Debating couch solution

[porina]

In under a month I'll have over a week off work when I have a gaming binge fest planned at friends. Problem is, they don't have much space and last time I was there, we barely fitted on their small dining table. I'm debating, if a lap keyboard/mouse thing would be sufficient, with me on the couch and monitor on coffee table. Main game is FFXIV (MMO), so I'll need the keys around WASD and mouse movement.

 

The Corsair Lapdog sprang to mind first, but it isn't cheap plus the keyboard on top, I think I'd actually prefer a TKL in this use case... the Razer thing just looked far too small. Then I saw the Roccat Sova. This seemed great. I don't need a numpad at all, looks like generous mouse space, and the wrist rest in front of keyboard should help a lot too. My normal desk usage, I actually rest my lower arms on the table, so I'm not sure how I'll cope with the lack of this support though. It is a rather expensive experiment if I decide I don't like it... and I have the eternal decision to make if I want to go membrane or mechanical switch. My main desktop keyboard is membrane, but it is low enough cost I don't mind replacing it if I decide to later. My past brief experiments into mechanical didn't leave me sold on them. But maybe it was just the wrong switch type?

 

Any other ideas?

[Billy_Mays]

Find a old case and bend the metal out make supports for the side panel and have the monitor on top of the case there you go it's easy and cheap

[Bananasplit_00]

id pick up a Razer nostromo as long as it has enough keys for you, fits awesome in my hand and you can put it anywhere. one of the verry few actiually not shit things to come out of Razer tbh. for the mouse i would just take something hard of sufficient size and a mousemat to cover it with

[porina]

4 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

id pick up a Razer nostromo as long as it has enough keys for you, fits awesome in my hand and you can put it anywhere. one of the verry few actiually not shit things to come out of Razer tbh. for the mouse i would just take something hard of sufficient size and a mousemat to cover it with

I hadn't thought of those... but fundamentally I think I will need the full main body of a keyboard. I find it interesting there's so many making what are in effect partial keyboards.

 

Basically my main combat keys are tab, WASD, 1 through 6, and then ctrl and alt modifiers on numbers. This is the less than idea part, as I press ctrl using the palm of my hand, and alt with my thumb. I less frequently use others though...

[Bananasplit_00]

11 hours ago, porina said:

I hadn't thought of those... but fundamentally I think I will need the full main body of a keyboard. I find it interesting there's so many making what are in effect partial keyboards.

 

Basically my main combat keys are tab, WASD, 1 through 6, and then ctrl and alt modifiers on numbers. This is the less than idea part, as I press ctrl using the palm of my hand, and alt with my thumb. I less frequently use others though...

the thing with these partial keyboards is that you can re map them however you want, up on the d-pad presses I for me for example. if you just need WASD, alt, ctrl and the 1-6 keys you can definatly do it but seeing as the Nostromo is only 5 keys wide i would look into using another solution. a small TKL could work good or if you can find a cheap 60% keyboard that would also do the trick

[porina]

10 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

 a small TKL could work good or if you can find a cheap 60% keyboard that would also do the trick

I think I need to clarify again here. The likes of the Lapdog, Sova and similar are not looking only at the keyboard, but the structure with which to hold it as well as providing a mouse surface. Of the ones I've seen so far, I think the Sova is best, but I'm not 100% convinced given the cost. I do not think using a normal keyboard by itself is a workable solution.

 

I might have over-stated needing only the WASD area. It is most important during combat, but I still need the other keys otherwise.

 

Linked below is Linus' take on the Sova, which should give a better idea of what I'm looking at.

 

 

[Bananasplit_00]

7 minutes ago, porina said:

I think I need to clarify again here. The likes of the Lapdog, Sova and similar are not looking only at the keyboard, but the structure with which to hold it as well as providing a mouse surface. Of the ones I've seen so far, I think the Sova is best, but I'm not 100% convinced given the cost. I do not think using a normal keyboard by itself is a workable solution.

 

I might have over-stated needing only the WASD area. It is most important during combat, but I still need the other keys otherwise.

 

Linked below is Linus' take on the Sova, which should give a better idea of what I'm looking at.

 

 

sure if you think something like that is for you the Sova is a great option, i would personaly get a small keyboard breakout and a coupple of books or something else hard through, but im also a cheap ass  if you have time and some tools you could make one yourself if you wanted too, Linus made a video about that too but its a bit of a pain. if you think the Sova is something for you then go ahead with it tbh 

[porina]

2 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

sure if you think something like that is for you the Sova is a great option, i would personaly get a small keyboard breakout and a coupple of books or something else hard through, but im also a cheap ass  if you have time and some tools you could make one yourself if you wanted too, Linus made a video about that too but its a bit of a pain. if you think the Sova is something for you then go ahead with it tbh 

I half thought that a cut to size panel of wood might do as well... at the moment it is 50/50 between the Sova and trying to elbow myself some space on the shared dining table...

[Bananasplit_00]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

I half thought that a cut to size panel of wood might do as well... at the moment it is 50/50 between the Sova and trying to elbow myself some space on the shared dining table...

a cut so size panel will do basically just as well, it just wont be as comfy basically