What is SpaceFN and why you should give it a try
The SpaceFN concept - setting up your space key as a layer switch when held - is probably one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby. Let me explain how it works. My SpaceFN article on kbd.news made some rounds recently - quite surprisingly given the age of this concept. This piece you're reading is a condensed version of the full post. If you're left with unanswered questions, you'll most likely find the info you're looking for in the original write-up. On my imaginary top list of the most useful keyboard features, tweaks and hacks, SpaceFN would deserve a podium finish for sure. But what makes it so special? In short: SpaceFN is easy to implement, easy to learn, costs nothing, can be used with any keyboard, and can improve your productivity instantly. I will list its benefits below, but can state right at this point that the SpaceFN concept, setting up your space key as a layer switch when held, is clearly one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby....
Apr 30, 2024
Keycaps - Very thin. 1mm via calipers. They sound like you're typing on some thin pottery if you can picture that. They sound high pitched and frankly cheap. There is no deep nice sound you can get some some thicker kepcaps. The caps themselves are not very rough. The OEM profile is also not the best after you have experienced DSA or SA profiles. The fact that they are shine-through is pretty nice though. I suppose you would expect this with the RGB setup that's going on. The label on the keycaps can be very hard to read on some LED colors or when the LED is off. This is a side-effect of the shine-through properties of the caps.
Stabilizers - Good lord. They are pretty bad out of the box. They feel very mushy. I have to put in extra effort to push the keys down and they don't come back up as responsively as I would like. It kind of ruins the tactility of the switches that I'm using. I think the stabs could be much worse but the space, backspace, and enter all feel like this. Coming from the other keyboard I find that my fingers are often getting fatigued by just pressing these keys. Some lube is going to be helpful and at this price point I am not sure if pre-lubing the stabilizers would be an option.
Good things:
Hot swap switches - work as expected and are going to be pretty handy. I don't have any spare switches to test on but this could make this keyboard worth it in the long run. Probably going to throw in some zealios in the future.
RGB - The light show is real. I haven't gotten any weird LED problems. Probably pretty standard with RGB keyboards out there. It was new for me though :)
Customizability - The QMK software is pretty great. Flashed firmware already and everything works as expected. Expect more improvements in the future such as macros and changing the default RGB when plugging in but the standard functionality is all there.
Dual USB C - Wonderful. Offers flexibility to my desk setup which is very nice. No need to mess around with the orientation of the cable - nice coming from microusb.
Overall a nice package. I would have expected a better typing experience since, at the end of the day, that is what most people use a keyboard for. The Vortexgear typing experience is way way better out of the box. However, all the bells and whistles make this keyboard something that you can really customize/mod to become whatever you want without going all the way into the keyboard customization rabbit hole. So IMO, throw away the stock keycaps (something the manufacturers probably want XD) and mess around with the stabilizers to create a better typing experience.