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add moonlander review (#258)
* add moonlander review * moonlander review: polish
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title: ZSA Moonlander Review
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date: 2020-11-06
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series: keeb
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tags:
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- moonlander
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- keyboard
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- nixos
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---
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# ZSA Moonlander Review
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I am nowhere near qualified to review things objectively. Therefore this
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blogpost will mostly be about what I like about this keyboard. I plan to go into
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a fair bit of detail, however please do keep in mind that this is subjective as
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all hell. Also keep in mind that this is partially also going to be a review of
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my own keyboard layout too. I'm going to tackle this in a few parts that I will
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label with headings.
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This review is NOT sponsored. I paid for this device with my own money. I have
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no influence pushing me either way on this keyboard.
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[That 3d printed brain is built from the 3D model that was made as a part of <a
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href="https://christine.website/blog/brain-fmri-to-3d-model-2019-08-23">this
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blogpost</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
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## tl;dr
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I like the Moonlander. It gets out of my way and lets me focus on writing and
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code. I don't like how limited the Oryx configurator is, but the fact that I can
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build my own firmware from source and flash it to the keyboard on my own makes
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up for that. I think this was a purchase well worth making, but I can understand
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why others would disagree. I can easily see this device becoming a core part of
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my workflow for years to come.
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## Build Quality
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The Moonlander is a solid keyboard. Once you set it up with the tenting legs and
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adjust the key cluster, the keyboard is rock solid. The only give I've noticed
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is because my desk mat is made of a rubber-like material. The construction of
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the keyboard is all plastic but there isn't any deck flex that I can tell.
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Compare this to cheaper laptops where the entire keyboard bends if you so much
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as touch the keys too hard.
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The palmrests are detachable and when they are off it gives the keyboard a
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space-age vibe to it:
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The palmrests feel very solid and fold up into the back of the keyboard for
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travel. However folding up the palmrest does mess up the tenting stability, so
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you can't fold in the palmrest and type very comfortably. This makes sense
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though, the palmrest is made out of smooth plastic so it feels nicer on the
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hands.
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ZSA said that iPad compatibility is not guaranteed due to the fact that the iPad
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might not put out enough juice to run it, however in my testing with an iPad Pro
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2018 (12", 512 GB storage) it works fine. The battery drains a little faster,
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but the Moonlander is a much more active keyboard than the smart keyboard so I
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can forgive this.
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## Switches
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I've been using mechanical keyboards for years, but most of them have been
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clicky switches (such as cloned Cherry MX blues, actual legit Cherry MX blues
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and the awful Razer Green switches). This is my first real experience with
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Cherry MX brown switches. There are many other options when you are about to
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order a moonlander, but I figured Cherry MX browns would be a nice neutral
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choice.
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The keyswitches are hot-swappable (no disassembly or soldering required), and
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changing out keyswitches **DOES NOT** void your warranty. I plan to look into
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[Holy Pandas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLm8DNH5hJk) and [Zilents
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V2](https://youtu.be/uGVw85solnE) in the future. There is even a clever little
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tool in the box that makes it easy to change out keyswitches.
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Overall, this has been one of the best typing experiences I have ever had. The
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noise is a little louder than I would have liked (please note that I tend to
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bottom out the keycaps as I type, so this may end up factoring into the noise I
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experience); but overall I really like it. It is far better than I have ever had
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with clicky switches.
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## Typing Feel
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The Moonlander uses an ortholinear layout as opposed to the staggered layout
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that you find on most keyboards. This took some getting used to, but I have
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found that it is incredibly comfortable and
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## My Keymap
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Each side of the keyboard has the following:
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- 20 alphanumeric keys (some are used for `;`, `,`, `.` and `/` like normal
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keyboards)
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- 12 freely assignable keys (useful for layer changes, arrow keys, symbols and
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modifiers)
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- 4 thumb keys
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In total, this keyboard has 72 keys, making it about a 70% keyboard (assuming
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the math in my head is right).
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My keymap uses all but two of these keys. The two keys I haven't figured out how
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to best use yet are the ones that I currently have the `[` and `]` keycaps on.
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Right now they are mapped to the left and right arrow keys. This was the
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default.
