Support for Alternative Layouts
This is a summary of how alternative layouts have been supported by kits such as Colevrak and Homing. It is not a discussion of alt layout performance and development, but if that interests you I highly recommend starting with Pascal Getreuer’s A guide to alt keyboard layouts (why, how, which one?). It’s a concise and comprehensive overview with links to some great sites that go deeper. He also has a separate Links about keyboards page. The Keyboard layouts doc he recommends explains layout goals and metrics in detail, summarizing the alt layouts discussed here as well as more than one hundred others. Sculpted-profile The majority of custom keycap sets are sculpted-profile (Cherry, SA, MT3, KAT, etc. - more on profiles generally here) so let’s start there. Because each row has a unique keycap shape, alt layouts require a unique keycap for each legend that moves off its QWERTY row. At first there were two The Dvorak layout was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak & William L....
Apr 23, 2024
You should probably buy the new plastic cases if this is your intention, they seem to have a small gap in the middle, it might be for the bluetooth modules in further revisions
However, in general, 60% cases are VERY crammed, impossible to cram lithium batteries in, so your best bet is the plastic case, it looks similar to the V60 plastic case, which had the most room I've seen in 60% cases
You should also find HaaTa on geekhack/github, he might guide you
Personally, I think bluetooth would take away from the robustness of the keyboard, however it's a personal preference All the issues I have with the infinity keyboard is related to the plate and the top-row, so my solution was to 3d-print the plate, and the first trial was very successful, I'm going to improve the plate pieces, print the plate in 3 pieces with carbon fiber pla, convert the pcb to have an 2u top row, while also improving the spacing, so far I'm pretty satisfied with this plan, otherwise I was also considering getting a Nerd60 (the gon/nerd60 seems to have bluetooth/lipo modules by the way, but it's a bit more expensive)
I couldn't decide between printing the plate myself or getting it produced using a service like Shapeways. Just getting it done by a CNC also makes more sense, but I will definitely get the dimensions right first by doing it myself, I don't like the gaps the current plate has, I will definitely enlarge the model by 1-2mm before the manufacturing - I'm most probably going to melt my extruder if I attempt the carbonfiber print tho :)
trev, it's nice to hear a positive experience, hhkb/unix users generally have it easier :) - I'm using dedicated arrows myself, I'm a very unoptimal typist, I almost never used the right shift, so the dedicated arrows there is just perfect for me
I initially tried to adopt the hhkb layout, as it's more optimal, but the changes messed with my reflexes a lot, the ISO to ANSI switch took an hour for me, the ANSI to 60% with dedicated arrows was similar, however for the 60% to hhkb switch, I was still maimed after more than a day, so I returned back to the ANSI with modified arrows
If I manage to drill the pcb and integrate the 2u backspace position, the keyboard will become just perfect for me. From the photos, it's extremely doable, luckily there are no electronical connections between the top 2x1u switch positions
Edit: Just inspected Shapeways further, the possibilities are indeed exciting