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
https://plot.ly/~haata/408/
It's entirely personal preference of course, I for one find the pale blue (which I'm using to type this) better than the navy blue, as the bump is just a touch too strong to push through on the navies so i end up bottoming out way too hard (you can see this in the force graph, the bottom-out force is the same as the tactility force, you really need the bottom-out force to be greater to decelerate then bounce the fingers back up). I'm going to be modding my box navy with hako true springs to see if the stronger spring mitigates this effect, which hopefully it will (95g bottom-out force as opposed to 65g, hopefully a steep enough slope), and then it will be a matter of fatigue - can I type long hours with that (probably not). The pale blues have a great combination of crisp light tactility and medium force so I can completely relax my wrists and forearms (I float) and just dance on the keys with supple hands. It's really something, I can actually feel the muscle usage move from my wrists to my shoulders/back. I've ordered 18 different switches from novelkeys and tested them on my GMMK hotswap, and the pale blue win by fairly large margin. All that being said my endgame switch would be a box switch with nonlinear 58g spring and 0.27mm clickbar (inbetween pale blue and navy), because I would like a touch less spring at the start of the stroke, a touch more spring at the bottom of the stroke to bounce the fingers up, and tactility right inbetween the navy and pale blue. Of course, it's all very personal. ;)