Weirdest keyboard I've used: CharaChorder One review

I used the CharaChorder One full time for five weeks. Here are my honest thoughts. (They aren't pretty!)
0:00 Introduction
1:00 Learning journey
5:42 Pros
8:53 Cons: software
10:44 Cons: customer support
12:31 Cons: device
14:14 How chording works
15:49 Deal breakers
Co-editor: member926
Music and sound effects:
Silfra - West & Zander
Overpass - Major Tweaks
Stand - Jones Meadow
catching flights - Sarah, the Illstrumentalist
A Mirage (Instrumental Version) - I'MIN
bichon - bomull
Carte Blanche - Matt Large
Dowel Swishes 11 - SFX Producer
CharaChorder Lite photograph copyright CharaChorder

[@CharaChorder]

Thank you so much for making this review. 😄We really appreciated hearing both the positive and negative feedback from your journey, and it has helped us tremendously in continuously improving our products. At this point, we believe that most of your negative feedback has been addressed. Since the release of CCOS earlier this year, all CharaChorder devices now include programmable key layouts, configurable debounce, advanced arpeggiates, as well as many other new features! Since the publication of this video, we have also unveiled new training tools, our first two open source projects, and a new ticketing system for customer service which was specifically inspired by your critique. We also have a 60 day return policy for those on the fence about trying the product. Unfortunately, our original top comment on this video seems to have been somehow deleted, however our CEO has also made a video response to your review on our channel which goes through each unique line item brought up here, both positive and negative. If you ever decide to give CharaChorder another chance, we hope that it will exceed your expectations, and that you will continue to be vocal in sharing your feedback with us! Thanks again :)

[@MaxCoplan]

I talked to strager about it. He has no clue what happened to the original comment. While he doesn't want to state this publicly, he pinned this comment hoping it would be obvious to everyone that he doesn't know what happened to the original comment

[@heterodoxagnostic8070]

i will not support you unless you go open source, no reason for me to switch to this closed source keyboard when i have my ergodox keyboard, until you go open source i won't be buying, same is true for others as well. you don't need to make it open hardware, just make the software/firmware open source, as that is what is most important for users, for example i would very much like to remap everything in the exact way i want to.

[@underscoredevie]

Can y'all fix your website too? It's awful to navigate; very confusing and the text is small. I just got one of these, and your site makes it very hard to figure out a logical order. I'm thankful for this review video demonstrating the overwhelming training center because I learn better in small, progressive chunks. edited to add: I see a comment a few comments down from "Riley Keen" who says they are the CEO and linked to a response video.

[@crash_often]

​@@heterodoxagnostic8070 Keys are already completely remappable on all CharaChorder devices. For even more advanced configurability maybe checked out CharaChorder Engine and serial API documentation

[@linuxrant]

If it's all true, perhaps it is a good time for a new updated video strager?

[@lizlecgach3895]

Seeing this type of review is so refreshing. You clearly tested the product extensively, and provided such in-depth criticism. On top of that you know exactly what you're talking about. I'm definitely subscribing in hopes of more future content like this

[@strager_]

I hope I don't do another failed product review... It feels like a month wasted! xD

[@Goobermanguy]

@@strager_ Well, think of all the other peoples' months you saved! :)

[@gilly_the_fish]

@@Goobermanguy Oh yeah, that adds up fast. I've been considering one for a while, and strager both assuaged my fears AND added new worries. He definitely saved me a few months effort, a few hundred dollars, and heck, he even saved me 15% on my car insurance by switching to Geico.

[@PeterOBrien2]

@@strager_ i'm just testing getting started with CharaChorder, and a bit scared to waste a month now!! (My first thoughts are i'm not sure it's comfortable/usable enough for certain parts of my hands which can't be addressed by software tweaks etc!) CharaChorder handle have said most of your negative feedback has been addressed. Not sure if you feel that's accurate or if you would consider trying to go back to using CharaChorder?

[@joyQuery]

this video was ridiculously thorough -- probably the most informational video I've seen for this keyboard -- much appreciated!

[@taylormanning2709]

On-board remapping is a must for anything this niche. Even if they solved the key-doubling, I would have been upset to receive a device that has a fixed keymap. I continue on with QMK, as many do

[@skylerbrown7571]

I'm really glad that you gave a very detailed explanation of how you went about it. It helped that you gave some likes and dislikes and why you decided to not use it anymore. I was debating on getting one and this definitely helped make a decision.

