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
I've also converted the top row to 2u, there weren't any issues at all, it was pretty practical (I drilled like 30 places to get it right, the area is pretty empty, so no issues), everything worked on first trial - the result is typing nirvana, the fully lubed 60g clears have a strange hypnotizing thock sound that I'm in love with, can't use any other switch after experiencing this
Some advice/experiences:
1) Don't use the switches from MassDrop, unless they change their source (old news, definitely applies to blues, not sure about linears / tactile switches) 2) Don't use any stabiliser part that MassDrop sends, they are extremely flawed, the stabilisers you see in the picture are from WASD keyboards, luckily I have enough spare stabiliser parts to build 3-4 60%'s - the 2u stabiliser wire MassDrop sends have a faulty bend, it's also too thin, the stabiliser inserts and sliders are also probably of lower quality, the 6.25u wire and the sliders might be the same as WASD keyboards tho, the sliders look the same, but from trials, they didn't work - so, practically speaking, no one should've been able to make this keyboard work with the stabiliser parts they send, it's no wonder why so many people complained (the plate got all the blame, but it was probably the fault of the stabiliser parts all along, the plate is a bit roughly cut, yet the cutouts work - at least for costar stabs) - just buy the stabiliser parts from WASD, it probably costs 3$s or something 3) The PBT keycaps should be Signature Plastics, but somehow they are also very poorly molded, I'm guessing they might be old, as SP improved their PBT's lately, they all have minor/major imperfections, I was going to use some 1.75/1.25 keys, but I decided not to - they don't mix well with other ABS DSA keys, the shape imperfections are easily noticeable :( 4) Used Scotch tape for insulation and sound stage improvement, worked well, no electrical issues with this build (not sure about the sound improvement, there wasn't enough space left for the sponges that I usually use, but I guess it worked well, bottom outs sound pretty deep) 5) Enlarged the left/right/bottom sides of the plates by 0.7/0.5/0.5 mm's, also drilled/enlarged the circle hole of the pcb (there is one circle hole, the other holes have the wiggle room) to allow the pcb to have some wiggle room before fastening it in place, achieved a perfect case/plate placement this way, with no gaps - drilling that hole is a good idea, as it allows the plate to be centered evenly
The stems are probably not cooled well after molding, there are no visible issues, yet the 2 part stem movement is impaired, which causes the click issues, it makes sense to stick to linears and tactile's - the clears in the picture are from massdrop's infinity drop1, they don't have any issues
Most of the right-side keys are added this way, infinity PCB is pretty compatible with this procedure