Keyboards

Currently my primary keyboard is a Prime_E.

I got into this hobby because I wanted to program my own layout, and add little tricks and shortcuts for the keys. That is really fun! I am able to have access to have all the keys on a full keyboard, but in a more compact space.

My first keyboard was a fully custom layout, hand wired. Most of the keyboards since then have been kits, and those are much easier. But by jumping in the deep end at the beginning, I learned a lot!

Keymaps

I prefer to use the QMK open source firmware for programming layouts. There are many easy ways to get into this, including VIA and json, but I have always used the bare C language to define layouts. This allows for the most flexibility and largest feature set when it comes to macros, etc.

As firmware get flashed directly onto the keyboard’s chip, there is no corresponding program that needs to be running on the computer. The major advantage of this is that any computer you have attached the keyboard to doesn’t know it is a super keyboard with extra tricks, as the computer just receives standard key codes.

Storing your keymap layouts separate from the qmk firmware repository is easier than ever, thanks to the qmk “userspace keymaps” support. This is great, since I had previously jumped through hoops to keep my small layout collection separate from the large firmware repository.

All my keymaps can be found in my dotfiles repository, here are a few examples:

• Prime_E
• Bmek
• Shared custom keycode macros

For my daily driver, the Prime_E, this is the key layout I am currently using: (Top legends are NAV layer, left legends are SYMB layer, right legends are NUM layer, bottom legends are CODE layer)

Collection

This is an inventory of my keyboards and keycap sets. Most of these are on display, but my current daily drivers are the ‘Prime Elise’ and ‘Kbdfans kbdpad mkii’.