[@strager_]

You're welcome! I'm happy to share my review to balance out all the positive CC1 content out there.

[@josephargyle2386]

I'm in the same position. I was ready to purchase the product but thankfully I stumbled upon your review first. Switching to this system is a serious commitment. There really shouldn't be any hardware bugs. The creators had to known the hardware related problems existed. I'd be curious to now what type of keyboard is their daily driver.

[@pwn0grapher]

I have been interested in this for a little while and this video makes me glad I didn't shell out a couple hundred dollars for a single keyboard with such a big amount of critical issues. That dry safe location seems about right.

[@strager_]

Because most of the issues seem software/firmware related, I hope the CharaChorder One will eventually become good even if you purchase it today. 🤞

[@MaxCoplan]

One benefit you didn’t mention: after using the Characorder for a few weeks my gf reported my fondling game is much improved

[@strager_]

Really? I had the opposite experience. She told me that I'm using way too many fingers.

[@Wakpinside]

Plot twist, both of you are single.

[@osamaaj]

@@strager_ 💀💀

[@kayanono]

​@@WakpinsideLmao probably true

[@elmalleable]

Face palm

[@maskarovortzy6947]

This review is so methodic I would call it "scientifical"; I am very impressed and pleased by the quality of it: very coherent choices of topics/key-points discussed, as well as the overall progress of the review and of your explanations. Thank you very much for your dedication and your good work and please, keep it up.

[@mihamihanik]

Thank you for spending time to make such a great review! I've been looking to try this device after seeing their promos, but now i think i'd rather wait 'till next iteration! Was nice also to get a perspective of programmer.

[@RafaelKarosuo]

Thanks for the honest review, and I'm very happy that CharaChorder team took your feedback as in input, because you did an awesome, structured, and very thorough review/eval, as a programmer I definitely appreciated the details.

[@iilugs]

This is my current favourite channels. You speak clearly, but fast and have great insights! Good job :)

[@phatkin]

"be sure to save your charachorder in a dry, safe location" topkek

[@strager_]

Thanks for watching to the end! 😉

[@doa_form]

Just want to say that this was a perfect video in terms of information, density, presentation and layout! I wanted to learn more about this CharaChorder thing without having to buy the device, and without the videos coming from advertisements from the manufacturer. I learned everything that I wanted to know from your video.

[@strager_]

You're welcome! And thanks for the kind feedback. 👍

[@tornaxo7274]

What a review! I'm a programmer as well and I'm almost*only* using vim for everything, so this review was perfect for me! :)

[@MaxxD17]

I couldn't have found a more relatable review for my circumstance ( I am a programmer, QWERTY speed 115wpm, VIM user, interested in the CharaChorder for productivity and strain reasons). - I greatly appreciate and respect your review and will be interested in seeing a follow up in the future.

[@BenjaminHare]

What an incredibly useful video. I've been hesitant to go down this road. You video is exactly what I needed to make up my mind. Thanks so much for taking the time to make it.

[@FinaISpartan]

Been waiting a while for this. Thanks for the review!

[@standbymatt]

Thanks man, the thorough information really helps a lot in deciding if we would enjoy the innovation with the cons.

[@rudolf-adamkovic]

Thank you for a truly in-depth review! The closed-source firmware alone is a show stopper. You could perhaps try the Svalboard next? The concept is similar, but it has longer history, fully open-source hardware and software, and more. I am waiting for mine as I type this.

[@DomesticatedCantaloupe]

Thank for reviewing this so extensively! I'm getting into professional typing and I'm looking for ways to improve.

[@fngkestrel]

Thanks for the review! I've been looking at this for some time and wanted an unbiased take on it.

[@jesseclarkpk]

Really want to get this and am way excited for the tech to advance. I'll wait for another release version of the CC1! Thanks for the review.

[@christywells2707]

Thank you fot this thoughtful, detailed review. I'm not tech savvy enough to follow a lot of your info that may be helpful to techier people, but I definitely got the gist of it all and you answered my no pun intended "key" questions. would love to see you review the charachorder lite.

