Corne-ish Zen Keyboard is a proprietary limited-run programmable keyboard using the [[ZMK]] firmware. - [Website](https://lowprokb.ca/) - [Support](https://lowprokb.ca/pages/corne-ish-zen-support) - [Shop](https://lowprokb.ca/collections/keyboards/products/corne-ish-zen) > It is inspired by the very popular CRKBD (Corne) keyboard designed by the talented Foostan. We changed almost everything about it, but it's heritage is obvious. \- Official Shop Page # Notability >[!WARNING] > I cannot recommend this product or any others from this creator due to the number of issues I and other have had. This doesn't seem to be due to any malice, but the creator cannot support their products. I currently ([[2023-11-01]]) own 2 Corne-ish Zen keyboards from of the R3 batch. # Philosophy The fact that it is closed source, while being built directly on open source designs is disappointing. Particularly given that a limited number of them are manufactured and it is not particularly well supported by its creator, partially due to small mistakes compounded with limited supply. The creator is a nice guy from my interactions with him, but there have been *many* issues with the R3 batch of the keyboard that I own. As much as I love the keyboard, I will not be buying anything else from this person or their associated business ventures, and *I cannot in good faith recommend* anyone else do either. There are now many other similar devices available now (which were not available when I supported the group buy) that I would recommend instead. ## General Issues As this is my first "serious" wireless keyboard, I am not certain if there are unsolvable problems with wireless split keyboards. But the cheap $35 monolithic wireless keyboards I have do not have any of the same issues. **Battery life.** Given how much I use keyboards it spends almost as much time plugged in as not. I don't blame [[Zephyr]], but I think that there needs to be significant tuning to better reduce power usage on both a software and hardware level. A higher capacity battery might also be necessary. This issue primarily affects the left side of the keyboard, not just because it does more work as the USB/bluetooth host but because that side of the keyboard is used more. **Boot time.** A keyboard with a significant startup time is kind of mind boggling give how simple most are electronically. But even compared to the other programmable keyboards I have, the Corne-ish Zen takes several times longer to boot up. It can take up to 5 seconds to be ready to accept input. The delay isn't huge, but it is more than enough to throw off flow when I don't realize that it went to sleep or disconnected. I often keep a second hard wired keyboard next to it do I can start typing immediately instead of mashing keys until it starts to respond. **Display problems.** The system used for eInk display refreshing, particularly with the originally shipped firmware, was incomplete and left a lot of flickering and visual artifacts for many people. ## Hardware Issues - fully bricked units due to lack of proper electrostatic shielding - pads lifting from the circuit board on one of mine (with no offer to send a replacement board) - eInk display failures - wireless connection issues - *many* other issues reported on Discord I still need to manually run bodge wires to rebuild the one that failed on me. Additionally, the marketing images showed a keycap set that does not exist. So what was delivered looked a bit different. ## Software Issues Most issues mentioned above may have software aspects to them. Like boot time, battery life, eInk artifacts, and bluetooth trouble. In general it seems that this creator was mostly hoping that the community would finish the software for them. This was particularly troublesome for the R3 batch as many components were replaced and untested compared to the prior runs, and lacked full support in Zephyr. The release firmware had a variety of issues, including randomly holding or repeating keys or long delays between keypresses and them being delivered, requiring a hard reboot in order to remedy. (I'm not sure yet if firmware since then have fully fixed this or not, time will tell) # Features I needed a keyboard that had these features: - Split - Ergo-ish - Portable (compact and low profile) - Fully programmable - Full-size-ish keys - Compatible with a wide variety of operating systems and devices - Optionally wireless The Corne-ish Zen nailed all those bullet points and more. From a hardware perspective: - it is a split ortholinear keyboard with separate thumb clusters - it has 42 keys with 3 of those in each of the two thumb clusters. # Tips ## Configurator See [[ZMK#Nick Coutsos' Keymap Editor]] Testing and working! ## Manual Configuration [[ZMK]] does ~~not~~ have a configurator for this keyboard, you must manually edit the configuration file. However, if you follow the directions on the ZMK site, it is pretty easy. Installing new firmware is as simple as dragging and dropping it into the device's internal storage after double pressing the easily accessible reset button. ## Updating Firmware 1. Update configuration file 2. Push to [[GitHub]] 3. Download merged artifacts 4. Extract firmware archive 5. Double-press reset button on the back 6. Mount keyboard as storage device 7. Drag and drop firmware into keyboard storage # References - [Official Discord](https://discord.gg/zgWd9k5nSP)