I’ve been thinking about writing an update on my ZSA Voyager keyboard for a while. Finally have decided to carve some time out to get a few blog posts written, so here we are.

The Hardware

So the ZSA Hardware remains really good. A few times I’ve played with changing switches here and there, trying for differnt things. Overall, I’ve largely landed on Sunset switches everywhere, but I keep feel like I wish I had a distinction of sort between thumb and finger keys.

The Layout

So at this point I’ve been changing my layout at a relatively low pace.

There are some things I like:

One hit TODO button, on a key that I had heatmap evidence was literally never getting used
Big ass Command Key under thumb
I’m a left-thumb space bar user

As a programmer, I’ve gone through a bunch of programming issues and am... only about 80% happy with my current setup.

A pair of brace columns on the left hand. Biggest issue being right now they’re on layer one, which is accessed via left thumb: To provide easier alternation need really to move this to another layer.
Escape and tilde current share a key. This is sub-optimal, but I’m not sure where I want to move tilde really.
-,| and \ are all on the same key... again, don’t love this, not sure where to redistribute this. The correct answer I think is actually to move the top row of numbers to another layer and use that for symbols, but I haven’t tried it yet.

I really do have tonnes of room to distribute things though. Layer 1 is quite free!

The Great News

I can almost seamlessly move between laptop and Voyager these days. Which is nice when working on the deck, though that season appears to be past here.

The Me Problems

I’d be lying if I said this keyboard was entirely perfect for me. The problems though are mostly ‘me’ problems, not the fault of the Voyager. I have some ideas about how to fix some of them, but others I’m still not sure what to do about:

Something, either preexisting injury, RSI from keyboarding + guitar, or the new use of my thumbs as major input surfaces means that I have medium frequency pain in the metacarpophalangeal joint of the left thumb.

I’m suspicious that I’m just overly forceful on the thumb clusters sometimes, and that it’s not doing me any favours. I’ve tried briefly putting some Kailh Silvers in the thumb slots, but I didn’t perhaps give that experiment long enough: Having tactile switches under the fingers and linear under the thumb was super weird.

I also however find that the Voyager’s thumb cluster feels just a touch wide. It’s better when I twist the halves more, but nevertheless, it’s just a touch on the wide end.

Also... I just use the damn left thumb too much. Look at this heat map from a few months ago. At some point I may just need to retrain my hands.

Some of this is QWERTY, some of this is me.

I’ve still not nailed a tenting angle I’m happy with. Initially I started with a 3d-print of this lovely tenting bar. It was ncie, but nowhere near tall enough. Still, having this I was sort of loath to just toss it, so I edited the model to make a “stackable” version. My first time ever 3d editing, and I definitely goofed it, but it’s been good enough for now, that I’ve kept using them. It feels like with the two of these, I’ve hit like 70% of the tent that I want. At some point though I’m going to have to solve this better though.
Trackpad in the middle is great but has always felt a touch clunky. I realized reading this recent ZSA blog post that a huge part of the problem is that the trackpad is so low compared to the tented halves. Need to get a lift for that!
I still find that the halves migrate a bit in ways that can feel counter productive. The previously linked ZSA blog post has a real sturdy solution that may be overkill, but something to provide a bit more steady relative position might be nice.

I would love to experiment for a month or so with a Moonlander. I really do wonder if the adjustable thumb clusters, built in tenting, and big travel switches might actually ultimately be better for me, despite my initial desires for low profile keys.

Random

My Voyager is here, as part of customer book photos requested by Marcin Wichary, author of Shift Happens (a book I really ought to write about). As a result, it’s also on his wall somewhere, as he ended up making a large poster out of all his customer photos.