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My keymap is organized into
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[layers](https://docs.qmk.fm/#/keymap?id=keymap-and-layers). In each of these
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subsections I will go into detail about what these layers are, what they do and
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how they help me. My keymap code is
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[here](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/kadis-layouts/src/branch/master/moonlander) and I
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have a limited view of it embedded below:
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<div style="padding-top: 60%; position: relative;">
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<iframe src="https://configure.ergodox-ez.com/embed/moonlander/layouts/xbJXx/latest/0" style="border: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%"></iframe>
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</div>
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If you want to flash my layout to your Moonlander for some reason, you can find
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the firmware binary
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[here](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/keeb/moonlander_kadis.bin).
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You can then flash this to your keyboard with
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[Wally](https://ergodox-ez.com/pages/wally).
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### Base Layers
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I have a few base layers that contain the main set of letters and numbers that I
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type. The main base layer is my Colemak layer. I have the keys arranged to a
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standard [Colemak](https://Colemak.com/) layout and it is currently the layer I
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type the fastest on. I have the RGB configured so that it is mostly pink with
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the homerow using a lighter shade of pink. The color codes come from my logo
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that you can see in the favicon [or here for a larger
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version](https://christine.website/static/img/avatar_large.png).
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I also have a qwerty layer for gaming. Most games expect qwerty keyboards and
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this is an excellent stopgap to avoid having to rebind every game that I want to
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play. The left side of the keyboard is the active one with the controller board
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in it too, so I can unplug the other half of the keyboard and give my mouse a
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lot of room to roam.
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Thanks to a friend of mine, I am also playing with Dvorak. I have not gotten far
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in Dvorak yet, but it is interesting to play with.
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I'll cover the leader key in the section below dedicated to it, but the other
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major thing that I have is a colon key on my right hand thumb cluster. This has
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been a huge boon for programming. The colon key is typed a lot. Having it on the
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thumb cluster means that I can just reach down and hit it when I need to. This
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makes writing code in Go and Rust so much easier.
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### Symbol/Number Layer
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If you look at the base layer keymap, you will see that I do not have square
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brackets mapped anywhere there. Yet I write code with it effortlessly. This is
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because of the symbol/number layer that I access with the lower right and lower
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left keys on the keyboard. I have it positioned there so I can roll my hand to
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the side and then unlock the symbols there. I have access to every major symbol
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needed for programming save `<` and `>` (which I can easily access on the base
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layer with the shift key). I also get a nav cluster and a number pad.
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I also have [dynamic macros](https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_dynamic_macros) on
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this layer which function kinda like vim macros. The only difference is that
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there's only two macros instead of many like vim. They are convenient though.
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### Media Layer
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One of the cooler parts of the Moonlander is that it can act as a mouse. It is a
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very terrible mouse (understandably, mostly because the digital inputs of
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keypresses cannot match the analog precision of a mouse). This layer has an
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arrow key cluster too. I normally use the arrow keys along the bottom of the
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keyboard with my thumbs, but sometimes it can help to have a dedicated inverse T
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arrow cluster for things like old MS-DOS games.
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I also have media control keys here. They aren't the most useful on my linux
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desktop, however when I plug it into my iPad they are amazing.
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### dwm Layer
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I use [dwm](/blog/why-i-use-suckless-tools-2020-06-05) as my main window manager
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in Linux. dwm is entirely controlled using the keyboard. I have a dedicated
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keyboard layer to control dwm and send out its keyboard shortcuts. It's really
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nice and lets me get all of the advantages of my tiling setup without needing to
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hit weird keycombos.
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### Leader Macros
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[Leader macros](https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_leader_key) are one of the killer
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features of my layout. I have a [huge
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bank](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/kadis-layouts/src/branch/master/doc/leader.md) of
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them and use them to do type out things that I type a lot. Most common git and
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Kubernetes commands are just a leader macro away.
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The Go `if err != nil` macro that got me on /r/programmingcirclejerk twice is
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one of my leader macros, but I may end up promoting it to its own key if I keep
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getting so much use out of it (maybe one of the keys I don't use can become my
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`if err != nil` key). I'm sad that the threads got deleted (I love it when my
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content gets on there, it's one of my favorite subreddits), but such is life.
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## NixOS, the Moonlander and Colemak
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When I got this keyboard, flashed the firmware and plugged it in, I noticed that
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my keyboard was sending weird inputs. It was rendering things that look like
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this:
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```
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy yellow dog.
