ErgoDox Wireless FAQ

Here are some commonly asked questions about the ErgoDox Wireless keyboard. If you have any question that's not addressed here, please do not hesitate to contact us.

How long is the battery life on a 400mAh battery?

Without a dongle, the left half (central) would last around a month and the right half (peripheral) would last around 9 months. With a dongle (central), the two peripherals halves would last around 9 months.

If you are not familiar with the concept of central and peripheral in the context of wireless split keyboards, please read about why a dongle improves battery life.

Please note that these battery life estimates do not take into account the use of RGB underglow.

Does the keyboard have per-key LEDs?

No. As the keyboard is wireless, it is important to find the right balance between the number of LEDs and maximizing the battery life.

Are there wireless signal issues with the aluminum case (Pro) compared with the layered case (Lite)?

We haven't observed a significant difference in the signal quality between the aluminum case and the layered case. In particular, the aluminum case has an acrylic bottom layer to ensure that the signal can propagate.

From our testing, the number of disconnects due to interference is about the same with the two case options. Our logs a couple of disconnects each week on average. Do note that these disconnects do not necessarily impact usage as they may happen when the keyboard is not in use. In the event that interference occurs, the connection is automatically reestablished to minimize interruptions.

How is the keyboard latency?

ZMK currently supports Bluetooth connection interval as low as 7.5ms, which gives an average Bluetooth latency of 3.75ms.

• When using the dongle directly (or connected to the central half via USB C), a millisecond or two should be added to account for USB latency, key press debouncing, and general firmware logic processing.
• A device connected wireless to the central (whether the central is a dongle or one of the keyboard halves) will experience approximately twice the aforementioned latency as data has to travel twice.

The Nordic microprocessor used by our keyboards include support for a proprietary Bluetooth extension called Low Latency Packet Mode that allows the connection interval to be as low as 1ms. Combined with 1ms of USB polling and 1ms of processing time, it's theoretically possible to achieve total latency around 3ms. While this is something that can be added via a firmware upgrade, at the moment there is no concrete plans of implementing it as our users haven't found the current level of latency to be problematic.

Can I use the keyboard with multiple devices?

Yes. If using a dongle, one computer can use the dongle as a USB keyboard and additional devices can connect to the dongle wirelessly.

If not using a dongle, multiple devices can connect to the central half wirelessly. The central half can also be plugged in via USB and used directly as a USB keyboard.

Please check out the dongle page to learn more about how the different devices communicate with one another.

Can I use the keyboard in a wired manner?

If using a dongle, only wireless is supported for the connection between the keyboard halves and the dongle. In such case, the USB connection for the keyboard halves is solely for the purpose of charging. The dongle acts as a USB keyboard and can be used on devices without Bluetooth.

If using one of the keyboard halves (such as the left half) is used as the central in place of an external dongle, that half can be used directly over USB as a USB keyboard. However it will continue to communicate with the other half wirelessly.