I really love what Ben Vallack has done with the piano (featured in this video if you haven’t seen it). But I’m terrified of trying to learn such a small layout.
I think my ideal would be similarly just 2 thumbs on each side, and instead of 1222 like the piano, I’d want 23332. Anything like this out there?
Mabroum has made a few boards with this sorta layout. They’ve opened sourced them and can be found at https://github.com/AlaaSaadAbdo/battoota
The Hummingbird is a Unibody keyboard with a layout like you described
My layout is designed for 30 keys, but two of them are completely replicated by combos, and the 4 alphas in the center columns are also replicated in the secondary alpha layer. What it means is that I can type with my layout using only 24 physical keys: 2 per thumb, 1 per pinkie and 3 for each of the other fingers. For the other layers, I still need the center columns, but it is a great releaf to be able to type any word without any finger stretch.
Oh sick that’s like exactly what I want lol. Now I just got to find a shop that sells these PCBs. Not really interested in spending the time to order them myself.
I’d thoroughly encourage making it yourself, it’s a fun process, plus you could use ErgoGen to make it even simpler. Ben also has good video tutorials on that.
Even without that though, small keyboards like this are really easy yet satisfying to design from scratch in kicad, you’d be able to get away with direct pin which means you don’t even have to place diodes, just place a controller, trrs and switches and route it up. Optionally also a power switch and battery terminals; and a reset button.
