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
"The lubing was incomplete and inconsistent, the switch was not very smooth at all, and there was even a very mild and awkward bump at the bottom of the press; very awkward for a switch costing $0.64-$1 USD/each, depending on quantity and vendor. This was all during a time when Gateron was really shining in value, Kailh hadn’t yet revamped their factory, and the market didn’t have retooled Cherry MX Blacks or Tealios, etc." They come with some lube since the whole point of the Invyr panda was a linear switch that came prelubed and didn't need further tuning. Obviously, they somewhat failed at their original purpose, and the real breakthrough was when Quakemz put a halo true stem in the panda housing, creating the holy panda. Even with YOK/GSUS pandas, they come prelubed, but that doesn't matter, since you're gonna be pulling the panda stem out and swapping it with a halo stem anyway. Novelkeys YOK pandas are about $0.55 per switch. If I buy 70 pandas from NK, that's $38.5. Factoring shipping, which is around $8.50 for me, that's about $47 for pandas alone. The upside of this is that NK pandas are already in-stock, which means that you don't have to wait. On Drop, these pandas are roughly $0.57 per switch, and including $2.75 shipping, that's $42.75. There's not really a huge difference in terms of pricing, so if you want Invyr pandas, or maybe don't like the colors of the NK YOK pandas in stock, or are patient, then maybe these are for you. Regardless, you're gonna have to buy halo switches from Drop (unless you have some laying around/from mechmarket). EDIT, FURTHER CLARIFICATION: Due to the confusion on what exactly is a panda switch:
The original GB for Invyr pandas on geekhack used POM as their material of choice. These switches are as close as you can get to the original "OG" Panda, which was a Halo True stem in an Invyr housing. The confusion arises from the fact that the Massdrop Holy Pandas sold last year (the ones that came prelubed) had a polycarbonate top and nylon bottom. The original Invyr Pandas did use a non-transparent polycarbonate top housing, and a nylon blend bottom. (Source from Mech27, Source on bottom)