Glove80: The Incredibly Comfortable Ergonomic Keyboard
Created by MoErgo
A customizable split contoured wireless keyboard, with perfected ergonomics that uniquely adapts to you
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Glove80 keyboards now on their way to you!
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Mar 21, 2023 at 02:25:39 AM
The MoErgo team would like to thank you all for your incredible support.
Glove80 is our dream. We never thought that one day our keyboard would be used around the world. Without our Kickstarter backers’ belief, Glove80 would never have been anything more than a keyboard for our little group of friends. Therefore, we would like to send you a heartfelt thank you for your generous support to make it possible for the world to enjoy the ergonomics of Glove80. Together, we've taken another step towards a world with really comfortable typing.
The Kickstarter and Backerkit Glove80 units have all been shipped last week. The tracking numbers have been posted on Backerkit. You should also have received an email with the tracking numbers. It may take a while (2 to 5 weeks) for the package to arrive, so please be patient. Also note that for certain countries (such as the UK and Germany), the tracking status will not update until the package lands in the country and is handed over to the last-mile carrier.
We hope that you are excited to open the package. However there are a few things you should be aware of before rushing in:
1. Glove80 may need re-leveling after long-distance travel, to ensure it sits flat and stable on your desk. To re-level, place Glove80 on a flat surface and turn the adjustable legs until all feet are touching the desk. For more details on leveling, please check out page 10 of the User Guide.
2. If you want to rearrange the keycaps, it is important to hold the keyswitches down while pulling the keycaps off with the keycap puller, for example by using the included small wrench. The PCBs can be damaged if the instructions are not followed. Please check out page 31 of the User Guide for a detailed procedure including pictures.
3. The batteries may have discharged during shipping. So if the keyboard does not work straight away, don’t panic. Please charge both sides and try again.
We warmly invite you to join our growing and lively community on Discord, where you can discuss all things Glove80 and ergonomics, or seek answers to any questions you have.
We hope you enjoy your Glove80, and we look forward to your feedback.
If Glove80 takes your fancy, please do share it with your colleagues and friends on Twitter (please tag @moergo_keeb), Reddit and other social media. We are a young company, and we need your support to thrive. Thank you again for bringing Glove80 to life.
Happy 1 year Kickstarter anniversary
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 24, 2023 at 04:01:07 AM
One year in review
Today is the anniversary of the successful funding of the Glove80 Kickstarter campaign. It is a special day, in more ways than one.
Thank you for your support throughout this journey. With Covid and the supply chain crisis, manufacturing has been challenging. We are grateful for your encouragement, collaboration, and patience. In many ways, Glove80 is now better than our original Kickstarter promise because of the wonderful Glove80 community. The constant feedback and inputs and the voluntary effort organized by some community members mean Glove80 is now endowed with extra features, extra add-ons, and lots more refinements.
Today is a day for our community to celebrate and we will keep this update short and sweet. Before we continue, let's share some photos taken by our backers in shipping pilot 1.
-- Stephen and Chris
Tynstar's setup with a variety of black supplementary keycaps
Dimitri's Glove80 with blank black keycaps and a few white keycaps for highlight
LordMune's captain setup with quick release tripod mount plate
So why are we celebrating today?
If you backed Glove80 in the Kickstarter campaign or the Backerkit pre-order, your Glove80 is now finished and ready to go! The batch 1 manufacturing run was surprisingly smooth after the factory absorbed the lessons of the earlier pilot manufacturing run. The external QA process found zero functional issues with the samples.
The factory is now packing your orders into shipping boxes. However, there are a few more official processes to go through before shipping, so it will take a little time. Once the shipper sends out the packages, we will send you the tracking number
Please do remember that the deliveries are on a Delivery Duty Unpaid (DDU) basis, i.e. depending on the destination country you may be liable to pay VAT, tariffs and other fees. Typically if any money is due, the carrier and/or the customs authorities will be in contact with you; please cooperate with them to get the package through the import process.
