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Is there a hot-swappable, QMK-running 68-style kit out there?

Mar 19, 20191173 VIEWS

By 68-style I mean the Magicforce 68/Varmilo VA68-style boards that are like a diminished TKL: remove the F-key row, one column of keys above the arrows, and the bottom most key next to the arrows, retain the arrows and Ins, Del, Pg Up, Pg Down, and the right shift is not shortened or moved in any way. I very much suspect this is my perfect layout (60% doesn't have the arrow keys easily accessible, preonic doesn't have "[" and "]" easily accessible, TKLs have the F-row, others do funky things with the right shift so that I hit up-arrow when I mean right shift and vice versa etc.) (I'd actually not need Ins/Del, as I never use 'em, and Home/End/Pg Up/Pg Down can be on Shift+<suitable arrow key>. That frees up four keys for macros!)

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CydTrevellion

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Cravy

Oct 24, 2020

Hi, ive been looking for a kit for soo long now, and i found your post here and you’re saying exactly what i think.. im still looking for a QmK programmable 68 style *hotswappable* keyboard kit (no backlighting needed) but I can’t find anything... have you found anything yet since this post is from march 2019?? This would really help..!

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CydTrevellion

Oct 25, 2020

CravyNope. In the meantime (needing a good keyboard for WFH) I've bought a Varmilo/Ducky Miya Pro (Panda)[*] with cherry mx red, and it has all I need except I hardly use the four keys above the arrow keys (except for a bit of cursing whenever I accidentally hit INS). I miss home/end though. I have also realized I don't like floating caps since high profile seems to dampen a lot of the unnecessary noise and thus highlight the clackity-clack of the switches themselves. I'm currently looking for a cheap 65% to see if I *can* train myself to tolerate a disfigured right shift. (Though considering I had a happy hacking for a while and never could get used to it there..) Since it is for experimental purposes I don't want to spend oodles of money on it, so, meh. The Tada 68 at least had an interesting keycap color scheme but seems to be discontinued. Yeah, I've considered the high profile ALT but that much for a test? [*] Included was a little panda teddy and a deskmat. Love the deskmat (except it is pale and stains like <censored>) as it also greatly cuts down on a lot of unnecessary noise.

chemicalwill

Feb 13, 2021

CravyRezzing a dead thread, but if you want, I'd be happy to solder an mf68 w/ mill-max sockets for you. Haven't had a good project in a while, and I've done this board myself -- it's my daily gaming board.

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CydTrevellion

May 15, 2020

Thanks to neeeding a decent keyboard at home for obligatory working at home, I now have a Varmilo+Ducky Miya 68 "Panda" with cherry reds and have been using it since I got it. So: No, I *don't* use *Insert* and *Delete*, and I *do* miss *Home* and *End*, so I very much miss not being able to remap =) More surprisingly, these Cherry Reds are nice, at least the keys that have been worn in.

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CydTrevellion

Mar 21, 2019

After a bit of thinking and sighing I propose we call this type of keyboard a "68-key true shift" since the right shift is as it needs to be for my ingrained habits. Then the other 68-keys could have the family name "68-key short shift", since as soon as you allow yourself to shorten the right shift there's a I-can't-keep-track number of ways of doing it.

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yanfali

1544

Mar 20, 2019

The closest would probably be a tragicforce PCB swapped into a MF68 case. You can also get custom sandwich cases cut, check https://68keys.io/guide/board/ for more details.

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CydTrevellion

Mar 21, 2019

yanfaliI don't have any possibility (or time) to be doing any soldering, so gah. I'm perfectly satisfied with the hot-swappables I have, even though I don't plan to swap things out often.

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chemicalwill

Nov 7, 2020

CydTrevellionRezzing a dead thread, but if you want, I'd be happy to do the solder work for you. Haven't had a good project in a while, and I've done this board myself -- it's my daily gaming board.

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