Trying to decide if the UHK is the right choice

General
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Hi All,

Please bear with me, this will be a long post…I am trying to work out if the UHK is the right choice for my circumstance.

I was introduced to the UHK by a friend from work. We are both keen automators of tasks, and always on the look out for the “ultimate” layout. To work around the lack of customisation / automation on keyboards, we have both been rocking AHK for over a decade. Recently, I had to have surgery that resulted in me being “bedbound” for almost 4 weeks, which meant I couldn’t use a standard keyboard or sit at a desk.

I had the first version of the charachorder and spent most of my recovery time using it whilst reclined or laying down. From this, I actually ended up purchasing the improved v2 and it’s been lovely to type with. However, it does have some limitations for my use case, and I have been going through the UHK forums to learn more about it to see if a) which one I should get and b) is the development of the board stable. The charachorder also has the ability to control the mouse movement and button presses, however the mouse moving ability is average at best.

I do currently use the Keychron K1 Pro with low profile brown gateron mechanical switches. I purchased this because I wanted to remove the disgusting QWERTY layout from my existence! It was successful in that regard, and my friend and I have been using layers with AHK for a while now, one of them being a mouse move script.

The AHK mouse move script is fantastic and what I had hoped the charachorder was like. When I was shown the UHK60, I was impressed by the smoothness of the mouse movement, and it made me question if I should go down this path as opposed to going with a second charachorder. I also saw the multiple layers that can be on the UHK and the indicator at the top was great to quickly check which mode was active.

My use case is as follows:

  • I work as a PM, so being able to type fast and have access to macros is a must. Keeping my hands in “one position” makes switching between tasks super easy, which keeps the efficiency up.

    • My typing speed isn’t crazy fast, hence why I have been using the charachorder, as it allows you to type full words with a single motion.
    • I need to type numbers for financials (currently using the charachorder for this)
    • With aforementioned friend, we took an existing AHK script and supercharged it so that hotstrings were enhanced. We have developed it over the past 8 (?) years and it’s become muscle memory at this point. This works well on a bar keyboard, but on the charachorder, the endchars aren’t always accessible.

  • I use a laptop running Windows 11 at work, a tower running Linux Mint at home (dual booted with Win 11), a surface pro with Windows 11 and a personal laptop running Linux Mint.

  • I use the modifier keys and function keys in different combinations to run many AHK macro

  • Currently using layers / profiles with AHK on my work device

  • I have already remapped my bar keyboard (and had to learn a whole new way to type with the charachorder)

  • I have F1 – F12 mapped to the side buttons on my Razer Naga v2 Hyperspeed and rarely press them on my current keyboard.

  • I use the cursor keys fairly regularly.

I am trying to determine if I can replace my Keychron (and even revert back from the charachorder) with the UHK. I went through the forum to get a feel for how mature the UHK is, and it raised some questions for me:

This comment stuck out:

“If I switch to my TKL keyboard my impression is that I have a more free hand movement (without a wrist rest, my hands sitting on the table) compared to when they are sitting on the wrist rests of the UHK 80. It is just a more natural feel. When my hands are sitting on the wrist rests I tend to feel that they are less relaxed, I feel more tension”

From sifting through the forum, it seems that the 60 is the “sweet spot” in terms of size vs functionality; is that what the majority of people have found?

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The UHK60 palm rest is sold separately and is therefore detachable. It comes in two variants (wood and rubber). The wood version is screwed onto a metal plate; not sure if the rubber one is held on with tabs, screws, or glue, but I’ve never heard any complaints about those.

The old rubber top on the UHK80 was considerably thinner than the UHK60’s because it has hollow battery compartments underneath, so that’s why it was glued down. The UHK80’s rubber version has been retired due to the bubbling/warping issues, so that’s not a problem anymore. It now comes with a wooden palm pad that snaps in with plastic tabs. The main structure of the palm rest itself isn’t detachable on the UHK80, but the top wooden pads do come off, so you can service the batteries, if necessary.

Most of the BT issues happen when connecting to more than one BT host at a time. Basically, if you’re only connecting to one BT host it’s fairly reliable.

Dongle is normally very stable though. Connecting to multiple dongles isn’t usually a problem. I generally stay connected to three devices all the time; PC via USB, phone via BT, and my TV via dongle. I rarely have connection issues unless I add more BT hosts.

The build quality fine. Most of the hardware issues seen here are pretty rare.

The Agent app and firmware capabilities is where the UHK really shines! It’s extremely flexible compared to most boards out there.

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Thanks for this! Sounds like the build and connection issues are a thing of the past.

The Agent app and firmware capabilities is where the UHK really shines! It’s extremely flexible compared to most boards out there.

Those I have seen, they look amazing. I have used a few different softwares in the past, the Agent app looks solid.

I guess the main points are now: Size / portability (probably will be a one location device) and if all the smaller keys around the thumbs / slight shifting of standard keys are easy enough to get used to.

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I wouldn’t say the connection issues are all in the past, as there are still problems :sweat_smile:, but as long as you don’t use too many devices at once, you should be good.

The UHK60 is definitely more portable than the UHK80, but they’re both reasonable IMO.

I think you’ll be fine with the thumb keys. They’re placement is decently ergonomic. I’m a terrible typist, and I got used to em pretty quickly.

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as long as you don’t use too many devices at once

I only really use one device at a time, so this hopefully will be fine.

Re 60 vs 80 - have you used / own both?

I think my main concern will be being able to transfer my already existing hotkeys from AHK onto this board without having to toggle between layers constantly. For example, I have many combos that use the Ctrl, Shift, Win, Alt and Tab keys, considering when I’m not typing my hand was sitting mainly with my left thumb centred around the Left control (so I could trigger combos on an external numpad on the left).