Glove80s complete, QCed and ready to be packed
The add-ons laid out nicely for packing
Reviews
Our backers who have already received their Glove80 have been sharing their experience on the Discord servers. Particularly fascinating are the comparisons of Glove80 with their previous ergonomic keyboards. We won’t paste their full reviews here, please read them on our Discord#glove80-info channel, but here are some highlights:
Dimitri's comparison of Glove80 with Advantage360, testing on Advantage360 after a week of typing on Glove80. Before Glove80, Advantage360 was his main keyboard for more than 4 months. Hand length is 21cm (around 95 to 99th percentile). “First thing felt immediately is finger travel distance and amount of effort to move a finger and press a key [on Advantage360 compared to Glove80]… Pinkies [on Advantage360] feel overloaded and like they are doing more hard work… Thumbs angle [on Advantage360] feels unnatural, like convulsing…”
Tynstar's comparison of Glove80 thumb cluster with Advantage2. Hand length is 20cm (around 90th percentile). “With Kinesis Advantage I have to lift & move my wrist to reach the Alt or Win/Cmd key (top row, near the center). With Glove80 I can reach all 6 keys without lifting/moving the wrist. So the thumb cluster as a whole is way better.”
Ash's comparison of Glove80 with Moonlander. Hand length is 16cm (around 10th percentile). “Got back (temporarily) to the Moonlander, for comparison now that I’m used to the Glove80… I do feel my fingers tiring more [after 5 minutes of typing on Moonlander], notably the pinky… Num row and bottom row [on Moonlander] are way less accessible… Also I miss my extra thumb keys [on Glove80], and the one I do have [on Moonlander] need more effort to reach (except the closest ones on each side, that are fine)...”
In January’s update, we mentioned the curator of the renowned ergonomic keyboard database Xah Lee. Xah Lee has now completed his comprehensive review of Glove80 and we are blown away and honored by Xah selecting Glove80 as “Best Ergonomic Keyboards, Xah Pick” and “Best Ergonomic Keyboards for Small Hands”.
Xah concludes: "I think it's excellent. EXCELLENT, is the word.
Here's the better parts:
Superb physical design. Light weight and elegant. Not huge, not bulky.
Superb thumb keys design.
Superb programability.
Contoured surface.
Nice full-size function keys F1 F2 etc. Most ergo keyboards omit them."
Xah Lee's full review can be found as both text and video :
Round 2 of Pilot Shipping has now been sent out. If you are a participant, please check that you have received an email from Backerkit with the tracking number(s).
What's next?
Shipping.
When you receive your Glove80, we have a Discord channel #glove80-fan-photos specifically for you to share your photos. If Glove80 takes your fancy, please do share it with your colleagues and friends on Twitter, Reddit and other social media. We are a young unknown company, and we need your grassroots support to thrive. Thank you in advance.
We are convinced that you’ll love your Glove80, and are looking forward to hearing your feedback.
Thank you all again so much for creating and being part of this amazing community. Happy 1 year Kickstarter anniversary!
Glove80 in white
Special Public Service Announcement: Final call for address change
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 03, 2023 at 03:10:13 AM
IMPORTANT
In 48 hours all addresses will be locked, and no further changes allowed. If you need to change your address, please email [email protected]
We are calling for volunteers to participate in the 2nd pilot shipment. Please see below for details.
2nd pilot shipment call for volunteers
If you meet the following criteria and would like to participate in 2nd pilot shipping experiment, please email [email protected] with the email address you used for KS/Backerkit. Please make sure you meet all criteria below:
1. Ordered a Glove80 with a grey case, labeled keycap, and soldered. Any switch choice is fine. Gamer Edition or Standard Edition are both fine.
2. NOT ordered tripod mounting plates.
3. In one of the following countries: Germany, France, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, or Japan.
Please do not be disappointed if you are not chosen for the 2nd pilot shipping as we need only 1 or 2 per country. We will limit the total number of participants to around 10.
Thank you,
MoErgo Team
Day 333 Post Kickstarter
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Jan 24, 2023 at 01:36:43 AM
TL;DR
Batch 1 Final Assembly resumed after the covid shutdown
Some pilot units are starting to arrive at our backers. Early reviews and feedback are very positive
The new MoErgo website and the Glove80 layout editor are now live
If you missed out on Glove80, Batch 2 Glove80 is now available for reservation
Pilot shipping
We did a pilot of the packing and shipping process to 11 recipients, sending them the pilot production units.
It was a partial success. The shipper made some mistakes which meant two of the packages are still taking some long detours. The pilot did achieve what it was meant to do, which is to locate issues with the packing and shipping processes before we do the bulk shipment.
We will likely conduct one more pilot shipping test run to Europe to iron out the problems. With some of the pilot shipping units arriving, we have some early feedback.
Feedback after 1 week of use from @ash
@Ash won the pilot shipping race in Europe. They are the first person in Europe with a Glove80.
@Ash’s previous keyboard was a Moonlander. Their comments after one week of use are:
**My first impressions of the Glove80:**
The first thing to strike me was actually the box. I know this isn’t why we’re here, but it is really glorious and I felt it was worth mentioning because I love tidy boxes. Now let’s get to the heart of the subject.
