Why I Love Prototype Runs and Helping Keyboard Designers
The Migra TKL Prototype by Thebloodyez “This is my keyboard. There are many like it, but this one is mine.” - William H. Rupertus. In another life, if Major General William H. Rupertus, the Marine who coined the United States Marine Creed, had been a keyboard enthusiast, we might've gotten this line instead. All joking aside, this has been an article that I’ve wanted to write for quite some time. There are many reasons why we love the keyboard hobby, and today, I wanted to introduce you to one of mine—prototype keyboards and helping keyboard designers by joining prototype runs. Now, it’s not risk-free, and one should weigh the pros and cons of joining a prototype run, so I encourage you to pay attention to the disclaimer portion of this article. I know that there are prototype runs for keycaps, switches, and other cool things in our keyboard hobby, but for this article, I’ll be focusing only on keyboards. Also, please know that not every prototype run will be handled...
Dec 31, 2024
- 60% layout, but, the bottom right should be arrow keys instead of duplicate Ctrl, Alt, and Windows, the Fn key should be to the right of the space bar, and the right shift should be shorter to allow room for the up arrow key
- Under 12 inches long, preferably 11 inches
- Case similar to the CTRL, SHIFT, and ALT with Per Key RGB and under glow. Same design for feet and everything. This is just another version of their great stuff.
- Normal and High Profile versions
- Mechanical and Opto-Mechanical versions. This feature should then become available for other Drop keyboards.
- More color choices for the case and top plate (Red, Blue, Green, Black, Gun Metal, Silver, White...) This feature should then become available for other Drop keyboards.
- Default secondary layer without the need for programming. Possibly on board programming with the Fn key, so as to not require software to get other key mappings and more layers.
- Default light functions and on board programming with the Fn key, so as to not require software to get many light effect options.
This is also a bit of a Frankenstein's monster of sorts, as it combines many features I've found in other keyboards, but none have had it all. If you like, please share and comment. I would really like to get a keyboard like this made, and it would be fantastic if Drop were to get on board. The layout is very similar to the Drop ALT, maybe it could be called the Drop ALT Minus, or Mini.