My path through the ergo world is a bit weird.
I’ve moved from corne to a kinesis 360 and now I don’t know what to do with all these buttons 
I made the switch mainly with ergonomics in mind, but the jury is still out for the kinesis.
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Man, this makes me miss my Ferris. I’ve been thinking of building almost exactly this. Very nice!
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So… Kinesis pretty much fixed all my RSI issues.
The problem is that the keyboard is boring and doesn’t have any of the things that brought me to this hobby.
Is this the bitter/sweet ending of my journey through the mechkb world?
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Oof. I feel that. I too was drawn to the mechanical keyboards by the fun, colorful keycaps and all the different colors and finishes of custom keyboards. Out of curiosity, what is it you find boring about the Kinesis? I haven’t used it so I don’t know much about it but maybe someone else here could offer tips on how to spice it up a bit. I think as long as you can find at least one problem with your current keyboard, the journey isn’t over. For instance, all it took me thinking was “splitkbs aren’t particularly portable” and “i wonder if I can manage with only 2 keys per thumb” and now I have a reviung34. =]
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There are not that many options for customizing the kinesis.
Due to the layout and format of the keycaps, there aren’t many kits that you can buy or you would need to mix multiple dsa kits but lose on ergonomics.
I at least changed the brown switches with silent alpacas and bought their blank pbt set which improved the sound.
I tried other split keyboards like corne and sweep, but didn’t find them as ergonomic as the Kinesis.
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I guess you could try the super old school keyboard customization methods like hydrodipping the chasis, or covering it with a cool vinyl. Maybe adding wrist cushions?
There’s always swapping switches, springs, etc. which you have done which is great.
I’m tempted to pick up a kinesis 360 
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Upon spending a bit more time looking at ergo/ergodox kitting, it seems the big issue is that all the ergo kits assume a 1.5u outer column and the Kinesis looks like 1.25u? Just going by observation as Kinesis doesn’t mention keycap sizes on their site. Some of the ergo kits I saw (KAM Lil Dragon on Novelkeys) come with 1u blanks and that could be an alternative (with a little bit of gap) for the outer columns. I’m sorry if this all information you’ve come across already and I’m just regurgitating, having struggled with balancing form and function with regards to keyboards I’d like to help if I can. Its a struggle though when you have to buy twice the amount of keycaps you need just to cover your keyboard.
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Here is a better representation on what I would need to mix in terms of keycap types to replace the stock ones.
@Manofinterests in terms of functionality/ergonomics, you cannot go wrong with Kinesis.
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It doesn’t have to be the end, but it’s definitely a VERY different chapter. I haven’t been active in here for a while now because I switched to Kinesis Advantages. There are still some interesting things to do in the narrow scope of Kinesis boards.
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I have spray painted the top case of one of my advantages to be matte white with Krylon Fusion. Tempted to try other colors and finishes on my other boards.
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I am still really interested in artisans (maybe more than I used to be when using non-ergo boards) because it lets me decorate the thumb cluster however I want. Still have a shishi artisan to put on another advantage I have on order from Upgrade Keyboards.
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Still strongly considering buying the parts for KinT controllers for all of my advantages and taking a weekend or two to build those.
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Been perusing Ebay for older Advantages back when they had an all white case to jump on one for the right price to gut and handwire.
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If I decide to get a 360 again (returned my pro because the connectivity issues I had were horrible), planning on building a wood tray out of curly maple and routing two areas where each side of the board can sit that will be spaced to the original Advantage split so that I can use that on my lap while on the couch.
I have 0 interest in all of the custom boards coming out and I’ve long since settled on kinda just liking boring old Cherry black switches as my end game switch (despite none of my current Advantages having them). Being in such a niche space, the hobby has become more solo and I buy a LOT less stuff, but there is still plenty of fun to be had.
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Well, my journey is all but finished. I started in the custom hobby with a 40, so the first steps were already done. And I never got really hyped on all the 6x% boards that are feeling like the main base of the hobby. My first split I started with was a Corne with Kailh Choc Pinks. I noticed very quickly that I dont really get used to the pinks and therefore stopped using the board.
Next came in an Alice, which I still really like. But with the current low usage of it, I have to re-accomodate to the layout everytime and therefore, also use it less. In the meantime I got a Sofle, which is my current Daily as I sadly have to prefer the DE layout for work. I would absolutely like ANSI more, but with everyday different RDP connections, Teams sharings with customers etc. ANSI not works really out all the time. And as soon I get to layers, I get used to symbols on one of the layouts, not both. So currently, sadly, DE it is.
I do have an Sweep with Choc v2, but the switches hold me back. But an Sweep MX is also in the making, as well as a Charybdis Nano. The latter one is what Im really loooking forward to, as Im a big trackball user. Switchting between the Logitech M575 and a CST L-Trac with 3D printed tilt stand. Then, maybe even my search would end. Until then, I rebuilt the first Corne with MX Style (Boba LT) and also have PCBs for a second one. And, started a Totem build. The pile of shame gets bigger and bigger.
But, that also one of the advantages for me over the 6x boards, the kits/PCBs are really cheap, I can print the cases myself (or get them off to JLC) and dont have to spend hundreds on some always the same looking boards. I will update this with some pictures too.
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Me complaining that you cannot do much customization on kinesis 360 while people are doing these
https://www.reddit.com/r/kinesisadvantage/comments/16v5h6d/fake_topre_copre_kinesis_advantage_360/
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