Hello all, I’m new here, and have just received my Atreus in the mail today.
It’s my first mechanical keyboard, first row-staggered, and first compact!
I spent many years with a TypeMatrix as my daily driver, so am used to unorthodox keyboards, but am still experiencing an (enjoyable!) learning curve.
My question is: are the outermost keys on the bottom layer (Esc, Tab, ', and Enter) supposed to be pressed by the thumb or by another finger, such as the pinky? Either way, it’s a fair contortion or stretch to reach them, especially for the Esc and Enter. I welcome any thoughts.
Good morning wherahiko, I also came from a TM 2030DV and my Atreus is just over 5 years old and I have it pretty much optimized for me.
Firstly, you should also join the Discord for KB, you can find the link at keyboardio
It’s where most trouble-shooting happens and there’s currently 324 users logged in and you’re not one of them (unless you used a different name).
My memory of the default Atreus layout is pretty fuzzy since I moved keys around a bit.
I preserved the center enter and backspace from the 2030; they’re on my thumbs. As for escape, I left it where it was and usually hit it with my left middle finger. Also on all my upper layers, it’s programmed as “Move to Type” (I renamed it from 0) so if I forget what layer I’m on, I can always go home.
Tab is also a thumb key for me and it works. I moved “'” to the upper left beside comma and period (what Qwerty calls Q, W, and E). I use Dvorak so those keys are up there.
Also I just had to have two Shift keys and I get them in the home row, middle fingers (E and T on DV, D and K on Qw). I use Atreus’s “Secondary Action” to do that. You tap the key to get the letter, and you hold it and it becomes a Shift key. It’s on both sides so I can easily capitalize a letter on the other side.
All that’s a bit hard to visualize so I’ll just give you a picture of my Level Type. It looks cluttered at first glance but it’s very efficient for me!
Ah, great to hear! It’s nice to hear from someone who has gone on this same path.
Thanks for the tip. I wasn’t aware of the Discord. I have joined it now.
Thanks. Shift is the one I’ve found hardest to get used to so far. I like your home row mods. I think I’ll implement something similar once I can get Chrysalis working.
Thanks for sharing the layout. I like your solution for the question mark. The default layout seems well thought out for Qwerty, but missing the easy access to the question mark and hyphen is the biggest initial hurdle for Dvorak.