[@DMWatchesYoutube]

The closed source is a big deal breaker for me, thanks for letting me know

[@handcoding]

Big thanks for this comprehensive review of the Charachorder. I’ve been following along with his keyboard for a little while and this is easily the most thorough review that I’ve come across I also couldn’t help noticing the reply from the company where they admitted to some of the issues that you brought up. And if they do end up releasing firmware updates that resolve some of those bugs, I’d love it if you might do a follow-up video about whether their fixes ended up playing out.

[@makobobinzers]

thanks for the detailed review man! you're pioneering this

[@strager_]

You're welcome.

[@philojjohny]

Just saw this review now. Super detailed and useful!

[@garolstipock]

Great review. I've recently discovered this keyboard and am intrigued, honestly, not for 'accountable' productivity, but personal. Something new to learn and train my hands and brain to master and then maybe rely on for my serious work. This review is beneficial in that it was clear about this devices features and potential as well as where it needs more work. And just like you I need 'Insert' and 'PrintScr' keys, or the ability to remap them to something. Programmer centricity is crucial.. You are right, symbols are used all day, every day, on darn near each and every line. Any solution must foster this, not make it more arduous. Seems like I need to hang back and see how this thing irons out.

[@tobydude7462]

The device definitely has potential. It's probably just too early to adopt for most.

[@0netom]

not open sourcing it will be their demise for sure. they should look at how the TMK, QMK, etc firmware ecosystems flourish independently of keyboard manufacturers and designers.

[@snk-js]

yeah, I would be like: I don't even mastered vim yet, why would I use that

[@KvintKek]

Shire some issues should be fixed decently, I am tracking them down, nice device but presently raw,😢

[@gooniesfan7911]

Thank you so so much for this video, we were researching our options on stocking these in our classes for the students to learn on. We will be looking elsewhere for our product needs.

[@achimwasp]

Thank you for preventing me from buying another input device just out of curiosity. "Solarized dark" in Vim - one of my favourite schemes! I'm using steno with Plover whenever I have to type a lot and it works fine inside Vim - and I'm also on Mac, Win and Linux and the steno chords are the same on each platform, as tweaking the steno dictionaries accordingly is very easy.

[@hill2750]

It is fascinating how much detail he provided.

[@sergekhakhin]

Thank you for your review, especially for the cons sections. Good idea, but for now it's not usable, I hope they'll tune it up in the future.

[@romanhimmes171]

A Finnish guy I knew, had a an older version of this. Must be 10 years ago. Instead of buttons there were pits where you put your front of the finger in, with 4 switches up , down, east and west. The keyboard came not as a single device, you had to screw two devices, one for each hand on a plank of wood, in the correct angle and distance, just for you

[@gracefool]

I guess it was DataHand

[@MotionFriend]

This was a thorough and helpful insight. Thank you

[@lamalamalex]

You didn’t have to throw it away! 🥺 I WANT IT 🙏🙏🙏

[@Zach2825]

Thanks for the review; I'm a dev as well. I was thinking about getting the CC1 but ordered the CC Lite instead. I'm looking forward to that one since it uses my existing keyboard. It sounds like that would resolve all the issues you brought up.

[@Zach2825]

Sorry I lied; I meant CharaChorder X

[@strager_]

Yeah, I probably would never have tried the CharaChorder One if the CharaChorder Lite (or X) was out at the time. I don't like how the CharaChorder team is splitting their attention across multiple products, because product quality will probably suffer.

[@candyczar]

Excellent review. Thank you 🙇‍♂

[@stefmyt5062]

Great video! I'm much in the same boat as you. I'm also a programmer, who uses Vim, Linux, and types very fast, and this video convinced me to not buy a CharaChorder yet. Many thanks.

[@Deveyus]

For what it's worth I have had a great time, and am currently typing this to you on a Keyboardio Model 100, it's an excellent keyboard for us programmers, is largely still querty and helped a heck of a lot with both my typing speed, and with the nerve pain I get in my right hand from years on a keyboard.

[@ibxnnn376]

awesome review strags

[@halo2bullseye922]

Solid info. Very very detailed. Wow. Kudos!

[@otakujsdev]

You save me $300, thx you very much!

[@obsidian33_]

Your review helped me a lot as I was thinking of making the investment but I am also a programmer and I think I would have some of the same deal breakers that you ran in to with typing symbols.