My second surprise, taking it out of the box, was how light it is. From the looks of it, I expected it to be way heavier, but turns out it’s actually quite lighter than the Moonlander I already had. Which is quite nice for when I want to move it around to another computer, but doesn’t prevent it from being very stable: it hasn’t moved unwillingly even once since I’m using it.
I was a little concerned about getting used to the contoured shape, having always had flat keyboards before, but it turns out to come very naturally, and I was surprised by how *close* all the keys feel now. The bottom row and number row are way easier and more comfortable to reach than on my previous keyboards, and I sometimes catch myself going *too far* to reach for a key! I can type practically everything without needing to move my hand, which is very new for me, having rather small hands, and extremely appreciated.
Another concern was the Pinky columns stagger, which is quite greater than I’ve had before. And it did take some getting used to, but turns out to be extremely comfortable; I can now rest my pinkies in a much more natural position than before, and I find the keys that do require movement much more reachable!
I had great hopes for the thumb clusters, which is one of my major criteria when I look for a keyboard, and was very much **not** disappointed! I can reach all the keys quite easily, although I would say the most comfortable to me (I suppose it may vary for others) are the lower row and the inner‐most of the top row, so I keep less‐used keys on the 2 other and that works very well for me.
The configurator [editor: @ash is referring to the Glove80 Layout Editor] is very easy to use, and I managed to add some custom behaviors without any trouble even though I’ve never used ZMK before. The process to flash the layout into the keyboard is incredibly smooth and fast, I’ve done several tweaks to my layout by now and it rarely takes me more than a minute in total to do the change and having it loaded into the keyboard (WITHOUT having to grab an ever‐elusive paper‐clip!), which I appreciate a lot.
Unlike others in the keyboard hobby, I don’t much in the way of keycaps, and haven’t tried that many, but I was pleasantly surprised by the soft and smooth feel of the POM keycaps and they are now officially My Favorite™ (although I’m sure other Glove80 users more knowledgeable in the matter will have more to say on the matter, so I’ll leave that for them!)
Bluetooth wasn’t really a criteria for me, but I’m finding I do enjoy the wireless life, which allowed me to declutter my desk of many cables *and* freed precious USB ports from my computer for other stuff, which is always nice. I’m planning on taking even more advantage of it by mounting the Glove80 to my chair, but this is still pending so more on that later (maybe).
All that to say, I think this is an amazing keyboard and I absolutely love it. The only downside I could find to it yet is that I will now have a very hard time getting back to other keyboards and losing all that comfort the Glove80 is bringing to typing.
@ash's new favorite keyboard
Early feedback from Xah Lee
Xah Lee, who maintains the invaluable ergonomic keyboard database we referenced often during the development of Glove80’s precursor, will be doing a review soon. His tweet says “By the way, for those impatient for my full review, I'd say, if you like bowl shape and bluetooth, just order it now”
1st Batch final assembly, covid and Chinese New Year
As we talked about in the last update, the Shenzhen area was hit with Covid. Our factories were shut down for 2 weeks.
After the Covid shutdown, the assembly factory started the Batch 1 final assembly on 5 January. We had 8 days of production before the factories closed down for 2 weeks of Chinese New Year holidays. The factory made great progress however, and it would appear that the issues we faced during the pilot production run were properly solved.
The factories will reopen on 30 Jan, and if all goes to plan we should finish Batch 1 assembly and QA later in February.
Glove80 layout editor live
The Glove80 Layout Editor is live.
Although ZMK is a wonderful firmware for wireless keyboards, we don’t think the standard ZMK firmware generation & flashing process is smooth enough for a commercial production keyboard.
We have spent quite a bit of effort to simplify the processes of defining the keyboard layout, generating the firmware for your keyboard layout and flashing the Glove80 with the newly generated firmware.
With the Glove80 Layout Editor, unlike the traditional ZMK process you can define the keyboard layout using a GUI, and generate the firmware with a single click in the Layout Editor. It is not necessary to create a GitHub account, which can be technically challenging for non-engineers.
One of the particularly useful features of Glove80 Layout Editor is that it allows us to share our keyboard layouts, so that we can learn from each other and build on each other’s keyboard layout designs.
Do try out the Glove80 Layout Editor at https://my.glove80.com. Click on the Search button to see what layouts fellow Glove80 users have created.
