Keyboard love: the ZSA moonlander

Before buying the keyboard, ZSA offers a questionnaire which helps you find the right switch. I decided to order the Kailh silver switches, because these have the tiniest activation distance offered in the Moonlander. At some point, I’d like to try low profile switches, such as the Kailh choc. Unfortunately, the Moonlander does not offer them.

After almost a month of testing, I’m not yet convinced by the Kailh silver switches. When I compare them to the feel of a standard Apple keyboard, the mechanical Kailh switches still need much more actuation force (i.e. finger strength) and a larger distance to activate them. They sound much louder and quite squeaky, i.e. a high pitched noise which is not that regular either. Although I can get used to the sound, the less activation distance and force is required, the less stress there is on my fingers and my hand, and thus the less injuries I have to fear.

To reduce the distance to bottoming out the keys, I ordered thick o-ring dampeners. These are put below the keycap and thus reduce the possible travel distance of the key. As the material is not stiff, they also dampen the blow when bottoming out the key. The o-rings did not massively reduce the sound or the squeaky portion of it, just a bit.

Unfortunately, I still keep bottoming out the keys and hope that the o-rings help to train myself not to do so. As the activation of the key happens way before bottoming it out, it is not necessary to press the key down as much as possible. I noticed that I need to concentrate myself on just slightly tapping the key instead of pressing them down. This works quite well when training, but not yet so great in day-to-day work. I’m still lacking the muscle memory to do it when thinking about what to write instead of how to write it.

The moonlander uses a staggered ortholinear layout instead of a staggered layout found on most keyboards. This means that all keys are arranged in columns. Instead of aligning the rows perfectly into a grid as well, the rows are slightly offset from each other vertically.

As the keys are arranged in perfect columns, some keys should now be used with different fingers when touch typing compared to a standard QWERTY keyboard. For example, c is usually hit with the index finger, but on the moonlander it is right below the middle finger. This is true for z and x as well. In the beginning, my main problem was those keys as I constantly hit the wrong one.

I started out with the standard keyboard layout on the Moonlander. It is quite similar to a standard QWERTY keyboard. I assume that this is by design to ease the transition. Interestingly, the space bar is located in the thumb cluster of the left hand and the enter key on the thumb cluster of the right hand. I noticed that I hit the space bar with my right thumb on a standard keyboard. So that required a bit time to get used to (I often saw the effect of an enter being pressed when typing instead of the spacebar - not so great when writing chat messages).

I also had the impression that I now use my left hand much more and my right hand is often idling. I didn’t yet record my keystrokes though to create a heatmap to check whether that perception is correct or not.

After getting acquainted with the standard layout, I slowly started to change single keys (that is the huge advantage of having a programmable keyboard). I also started to at some lighting to some keys (e.g. violet for keys switching layers, blue for special input keys such as space and tab, red for backspace and orange for the linux key).

I tried to use the normal number keys on the Moonlander and also used special characters using shift and the number keys. I couldn’t really get used to the location of those keys as the keys are too far away for my fingers. This was the moment I started to use the layer feature. I first tried the keys in the standard Moonlander layout to momentarily switch to another layer with symbols and numbers on it. I then switched those keys to be a and ; respectively. I also changed some of the symbols on that layer. The right hand has the standard Moonlander numpad, which I use to enter numbers. On the left there are all different parantheses, which I often use when programming.

The standard Moonlander layout puts the Ctrl key on z. When long pressing z, it becomes a Ctrl key. This is okay for the usual copy and paste shortcuts (ctrl+c and ctrl+v), but of course the undo shortcut ctrl+z no longer works. There is an additional Ctrl key, the red key on the right thumb cluster. You usually have to move your hand away from the mouse though, as most applications I use that standard undo shortcut in are mouse-heavy applications. When typing in vim, undo is mapped to the u key.

I did notice that I don’t really have a usage for those big red keys at the moment. Let’s see if I have an idea for them in the future.

Interestingly, I noticed that I sometimes use my left hand to reach over to the right part of a standard keyboard, when my right hand is using the mouse. This happens in some applications to reach for keyboard shortcuts to switch tools, or also in games (think about the i key to open the inventory). That is obviously much harder on the Moonlander, because the right keyboard part will too far away.

