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
My first Varmilo VB87M keyboard was basically DOA with, IIRC, the letter O key flaky. Often, it would not register a click yet at other times, it would send 2, 3, or more letters. This was the Bluetooth model from the ~ Feb 2013 drop with Gateron blues. My first one was returned.
Now, I am on my second VB87M, and a few months later, it was experiencing similar problems (missed or double keys), but the problems showed up not immediately, but over time and now with many keys -- most are common like the spacebar and the letter S while others are not like the letter Z. Now, it is unusable, and I am on my 3rd.
I'm trying to figure out if this is a Varmilo PCB problem, a problem with Gateron switches, or some freak combination with the Bluetooth or maybe just a bad batch since my second one was also from the Feb 2013 drop.
At the time of the first failure, I did a lot of research, and there were a couple other users with a similar problem. One, I believe, in Singapore, her dad disassembled and cleaned the switch which suggests it was a switch problem. But, I have read another user who reported a similar problem with Cherry switches.
I have many of these keyboards but most are infrequently used such as on my Chromebook, a laptop, other development machines, home media center, etc. I have a fortune spent on these keyboards (including non-Bluetooth versions) and aluminum cases and fancy keycaps. It's not acceptable for these keyboards to only last a few months (regular use) when the keys are rated for 50 million cycles. Unfortunately, I have not used my other keyboards as much as the one on my main machine.
Please post your experiences (similar or no problems) and what model/switch/drop yours came from.