[@janpoonthong]

Great video, I enjoy it so much

[@BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMval]

Your tkl makes me happy, reminds me of when i was a kid

[@fabioferreira6621]

Great review. Thank you.

[@thedave1602]

Dude, above and beyond. Thank you so much for pointing out all the pros and cons so well. I was almost sold on this thing. I'm still sold on the concept, but the fact that the implementation of the concept fails is enough for me to save $$$ and not get it. Thanks for being so thorough.

[@Portitforward]

Its hard to find reviews where people get even close to the advertised typing speed.

[@strager_]

I think @MissSteno (Twitter) types pretty quickly with CharaChorder. I think she is still very far from CharaChorder's advertised 300 WPM.

[@gabrielgoomey2258]

This was everything I wanted in a product review

[@Harliff]

Great review! Thanks!

[@alpenjon]

Great review that saved me money!

[@anandpatel1074]

Great video!

[@PhillipAmthor]

Great review thanks

[@nathanwailes]

excellent review

[@enemyofYTemployees]

Great review

[@supersnail5000]

I follow another KZbinr named Ben Vallack (also a programmer and vim user) who has done a lot of looking into keyboards with reduced key counts (ie. 18 keys) and using layering and qmk features to reduce hand movement while accessing every key. It feels like the same idea this is going for, but is open source and a lot more familiar. As much as it seems like you have endured enough suffering with weird keyboards, it might be something you find interesting.

[@tobiaswegener1234]

Doubling of key presses is called key-chatter and a standard keyboard mostly related to debounce timing (switch closed, open timing break if it is registered or not), though it is normally possible to fix this with a firmware update. I am thinking about if it would be possible to write an open source firmware for it or replace the microcontroller, that take KMK or QMK for it. That would be great. I don't understand why they don't open source a minimal version. They could get much more customers, if there would be community software version, I think.

[@strager_]

That's my suspicion for the key doubling issue as well. That's why I wanted to tweak the parameters in the firmware myself.

[@strager_]

One problem with open sourcing is that someone (e.g. Logitech) can take the firmware and make a competing product, eating CharaChorder's market. I don't think it'd actually work that way, but it's a risk for a small company like CharaChorder.

[@tobiaswegener1234]

@@strager_ They don't have to open their source code, they just could make their microcontroller flashable. There are already open source solutions for keyboard broadly (QMK, KMK) and also for chording specifically (Open Steno Project). I build the keyboard from scratch (I made like fully adjustable ergo split keyboard) and it is fairly easy to write a keyboard firmware with the existing libraries. There is not much to lose and a lot to gain. Especially for small companies.

Gracias amigo, uso qmk y fue difícil tomarlo para tomar notas, pero se agradece tu gran aporte a la comunidad de programación y a aquellos que tienen la experiencia de ser uno con la computadora.

[@TheVishnu3333]

Thank you for sharing this!

[@narkfly]

No programmability is definitely the biggest drawback. That combined with closed source software is a hard pass. If it were open source, then the community could come up with a remapping solution. Thanks for such a detailed review - and saving everyone the time and money of learning these lessons the hard way.

[@judeous5866]

Thank you for this; I've always liked the idea of non-qwerty keyboard layouts, and the CharaChorder really caught my attention. Have you heard of the MessagEase app for mobile?

[@strager_]

Yes, I was interested in MessagEase many years ago. I even made my own MessagEase clone for the Nintendo DS! I don't use mobile devices anymore, though, so MessagEase is no longer relevant to me.

[@In10did]

if you like alternate keyboard configurations you may be interested in the DecaTxt keyboard. it's one-handed with ten keys.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

I think a cheaper alternative to this product if you like chording is a Steno board. They have less keys and are made specifically for chording, as court reporters need to type stuff essentially in real time as people speak it during court procedures. And it's obvious that it works because steno boards are still in use till this day in digital form. Video, wise this is one of the first reviews of this product I've seen where the thing is not only blind praise without any demonstrations and clearly done by people with ties to the company, as the marketing material on this keyboard vastly outnumbers the amount of product demos and independent reviews of it.

[@codetothemoon]

Fantastic video! Would love to try one of these once they work out the kinks that you describe. Seems really promising... Have you given it another spin since this video was made?

[@strager_]

I have not tried the CharaChorder since, no.

[@koool56]

@@strager_ any plans to?

[@weisschr]

I tried one and held onto it until the last minute before I returned it. In a nutshell, I couldn't make my thumb movement work. It doesn't work well if you have weak pinkies, stiff thumbs, and larger hands. Love the idea. I was blown away by the demo, and then I was happy to get my money back.

[@strager_]

I'm sorry to hear that the CharaChorder One didn't work out for you. =[ Perhaps you can get most of the benefit with the QWERTY CharaChorder Lite keyboard?

[@weisschr]

@@strager_ What I did learn from the charachorder One was that I love the split configuration. I am actually using an ortholinear Ergodox, which is a 78key split keyboard. I am using combos or chords for some actions as well. I am looking at building my own 34 key keyboard. When will the charachorder engine be available? If I could incorporate it into a custom keyboard, I would definitely consider that.

[@jubaaissaoui5496]

Great video

[@coachdan007]

Just heard of Characorder today. Bought the Glove80 and was splashing around on YT. Adding my thanks for such a great video. Loved the @Charachorder was responsive to your criticisms. I am not a touch typer and am wondering if learning a whole new input device would be worth learning. Anyway - great video. My youtube time would be greatly improved if everyone produced such well reasoned content.

[@spell105]

Hey, nothing else to say but I thought it was pretty fun to see you type on a RealForce like I do :)

[@jorge12films]

i was thinking , 'is it worth buying for coding' since the promo videos looked so promising, thanks for talking about the coding aspect. Not familiar with your channel but this helps me make a decision.

[@strager_]

I'm glad I could help.

[@crash_often]

Hello there, I am the CEO and inventor of CharaChorder. Thank you again for your feedback, it helps us tremendously in developing the technology. I have responded to your video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/baiTeIGVYsZsoNk I hope that we have addressed your deal breakers, and most of your negative feedback since this video was first published.

[@sguyouttanowhere8319]

That last sentence was savage..LOL

[@cacophonic7]

I am pretty sure using the arrow keys is against Vim-law. This was a great review!

[@scd6969]

great areview. I didn't get it for some of the reasons you stated. But you were very thorough and shed light on many of the critical issues Charachorder needs to fix to make this product a home run. With them, they are dealbreakers. I have the Charachorder Liite, and to be honest, it's probably the worst quality keyboard I've ever used, in terms of build and function. .

[@johannesCmayer]

Nice. This is the first sane video I have seen on the CharaChorder. Did you look into stenograhpy at all? There is plover, which is open source, and there are several projects producing cheap keyboards such as the ecosteno. I am trying to learn steno myself right now. From what I have seen from CharaChorder, I expect steno is harder to learn. Though maybe there are less issues with it. I was trying to figure out if I should learn CharaChorder instead. Right now I am leaning towards not learning it. Let me know what you think about stenography.

[@strager_]

No, I'm not interested in stenography. I suspect it's bad for programming. (I haven't researched, though.)

[@johannesCmayer]

@@strager_ Some people seem to use it to code. I haven't used it myself so I am not sure. I am a programmer and I do use vim. But I am still very slow on the steno machine. One possible issue that I see right now, is that you can't have key repeats. I can't just hold down b or w, until I am at the point in text where I want to be, which is what I normally use to get to the right position in a paragraph when writing full-text. I would guess the way to find out how good steno is for coding, in case you want to research that at some point, is to ask on the plover discord for somebody who actively uses it to program.

[@NerveClasp]

OMG the ending :)

[@myuniquehandle]

Thank you for the review! Do you know which MCU it's using, if there are any schematics or how to flash it with a custom firmware? I guess PlatformIO should be able to flash it. I would happily write my own open source firmware for it. I wrote one for the ErgoDox EZ to serially output key inputs and intended to use it with my own "driver" which enabled unicode support in X11 (meaning I could program it to type any unicode character). It really sucks that in 2022 there is no plan for any OS to ever support unicode HID devices... I really hope a standard will be drafted soon. Imagine a keyboard where each key has a screen and it could type any unicode character and not need any OS keymap.