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```
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into this:
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```
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Ghf qluce bpywk tyx nlm;r yvfp ghf iazj jfiiyw syd.
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```
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This is because I had configured my NixOS install to interpret the keyboard as
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if it was Colemak. However the keyboard is able to lie and sends out normal
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keycodes (even though I am typing them in Colemak) as if I was typing in qwerty.
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This double Colemak meant that a lot of messages and commands were completely
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unintelligible until I popped into my qwerty layer.
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I quickly found the culprit in my config:
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```nix
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console.useXkbConfig = true;
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services.xserver = {
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layout = "us";
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xkbVariant = "colemak";
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xkbOptions = "caps:escape";
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};
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```
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This config told the X server to always interpret my keyboard as if it was
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Colemak, meaning that I needed to tell it not to. As a stopgap I commented this
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section of my config out and rebuilt my system.
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X11 allows you to specify keyboard configuration for keyboards individually by
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device product/vendor names. The easiest way I know to get this information is
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to open a terminal, run `dmesg -w` to get a constant stream of kernel logs,
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unplug and plug the keyboard back in and see what the kernel reports:
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```console
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[242718.024229] usb 1-2: USB disconnect, device number 8
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[242948.272824] usb 1-2: new full-speed USB device number 9 using xhci_hcd
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[242948.420895] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=3297, idProduct=1969, bcdDevice= 0.01
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[242948.420896] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
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[242948.420897] usb 1-2: Product: Moonlander Mark I
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[242948.420898] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: ZSA Technology Labs
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[242948.420898] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: 0
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```
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The product is named `Moonlander Mark I`, which means we can match for it and
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tell X11 to not colemakify the keycodes using something like this:
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```
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Section "InputClass"
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Identifier "moonlander"
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MatchIsKeyboard "on"
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MatchProduct "Moonlander"
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Option "XkbLayout" "us"
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Option "XkbVariant" "basic"
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EndSection
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```
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[For more information on what you can do in an `InputClass` section, see <a
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href="https://www.x.org/releases/current/doc/man/man5/xorg.conf.5.xhtml#heading9">here</a>
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in the X11 documentation.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
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This configuration fragment can easily go in the normal X11 configuration
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folder, but doing it like this would mean that I would have to manually drop
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this file in on every system I want to colemakify. This does not scale and
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defeats the point of doing this in NixOS.
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Thankfully NixOS has [an
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option](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=20.09&show=services.xserver.inputClassSections&from=0&size=30&sort=relevance&query=inputClassSections)
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to solve this very problem. Using this module we can write something like this:
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```nix
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services.xserver = {
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layout = "us";
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xkbVariant = "colemak";
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xkbOptions = "caps:escape";
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inputClassSections = [
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''
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Identifier "yubikey"
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MatchIsKeyboard "on"
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MatchProduct "Yubikey"
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Option "XkbLayout" "us"
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Option "XkbVariant" "basic"
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''
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''
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Identifier "moonlander"
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MatchIsKeyboard "on"
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MatchProduct "Moonlander"
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Option "XkbLayout" "us"
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Option "XkbVariant" "basic"
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''
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];
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};
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```
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But this is NixOS and that allows us to go one step further and make the
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identifier and product matching string configurable as will with our own [NixOS
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options](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-writing-modules).
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Let's start by lifting all of that above config into its own module:
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```nix
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# Colemak.nix
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{ config, lib, ... }: with lib; {
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options = {
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cadey.colemak = {
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enable = mkEnableOption "Enables colemak for the default X config";
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};
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};
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config = mkIf config.cadey.Colemak.enable {
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services.xserver = {
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layout = "us";
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xkbVariant = "colemak";
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xkbOptions = "caps:escape";
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inputClassSections = [
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''
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Identifier "yubikey"
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MatchIsKeyboard "on"
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MatchProduct "Yubikey"
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Option "XkbLayout" "us"
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Option "XkbVariant" "basic"
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''
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''
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Identifier "moonlander"
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MatchIsKeyboard "on"
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MatchProduct "Moonlander"
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Option "XkbLayout" "us"
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Option "XkbVariant" "basic"
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''
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];
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};
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};
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}
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```
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[This also has Yubikey inputs not get processed into Colemak so that <a
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href="https://developers.yubico.com/OTP/OTPs_Explained.html">Yubikey OTPs</a>
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still work as expected. Keep in mind that a Yubikey in this mode pretends to be
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a keyboard, so without this configuration the OTP will be processed into
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Colemak. The Yubico verification service will not be able to understand OTPs
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that are typed out in Colemak.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
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Then we can turn the identifier and product values into options with
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[mkOption](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-option-declarations)
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and string interpolation:
