split ergo keyboard

2026-02-23 · electronics, misc

after about a week after building a keyboard, i really wanted to build another keyboard. it was really easy the first time and felt more like assembling something than actually building one. i have been learning to type with colemak-dh, so while my mind is learning i decided to learn something a bit further than usual

it seems that split ergo keyboards are quite good for your hands long-term, as well as the colemak family of layouts. additionally, most split ergo keyboards that I see are very much self-built and quite customizeable.

the keyboard i decided to go with was the open source 38-key choc v1 totem by geist (see details here. I have never used kicad before as i typically just go with easyeda, so i loaded up their files to modify and get familiar with how it works. I added some interesting graphics to the top to rep my favorite ai mass surveilance company.

pcb order — seems to load up nice, except the black part in the middle was worrying as that part is supposed to be a hole and not have anything there

when the pcb arrived, i soldered everything up. I ended up going with the wired variant because i figured it would be easier to service that way. i also opted to go with the tentable option, i heard some people praise tentable feet. before fully assembling, i tested using tweezers to jump the hotswap socket pin holes.

testing the keyboard with no switches or anything

everything worked, so i 3d printed a case for it and assembled everything. I used just regular pla for it with the textured build plate

i went with kailh ambients bokeh for the switches, and they feel great. the keycaps, however, do not feel great. i printed flat keycaps, also textured, and they feel weird and scratchy. my fingers feel like they hate touching them. later i decided to sla print some keycaps. somehow i managed to screw up all of the prints i tried, maybe due to old or poorly mixed resin. i do hate sla printing so i went ahead and just left it as is with a couple of the good keycaps. the sla printed ones did feel significantly better though.

overall though, im pretty happy with it. its great to use for while i learn to type on a setup like this for sure