All the DIY 60% keyboard - I mixed them all up

[menuhin]

This post intends to clarify my misunderstanding of the DIY 60% keyboards out there.
[I'm not including variants such as the White Fox or Leopold F660C, and I read Deskthority wiki and dag a bit the old posts of Geekhack already.]

There are the well-known 60% (Poker 1-3 & HHKB), and there are 60% offers by more centralized makers such as Matias & Winkeyless & Gons.

What are the KC60, V60, GH60, Satan GH60, Infinity? Are there more for DIY 60% boards?
In GH60, does the 'GH' mean 'GeekHack'?
Is GH60 = Infinity? Or Chinese copy of Infinity?

I'm particularly interested in the following parameters in a 60% board:
- compatible with HHKB layout? i.e. 'Backspace' replaced by blackslash & tilde
- fully customizable firmware to change layout by software later
- with functional layers
- with customizable macros
- backlit capability (RGB or not?)
- bluetooth or USB-bluetooth dual mode capability

60% is the most popular creation for hobbyists, and there are more and more 60% in the market. It will be easier if there is a table comparing the customizability and the capability side by side for these 60% boards.

[Puddsy]

The full list of custom 60% boards is enormous. Off the top of my head (not including what's in your post), there's the b.Face, LZCE, Duck Viper, Duck Eagle, GON NerD60, and probably like 10-15 more. I've been out of the loop.

The GH60 was a community project here on GH. Infinity, I don't know a lot about, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's another Chinese community project. They tend to do that a lot (The poker and pure are both spawned out of users on KBC and KBT, two major chinese keyboard forums)

GH60 is probably your best bet as far as your parameters go. If you want bluetooth the only real option is the GON, but good luck getting one. He's been really bad about shipping stuff lately.

Most of them will have backlight capability (I think the Rev. B GH60 PCBs have an issue with it though, check the thread for more info). I can't think of one that sticks out to me as not having it. Maybe some of the older Korean boards. RGB is fairly rare, but the b.face has it in the case.

Fn layer is almost implied at this point. 61 keys just isn't enough for most people.

Macros, I'm not sure about. You can probably get those with any keyboard and an afternoon with autohotkey.

As far as layouts, you'll have to look at it on a case-by-case basis. I think it's more dependent on if you want a plate or not, really.

I probably misread your post because I basically just woke up, but I think that covers a lot of it.

[menuhin]

The full list of custom 60% boards is enormous. Off the top of my head (not including what's in your post), there's the b.Face, LZCE, Duck Viper, Duck Eagle, GON NerD60, and probably like 10-15 more. I've been out of the loop.

The GH60 was a community project here on GH. Infinity, I don't know a lot about, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's another Chinese community project. They tend to do that a lot (The poker and pure are both spawned out of users on KBC and KBT, two major chinese keyboard forums)

GH60 is probably your best bet as far as your parameters go. If you want bluetooth the only real option is the GON, but good luck getting one. He's been really bad about shipping stuff lately.

Most of them will have backlight capability (I think the Rev. B GH60 PCBs have an issue with it though, check the thread for more info). I can't think of one that sticks out to me as not having it. Maybe some of the older Korean boards. RGB is fairly rare, but the b.face has it in the case.

Fn layer is almost implied at this point. 61 keys just isn't enough for most people.

Macros, I'm not sure about. You can probably get those with any keyboard and an afternoon with autohotkey.

As far as layouts, you'll have to look at it on a case-by-case basis. I think it's more dependent on if you want a plate or not, really.

I probably misread your post because I basically just woke up, but I think that covers a lot of it.

Thanks for the executive summary!

Then I think I need to go for B.face (by Winkeyless) if I really want RGB.

Infinity 60% (and WhiteFox) is a product by a company called "Input Club" which is more of a business instead of a club.
For GH60, many versions seem to exist on the Internet, many are on TaoBao / Aliexpress, and some even claim to be RGB capable; while of course there is a GroupBuy thread for GH60 here with members waiting for the shipment of version C and the components.

My major concern is the software / firmware flashing or updating support. By support, I mean the DIY software package for firmware will be there (as either a web service or a downloadable local package), and if there are some major bugs, there will be someone to revise and release and updated version of these packages.

Which 60% board will have the best support then? Poker firmware by Vortex? Or Infinity by the Input Club?
And how does the TMK keyboard firmwares collection affect one's decision? As it supports a few of the more famous boards.

[lekashman]

Member of Input Club here - we are a bit of a business, but not in the sense that many others are. Any money we make is generally spent on prototyping, product samples, and funding our massive collection of historical or amazing keyboards. Tom's Hardware just published an article on the collection housed with HaaTa today actually.

Link to Article - http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/736-history-of-mechanical-keyboards.html

Also, we are entirely based in the United States, and all our designs are Open Source, so people can modify or produce them on their own. I hope this answers your question about the support you'd receive. I'd be happy to answer any other questions or expand on anything you are curious about.