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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: radsamba on Thu, 25 November 2021, 13:26:22
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I've been using a TKL for a long time, but recently started exeprimenting with new layouts (75% and 65%).
For my personal use, dedicated arrow keys and the F row are very important, but also de Home and Insert keys. However, having a smaller board is very beneficial since my desk space is rather limited.
Then it hit me: why not have a 75% with extra keys? I created this (http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/1bfdde0ccf5a4cc621d9df65b5e34600) on KLE (image below), but I was wondering if it hadn't been done before.
If I could find a board with a similar layout I could just buy it instead of designing a PCB and doing a case myself 😅
Does anyone know of something similar?
(https://i.ibb.co/yBM53dg/Screen-Shot-2021-11-25-at-16-18-16.png)
Thanks in advance for any help finding a similar board, or any inputs on this layout.
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Royal Kludge has that design without the F-keys (RK71), never seen one like that with F-keys without being a limited group buy. There was/is also the Magicforce 68 and Varmillo 68 keyboards which were also similar, but again, no f-keys and in this case only a 4 key cluster on the upper right.
Keep in mind, even if you find something like that it's not going to have those media and print keys, they'd most likely use a more standard f-key layout as that tends to bug people.
As for D.I.Y.
Depending on how anal you want to get, it can be done cheap (I probably have less than $120 in my 3d printed 65% with lcd and rgb) but it can also very quickly spiral out of control. An aluminum one off case will very likely run multiple hundreds of dollars and that's IF you get it right the first time (odds are you won't) and while you can design and get a pcb made for $50 each they're probably going to have a minimum quantity of 10 or 30. Depending on how fickle you get regarding fit and finish you can easily run into the thousands of dollars just for a single keyboard if you're not careful. And before you get any group buy ideas to cut your costs, not only does this prototyping still have to happen on a group buy, it also needs to be if even higher quality because people spending that kind of money will expect perfection. It's very possible for you to lose money running a group buy, you lose some design control, and it;s a LOT more work (you end up having to coordinate and ship).
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Keep in mind, even if you find something like that it's not going to have those media and print keys, they'd most likely use a more standard f-key layout as that tends to bug people.
Yeah, I get it. But the keycaps are the easiest thing to change, DIY, or just leave blank. I don't even necessarily want those media keys, it was just an example.
As for D.I.Y.
Depending on how anal you want to get, it can be done cheap (I probably have less than $120 in my 3d printed 65% with lcd and rgb) but it can also very quickly spiral out of control. An aluminum one off case will very likely run multiple hundreds of dollars
Thanks for all the warnings 😅. If I try to make something DIY will prolly be with 3d printing anyway, so no aluminium expensive stuff or any GB ideas 😬
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never seen one like that with F-keys without being a limited group buy
have you seen something like this in a group buy? if you remember which group buy would you please tell me so I can see how it looks? 👀
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Thanks for all the warnings 😅. If I try to make something DIY will prolly be with 3d printing anyway, so no aluminium expensive stuff or any GB ideas 😬
I don't mean key caps, I mean keys in general.
No idea on a group buy, I only saw a mention once.