I will need to look at the layouts of the 60 vs 80 to see what is / isn’t there to figure out how it will impact my workflow. In terms of layer switching, assuming you can do a layer toggle and layer lock so you can either press a key and turn on a layer or press and hold it to switch from the default layer?

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Bluetooth / connectivity issues – are this resolved?

Not entirelly, but we have had a couple of findings lately. Some were addressed in 16.2.0. some wait for the c2usb refactor to get completed.

Anyways afaik all the issues are related to connection establishment. If it falls, it should suffice to switch to another host and back.

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The normal way for uhk is to lock with a doubletap or a single tap depending on variant of the action that you map (there are: hold layer, hold layer or doubletap to lock, tap to lock), but long press can be configured too via macros.

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I have more UHKs than I know what to do with :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:.

Depending on what exactly you’re doing, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to rework most, if not all of the AHK stuff with the UHK’s smart macros :wink:. But of course, AHK should still interact with the UHK just fine regarless. I recommend reading through the reference manual and user guide. You’d be surprised what’s possible. And of course, if you ever need help figuring something out, you can always ask here. The community is great, and the devs are actually very active here.

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I probably won’t look to actively rewrite the majority of my scripts (there’s way too much for that), but more that I’ll be able to activate the hotkeys using keys on the same layer so it doesn’t require me to switch back and forth unnecessarily.

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Awesome, that’s great to know!

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The final things that are on my mind are:

  • For people that come from a non wrist rest background, how did you find using the 80 (or 60)? Was it a difficult transition?
  • How is the size? Does it take up an unreasonable amount of desk real estate?
  • How far do you need to stretch to reach the function keys, compared to a “standard” keyboard layout? If I slide my hand up marginally from the typing position, I can reach the function keys on my keychron comfortably (not that I use them in this fashion often, just trying to get an idea of spacing, reach, etc)
  • Can you use it (wired) without the batteries? I can see you can purchase without the batteries? What is this about?
  • Does the keyboard freeze / crash? If so, how does this come about? How easy is it to get te board back to functioning again? I have had issues with my Keychron if I don’t “unplug” it in the correct sequence and have to reload in my layout.
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  1. The UHK60’s palm rest is a separate purchase, and so without the palm rest it’s comparable to the average standard mechanical keyboard, as far as height goes. Both the UHK60 and UHK80 are 29 mm in overall height, vs the Keychron’s 24 mm top row. So if you use a palm rest, you’ll be raising your palms the thickness of the palm rests (roughly 23 mm), but of course your overall keycap/finger height is unchanged.

I use both the 60 and 80 with palm rests and risers, so I’ll omit my opinion in that regard.

  1. The UHK60 is very compact, but the UHK80 isn’t really a desk hog either.
  • Keychron total width = 347 mm
  • UHK80 total width (halves merged) = 317 mm
  • UHK60 total width (halves merged) = 289 mm

You can always use them in a merged state if you prefer (like a normal board). I prefer to separate the halves rather far apart (roughly 30-35 cm). That way I can place any paper docs, phone, numpad, coffee, etc. in between them. It’s much more comfortable for my posture that way as well.

  1. Do you mean the top F1-F12 row? If so, the UHK is standard in terms of the vertical key units. So there’s no difference in distance from homerow to top row compared to the Keychron. Only the widths of some keys would be different. A 1u key (perfect square key) is the same for most keyboards.

  2. The UHK60 is wired USB only. Not compatible with bluetooth or dongles. It also doesn’t use batteries at all. There are some user mods to add batteries and wireless connectivity, but nothing officially provided by UGL.

The UHK80 can be used without batteries for BT and dongles as well as USB, but it needs to be connected to a power source via USB. Batteries are mostly for on-the-go convenience, or for an all-wireless setup.

  1. I personally haven’t had any freezes in a long time, unless I’m testing new firmware, etc.. The UHK is constantly evolving with firmware/software updates and so bugs happen. It’s just the nature of the beast. Under normal use, serious crashes/freezes are pretty rare. You can always just ignore updates and stay on any version that is stable for you.

With that being said, crashes/freezes are generally very easy to resolve. You can dedicate a key to reboot the board (can be mapped out of the way, on a non-base layer). There are also recessed hardware buttons on the back of each keyboard half that can be pushed with a toothpick or whatever.

Restarting the board normally only takes a couple of seconds, and it’s generally a pretty benign process.

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Wow, this I wasn’t expecting. I guess most of the pictures feature the board split, so it seems wider.

Wow! Again, it feels like it’s taller? See comment above.

I was asking this due to the fact that I was concerned about the overall size, and that if you went batteryless, would it be less tall, but this is irrelevant now.

Perfect!

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Actually, after looking closer at the Keychron pics, it looks like it has a slight gap between the number row, and the F-row, so it is a bit further away than a 1u key row. The UHK80 doesn’t have an extra gap, so it should be less of a stretch. I have somewhat large hands, so that’s not something I really notice, and it seems quite a few boards have a bit of that gap. My bad. :sweat_smile:

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Looking down at my hands, you are correct! :laughing:

So really, the only difference is the palm rest which is a given due to the battery. I feel that having the battery - even if I use it wired 99% of the time - would be more beneficial than not. I guess the only difference will be that my palms will be higher, and thus fingers less curled.

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Barring any other possible oversights, I’d say that about sums it up. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Batteries don’t affect the height or shape of the keyboard in any way.

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sorry, I meant from the top of function key row, to the bottom of the palm rests.

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Still same answer ;-).

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Looks like I better put an order in then!

EDIT: Order placed.

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