I just built this Ergodone over the weekend to replace the JJ40 Planck that I use at work. I really needed the number / symbol row, since I still have trouble remembering where the symbols are even after using the Planck for two years.
I actually use the Colemak layout, but I leave the keycaps as qwerty, since admin level powershell only likes qwerty, and some of the remote servers I go into don't retain my keyboard settings. Then I can just look down and see where the keys are.
If you want your keymap to be Colemak always and everywhere, you can change your keymap keyboard-side instead of pc-side. That way your PC won't notice you're not using Qwerty ;)
Thanks! Yeah, I might have to try that and see. There are a few tweaks that I already want to do from using it all day today, namely repositioning the arrow keys. I'm going to bring my personal computer to work with me tomorrow and fiddle around with it.
Admin powershell only likes qwerty? Why don't you adjust the firmware on the board to be Colemak rather than adjusting at the OS level so you avoid the trouble?
I wasn't able to do this with my JJ40 Planck, because it never seemed to work with any of the software I tried to flash it with. I was able to take this split board home yesterday and change the default layout to Colemak so now it works on any Qwerty computer. I changed the arrow keys and a few others around, and then swapped the keycaps around so that they show the Colemak layout. I must have flashed 7 different versions yesterday to try it out and slowly tweak it, and now I've settled on my favorite!
I've already been using an ortholinear layout on my Planck keyboards for about two years, and I touch type, so it only took me an hour or two to really get used to it. I'm planning on changing around a few of the keys, but it's been much less of an adjustment than I originally thought!