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
Also this drop; (https://www.massdrop.com/buy/team-wolf-tkl-swappable-switch-mechanical-keyboard) says they need SMD LED compatible keys. Is it the type described in this drop?
EDIT: Apologies, I was unable to get those images to upload, so here I've linked to them on a different site instead. https://static.coltondrg.com/blog/2017/04/IMG_20170408_133228.jpg https://static.coltondrg.com/blog/2017/04/IMG_20170408_133220.jpg
Sorry for the poor image quality as well.
These switches will work on both keyboards but the light will get blocked out from the black bottom housing. The SMD variants have a cutout at the bottom to allow the SMD LEDs to shine through.
This is getting annoying with the other drop, trying to find the right switches for that board with cherry stems seems a bit too much work. And the big deal was supposed to be hotswappability with the other keyboard. Doesn't help that /r/mechanicalkeyboard wiki is the worst organized wiki in the history of wikis.
These ones being through LED compatible means I can put a led through them, right?
Edit: This place stocks the Gateron SMD switches https://www.pcgamingrace.com/products/gateron-smd-led-compatible-mechanical-gaming-keyboard-red-green-clear-brown-blue-black-switches
I recommend the Gateron switches. They're relatively easy to find sources for on the internet and are pretty good switches overall. Finding a set of Gateron SMDs in your preferred colour shouldn't be too difficult. I also agree that the choice of ALPS stems for the other drop was an interesting choice.
About these switches being LED compatible. The housing is transparent and the bottom has some holes punched in it for LEDs to go through. Unfortunately I don't actually know how exactly this works, but I'm guessing it's a method if you're going to be building a keyboard from scratch as every "hot-swappable" keyboard I've seen like the E-Element has SMD LEDs.
http://stores.ebay.com/doyustudio/?_nkw=gateron+smd EDIT: Changed link to be more useful
It seems the keyboard that I got in the last drop (hot swappable E-Element) is only compatible with outemu switches, so I don't think gateron will help me. (Until the moment I feel so into this craze that I decide to build my own keyboard from scratch) For now, I'm gonna try to find a sampler pack, see which switches I like the best after the keyboard comes in and commit to those switches.
Thanks everyone!
Source: I currently own a Z-88 and was unsuccessful at getting either Cherry or Gateron to work. Thankfully, I was able to find SMD compatible Outemu Purples to replace the stock Blues and I'm a super happy camper :D