this layout or some of those ideas might be useful for you, just have a look here
let there be light
this is one thing that I did not like about the new versions of the Ergodox-EZ - no LEDs for the full keyboard (just for the inner alphanumeric keys). I just did not get it. If the keyboard is fully programmable and I want it that way, I can have it that way… but if I want to give my F-Keys, that might be sitting on the side of the keyboard, some Glow - you just can’t. This is really unnecessary…
But the keyboardio has it all… all keys can be lit individually and I like that a lot.
So with my current layout I switch LED effects when switching layers. So I can see easily, which layer is active right now. This helps a lot while typing. And it also looks very cool
Next stop: change LED layouts depending on the app that is running on your computer. This would make it even better. This is something I did not work on yet, but I hope I will have some time eventually.
The Software
Still, the software is a great example of software engineering and open source. Love the way the devs are part of the community (also as members here).
Although I need to mention, that it is sometimes hard to get proper information from the docs or the Wiki. Sometimes you need to ask the devs directly. Discord is the place to go then.
downsides?
Well, not all is great. Where there is light, there also is shadow. And here it’s the same. I already mentioned, that getting used to the keyboard takes time. Time, that you might not have to invest, if you had another keyboard.
Then there is the number of keys. The Ergodox EZ has a couple of keys more, which is really helpful in some occasions. Sometimes I miss those extra keys. Right now, I have a lot of keys (4) configured with QUKeys to be both a key and a modifier when held. But this works kind of, sometimes I just get the wrong action from the key. This also can be fixed, with some getting used to or just typing slower - wich is not really a solution.
I was a bit disappointed about the clicky keys. Yes, it was discussed even on keyboardios page directly. But this left a stain there. I got it solved, but not everyone is willing or skilled enough to do that.
Transportation is a bit of a problem. The keyboard is quite bulky and not easy to put in your bag. The stands do not make it easier. So a transportation case would be awesome - but its not sold anymore unfortunately. Too bad…
comparing to the Ergodox EZ
The Ergodox-EZ is a great keyboard, very customisable and has a great set of features. So you would not go wrong when buying an EZ - but why, if you can do even better.
Still, my initial verdict stands. I think, the keyboardio model 01 is just the more “premium” one of the two keyboards. The wooden enclosure and the sculpted keys make it feel a lot more valuable.
The typing experience, though it needs some getting used to, is awesome.
It took me a while, but I am at least at the same typing speed, I was before.
But I totally understand that people sell their model01 - not everyone likes the “iteration of improvement” that such a keyboard forces you to follow.
But this is the same for the Ergodox EZ - same same, but different.
so, I think I have found a good tool for the next couple of years. Is it the “Endgame”, that every keyboard nerd is after? Probably not, the endgame is a myth. There will never be a keyboard that fits all your needs and is 100% at everything. Which is, easy to explain - you cannot have ALL keys in the home-row!