Love the simplistic design of this board.
The only thing I can't get behind is the asymmetry between the left and right side of the board, particularly R1. Why is there 1.5u mods on the left side, but there is 1.25u mods on the right side? Would have much rather both sides just have 1.5u and a blocker (as mentioned above)
Cool to have the extra 7, Y, H and B too, but it's going to be a pain finding an extra set (you'd probably either have to get a second set of keycaps or use different ones..)
Regardless, hoping that the pricing is okay for this board. Glad that there is a hotswap option too :thumb:
Yep, that is a major oversight, 7, Y, and H never come in pairs, you WILL BE FORCED to get 2 base kits, and for GMK and SA, that means an extra 99 bucks for not good reason. I did not notice this earlier, but I would never buy a board with this specific issue.
I could see that working, because looking back it does look unrefined, but for a design like this I would prefer more symmetrical bottom row, maybe 3u spacebars could be a good option to consider, like the SP-111 which had it I believe, which could make the layout far more symmetrical but would require spacebars that usually people don't have in base kits (maybe that's a preference thing for me), another thing is that maybe blockers could be added to create that symmetry, but that could also look clumsy. I don't think split right shift should be removed as people prefer it as a way to access the function key.
+1 for iso support in the pcb and if you aren't going to do that for whatever reason, please open source the pcb so people don't have to create a replica pcb to add iso support, especially for a non standard layout like this.
Yeah, 3U spacebards are hard to find, so I am still in favor to 2.25U and 2.75U ones. In regard to the split right shift with 1U on the right side, the layout and cap support is a mess right now, so OP needs to figure out it first before deciding for more support.
Unfortunately ISO doesn't fit on the PCB due to the combination of hotswap sockets and RGB LEDs - here is a render of the PCBs for reference:
Show Image
(https://i.imgur.com/abH4Xih.jpg)
A decision was made for wider appeal as removing these features in favour of ISO would detract from the vision I had for this project :thumb:
Wider appeal involves better keycap compatibility, which this board is lacking heavily.
Another point, hot-swap for me is not a big deal, for I can just Mill-Max the PCB, but I know it could be a major selling point for others. My recommendation is to make poll to understand your audience preferences. Do they want hot-swappability, or they prefer wider layout support?
My layout recommendation with ISO in mind, and a 1U option for right shift:
[attachimg=1]
Unfortunately ISO doesn't fit on the PCB due to the combination of hotswap sockets and RGB LEDs - here is a render of the PCBs for reference:
Show Image
(https://i.imgur.com/abH4Xih.jpg)
A decision was made for wider appeal as removing these features in favour of ISO would detract from the vision I had for this project :thumb:
Fair enough, I would say that maybe you should offer a solder pcb that has ISO support with no rgb, but that's probably too much to ask. So if you ever run this project, please open source the pcb so people can have the layout to enable them to do that.
Cool to have the extra 7, Y, H and B too, but it's going to be a pain finding an extra set (you'd probably either have to get a second set of keycaps or use different ones..)
It's cool but I agree with the viability of it, I mean even with cheap good caps like jc studio would still cost 60-80 bucks (It would be 40 if you buy them off of taobao, which is under the name leekbrothers), I think blanks would really work with this board, and even stuff like epbt/gateron blanks (the ones on the sheets) could work due to the board not having a numpad, which could be used for those positions instead.
But yeah it is an issue that can't really be fixed because it's an external issue not with the board itself, but this seems like an early IC so more work could be done to fix/minimize some of the other issues.