Well, since Applet was kind enough to let me try one of his prototype PCB's and I had some strange keysets around, I wanted to give back by writing a (hopefully) helpful review of their PCB.
First things first. After receiving the PCB (admittedly a while ago) I tried that everything worked properly, switch positions and RGB LEDs. You can see a picture below with all the LEDs emiting white, thus proving that every color works:
Maybe it is not very appreciated in the picture, but Applet did an awesome soldering job. He had to solder the controller and both the cable connections since the manufacturer wasn't able to do so, and he did an astounding job, specially at those tiny tiny leads in the USB C connector.
After checking that everything worked properly (and it did), I took my keysets and some loose switches and started trying layouts.
The following link contains a lot of pictures of different bottom row options and different layouts tested, but I'll do "honorable mentions" here for ease of reading:
https://imgur.com/a/fzjNBSXFirst layout tested was a BAE with 7u spacebar, WKL:
Perfect fitting.
After that, I started playing with the bottom row:
Do you fancy a 65%-like layout with a blocker on the right side and split spacebar?
Or maybe a full fitted bottom row?
Have a need for multiple 1u keys bottom left?
Please keep in mind that you could also use these combinations with a 7u spacebar. Basically, if you go to the KLE layout picture in the first post, you can create any bottom row with the options you have for them, as in key per key, not entire rows.
After that, I tried a more traditional 7u spacebar, stepped caps lock, WKL ANSI layout:
As you can see, it fits perfectly.
Unfortunately, I am still waiting on two more "strange" keysets to try their layouts, but I had a JIS one laying around here.
It seems that the JIS enter does not fit, as you can see here:
But, you could try to use any kind of combination with the small spacebars and a 1u in the middle, as seen here:
In summary:
- Excellent build quality
- Lovely vintage aesthetics
- Supports lots and lots of layouts. Much more than those which appear in the KLE picture
- Personally, can't find any benefit for the cutouts, but does not affect the working nor makes the PCB fragile.
- 2 reset buttons for ease of access is a nice touch
- I would personally ditch the RGB since this will usually go towards more vintage builds, but doesn't affect much the price, and you can always turn them off.
- The bottom row is kind of a gruyere, but that is a necessary evil. I personally do not have any problem with that, it clearly does not affect the fragility or the working, and I would rather have a highly compatible PCB, specially for ALPS.
I am planning on doing a second part of the review once I receive the other keysets, but it may be a while since they are stuck somewhere in the USA.
To finish, I just want to thank Applet for letting me get a prototype and I have to say that if they ran a GB I would definitely get at least one more PCB, for future proofing and compatibility.