Hi! I've been looking at these kits, and I have some suggestions and notes for your consideration.
- Please consider offering R3 Pg Up, R4 Pg Dn either in the Base kit or the Extension kit. Currently, there is no way to get those keys, so users who need them (primarily for various popular 65% layouts) have no way of getting them.
- The Extension kit currently has a second R4 1u Ctrl key, which is unnecessary as the only real use case for it is on 40% boards. It should be removed (e.g. to make room for the aforementioned keys) or, alternatively, changed to a generic legend such as Code or Meta so it can be used for other things.
- Yet another approach would be merge the PgUp/PgDn keys with the extra generic key by having just two keys and giving them agnostic legends (e.g. R3 Init, R4 Out; you can find a full list here). I'm personally fine with this approach, but I know that some people don't like it. If you don't want to experiment, doing what I said in the above two paragraphs is probably your best bet.
- On a different note, the default numpad 5 key in Base looks to be a regular, non-scooped key. This is likely just a rendering error, but you may want to fix it either way.
- It may be worth including R5 1u Ctrl, Alt, Fn keys in the Row 5 kit, for 1800/CP, HHKB and some other layouts that are likely to use a 7u bottom row (which is what the kit is targeting). In fact, I would say that these keys would be more useful than the two R5 macro column keys, but I guess those could be a personal inclusion or something.
- Last and kind of least, you could consider moving the second 2.25u Shift to Extension, and the Alice B to Spacebars, in order to remove some not strictly necessary keys from Base. However, I would argue against this, as you can currently get correct Alice support with just the Base kit if you're okay with using Shifts as spacebars. (There's also the fact that putting B in Spacebars would be adding an extra color to that kit.)
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for taking your time to write this out Konstantin!
1-3: I decided to skip on those keys as I didn't deem them necessary for the kit. It was definitely based on my subjective opinion and personal preference to use the 65% column the way I currently have it kitted. I am not opposed to adding them but I definitely have a bit of hesitation being that we already submitted for quotes. If I swap them into the extension kit while removing the 2nd Ctrl key this should be unnecessary. Either way, I'll discuss it with my vendors. I'll look into changing the legend in the extension kit before GB if I don't substitute in the PgUp and PgDn keys.
4: Yes it is a rendering error. When I submitted for quotes I did signify that it would be scooped and I will also add that here to correctly represent the kit.
5: This is a great point but I don't imagine many people buying the r5 kit are using 1800 or HHKB. That is just an assumption on my part and there really is no way to tell who will be buying it. The goal of that kit is to get 7u r5 support on 60s, 65s, and TKLs. Bottom rows are completely subjective and there are always many options, so although it may not be optimal for 1800 people to use 4 1.5u keys, at least the physical compatibility is still there. I will most likely keep the kit in its current configuration as that is what I am personally happy with.
6: I intend on keeping B in base as well as the second 2.25u shift since you can have physical compatibility using the shift keys as you said. Also, I wanted to keep the spacebar kit just spacebars since it keeps it just one color as well as anyone else who might need CR spacebars isn't getting an extra key that they don't need. I'd say it works out for everyone this way.
Feel free to correct me on anything I may have said that was wrong. Thanks!