Latest Version | Website | Twitter | Reddit | Shop | Configurator

_{Built with 💙 doxkb, bpiphanies and jackhumbert and compiled with 💙 by elfkinx}

Table of Contents

• About
  • Overview
  • Sustainability
  • Keyswitches
  • Change it yourself
  • Keycaps
  • Open-source firmware
  • Configurator
  • Testaments
  • FAQ
• Installation
  • Installation of my version
  • General installation

About

Overview

So here's the thing about your keyboard: It's yours.

When you sit down behind the wheel of a new car, the first thing you do is probably slide the seat so it's the right distance from the pedals. Then you adjust the mirrors, maybe change the angle of the steering wheel, until the car works with your body.

With most keyboards, you just place your fingers on the keys, and, well, that's about it. Not much else you can do. But unless you're a professional driver, you probably spend way more time typing than you do driving. We think your keyboard should adapt to your body, not the other way around.

That's why everything about the ErgoDox EZ is customizable:

• The keyboard is made up of two separate halves, which you can position independently. Why hunch over a keyboard when you can place your hands at shoulder width? Heck, you can even go all Star Trek and mount the halves on the handles of your chair ("make it so!").
• We developed a custom Tilt/Tent kit composed of six legs that allow you to adjust the angle of the keyboard until it's perfect.
• The feel of the keyboard is customisable, right down to how hard you have to press each key, and whether or not it clicks. We offer a choice of seven different keyswitch types, each with a different feel. Make it retro-clicky or silky smooth, it's up to you.
• You can pick the keycaps that are right for you. Do you touch type and like the stark minimalism of an all-black, blank keyboard? Our blank, sculpted keycaps would be perfect for you. Of course, there's also a model with beautifully printed keycaps and plenty of custom user-made ones available online.
• You can move the keys around. Don't like where the Space key is? No problem! Turn another key into Space, or change the letters around for an alternative layout. Our open-source firmware lets you customize the keyboard itself.
• You can make even better use of easy-to-reach keys with dual-function keys, an advanced ErgoDox EZ feature that allows you to use a key as both a letter (say, z) and a modifier (Ctrl, Alt, or anything else). This is just an example, there is much more you can do with our open-source Quantum software.
• The ErgoDox EZ is made to last, with uncompromising build quality, a housing that's reinforced with metal where it meets the tilt/tent kit, and a generous two-year warranty. This is a keyboard you're going to be using for years to come.

The ErgoDox EZ isn't a keyboard for everyone: It's the keyboard for you.

Sustainability

> How we make our keyboards

Our keyboards are made in Taiwan by people who are employees, not contractors. People who get overtime, benefits, and paid holidays. That's why around Chinese New Year our lead times always go up - because the people making the board get to spend time with their families.

It is made at an office building, not a factory. The conditions are good, and it is highly skilled labor with commensurate pay.

 

Seriously great warranty and service

We include a two-year warranty with each of our keyboards. Many companies can say that, actually. But what happens when you try to act on this warranty - when push comes to shove, and something actually goes wrong with the product? This is when you find out if a company means what it says.

Most companies make you jump through hoops. Fill out forms, send out your product, wait several weeks for a replacement. We don't. When something goes wrong with your board, we provide fast service and great communication, every time. Don't take our word for it - search around and read about people's experiences with our service. We won't link to any testimonials because we really want you to do just that - search and see for yourself.

 

Change-it-yourself switches

A keyswitch is a moving part. In a mechanical keyboard with dozens of keyswitches, one of these would obviously be the first to go. When a keyswitch goes, it usually begins exhibiting "chatter" - you press it once and get a few keystrokes, or no keystrokes at all.

With most other keyboards, you're going to have to buy a whole new board. With ours, you just pop out the keyswitch and plop a new one in, no soldering required. And these keyswitches are industry-standard parts - Cherry-compatible plate-mounted keyswitches. These are available from third parties all over the world, and have been, for decades.

So if years down the road one of your keyswitches starts acting up, it's easy to fix on your own.

 

Detatchable Cables

Many other keyboards have cables that come right out of the housing. Meaning, you don' t get a jack in the body of the keyboard, but just a cable that snakes out. With time and use, that cable gets bent over and over, and is very prone to breaking exactly where it connects to the body of the keyboard.

This is easy to solve: Just use a jack! And that's exactly what we did. We use a standard USB jack on the board. Of course we include a cable when you buy the board - but you can swap out that cable at any time. The same goes for the ErgoDox EZ's intreconnect cable: That is an industry-standard 3.5mm TRRS cable (“audio cable”), with a jack on each half of the board.

 

Easy to open

Many modern consumer devices are notoriously difficult to open. Whoever makes them does not want you poking around inside. An arsenal of techniques is used to keep you out: weirdly-shaped screws, fragile clips, tough adhesives, and more.

With our boards, there's none of that. Just Philips screws, and that's it. No clips, no glue, no nonsense keeping you out. There is a single sticker you have to peel to prove you're serious about it (it covers a single screw hole), and that's it.

So if you do need to open up one of our keyboards at any point in the future once it's out of warranty, it's easy and straightforward to do, and you can close it right back up again when you're done repairing or modifying it.

 

Open-source

The microcontroller powering your microwave oven or computer monitor is a black box. There's software running on it - firmware, to be exact - but you'll never know what it is, much less be able to modify it.

Our keyboards buck this trend, again. They run on open-source firmware called QMK. The entire source code that's running on our keyboard is freely available on GitHub. You can compile the firmware locally, and would be able to do so even if our company ever goes out of business. You can audit the code, modify it, and improve it to your heart's content — it is yours.

Keyswitches