I still do have all my keycaps on the Moonlander (some actually remove them to get a 36 keys keyboard). My perception is that I do not use some of the keys at all. I do have to confirm that by measuring it though. I will certainly think about whether I could get along with less keys. The motivation to use less keys is the little finger movement you then need, because everything is really close together. That’s also quite useful, if your cat decides to put her head onto your arm and you are thus quite unable to reach for larger distances on the keyboard.

My typing speed on a standard QWERTY keyboard was about 80-100 wpm. On the Moonlander it initially dropped down to 40 wpm. After a week with daily typing training, I got to 60 wpm. After two weeks, I got it up to around 80 wpm. After a month, I’m currently at about 90-100 wpm, which equals the speed I had before on a standard QWERTY keyboard. I do have to note that although I’m confident with most keys, I still have slow typing times for some of them (especially special characters). I then notice that I need to concentrate myself and think about which keys to hit, which slows me down while typing and also breaks concentration on the work being done currently. Further training on these special characters is thus required.

I mostly used monkeytype for training as I liked the practice feature after taking a test, which lets one practice slow words or words with errors. It was also one of the few tools which supports writing numbers and some special characters.

After a month of exclusively using the Moonlander, I already notice my typing capabilities on a standard keyboard to decline. Which finger to use for z, x and c is completely unclear to me. I often hit the space bar with the right thumb, thinking that this would be the enter key. I also noticed (interestingly) that I still use my right thumb for the space bar as well.

I’m not that happy yet with the location of the enter and space bar key on the Moonlander. Switching them is probably not a good idea, as a lot of games rely on the space bar to be used with the left hand, as the right hand uses the mouse.

Unfortunately, after two weeks, a rubber foot broke off. They seem to be taped to the bottom and the one on the bottom left of the left keyboard part broke off. When moving the keyboard, it sometimes falls of again, and I have to readjust it to stop the keyboard from being unstable. I’ll try to glue that back on again and see how well that works. Update March 2022: Glued the rubber foot back on and it is holding up fine for now! Update September 2022: The glued feet broke off again. Talked to ZSA (who are super friendly) and got mailed replacement feets.

There are LEDs on top of the keyboard, which are not visible though in normal typing conditions because the high profile keys block your view on them. I am unsure whether they are controllable, but they light up depending on which layer you are using. As I have a hard time seeing them though, it is much easier for me to rely on the color of the background lighting of the keys itself, as these can be changed depending on the layer as well.

I tried to tilt the keyboard slightly, but it felt unstable for my taste. However, I only tightened the screws by hand and not using the included tool. So it might be more stable then. I didn’t notice a huge improvement though, so I’ll first focus on getting comfortable with the rest of the keyboard before trying tilting again (although Reddit user Sonderfall-78 mentions a blog post detailing the strain on arms, shoulders and neck when using a standard keyboard, so I definitely will try tilting the Moonlander in the future).

I didn’t try gaming yet in the last month, but I’m curious how that will work out.

One of my main motivation to get a split keyboard was my cat lying in front of me on the desk. This certainly worked out quite well - I am now always able to reach my keyboard. In the beginning, my cat did not like the keyboard at all (I assume its sound and/or smell), but she quickly got used to it. I never felt myself in an akward position since typing with the Moonlander. If my cat is lying directly in front of me, my arms are still shoulderwide apart in a quite comfortable position. It’s also quite easy to move the keyboard parts around when the situation requires a different position. I also believe that my general position when sitting has improved. It is still a long way to unlearn bad habits though.

When I installed the o-rings, I noticed what I had feared already. Because of the open nature of the keyboard build, there is a lot of cat hair building up below the key caps. The advantage of the mechanical keyboard is that the key caps can easily be removed. Regular cleaning will certainly be necessary though. Reddit user the-chauffeur mentions that I also need to remove the switches and clean those and below them as well.

Otherwise, I can only suggest to try a split keyboard if you have a friendly cat sharing the desk with you.

All in all, I am quite happy with the Moonlander. At some point, I would love to try a low profile split keyboard such as the Gergoplex. As most of these are sold as a soldering kit and my skills lack a bit in that regard, I will move that project to the future.

As software engineers, the keyboard is one of our main tools we work with daily. Show your keyboard some love, try out different keyboards and think about what you like about them!