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|
|
||||||
|
```nix
|
||||||
|
# ...
|
||||||
|
cadey.colemak = {
|
||||||
|
enable = mkEnableOption "Enables Colemak for the default X config";
|
||||||
|
ignore = {
|
||||||
|
identifier = mkOption {
|
||||||
|
type = types.str;
|
||||||
|
description = "Keyboard input identifier to send raw keycodes for";
|
||||||
|
default = "moonlander";
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
product = mkOption {
|
||||||
|
type = types.str;
|
||||||
|
description = "Keyboard input product to send raw keycodes for";
|
||||||
|
default = "Moonlander";
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
};
|
||||||
|
# ...
|
||||||
|
''
|
||||||
|
Identifier "${config.cadey.colemak.ignore.identifier}"
|
||||||
|
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
|
||||||
|
MatchProduct "${config.cadey.colemak.ignore.product}"
|
||||||
|
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
|
||||||
|
''
|
||||||
|
# ...
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Adding this to the default load path and enabling it with `cadey.Colemak.enable
|
||||||
|
= true;` in my tower's `configuration.nix`
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This section was made possible thanks to help from [Graham
|
||||||
|
Christensen](https://twitter.com/grhmc) who seems to be in search of a job. If
|
||||||
|
you are wanting someone on your team that is kind and more than willing to help
|
||||||
|
make your team flourish, I highly suggest looking into putting him in your
|
||||||
|
hiring pipeline. See
|
||||||
|
[here](https://twitter.com/grhmc/status/1324765493534875650) for contact
|
||||||
|
information.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Oryx
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
[Oryx](https://configure.ergodox-ez.com) is the configurator that ZSA created to
|
||||||
|
allow people to create keymaps without needing to compile your own firmware or
|
||||||
|
install the [QMK](https://qmk.fm) toolchain.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
[QMK is the name of the firmware that the Moonlander (and a lot of other
|
||||||
|
custom/split mechanical keyboards) use. It works on AVR and Arm
|
||||||
|
processors.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
For most people, Oryx should be sufficient. I actually started my keymap using
|
||||||
|
Oryx and sorta outgrew it as I learned more about QMK. It would be nice if Oryx
|
||||||
|
added leader key support, however this is more of an advanced feature so I
|
||||||
|
understand why it doesn't have that.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Things I Don't Like
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This keyboard isn't flawless, but it gets so many things right that this is
|
||||||
|
mostly petty bickering at this point. I had to look hard to find these.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
I would have liked having another thumb key for things like layer toggling. I
|
||||||
|
can make do with what I have, but another key would have been nice. Maybe add a
|
||||||
|
1u key under the red shaped key?
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
At the point I ordered the Moonlander, I was unable to order a black keyboard
|
||||||
|
with white keycaps. I am told that ZSA will be selling keycap sets as early as
|
||||||
|
next year. When that happens I will be sure to order a white one so that I can
|
||||||
|
have an orca vibe.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
ZSA ships with UPS. Normally UPS is fine for me, but the driver that was slated
|
||||||
|
to deliver it one day just didn't deliver it. I was able to get the keyboard
|
||||||
|
eventually though. Contrary to their claims, the UPS website does NOT update
|
||||||
|
instantly and is NOT the most up to date source of information about your
|
||||||
|
package.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The cables aren't braided. I would have liked braided cables.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Like I said, these are _really minor_ things, but it's all I can really come up
|
||||||
|
with as far as downsides go.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Conclusion
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Overall this keyboard is amazing. I would really suggest it to anyone that wants
|
||||||
|
to be able to have control over their main tool and craft it towards their
|
||||||
|
desires instead of making do with what some product manager somewhere decided
|
||||||
|
what keys should do what. It's expensive at USD$350, but for the right kind of
|
||||||
|
person this will be worth every penny. Your mileage may vary, but I like it.
|
||||||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue