Hey Fediverse,
Our team wanted to share a hardware project we’ve been pouring our hearts into. We love the ergonomics of split keyboards, but we were always frustrated by the messy TRRS bridge cables and the bulky plastic/3D-printed cases that usually come with wireless builds.
So, we spent the last few months developing our own solution: Elytra.
The Specs & Philosophy:
100% Truly Wireless: Powered by ZMK. No wires to the PC, and absolutely zero cables between the halves. Just a perfectly clean desk.
Ultralight CNC Aluminum: We applied a biomimetic cutout design on the underside. It gives you the premium feel of a full-metal custom board, but the entire chassis weighs only 420g.
Designed for Longevity: We know this community values hardware that lasts. The design is modular and repair-friendly, making it easy to open up, maintain, or tweak over time.
We just opened our site for early pre-orders. Since the Fediverse has some of the most knowledgeable hardware geeks around, we’d love to get your raw feedback on the layout, the industrial design, or any ZMK configuration tips!
Nice idea. My complaint is the keycaps, they are the style that goes under a laptop overlay, so they make the layout look like something is missing. Are they interchangeable with regular mechanical keycaps?
The keycaps are specifically designed for Kailh Choc V2 low-profile switches — they’re low-profile keycaps with a different stem from standard MX mechanical keycaps, so they’re not interchangeable with regular mechanical keycaps. The switches themselves are hot-swappable though, so if you ever want to try different actuation forces, you can swap them out without soldering. The keyboard uses a row-staggered layout to keep the learning curve at zero — you open the box and type like on any standard keyboard. Totally get the “something missing” look though, especially if you’re used to seeing full-size or even 60% layouts with continuous rows. It does take a minute to adjust visually.
I meant the flange on the key caps makes it look like there’s a top plate overlay missing. A key cap with straight vwrtical sides is what I was expecting for a custom keyboard. But if the keycaps are ever swappable with other low profile styles that match Kaith ChocV2 then that’s totally a non issue.
I love split keyboards though; being wide shouldered means a conventional keyboard is cramped.