[@strager_]

I haven't opened up my CharaChorder One to see the parts inside. I haven't researched its specs or schematics at all. I don't have a microscope to take good photos with. Sorry! You can flash firmware using the Chord Manager software, which should be easy to reverse engineer. Firmware images are files published in the Discord server. I don't know if the firmware images are signed or encrypted.

[@myuniquehandle]

@@strager_ Well, thanks for replying atleast ☺️ I'm guessing it's unsigned. I don't have the economy to buy one though 😕

[@renstillmann]

As a Vim user, thank you for this review.

[@rychei5393]

Thank you!

[@akhileshakhil4390]

It's sad to see that a quality video like this isn't showing up in the list. By the way I subscribed to your channel after watching this video

[@RuslanKovtun]

"..store your characoder in a dry, safe location." love it

[@mauricioprado6395]

omg that ending. Thanks for saving me +100 usd and 3 months of stress. It's kind of ridiculous, I am a programmer too, and I have the feeling that such kind of keyboards attrakt mostly programmers. Why would they not think about symbols!!! needing to use 3 fingers for a single symbol character is insane.

[@caseyalanjones]

I appreciated the discussion of how this works with vim. What's even the point of typing faster if you can't vim like a ninja? And I fully agree that this company is shooting themselves in the foot by not open-sourcing the firmware and benefiting from community contributions. Who uses such weird keyboards? Programmers and hackers, almost exclusively.

[@strager_]

> Who uses such weird keyboards? People who need to type fast! Stenographers, for example.

[@skulldi]

Just wondering and not sure if mentioned but how would numbers work or is that even an option? I know with my QWERTY keyboard has a number pad but would this have an option?

[@strager_]

You can type numbers with the CharaCorder. I think the number input is reasonable, but I don't think there's a numlock key. You can purchase a separate normal numpad if you want. I know that Windows supports multiple connected keyboards.

[@0netom]

i would have sent you 100 HKD for this review, if it would have been setup for your account. after all you saved me much more money, by letting me to avoid this rabbit hole. charachorder should also pay you for your honest feedback and the time you spent testing.

[@strager_]

> charachorder should also pay you for your honest feedback and the time you spent testing. This might be seen as a conflict of interest.

[@isvladxxe]

I experience the same double key issue with my inexpensive mechanical keyboard, but only when using Linux. Enabling something like "X11 keyboard filtering" in KDE particly helps

[@strager_]

I encountered the issue on Windows as well, unfortunately.

[@JLarky]

Thank you! This is such a nice review. What do you think about steno and plover? It fixes issues with firmware and software being open source and allows you easily customize things exactly like you like. But requires more training/learning because there's no easy qwerty fallback 🤷

[@strager_]

I have no experience with or thoughts on stenography keyboards. I'm not interested in trying them, because I imagine stenography keyboards are bad for programming.

[@JLarky]

@@strager_ I mean, they are better at court reporting than for programming by default, but there are plenty of people using it with vim and different programming languages :) but steno keyboards (not steno machines) come in all shapes and sizes including ones that are more oriented on qwerty and symbols support

[@engrenage]

really nice review, thanks. I've been exploring things - not trying too many unfortunately due to a very low budget - because of joint problems, a reason I try to avoid the mouse as much as possible. There is also keyboard wear, having to replace it pretty much every year or so. For the record, I also attend the church of Vi, am a fan of low noise, low pressure and small motion keys. I basically gave up on M$ stuff years ago, but still do the odd typing-on-two-computers until I'm done setting up ssh : your KVM issue gives me a few ideas... anyway, to the point : I've been so frequently upset with proprietary stuff, there is NO way I'm shooting myself in the foot with something as vital as a keyboard. Would be be interested in a collaboration for a fully open (soft AND hard) input device?

[@strager_]

> Would be be interested in a collaboration for a fully open (soft AND hard) input device? Nah, I am not a hardware guy, sorry.

[@engrenage]

@@strager_ well I am, I also know software but I don't find it as fun when it comes to this kind of stuff. Having knowledge in both domains is a good thing to interact with those in either one of these. So let me rephrase, would you be interested in collaborating on the software side of an open project?

[@ulhasgupta8377]

The reason why this is not standard is very clear !

[@delphicdescant]

The closed-source firmware seems like such an out-of-touch decision. The target community for a niche product like this going to really appreciate open-source firmware, and could probably help the product user base grow *because of* open firmware enabling more community involvement. But besides all that - *it's just keyboard firmware.* It's not like they've developed some cutting-edge algorithm to protect lol. If someone wants to make a competitor, developing the firmware is *not* the hard part. It's just silly all around.

