Support for Alternative Layouts
This is a summary of how alternative layouts have been supported by kits such as Colevrak and Homing. It is not a discussion of alt layout performance and development, but if that interests you I highly recommend starting with Pascal Getreuer’s A guide to alt keyboard layouts (why, how, which one?). It’s a concise and comprehensive overview with links to some great sites that go deeper. He also has a separate Links about keyboards page. The Keyboard layouts doc he recommends explains layout goals and metrics in detail, summarizing the alt layouts discussed here as well as more than one hundred others. Sculpted-profile The majority of custom keycap sets are sculpted-profile (Cherry, SA, MT3, KAT, etc. - more on profiles generally here) so let’s start there. Because each row has a unique keycap shape, alt layouts require a unique keycap for each legend that moves off its QWERTY row. At first there were two The Dvorak layout was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak & William L....
Apr 23, 2024
Then since I was in the first round of the drop, I had a USB port break. Massdrop sent a replacement board, so I had to de-solder everything. That is when I started damaging switches.
Also, if you think about it, you identify the LEDs polarity using the length of the leads, but you have to trim them down to fit the sockets. This means it is a lot harder to re-install the LEDs for a second time. Plus, just like some LEDs are too lose, some are also too tight and hard to remove.
Overall, I think you're better off investing in a de-soldering pump for the occasion you want to switch colors. De-soldering isn't much more difficult than dealing with tight SIP sockets, and the advantage of not having to deal with all the other downsides makes it worth it.
Agree on your other comment - I finally invested in a desoldering station by AOYUE and it's the best investment I've ever made. Used it to desolder some switches from a custom I built where I wanted to change the modifier layout and it's the first time in my life where the solder was pulled completely clean to the point where the switch would pop out with no real application of force.
I hope and pray that lifted pads are a thing of the past for me.
I just looked at the schematics on "https://github.com/kiibohd/pcb". It looks to me like each of the LEDs is supposed to be individually addressable by the circuit board. So, it seems like the LEDs could possibly work independently. However, the actual behavior of the LEDs will depend on what is running in the MCU.
I'll try to experiment with it when I get my kit in August. Thanks!