Відео

This 6-key version is not for sale, it's just a prototype and hasn't convinced me of its value. Customers get STEP files and all SW is 100% open source. Electronics are not open source but pinouts are available to customers for hacking, modding, etc, and I sell replacement parts as needed. If the business stops operating I'll open source everything -- the whole point of the project is a forever-product. You can build your own with the self-print kit option 🙏🏻

@Svalboard sorry English is not my language first I wanted to get the construction files. I will check your online site

I'd love to hear your thoughts back on this

You won't understand until you use one -- this is one of the most common questions, and in practice it's a non-issue. Not because all fingers have equal lateral mobility, but because the most important ones are great, and the inward lateral motions are actually really nice on all fingers. The fit tends to roll the clusters outward a bit so the inward motions are also slight flexion, which is awesome. It takes some adaptation, but it's lovely, really. And no letters are placed on outward laterals, generally. Though some people actually really like index and middle outwards. The other thing is that these motions are TINY and really low effort -- since the keys break away magnetically the total work is very small, too -- nothing like any switch on the market. In terms of layouts, there's a VERY active community on the discord building layouts specially optimized to take full advantage of the amazing center and south keys -- this is definitely different from trad keebs, and some Dvorak folks actually swap top/bottom rows for this reason. But the fully-optimized stuff is mostly "Hands Down" adjacent, and your selection would vary based on how many thumb alphas you're willing to use. In any case, the core win here is in reduced effort -- sure you *can* change layouts, but there's a TON of muscle memory preservation from standard QWERTY or Dvorak if you need to get adapted fast. I've been typing DH-QWERTY for 22 years and I'm fine. Of course you can do way, way better if you have the time to reprogram your brain and hands, but I'm 44 and my neuroplasticity isn't what it was when I was 20, 10 years old, so my personal motivation for a full layout change isn't very high. Come join svalboard.com/discord and check it out! 🙏

Yeah, the mount itself is in an open onshape repo so people can definitely mess with it and tell me what they like. I find this position pretty good though. I think it's a matter of preference as far as trackball versus touchpad goes. Historically, I've preferred non-touchpad things myself, but historically I also preferred non trackballs before I tried this amazing trackball limitation, so who knows. The Apple magic trackpad has a huge following among ergo nerds for good reason I think, even if it's not the solution for me personally

I'm still undecided -- historically touch devices aren't great for my personal anatomy, but I know how much many RSI sufferers love the Magic Trackpad, so I don't put too much weight on my own opinion. I *love* that the touch solution lets you effortlessly click with the mousing hand since you can tap/two-finger-tap etc. I was also skeptical of trackball initially, but have really fallen in love with it.

​@@Svalboard Valid point. I wait a bit for the updates on the touchpad and maybe some user feedback on the discord when it is ready as I am interested in how that unfolds. I like the many innovations of the Svalboard, but it still seems very early to me so I hope to get one some time next year.

@@marvin_hansen Take all the time you need! I hope I can get the trackpad sourcing stuff sorted soon.

You won't regret buying a full build even if you buy a printer and modify stuff later. For somebody who's never done any FDM printing before, let alone this kind of very tight tolerance stuff, it's quite a lot of work. I have a very practiced hand, and my printers are dialed in. But of course the kit build is always an option as well, and a very fun project. If you're buying pre-built, my preference is for ABS. If you're printing yourself, go with PLA or PETG unless you're prepared to take appropriate occupational safety precautions. ABS fumes while printing are no joke.

There's no strain on the hand 😅 -- these are my hands and they're very much at rest 👋🏻. The palmrest gives a very comfortable resting place while typing any even when using the trackball on newer models 🙏🏻

@@Svalboard what about chronic use? 8 to 16 hours of use? Would it be reliable in an office setting to be a preventative measure against things a typical keyboard would give, like onset arthritis? Things like that.

​@@TheZnCYes, that's explicitly what it's designed for. Datahand style keyboards offer dramatically increased typing endurance by reducing force and movement, as well as allowing the user to rest the hands on palm rests comfortably while still being able to make all movements without any uncomfortable stretches.

Come check out the Discord to learn more!

@@tuahsakato17 Artisan built by yours truly, it's definitely not cheap. But it's also definitely worth it if you have RSI issues 🙏🏻 Check out svalboard.com/discord for way more perspective from real users 🙃

The alpha characters are primarily on North Center and South keys in the default layouts -- center South and inward keys are no problem double tap. North is slightly higher effort but I've been doing it for 20 years no problem. None of them is as much work as pressing a single non-homerow key of any kind on a regular keyboard. But if you use QWERTY, it's true that double North takes a slightly different motion than you're used to on a regular keyboard. But of course you don't have to use QWERTY if you don't want to. Some people swap North and South rows of top-heavy layouts like Dvorak, and in general, the fully custom layouts optimize to put the most frequent characters on center and bottom rows. Hands Down variants are very popular among that crowd. Anyway, hop on the Discord to learn more!

