Hello all:
I am in need of some advice. I am a consultant for a living and spend my days writing reports. When I am at home, I am using an Advantage 360 Pro which I absolutely love; when I travel to meet with clients though, I use my corporate Mac… which has less than stellar ergonomics.
The 360 is too big and bulky for me to travel with (I know some do), but I use forearm crutches and need to carry everything in a backpack. Weight and overall size are an important consideration.
I was looking at the Glove80, and the Corne-ish Zen but then I saw the new ZSA Voyager…
I also thought about something like a Skeletyl, huge fan of the Dactyls - and the work over at BastardKB; I love minimalist layouts but I also live in Canada; the 360 with exchange and duty when I ordered in on Drop cost me ~$750CDN.
I wish keyboards were more affordable but hey…
Thoughts?
Do you want a prebuilt board or are you happy with some DIY action?
I was thinking prebuilt. Not 100% confident I could solder a board without mucking it up - I’m impressed by folks who can. How do you do it?
I got throwaway/broken electronics and practiced on those
I bought iron specifically to solder keyboard. I practiced for like 6 hours with some cheap practice kit before starting keyboard.
I am possibly the worst person to ask. I got a soldering iron for my 9th birthday.
But, I suppose practice, like anything. Watch a bunch of YouTube videos for beginners, get some practice boards (you can buy PCBs with a bunch of “junk parts”) to practice the skill. Also, get a decent soldering iron, I use a TS101, but apparently the Pinecil is good too. A bad soldering iron or bad solder are a disaster waiting to happen. Soldering is fairly easy to pick up until you get to the really tiny surface mount stuff (0805 and smaller). Most boards do not require that kind of soldering.
Typeractive sell some wireless Corne kits that I believe have most parts pre-soldered.
If you were is Australia I could sell you a wireless Corne with a travel case for parts cost (I don’t use it)… sadly you are not but you may find something on eBay??..…
Best of luck I guess.