Who am I and why did I start making keyboards here in Brazil? Hey, I’m Felipe. I was a sysadmin/network engineer for 4 years, developed carpal tunnel and De Quervain’s (inflammation in the thumb) from working about 14 hours a day during that time. I dreamed of transitioning to Dev, but I gave up when I received the diagnosis of my hands. After all, who reaches the end of a career in Dev before becoming a dev? I did physiotherapy for about a year and already used a split ergonomic keyboard from a famous brand. But it didn’t help; the keyboard was so large that it hurt my wrists even more because I had to move more to access some keys and use the mouse. After watching a video about split keyboards on the @Akitando channel, I thought about trying a real split as a last resort. But when I came across the import prices for one, it was quite discouraging. So I researched more about keyboards and decided to try making my own.

I made several models, different builds, tested various types of stagger, thumb clusters, and numbers of keys to find out what worked for me. Today, fortunately, I no longer feel pain when typing. And I have a lot of experience in ergonomics with keyboards, trackballs, etc. As the splits solved my problem and also gave me extra energy to return to my dream. Since March 2022, I started making the splits here in Brazil, first to find the best type of keyboard for my conditions and to help people with problems or situations similar to mine, who feel pain when typing, something that really shouldn’t be normal.

So, drama aside, this is a brief summary of why I make the keyboards here in Brazil. The focus is and always will be on ergonomics.