Typically about the same -- typing speed is more a question of brain-body specifics and training than the mechanics of any device. The primary difference is that people on DH/Sval historically report basically unlimited endurance due to the massive reduction in physical workload. I'm faster on Sval than rowstagger QWERTY by about 10%, but I max out at about 105wpm so I'm not especially fast in the first place. I've seen 120WPM from a few folks who do the same in Dvorak, but people who have the anatomy that supports extreme high speed typing are probably less prone to RSI and thus probably underrepresented in the customer base. Hop on svalboard.com/discord for perspective from other real users. I generally discourage people from focusing on "typing really fast" on any keyboard, other than practicing to get more fluent/smooth. What matters most is how long you can work. At some point, in all things, striving for speed is at odds with healthy use of the body. The speed typing videos are mostly young men hammering away for a reason 🙃 Given the speed of change with LLMs and modern voice reco, if a job depends on WPM above about 60, it's unlikely that the job will continue to exist in its current form for much longer. And of course the fastest typists in the world all just use rowstagger QWERTY anyway. I don't envy their hands 😅

There are a few folks who've hacked a spacemouse into one hand -- usually the left since that's the typical CAD pattern. Unfortunately the OEM versions aren't affordable enough to do a formal integration, and are extremely bulky, and there's no simple way to integrate in QMK. Definitely an exercise for the reader 😅

I can't. They don't allow anyone who sells stuff to post stuff about their work more than every two weeks :P

This key is compatible with the original PCB designs, yes. I'm always pushing the limits, but I try to keep things backwards compatible where I can. Sometimes a PCB form factor change becomes necessary for functional reasons🙏🏻

@@agler_ there's a mouse button layer that activates when you move the mouse. It turns after a configurable delay or if you press various non mouse keys. Works really well. Personally, I prefer to click with my opposite hand finger center keys but some people like the thumb keys instead.

Wherever you want them to be

@@Anasumi I believe in you ❤️🙏🏻😅

Comfort. Datahand, the predecessor, saved my career 20 years ago. Very small motions and very small forces, along with magnetic key breakaway force profile, reduces effort -- to eliminate pain from carpal tunnel syndrome and ulnar nerve issues, among others 🙏🏻

The main problem with most trackball scroll is that the OS's don't support smooth scroll very nicely for mice, so that gets hacked in in really crude ways. We're looking into that but it's going to take some time. I don't think audio feedback will ever be a thing because most people find it annoying and it's just another part to deal with, but it ought to be pretty easy to prototype on the host side. I'm not fundamentally opposed to it, but I'm not sure the value add relative to the effort is worth it at this point in time. Bigger fish to fry!

​@@Svalboard Well smooth scrolling is good for some things. But not for a lot of general computer usage where precise discreet scrolls of indented encoder is much better. I myself did used a pc with a touchpad for some time, but I, personally, don't miss smooth scrolling much. Page by page is much faster & consistent. >I don't think audio feedback will ever be a thing because most people find it annoying But aren't mouse wheels and your button mechanism already has audio feedback due to the way they work? I gave kensington slimblade as an example, of course this devices sound is rather annoying one, but the idea itself is worth considering imho. >ut it ought to be pretty easy to prototype on the host side. Hmm. Sounds right. I'll see what I can do with my trackballs.

@@trashviewer3521 Come jump on the Discord! There are several other folks interested in this kind of exploration! My experience when developing Zunepad way back in the day is that while sound and vibro feedback can make things feel more satisfying, they don't increase accuracy if there's no pre-action information conveyed. That's what a good detent scroll wheel provides. But that's a project for someone else 🙃

@@AlphaBridge-nn3cv 😬

You can have AZERTY! It's 100% customizable, don't even need to reflash. Already a few folks with them in France... 🙃

I mean, it is what it is. This is a trivial dictionary, sure. But this corpus seems to be what people use for silly speed demos, so it'll do. Anyway, I didn't build this product to make people type fast. I built it to relieve pain from RSI. Typing 60WPM all day without discomfort beats typing 150WPM and then having broken hands. I hope you never have to deal with the pain either myself or my customers have had to on their way to using this device, and that you type as fast as you like on whatever works for your body 🙏

Here comes the expert who knows it all, look as he makes baseless assumptions!

Yes, it runs Vial-QMK so you can set up anything you want in terms of combos, macros, tap dance, etc. It works beautifully. It's very easy to set up a macro pad layer (or multiple) for use with your favorite applications -- illustrator, Maya, etc. I have some special setup for various CAD systems and it's really nice.

Interestingly, the cyborg is actually an example of convergent evolution. Datahand was invented 30 plus years ago. But the Cyborg isn't really a typing device, it's focused on being a gaming macro pad, and the number of usable keys is much smaller than the total count on it. Svalboard really gives you 50 usable keys without big reaches or excessive extension/flexion. And the magnetic key action is truly unique.

www.svalboard.com :)

Outer reaches are not the easiest -- I'd be very hesitant to add anything more outboard. It would also make the clusters non-uniform and increase assembly complexity, too. Touchpad: yes, in the works. It has to be quite small to really fit, but it's coming soon-ish. Will be a module you can swap like everything else 🙏

Yay! I'm so glad you're enjoying it. I'm actually on an older daily driver with the old key design right now and it never ceases to amaze me how great they all feel, but in subtly different ways. When you fall down the 3D printing rabbit hole you can try them all ;)

Thumb balls cause a lot of injury, and you'd lose the best key on the thumb. I won't be shipping a thumb ball. But if you really want to hack one on, it's not difficult.

Oh alright, thanks for the explanation i understand now! I've just discovered your video and chanel with your creation yesterday and i had this idea of thumb ball since a long time in a part of my head, was wondering how it would go with your creation and wanted to share to get a point of view, now i know, so thank you again :D

@@Batkofi There are many thumb balls out there, check out Bastard KB's Charybdis if you want to try one -- certainly the coolest implementation by a great team, and available in a reasonably priced kit. Great community over there too, inspired a lot of my way of working on the Svalboard Discord ❤️@bastardkb

@@Svalboard Thank you for the information !

That's why there are palmrests! But it does take some quieting down after years of too much motion :)