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
1. Stars - you'll have a star next to your name if your drop history is public. If you are keeping things private, you won't see the stars.
2. Keycap manufactures - I mentioned this earlier, but the manufacture we eventually went with was decided before the drop launched. Vendor / supplier selection is a very involved process and we would never change vendors mid fulfillment in order to save a few bucks.
3. WhiteFox keycaps - when the specs of the WhiteFox keyboard were defined by Matteo, white dye sub'd PBT keycaps in Cherry profile were picked. The LED functionality was added at the end because the community asked for it. The resulting LED bleed is due to the way white light is absorbed by white keycaps. The uneven bleeding is caused primarily by the height difference in row profiles. The lower the profile, the closer the cap is to the light source, and the less diffused the light is. You can see the difference especially between the num row and the home row. - There were a few people that believed the quality of the keycaps we picked are not up to par and that EnjoyPBT would have been the better choice. I've uploaded a photo of a few different keycap sets and what they look like with white LEDs. - S and D are reference caps - The dye sub'd keycaps around S and D were EnjoyPBT's initial sample to us. - The white column of keycaps are Vortex PBT with etched legends - The dark keycaps everywhere else are from GMK Sky Dolch As you can see, variation in bleed happen across profiles regardless of manufacturer.
4. For fulfillment - due to the number of layouts and switches offered this drop, there are a lot of different variations, but within each variation we are fulfilling on a first come first served basis.
Hopefully this answers most of the questions everyone had. Please let me know if there are other concerns.
I am noticing the ones that match the rest of the board are home row keys, and F / J are the same as the rest. Not sure if this was a design choice or a flaw but I did ask for these keys to be corrected by MD support (and they responded, I am just explaining the complaint).
Otherwise this board is awesome. I had a firmware issue I already fixed by reflashing it.
By any chance, does that mean LEDs could be bound to certain states too? LED on/off on CAPSLK comes to mind.
EDIT: I looked over the firmware code on Github, it sounds possible at the very least :)