Thank you all for your suggestions. After a month or so on a normal keyboard, my hands are feeling much better, so I’m going to try my Keyboardio again.
I’m going to start really simple. I’ve constructed a cardboard stand for my laptop, so that I can place my Keyboardio halves closer together.
It will also let me push my Keyboardio further back, which I think was the big problem with my last setup.
Extra points for the Pilot G-2!
Best pen I’ve ever used.
If you are seeking more flexibility in position with the arkon mounts, I have found that these arkon extensions work perfectly, and cost $15 each: https://www.arkon.com/product/SPHDEXT-pro-stand-extension-live-streaming.html
That looks very nice. Is it stable enough to support the weight of your hands without losing alignment?
Yes, it’s pretty stable! The keyboard tray / sit stand desk it’s attached to actually introduces more flex than the mounts. If I hold the keyboard tray steady with one hand, put my palm on one keyboard.io side, and relax my arm so that much of the weight is pushing the palm, it only moves the back of the keyboard down a couple centimeters.
When typing, I don’t put much weight at all on the keyboard - in the position pictured I’m typically hovering my palms. I find that it’s stable enough for me to type!
Thank you, I might give these a go. Just need to figure out how to also get a surface next to them where I put my mouse.
Hey Walter,
did your new setup worked? In my experience the most important factor is the layout and I believe it has to do with how fast it enables you to type. In my case I don’t know how to type on a keyboard with staggered keys so I barely use 4 fingers when I use one and because of that there’s no pain. On the other hand the Keyboardio has non-staggered keys so I type fast and I use all my fingers so I needed to remap the keys to avoid pain. I use a QWERTY layout but every modifier (i. e. Ctrl, Cmd, Option, Shift and Fn) is in both halves of the keyboard and the only one that I reach with my little finger is Ctrl (which is where Shift normally is) while all the others are reached by my thumbs or index fingers.
So my advice is to pay attention to those movements that actually cause pain and remap your keyboard to avoid them
Hi Tae!
My hands have been doing much better. The simple change of moving my keyboard halves together for the trick. I love my Keyboard.io
The biggest gotchas for me are the symbols on the lower right half. It really strains my pinky to try and reach them. I’ve remapped the left fn layer to hold those symbols and I just need to train myself to use them.
Do you mean the -_/ key? I got accustomed to move the entire hand to reach it (although I mapped it to ]}). In that way I don’t stress the little finger. The key is near enough so the hand movement doesn’t slows me at all
if ppl are interested in the anker mouse, I recently ran across this product, which appears to be a (much cheaper) clone: https://www.gearbest.com/mice-keyboards/pp_009577641622.html?wid=1433363
I got one to see how I’d like the vertical mouse, and it really is much more pleasant than a regular mouse. So ty for the suggestion.
I’ve tried several mice… Many ergonomic mice for both right and left hands. Have literally a box full of them. But the absolute best one and only one I use now is the Contour unimouse wireles. It lets you adjust the tilt angle of the mouse itself and has an adjustable thumb rest, which I never would have imagined would be so important on an angled mouse. They make them for both right and left hands. I use one on each hand. Not cheap but it’s the only thing that finally alleviated my wrist pain.
Very interesting. Had never heard of Arkon. Thanks for the information.
It would appear you are using:
25mm Swivel Ball to C-Clamp Mounting Pedestal (SP25MMCLAMP)
then TWO of the above-mentioned extension arms (SPHDEXT)
followed by a 25mm Swivel Ball to 1/4"-20 Camera Mounting Bolt Adapter (SP25MMCAM) to hold the keyboard.
It looks to me like those components are probably the same. However, you can get a few of the components all together with https://www.arkon.com/product/RM0861420-camera-clamp-mount.html . So you just need two of those and two of https://www.arkon.com/product/SPHDEXT-pro-stand-extension-live-streaming.html
I’m right-handed and was suffering wrist and finger pain from mousing. In the end I switched to an ambidextrous trackball (I like this one in particular, because of the scroll wheel - very easy on the fingers: https://www.kensington.com/p/products/control/trackballs/orbit-trackball-with-scroll-ring/)
Though that made things better, the real improvement came when I decided to switch hands. So now I “mouse” with my left (non-dominant) hand using that trackball. It took a while to get used to, but I am very pleased with the outcome.
If you use a big screen, it’s also important to have some way of accelerating the cursor across the screen, to minimise finger movements. I have a Mac, and use USB Overdrive.
(Side note: Trackpads are really bad for wrists and fingers, in my opinion)
Bought one. Left-handed. Finally! It is very difficult to find left-handed mice of any worth… gonna give it a try.
Thanks for the heads up.
I just bought two Pilot G2s because of all of you
Clamps and magic arms from Amazon UK:
This has been extremely helpful in eliminating the ulnar nerve problems I was having in my left arm. I’m still not as fast with the trackball as the mouse.
I wish I could manage to tweak the mousekeys controls on the M01 but at the moment it seems I can either use Chrysalis for my key mapping and colours, or change the mouse keys by starting with the latest firmware and flashing with Arduino. Lack of knowledge on my part, I’m sure.
Anyway, a better mouse keys setup would make this ergonomically pretty much perfect, for me at least.
Hard-hacking unhappy-with-normal crazy people! …I knew there had to be a group out there somewhere, just had to find it 
Here’s my setup… moving to a zero-gee camp chair was the best thing I ever did (in the winter I put a blanket on it as it gets cold with the breezy camp chair fabric). Changed to Kinesis keyboard to sit it on my lap, and then cut apart a logitech trackball and added a mouse for scroll and buttons…
…my back has never felt better. Have had to up the exercise from other things, but no doubt feeling better being able to sit or recline as the muscles desire.
Next is to change the Kinesis to a Model 01 or some split that will be mounted on the arms of the chair.
I like the way you gutted the trackball. I used to use the Logitec but switched to a Kensington trackball with scroll wheel – the wheel makes a huge difference.
https://www.kensington.com/p/products/control/trackballs/orbit-trackball-with-scroll-ring/?r=1
