this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
119 points (98.4% liked)

Mechanical Keyboards

11840 readers
1 users here now

Are you addicted to the clicking sounds of your beautiful and impressive mechanical keyboard?
If so, this community is for you!

Here you can discuss everything about mechanical keyboards (and only mechanical keyboards).

Banner by Jay Zhang on Unsplash

founded 5 years ago
119
Btyp - a mini PG1316M switch keyboard for use on a smartphone's magsafe backside (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by vas@lemmy.ml to c/mechanicalkeyboards@lemmy.ml
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Just found this design and I think it's totally awesome. The new super-small switch PG1316M is used to fit 3 rows into such a constrained space.

Wonder if you could even get away with 4 rows of this, especially to somewhat compensate for the lack of thumb keys? I'd personally be interested to try 4 rows even for a more conventional tabletop keyboard.

EDIT: I have accidentally erased the main URL when I tried to upload a picture. Apologies. (Didn't know Lemmy works this way). Here's the main URL for this thing: https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/comments/1npnj85/btyp_a_mini_pg1316m_switch_keyboard_for_use_on_a/

all 19 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

AKA: Carpal Tunnel Maker.

[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Why?

[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Repetitive motion in unnaturally cramped hand positions. Technically, it's RSI, but Carpal Tunnel is one manifestation. Multiple family members suffer from it.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17424-repetitive-strain-injury

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

It doesn't look too bad on the video actually, check it out. (See the post's EDIT, I messed it up at first.)

Depends a lot on your phone size, hand size etc though, I guess. Generally very small keyboards CAN be ergonomic, as far as I've heard (also from people with literally diagnosed RSI). How this one objectively fares IDK

[–] thejml@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

I think my hands are fairly normal sized for a guy, and when I turn my 6.1" iPhone11 horizontal and try to simulate this for 10s I can feel my wrists and forearms tighten and get sore. I don't think I could type on this keyboard for more than 20-30s without RSI pain starting.

[–] fishsayhelo@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago

sick asf actually

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

In some futuristic dream, I see them (magnetically) rise from the flat surface once keyboard mode is activated and after that getting back to almost no edge with the back cover. We saved enough space making phones thinner, now it's time to make some use of it, if not for battery size.

[–] bear@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I doubt manufacturers want to give people full day batteries. Brand new batteries that are barely adequate are the goal, it creates more pressure for people to get a new phone when their battery wears down a bit.

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago

It is true, unless it's contractes with stated parameters, like for military use, that you can encounter in laptops. There are a lot of rugged chinese phones on the market with pretty good battery life and strong casing, I enjoyed a couple of these, and I'm displeased major brands don't do them. Having that body with their r&d and long-going updates could be a killer.

[–] Poop@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 weeks ago

That sounds cool as hell

[–] WhiteRice@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 weeks ago

No gang signs please

[–] inzen@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh that's really cool, I've always disliked on-screen keyboards. Is there a repo/article/build guide about this keyboard?

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 weeks ago

Apologies for me not understanding Lemmy editing rules and removing the URL (see the post's EDIT). The awesome/crazy experimentation is not mine sadly, it's here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/comments/1npnj85/btyp_a_mini_pg1316m_switch_keyboard_for_use_on_a/

[–] UxyIVrljPeRl@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Whitch 2 letters of the Alphabet will you drop from your vocabular?

[–] vas@lemmy.ml 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

None, just use layers. There are 4 keys with a frequency of 0.15% or lower: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency For a text of 1000 symbols, on average, that would be less than 5 of those characters total.

That being said, the requirements for your muscle memory increases, yes.

For those that don't know what Layers are - please google the concept yourself; if I try to write it spontaneously in my own words, the result will be subpar.

[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Is there a link for this somewhere?