[@strager_]

I think the CharaChorder team does think that their chording algorithm is cutting-edge and needs protection.

[@delphicdescant]

@@strager_ Well what do I know? Maybe they've really managed to create something so revolutionary that it gets the backspace-edit distance wrong *only 20% of the time!*

[@sdegueldre]

Have you considered writing your own firmware or are there major obstacles to doing that?

[@strager_]

I don't want to invest hundreds of hours writing firmware for a device which might give me marginal benefit, when I could instead invest dozens of hours making a KZbin video complaining about it.

[@linkernick5379]

@@strager_ Ahaha😀

[@health_doc]

it has been a few years, is it timd for a followup :O

[@brentsteyn6671]

Please make a video on this keyboard again. I'm also programmer and vim user.

[@LimitedWard]

Videos about the CharaCorder pop up in my feed about once per year, but I've never noticed anyone outside of their official youtube channel acheiving the typing speeds they advertise are possible. Even on their discord, I couldn't find anyone claming they could type at speeds above a typical QWERTY keyboard. On the one hand, you could argue that the CharaCorder's input scheme just has a higher learning curve than traditional keyboards. But if that's the case then it feels disingenuous that their marketing claims you can acheive 240+ WPM in under a month of practice. Overall I'm always left with "scammy" vibes from this product. They overpromise and underdeliver while simultaneously cost-cutting on important areas of their business such as customer support. I also agree with your assessment that they're limiting themselves by not open-sourcing their firmare. I guess they're concerned that people will just load the firmware on their existing keyboards?

[@strager_]

> I've never noticed anyone outside of their official youtube channel acheiving the typing speeds they advertise are possible. That's exactly why I tried out the CharaChorder! I wanted to validate the claims and share my findings on KZbin. I did want to mention their sketchy advertising in my review, but I decided against it.

[@jabadahut50]

have you thought about trying a stenography keyboard like the soft/hruf and using plover?

[@strager_]

Nah. I was more interested in debunking the CharaChorder marketing.

[@jabadahut50]

@@strager_ fair

[@woosix7735]

Aren't you supposed to alternate left/right shift on a qwerty keyboard as well? don't get me wrong, I am also guilty of using left shift too much, but still.

[@vibzz_]

17:07 they have announced an update that should be available soon that allows this and other features from what I have heard.

[@strager_]

They told us in the AMA on September 2, 2022 that a firmware update was going to be released in October. (They didn't say what will be in the firmware update.) October passed with no update. November is almost over too, and still no update. I think it'll take a while for the firmware update to arrive. Right now it seems like they're focusing on their new CharaChorder X product instead.

[@vibzz_]

@@strager_ I guess you are right, i guess we have to wait and see lol. I am quite exited for this update aswell

[@linkernick5379]

The closed source of CharaChorder bothers me most. Compare to QMK, thanks to it's open source there are a lot of keymaps and a lot of good practices to learn from despite on the high entry barrier.

[@MyCoolguy86]

Hey any improvements since releasing the video? such as fixing repeating keys, better customer support etc?

[@strager_]

No updates. I haven't upgraded my CharaChorder's firmware, and I haven't even tried it since publishing this video.

[@MyCoolguy86]

@@strager_ if thats the case can I take it off your hands? I’d be happy to see if anything has updated

[@ayannadivineempathpsychict9838]

Have any updates helped with your initial complaints?

[@gemoth65]

You said the software isnt compatable with a few browsers; Does this mean it can be / can not be compatable with discord aswell? Or is that treated diffrently somehow?

[@strager_]

The software I mentioned in the video is only used to configure the CharaChorder device. I don't know what it would mean to when you ask if the configuration software is compatible with Discord. Regarding input (including chording), you can type on the CharaChorder into any app, including Discord. You can even play video games. I haven't noticed the CharaChorder behave differently depending on the app; the CharaChorder works regardless of what app you have focused.

[@koool56]

Hey, will you revisit the device? Would love to see your updated opinion, I'm still not sold this device is truly compatible with vim even after all the updates

[@strager_]

I might try it later this year or next year.