Intro
In Jan 2024, I’d had enough. Upon finishing a day of coding my wrists would start to ache and I’d feel a tightness in my ribs, shoulders and upper back. I’d recently turned 35 and my body isn’t as adaptable as it was 10 years ago. Where I could sit on a cheap office chair and use the computer for hours on end, and feel no ill effects. Time has moved on and my body is not as accomodating as it once was. I’ve now got a decent “ergonomic” chair, wasn’t the easiest to find, at the time (2018) most office chairs I had found online said they were appropriate for people 6"1 and below. Being 6"3 with broad shoulders presented a problem. But I eventually settled on the Autonomous AI Ergo Chair, which still continues to serve me well.
I’ve always used cheap keyboards, not believing they’d offer anything beneficial in the way of ergonomics. I thought that the clickety-clacky types were just for show. Going back to the start of 2024 and the pain I’d started experiencing, I started to think about how my keyboard might be negatively impacting my posture.
At the end of most days I’d have sore wrists and tight forearms, a stiff upper back and tightness too. I started delving into the expensive world of keyboards. As a 6"3 guy with broad shoulders I started to notice that when typing on a standard keyboard, my forearms were rotated inwards - due to my hands needing to be mostly flat to use the keyboard. I also noticed that my shoulders were rolled forward and my elbows were high, meaning my upper back was extended, and I was almost “hunching” over to keep both my hands in the middle of the keyboard, dancing around to hit the keys.
I came across multiple split keyboards, and after reading many reviews, and lots of pages on manufacturer’s websites, in how split keyboards alleviate the problems I noticed in myself, I decided that the high price tags on these devices, might actually help fix my pains.
The more I read, the more I kept coming back to the ZSA Moonlander. I liked the look of it and the physical customisability of it looked like it might be the best option for me, as I could tweak it to help my sitting posture.
Here’s the keyboard I specced, Black with Cherry MX Brown switches….
The price………. $365. Certainly not cheap, but given the daily pain, which would bleed into my personal time (away from the desk) I thought it was worth a shot.
The keyboard arrived, plugged it in and I was away. This was the first time I’d ever used a mechanical keyboard. The keypresses felt nice and positive, not mushy like I was used to on cheaper keyboards.
I followed the instructions emailed to me. ZSA make it abundantly clear that moving to a split keyboard is going to be a big change and they do their best with on-boarding and “expectation setting” to ensure you’re not going to return it and you know it will require some effort and perseverance on your part.
Software
ZSA provide software called “Keymapp” which allows you to connect to your keyboard and map keys for different things. The ZSA Moonlander also supports “layers”, where each layer can be though of as a different keyboard altogether (with your individual mappings). I have a couple of layers setup, one for normal typing, one for software debugging, and another for media controls (play, pause, back, forwards etc). It’s easy to switch between layers and make the most of not having to touch your mouse.
The Keymapp software is good. When setting up maps for keys, you enter a special mode for your keyboard and save the map file to the keyboard. So if you do take your keyboard to another computer, you don’t need to run any special software on that new machine, all config is stored on the keyboard, so it travels with you.
Ramping up
ZSA advise that it should take around 3 months to feel comfortable with your new keyboard, and reach typing speeds similar (or better) than your previous keyboard. Personally I wasn’t after speed, I just wanted better ergonomics. The first couple of weeks were tough, I was constantly looking at the keyboard whilst typing (something I’d not done in years). I typed slow and inaccurately, it was frustrating typing 7 keys and having to backspace most of it to fix the problems. I persevered and had to trust the process. I’ll admit, a couple of times, I got frustrated and had to switch back to an old (single unit) keyboard, just to get some work done and to help remind myself that I was infact, still in control of all my digits. The few times I “cheated” on my ZSA Moonlander only lasted about 30 mins a time, until I set my ego aside and plucked up the courage to return to the Moonlander.
Weeks 3 and 4, things started to click. I was no longer looking at my hands for most of the day, my accuracy started to improve, and speed started to creep in too. Confidence grew and by the end of the 2nd month I was up to speed. I was more accurate and typing quicker than I could before. Neither were in my “criteria for success” - but nice to have nonetheless!
Ergonomics
As ZSA recommend, I started off with minimal “tent” (where you increase the height of the inside of each piece of the keyboard, meaning that the backs of your hands are rotating away from each other) at the beginning, and then, as comfort and familiarity grow, I started to increase the angle of tent every week. After week 3, I started to notice I wasn’t in pain anymore. Finishing work for the day, wrists felt fine, my forearms were feeling relaxed, and I had no pain in my shoulders/back. It was working and I was tremendously happy!
