1 Unit keyboard

User avatar
dirge

13 Feb 2013, 21:02

Price of the DSA set and pretty much most boards custom cap sets are.. not high but the difference between cap sizes puzzle me. Seems 1unit caps are cheap as hell.

Now a 60% board is more than 60% 1 unit caps, I tend to hit the same place each time on a board. The wears normally in the same spot.

If we make a 1unit only board, would it work? But focus on the landing spot.

I love my ISO return, but I tend to always hit it around on the same row as my #~, or ;: if your ansi.

User avatar
regack

13 Feb 2013, 21:22

This sounds like an interesting experiment. I do know that I have had trouble adjusting to the Race with the 1.25 Right Shift, but I'm getting more used to it. It will probably end up with some blank areas anyway, so this sounds like something that might go well with a symmetric stagger layout?

IvanIvanovich

13 Feb 2013, 21:58

I had board with all 1 units except for the spacebar, but it wasn't usable on PC so I did'nt spend a long time typing on it. I think it would be fine in theory though.

User avatar
CeeSA

13 Feb 2013, 23:53

yeah good idea. In the meantime I don't like ISO anymore. So 1 unit is a good alternative for me.

hoggy

14 Feb 2013, 00:03

If you could put up with a matrix layout, decent pos keyboards can be sourced quite cheaply.

IvanIvanovich

14 Feb 2013, 00:14

That's true, I had an Access-Is matrix model once as well. came up with a pretty decent layout for it with some compromise since it was a 6x12. I liked it fine for gaming but couldn't get used to typing on it. I need my evil archaic stagger.

User avatar
sordna

14 Feb 2013, 04:18

You could emulate large return keys, backspaces, etc by putting 2 (or more) 1-unit keys side by side, doing the same function. So you could kind of emulate large ANSI or ISO enters :-)

Example

User avatar
Kurk

14 Feb 2013, 08:11

I've experimented with some matrix POS boards. IMO, splitting large keys into several 1U keys doesn't work well. It's OK for testing layouts but not for a daily driver. I always hit in between keys in such cases.

User avatar
matt3o
-[°_°]-

14 Feb 2013, 09:08

well, a 90% 1-units + some 1.25 or 1.50 might work. The bottom line is not to land in the 1.75 and up sized keys.

For the space bar you could even try a 2 units which at high tiers goes for $0.61

Also have them all of the same color. I believe that a kit of 10 1.50 of the same color costs less than 10 mixed colors 1.50 (have to confirm that but it was my impression with the dsa retro kit).

A kit like that for a 60% keyboard might end up in the $30-35 at medium/high tiers. A 75% maybe $40-45.

User avatar
dirge

14 Feb 2013, 09:34

sordna your link looks crazy and gets blocked mate :(

matt3o what application did you use to lay those keys out? Or should I just use paint or something?

I think spacebars sell at such high volumes it doesn't really matter about having that as a 1unit key.

User avatar
matt3o
-[°_°]-

14 Feb 2013, 09:42

dirge wrote:matt3o what application did you use to lay those keys out? Or should I just use paint or something?
inkscape, it's very simple and you can do very fast prototyping.

User avatar
matt3o
-[°_°]-

14 Feb 2013, 10:08

this would be something :) (mods up to 1.50)
upto150.png
upto150.png (6.7 KiB) Viewed 2872 times

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