Why not get a hot swap board and just put the right switches in?
I have keycron k17 as my portable and it's great for that.
this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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What is the deal with hot swapping on low profile. I remember casually browsing a few months ago and saw folks talking about lack of universal standards making some things incompatible for either switches in the PCB or key caps on the switch. Am I making that up?
It is more limited because there is not as clear a standard. Gateron is generally the best low profile option but others exist like redragon, kailh, and cherry but the cherry won't work in the same socket.
https://www.gateron.co/products/gateron-low-profile-mechanical-switch-set
https://www.kailh.net/products/kailh-choc-v2-low-profile-switch-set
https://www.cherrymx.de/en/cherry-mx/mx-low-profile/mx-low-profile-speed.html
I have the Air75 from Nuphy and it is my current office board. It's a very nice keyboard. I guess the new model uses QMK now, which is even nicer, so easy recommendation from me. I haven't used their newer switches, but I have the tactiles from the old model and they feel quite nice.
I have many nice diy Ortho boards for at home, but at work I have a computer I do CAD on. Because I share this machine and use the numpad a lot, and decided to just get a full sized board. Ordered one of the cheap ones with low profile choc switchs from Amazon. Since then I ordered an ISO layout TKL for my wife, and a 65% for my gaming PC. They are the definition of "good enough". For around the price of one high quality board I now have 3 boards that have been getting daily use and are still "good enough" years later.
To also add, my wife cannot really feel the difference in her cheap low pro, and my lubed Planck. Her only feedback was "Ortho is hard for her, but it looks cool".
My only suggestion is to ease newer users. If she is used to her GMK67, make sure the layout is the EXACT same. Some smaller boards do weird things with the right shift and arrow keys.
I have a used K7 I'm selling. It's a great little keyboard, wireless, with mint optical switches and a travel case. I bought it for travel, but I haven't ended up traveling as much as I expected and have barely used it.
Lmk if you're interested.
Dm'd
I haven't fact checked this at all but apparently lowprokb.ca is working with Kailh on some choc v1 compatible silent switches which could potentially be used in those boards. Not sure when they'll be available though
ZSA Voyager.
If they force me back to the office that's what I'm picking up for myself. Moonlander is my main keyboard. I don't think my partner will appreciate a columnar layout though. Thanks.