Now the $365 seemed like a bargain to eliminate all that pain!
Typing experience
As before, the typing does take some getting used to. After a lifetime of hitting keys on a flat plane, it feels alien having the Moonlander “tented”. You really have to stick with it, I did and now my typing posture is much more relaxed.
The keyboard has adjustable thumb clusters, which fits a multitude of preferences and hand-sizes. I’ve customised my thumb cluster keys to do all manner of things. Primarily being a coder, these cluster keys allow me to navigate round codebases with ease.
I came across a good test when using the old-style keyboard. Leaving one hand on the normal keyboard (in a typing position), use your other hand to squeeze your forearm and see if the top forearm muscle is tense. For me it was. Now doing that same test with the Moonlander, my forearm is in a relaxed position, my elbows are low and my chest/back are relaxed.
Price and The “Platform”
It certainly isn’t cheap, and it was a little bit of a gamble, going “all in” hoping this would fix my pain issues. But I’m glad I did!
The keyboard (mostly) feels well built, solid and made of high quality materials.
At month 4 with the keyboard, I was a little unhappy with the tenting mechanism. The arms and thumb clusters which support the “tent” of the keyboard, felt a little less sturdy. I was resting my wrists on the wrist-rests (not illegal) and both sides of the keyboard moved around the desk a little and I was finding myself tightening the nuts/bolts on the keyboard every so-often to ensure they didn’t wobble with use.
Fundamentally, the keyboard was fixing my posture/pain problems, I enjoyed using it and was really productive with it.
Looking on the ZSA website there was another product, called The Platform, a pricely “accessory” ($112), but given I was experiencing success with the Moonlander, I knew it’d be a needed addition to my wobbly-woes. The Platform is a sturdy piece of kit, you mount your Moonlander Keyboard to the Platform and it provides a solid and secure base for the keyboard. It arrived quickly and after mounting my keyboard and setting my tent angle, all was well with the world again. The platform is hefty and made out of thick metal, it’s not going anywhere and stopped my Moonlander from moving around and feeling like I was putting too much pressure on its delicate legs and thumb clusters.
As I’ve said above, this is all expensive stuff, but it’s not overpriced. I’m a big believer of “buy cheap, buy twice”.
Build Quality and Contacting Support
Before purchasing the Platform, when I was experiencing movement with the keyboard (as above), the palm/wrist rest (only the left side) would make annoying squeaking noises. Typing away, the small movements of the hand and wrist made the hinge (which connects to the main section of the keyboard) annoyingly squeak.
Given this is a premium product, I had hoped that this kind of defect wouldn’t exist. I inspected the hinge and the sound was coming from the metal dowel which sits inside its plastic carrier. I gave it a few days, the sound got louder and I couldn’t live with it. I contacted ZSA Support, created a video of the problem and sent it over. Hoping that they’d ship out a new part, possibly a replacement piece of plastic and I’d be on my way.
That didn’t happen and I got a message from their support basically saying “you’re holding it wrong”.
This was the response:
We had to have some play in it so you’d be able to remove the wrist rest. This is most prominent in certain tilt angles, and also (most significant ergonomically) when resting your palm heavily on the wrist rest. The proposed fix is to rest your hands lightly – this is also better ergonomically. It is basically a “tell” for when you’re using too much weight there, and if you keep doing that (even with no wobble) there is a risk of developing some aches around that area.
Not ideal. In the end I decided to fix it myself. As the keyboard is made to be disassembled, I pulled it apart to the metal dowel and added some heatshrink around it and reassembled. Squeaking gone, problem solved.
Another line in the response from ZSA shows it’s not an isolated problem, and they’ve had people contacting them about it before:
I’ve heard people have success with wrapping the pins of the wrist rest with a tiny bit of electrical tape.
I understand this is a (relatively) small company, where there’s tight margins on manufacturing and R&D. However, knowing there’s an issue and not addressing this with design revisions feels a little lazy.
1 year on
1 year on, I’m incredibly happy with it.
I bought this to fix pain and it’s done that. I also type faster than before, and have gained some efficiency in my day-to-day work by using the programmable layers and “chord keys”.
Yes, it is expensive, but for something that I use for ~8 hours a day, 5 days a week - its actually good value.
As developers (myself included), I think we sometimes don’t spend enough on our tools. With the amount of time we spend using them, it’s never a loss spending good money for quality tools that you’re happy/productive with. Or even, just ones that bring you a little bit of joy!
comments powered by Disqus