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
It's not a bad price for what you get.
Now, I didn't need the underlighting, but I think it is a cool feature, so I don't mind if it costs me extra. I don't know that I will be happy with the Kaihua/Kailh switches, but this gives me a chance to try out the speed switches, and I can always get a set of Cherry MX RGBs later if I don't like them.
When I looked into building a DIY MKB, the pricing was up in the $300+USD range without taking shipping into account, and I was still having a hard time even finding any PCBs that were bigger than 60%, let alone having all of the features I want.
Now, maybe you can go buy a Cherry MX switch RGB backlit TKL for $150, but you won't ever really own your keyboard. You will always have to put up with Corsair or Cooler Master or whomever else's software, and you will never be able to really fix your favorite keyboard. You will just have to go buy a new one next time one of the keys wears out or when you find a new switch type that you would rather have. If that is cool with you, then you are not part of this keyboard's target market. I am willing to pay $200 for the end-all be-all (as far as I'm concerned, anyway) of mechanical keyboards.