Search for other users' Glove80 keyboard layouts as your inspiration
New website and shop
A couple of weeks ago we took the new MoErgo website live. The new website is a complete redevelopment and it has a lot more information about Glove80, including the Glove80 user guide and other support resources.
Batch 2 Glove80 Reservation now open
The first production batch of Glove80 is now sold out: this batch included the Kickstarter backers and the Backerkit store pre-orders.
Batch 2 will be the first batch of Glove80 keyboards offered for retail purchase on moergo.com. We are expecting completion of Batch 2 around the end of March or early April. Batch 2 final assembly will happen right after Batch 1 is completed. Many components for Batch 2 are already completed; the PCBs are already fully assembled and QAed.
We are waiting for the Chinese New Year holiday to finish so that we could complete Glove80 Batch 1 production.
That’s it from us for now!
Day 302 Post Kickstarter & Happy New Year
over 1 year ago
– Sat, Dec 24, 2022 at 07:59:24 AM
TL;DR
Festive season and wrapping up a wonderful 2022
Pilot production successfully completed
Our factories are hit by Covid. Batch 1 final assembly delayed
An in-depth article about the Glove80 design journey published
Glove80 wishing everyone a festive season and a new year
2022 is about to wrap up. What a year it had been for us! With all of your help, Glove80 was successfully funded at our Kickstarter campaign in February to begin its new chapter. With the challenges of the supply chain crisis and Covid constantly in the background, this year’s journey has been a rollercoaster. But all in all, we are ending on a high note, with pilot assembly units in my hands (right now) and the batch 1 assembly just waiting for Covid to blow over (more on that later).
We and the Glove80 team would like to wish all of you a wonderful, happy and successful 2023.
Glove80 joining the festivities
Pilot Final Assembly
We made 65 Glove80 units for the pilot final assembly, to validate the assembly and QA process for Glove80 Gamer Edition, Standard Edition, and switches-not-soldered variants.
We found 7 problems during the pilot, 6 of which we have never seen before (and quite unexpected). It was an eye opener. Up until then, Glove80 had only been assembled by designers or engineers - that is to say, us and the staff engineers at our factories. However the pilot production units were built by factory workers who had never seen anything like Glove80, with its rather unusual production requirements and construction processes.
One of these seven problems caused a rejection rate of roughly 40%. Fortunately we managed to fix all uncovered problems without any change of tooling, by tightening the assembly and QA process and better training for the workers.
At the end, all 100% of the pilot units passed QA after rework.
This is the high level of QA we put Glove80 through:
QA steps throughout the manufacturing process.
a. Using RGB LEDs as example, 100% of the produced boards are tested by our electronics PCB assembly (PCBA) factory using a test jig (i.e. not only testing samples).
b. After soldering the boards and switches onto the Glove80 case at the assembly factory, they are again tested with 100% coverage (not sampling) using a different test jig.
100% coverage (not sampling) final functional test of every assembled Glove80, which covers all the key functional aspects (including a re-test of RGB).
Sampling Outwards QA (OQA) by the assembly factory
External QA by an independent QA engineer who works directly for us. For the pilot production run he performed 100% coverage QA.
Two completed pilot units were couriered to me, which I did a tear-down to double check for issues.
I am really glad to report that the two pilot Glove80 units sent to me passed my standards. Holding them in my hands, I felt proud like a new parent.
Here are some pictures I took of the pilot units I received.
Unboxing the pilot unit
Palm rest detached
1st Batch Final Assembly
The remainder of the 1st batch was meant to start this week. However with Covid hitting 10% to 30% of the workers at our assembly factory, it was delayed to Monday in the coming week.
Yesterday we received a notice from the assembly factory that the Monday plan is now put on hold. The factory production manager, our production engineer and our QA engineer at the assembly factory all got covid as well and are currently isolated at home. Fortunately they are doing fine it seems.
To give an idea what is happening, here are some numbers. The upsides are that generally everyone at the factories affected are more or less fine, and secondly the peak of the covid wave will likely blow over after Chinese New Year (CNY). This is what I found on Twitter:
What someone on twitter said
With CNY coming right up, it is very likely we will not be able to finish the 1st Batch before CNY as planned. This unfortunately does mean we will have to continue the final assembly and QA process in February after the two week holiday.
Article on Glove80 Design Journey
KBD.news, one of the best online mags for ergonomic keyboard enthusiasts, invited us to write something for their Advent Calendar. I decided to talk a bit (mmm maybe a lot) about the design journey and key design decisions of Glove80. If you want to know more about how Glove80 came to be, please do check out
