20 Jun 2022

In early 2021 I saw Lex Fridman on Youtube talking about his Kinesis Advantage being his favourite keyboard, and I was intrigued:

When I saw it I was immediately struck - it does not look good, to say the least, but so unusual (and I love different) and so... obvious.

I usually aim for products with beauty in my life. This one doesn't - but its clear productivity & experience benefits outweighed the design considerations for once.

At that time, I was typing fairly quickly, but in "hunt and peck" style - looking at my keyboard often (most of the time?).

Going for this split keyboard would mean learning touch typing - and I'm always up to learn new skills. So...

!learning/touch-typing

Since then, I'm fully touch typing and I feel "connected" with this keyboard. It's a weird feeling. I can't see myself using any other kind of keyboard anymore.

I believe the unique layout of the keyboard also helped me go to 100% touch typing fairly quickly, as it is designed for it - see below.

Kinesis Advantage 2

The Advantage was first introduced in 1992.

what makes it so good

User Manual

Kinesis Advantage 2 Quick Start Guide

Kinesis Advantage 2 User Manual

Resources

Next buy: Kinesis Advantage 360 Pro

Coming out soon.

Buy

02 Sep 2022 available for sale in the US only. International to follow later this year or next.

Reseller in Germany: https://ergotrading.com/

29 Sep 2022 will drop in 3 weeks at 712 EUR!! 😅 🤯

04 Oct 2022

Bueroleben (DE):
5OO EUR ex VAT
Free shipping
+ VAT 113 EUR
Total 712 EUR

Backshop (NL):
469 EUR ex VAT
+ Shipping 10 EUR
+ VAT 91 EUR
Total 570 EUR

Ergowerken (NL) - currently shows out of stock:
461 EUR ex VAT
Free shipping
+ VAT 87 EUR
Total 549 EUR

Technical Support

Quick Start Guide

Kinesis Advantage360 - Quick Start Guide

User Manual

Kinesis Advantage360 - User's Manual

Keymap examples

ZMK

list of codes

&trans = transparent.
The transparent behavior simply ignores key position presses/releases, so they will be passed down to the next active layer in the stack.

13 Nov 2023 try other GUI by Nick Coutsos:

Setup

GUI available at https://kinesiscorporation.github.io/Adv360-Pro-GUI

To assigne a macro to a key:

• record macro by clicking Add macro button. Commit to save?
• select the layout & key to assign macro to.
• on the key's upper left corner, choose &macro, then select the macro from the list by clicking on the field within the key.

Firmware

Firmware & Reset files: https://kinesis-ergo.com/support/kb360pro/#firmware-updates

To flash firmware:

• download updated keymap file firmware from https://github/ndeville/Adv360-Pro-ZMK/actions/runs/XXXXXXXXXXXXX
• connect via USB
• Mod 1 to enter bootloader mode on left keyboard. Copy left keymap file.
• Mod 3 to enter bootloader mode on right keyboard. Copy right keymap file.

run wired only

to test if Bluetooth issues: hold the "Mod" key and tap 5 to turn off the bluetooth profile.

My keyboard layout

See:

Main changes:

• inverted left Esc and Shift keys (less pinky pain)
• End and PdDn keys are Enter (typed a lot and easy to find, at the edge of the thumb clusters)
• Home on left keyboard is Space (so one on each side)

28 Mar 2023

Typing speed

18 Oct 2022

Slowly regaining typing speed:

Battery monitoring

date	%
16 Nov 2022	71%

Keycaps

Official home row keyset:

PBT keycaps are much higher quality than than ABS plastic.

PBT Keycap Set:

Troubleshooting

04 Jan 2024

Bluetooth issues (profile LED blinking slowly):

• clear Bluetooth connection on Mac ("Forget device" under Settings > Bluetooth)
• perform a "Bluetooth clear" on the keyboard by holding MODE + COMMAND (on Mac, else WINDOWS on Windows)

  light will blink fast, ready to be re-paired

• re-pair on Mac

Solved it for me as I'm typing this with my newly re-paired keyboard 😁

15 Jan 2024

Technical support ticket:

I have been using this keyboard for the last 14 months and it is the best keyboard I have ever used. It feels part of me. I can't see myself using any other keyboard at the moment (though I'm typing this on my old Kinesis Advantage 2 - 2nd best option - considering the fault with the 360).

10 days ago, with seemingly no environment change, I had one issue where bluetooth connection was lost, and wouldn't reconnect despite multiple power cycles. I ended up doing a clean Bluetooth repairing (Mode + Command Right) and it worked again.

Today, also without seemingly any environment change, the keyboard started to behave erraticly, not registering all key presses, though I couldn't assess the logic (some didn't work, and then worked again). Ultimately, I lost connection entirely (left keyboard blinking white) AND lost the connection between left and right (ie right keyboard flashing red).
I have tried countless power cycles, short and fast, left and right then the other way around, connected to power or not, to no avail.

The Bluetooth reset doesn't seem to work anymore, possibly because the left keyboard is not connected to the right one anymore?

And I cannot get either keyboard to bootload, to try and flash the firmware with an update.

What can I/should I do?

Thanks for your help - I really need my 360 back! 😅

2024-01-15 22:15 managed to get the keyboard to work again by doing a hard reset with paperclip, apply the reset file to both keyboards, and then flashing the firmware with v3.0 from a fresh repo (in /devyer on Github).
But cannot access the new repo for keymap remapping 🙁

2024-01-16 07:07 resolved on my own by doing a hard reset & update to V3.0 firmware.
- deleted Github repo in my account & locally, forked again (V3.0 this time) and cloned locally
- redid the keymapping using the GUI
- force bootload by clicking twice on reset button with paperclip (between the thumb clusters keycaps - removed one keycap for easier access)
Seems to work again now 😁 Lost a few hours, but at least I'm on v3.0 at last which was on my to-do list for a while now. Let's hope it fixes the recent issues.

Resources

Reviews