[flamwenco]

Having recently gotten back into mechanical keyboards, partially for ergonomic reasons, I can say the Moonlander so far is the single board I regret purchasing.

Almost $400 for a board that is so poorly designed you have to choose between a usable thumb cluster position or a comfortable tenting angle, because the thumb cluster is used as one of the tenting legs. So unless you have giant hands, it's just a very poor experience compared to some other boards I've tried. For far, far less.

And to fix this, instead of revising the Moonlander, ZSA is happy to sell you an $80 tripod kit, tripods not included.

You can get the benefits of a split board for a _fraction_ of the price by getting something like a Lily58 or a Corne, which have far saner thumb cluster designs, and have plenty of solutions for tenting. And if you're like the author of the linked article who can't handle high travel keys, both of those boards are available with low profile mechanical Choc switches.

[Cu3PO42]

Not to discredit your experience, but as another data point: I love my Moonlander. I love it so much, I have two, actually.

Personally, I find the thumb clusters most comfortable in a position that also gives a good tenting angle, but I think criticizing coupling the two is fair.

That said, I'm not sure how the tripod kit would help you solve that one way or the other. I thought it was designed to go on the outside, not where the thumb clusters are.

[ajford]

Yeah, I can't imagine the Moonlander being a great fit for someone with normal/small hands. I got a Moonlander and happen to love it. Though, I really wish they hadn't decided to make the thumb cluster a tenting leg. I think that's my biggest complaint about it.

ZSA does sell a tenting leg kit that I believe should allow you to swap the thumb cluster screw for a leg, but I haven't tried it myself. It's only $24. Additionally, they have a 3d-printable file for a tenting leg that should work as well, if you happen to have a printer.

The Dactyl Manuform and Ergodox are also decent options for anyone looking for something like the ZSA Moonlander but don't want to deal with the Moonlander's issues. The Lily58 and Corne have far too few keys for my liking, but to each there own.

[flamwenco]

In fairness to ZSA, I did miss that page on printable files. I do still think it's a little silly to need to print a new leg for the board to remedy probably the biggest design flaw.

>The Lily58 and Corne have far too few keys for my liking, but to each there own.

For what it's worth, I used to think the same thing, and now I happily do all my daily programming work on a Reviung41, which has even less keys than the Corne.

[ajford]

Totally agree with you there. I really think they should start shipping with a second set of "inside" legs for those who want to use a tenting leg instead of using the thumb cluster.

I'll probably get to a smaller key count eventually. I'm almost finished adjusting to the Moonlander now, and it took me almost two months to get used to the loss of the separate F1-11 keys. They're now on the number row in a new layer, so I figure with enough time I'll get used to that and can toss more into other layers, but that's proving to be a slower process for me. I think I've had this board for almost 8 months now (had to look up my shipping info, as I thought it had been much less).

I really do love the fact that the mech keyboard community has spawned so many great keyboards, as it makes it so easy to find something that fits you best, and makes it so easy to customize.

[garren]

I’m hooked on the ergodox classic, but I’ve used an ergodox variant of some kind for at least 6 years now and won’t go back.

The little ortho-linear keyboards that are popular now make me cringe, they look worse than laptop keyboards.

I was toying with the idea of picking up the moonlander, but it looks kind of big. The wrist rests seem ridiculously large. Can you use the tenting feature without them?

[Cu3PO42]

If you take the Moonlander apart, you can probably remove the wrist rests and it would still tent fine.

However large it may seem, the size seems good to me. I only actively use (i.e. place my hand on) maybe 2/3 of it, but the remainder makes it so that the angle is more comfortable than I imagine it would be if it were shorter.

It's worth mentioning I have relatively large hands. If you don't, you might need a fair bit less space.

[felideon]

Though I haven't gotten one yet, the Kyria also has some nice thumb clusters. You can print out the layout[1] to test how it lines up with your fingers.

[1] https://docs.splitkb.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010627159-Can-...

[jrockway]

I just 3D printed some wedges to go under my Moonlander: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4769961

I have made my own keyboards before, hand-wired with 3D printed cases, and it's probably 20-40 hours of work; significantly more than the $400 that ZSA charges.

I agree that they messed up the thumb clusters. I used to use an Ergodox and that had a pretty goofy arrangement, and the Moonlander doesn't really improve on it.

[3np]

I have a Lily58 that I’m still getting used to, got any tenting tips? So far I’ve only been putting a towel under the far end to angle it a bit, which is far from ideal.

[flamwenco]

I have seen people using various different size rubber feet on the bottom to tent their lily, I believe they used a mixture of large rubber bumpers intended for roombas, and the normal small bumpons.

There should also be a variety of 3d printed solutions too, I've seen tenting feet you can screw on to the bottom and cases that let you use large screws on the outside to create tenting legs