What is SpaceFN and why you should give it a try
The SpaceFN concept - setting up your space key as a layer switch when held - is probably one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby. Let me explain how it works. My SpaceFN article on kbd.news made some rounds recently - quite surprisingly given the age of this concept. This piece you're reading is a condensed version of the full post. If you're left with unanswered questions, you'll most likely find the info you're looking for in the original write-up. On my imaginary top list of the most useful keyboard features, tweaks and hacks, SpaceFN would deserve a podium finish for sure. But what makes it so special? In short: SpaceFN is easy to implement, easy to learn, costs nothing, can be used with any keyboard, and can improve your productivity instantly. I will list its benefits below, but can state right at this point that the SpaceFN concept, setting up your space key as a layer switch when held, is clearly one of the most useful tweaks in the keyboard hobby....
Apr 30, 2024
I've been staring at this page for the better part of an hour and I have a few questions.
I've done a bit of research on the additional 70 switches that you can but, with some emphasis on the Halo Clears. I noticed at the bottom that list there is the CherryMX Browns (RGB). Does that imply that the Halo Clears will not be RBG? Or are the LED's on the board instead of the actual switch? These are probably very basic questions but again, I am very new and I appreciate your patience.
Second question, what is QMK Firmware? I looked it up on Google and found a software on GitHub. Is this just a 3rd party software to make the RBG and Macro coding for keys easier as well as a possibility?
Thank you for your help and I'm sorry if I sound really dumb, I'm just very curious.
If you put the time in to learn it, you can do pretty much anything you can imagine with QMK, and a lot more.
I hope EasyAVR will support the ALT, though, for people who just want to rearrange the layout and maybe put on some simple macros.
Thanks again!!
I gotta contact Martin so he can help me, but unfortunately I haven’t had enough time to look into that so far.
I don't see the ALT in there yet, but I'm sure it will be within hours of the first boards landing, if not sooner. At the very least, I'll have my version up there within days of delivery :).
What was hardest for me was the hardware interface. I never learned anything about microprocessors in my comp sci classes in high school. I had immense trouble getting my Windows computer to play nicely with the USB serial interface. It was a low-odds gamble every time I wanted to flash the firmware with my Pro Micro clones. A brand-name microcontroller like the Teensy made things a lot easier, and I never had any trouble getting my system to recognize my Infinity ErgoDox. There are new write-ups on setting up the build environment for windows, though, and I think they're a lot better than what I tried to use a couple years ago. I haven't explored it much, though, since I have it fairly well ironed-out on my Raspberry Pi :). You might want to start playing around with it while you're waiting for the drop!
https://beta.docs.qmk.fm/install-build-tools#windows-with-msys2-recommended
Any thoughts are appreciated and thank you in advance :)
It's also the firmware, I think. QMK is basically the ultimate keyboard firmware. As we've already covered, it's not because it's easy, but because it's so powerful. Once you get a taste of it, it's hard to give up for a lot of us. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who who just don't care how wild and crazy their keyboard can get, though. If you have no interest in the macro capability of your Pok3r, and don't wish you could tweak its layout or capabilities, maybe it's not that big a deal for you. But if your keyboard is one of your primary tools, it can be very helpful to customize it to your needs. I'm a draftsman, and have dozens of AutoCAD macros programmed into my boards. It saves a significant amount of time for me on a daily basis. It literally earns me more money. I understand programmers are in a similar position. A lot of the boards here on Massdrop have very little, if any, layout customization. My very first mech board, the Ajazz AK33, was a great starter board. But if you didn't like the layout, tough. All of the fully-customizable ones seem to be up in this (>$150) price range. Instead of getting away with the simplest circuitry they can get away with, QMK boards have to use a full-fledged microcontroller. It's like an Arduino built into every board. When you add RGB underglow, and per-key RGB lighting, well, there's a lot that goes into a board like this. Just a year or so ago, per-key RGB under QMK was a pipe dream.
Now, I have no involvement with the development of this board. I came here today to learn about it, because I'm jonesin' for that Laser goodness. I'm usually an ortholinear guy (my office setup: https://i.imgur.com/DXvDYzF.jpg), but I've been thinking about going back to staggered layout at home. Once you get accustomed to the mech board craziness, this price tag seems pretty normal for a quality board, and from what I can tell, this is a quality board. It sounds like you're studying programming. If that's true, that means the keyboard is one of your main tools. I personally am a firm believer that you should NEVER be worried about buying the best tools you can afford. For someone who just wants a good board for gaming, or for emailing the grand-kids, this might be serious overkill.
Thanks in advance :)
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/input-club-halo-true-halo-clear-mechanical-switches,34443.html
A couple years ago, a lot of backlit keyboards (all? most?) worked by soldering the legs of a relatively big through-hole LED through the switch and into the PCB. This put the LED on top of the switch, just under the keycaps. The entire electronics industry has been moving towards much smaller and more efficient surface-mounted components (which have no legs to run through a switch), and manufacturers quickly saw that it would be a benefit for manufacturing RGB keyboards, too. We quickly got clear switch housings, and Cherry put windows in their opaque housings, to let the light from the PCB-mounted emitters get through to the top.
I presume the ALT has surface-mounted LEDs, I don't see any other reason why they'd offer Cherry's RGB line. But that's just Cherry's solution. The other switches in this drop (all of them, I think) have a similar window.
P.S. I just pulled the cap off of my Pok3r and this is correct, so thank you so much for the information. You have made purchasing this keyboard so much easier.
P.S. *infinite thank you's*