Okay, it’s a numpad. However, if you happen to have access to a gantry-mounted diode laser engraver, it should be able to cut through cheap and readily available 3mm Masonite without much trouble (my 5w Comgrow took two passes). A couple of coats of textured spray paint gives a surprisingly nice finish, and mounting the MCU on top left me with a 12mm thickness for the main body, not counting the MCU and before feet, switches, and keycaps. This numpad came in at about 30mm “desk to finger” with no additional efforts to keep it low profile. I’m not doing anything new here, just confirming that it doesn’t have to be insanely difficult or expensive to do a DIY ortho-split.
I don’t have any RSI issues right now, nor am I particularly motivated to change how I type, but ergo mechs are one of my favorite parts of the hobby to follow, and I even made a pretty rough one once. As an aside, I gotta stop taking oversaturated iphone pictures in the office I share with a dander-factory of a cocaktiel. I look like 37% grosser than I really am.
A dedicated numpad on the left is my favorite desk layout. I would love to have a full scientific calculator numpad, but it seems like it would be too crowded with normal size keys.
I’m leaning towards having this one live to the right of my mouse, but it looks best on the left. I got options, though, which is nice.
Somehow it wasn’t until I was about halfway through making the thing that I realized it looks like some distant cousin of the Corne or other ergo splits. It would be fairly trivial to adjust the cut plan to one of the usual suspects or to do something bespoke.
This is precisely what I do with the keychron Q0. Love having a numpad, but I also love having more room on the right side for my mouse
