¶Preface
I received my Master Forge (M4G) on March 5, 2025. I’ve learned how to use M4G now (I started writing this article with my M4G on July 13, 2025).
I had written review articles for CharaChorder One
(CC1) and CharaChorder Two (CC2). M4G inherits some parts of them, so in this article, I will focus on the differences between M4G and them.
¶Inherited points from reviews to CC1 and CC2
¶Unboxing Experience
ℹ️ I wrote an article to record my setup progress of M4G before.
The unboxing experience was great. I could feel how much care this product has received from the packaging of the parts, the Velcro cable tie, and the high-quality case. The M4G was truly stunning when I opened the case.
The process of importing the settings, layout, and chords from my CC2 backup files to my M4G was also smooth.
¶Sound
M4G is slightly louder than CC1, but it’s still acceptable to me. Moreover, I work remotely at home, so it would not cause trouble for my coworkers.
Its sound is like a stress-relief toy to me.
¶Switch orientation
On CC1 and CC2, the orientation of the switches almost matches the direction of my corresponding fingers on them. It makes them much intuitive to use.
But on M4G, the orientation of non-thumb switches and the direction of my corresponding fingers on them have a big difference. Therefore, it is less intuitive to use than CC1 and CC2, and I would make many mistakes if I applied the muscle memory from CC1 and CC2 to the M4G. For example, I might accidentally press the west key when I intend to press the south key with my left index finger.
(Refer to Appendix A for a more detailed explanation of this problem.)
Due to this, I still choose CC2 as my daily device. There is still room for improvement here for M4G.
¶Removal of the third thumb switches
ℹ️ I wrote about my progress for finding a Bopomofo solution on Master Forge in this article.
Unlike CC1 and CC2, M4G doesn’t have the third thumb switches, so I tried to modify my layout to make it compatible with all of them. Thankfully, I can reduce the number of required keys for my Bopomofo input method and still make it work well without the third thumb switches.
After using it, I’ve found that using fewer keys has some efficiency benefits. Moreover, the third thumb switches are more difficult to use than the other ones on CC1 and CC2. This removal on M4G helps me to have a better layout in the end.
¶Snap-action switch
The snap-action switch provides a great typing experience. It offers better tactile and sound feedback, as well as clearer on/off states, than the switches on CC1 and CC2. They can be triggered faster, too.
¶Summary
CharaChorder attempted some changes and improvements on M4G based on CC1 and CC2. Some of them are great to me, such as the unboxing experience, the snap-action switch, and the removal of third thumb switches. However, the problem of switch orientation affects my typing experience. Although M4G won’t be my daily device, it’s still an interesting one to try.
¶Appendix
¶A. More details about the switch orientation
According to some videos showing the M4G circuit board, like this one, the orientation of the non-thumb switches aligns with the digitizer (half device). If I draw the four directions as a red cross mark on the previous photo, it would look like this.
You can see there is about a 45-degree angle between my non-thumb finger and the switch direction, so I need to move my finger diagonally to hit the keys correctly, such as moving my left index finger to NE for the r key and to SE for the e key. It is not really intuitive to me. Moreover, you can imagine how non-intuitive it is for me to use the arrow or mouse movement.
The layout preview above is from the layout viewer I developed. You can adjust the rotation angle to make the layout preview match the direction of your finger movement. You can access it at the left-side menu > Settings page > Misc > Rotation Angle for Non-Thumb Switches.