What do you do when you need the “F” buttons on those keyboards that don’t have them? Genuine question!
It goes deeper than that. On some of those keyboards, you’ll see that there aren’t even number keys and other somewhat common keys such as ()$&! And more.
These types of keyboards are almost always programmable. If you’re familiar with the FN key, then these keyboards have more advanced FN keys.
Press one programmed FN key, the entire keyboard might turn into a functional number pad. Press a different programmed FN key, asdfghj might turn into F1 F2 F3 etc. Press another programmed FN key, you can control media playback, control your mouse, and maybe even have a few macros!
These keyboards are ortholinear keyboards, that’s what this grid layout is. The firmware to achieve this level of customization is called QMK. It’s not just ortholinear keyboards that have QMK ☺️.
Very nice. Thank you for explaining
They do have them. They are just accessed via a modifier key similar to shift. See here: https://qmk.fm/keyboards/planck/keymap-printout-default-qwerty.pdf
Oh damn, so you can program your regular letters to do that!!! Nice. I’m JUST starting to get into mechanical keyboards and don’t really know much. I have a Corsair K70 pro RGB with red buttons. It’s nice, but I just can’t get used to typing on it. I’m always hitting two buttons at a time. I have to lift my fingers really high and type. Second issue is the metallic ping. So, I’ve been doing some research to find me something I enjoy and also easy to type on. I love the clickitty clacks (or what they call thock). 😁
Yeah, they’re infinitely customizable. I have two regular keys where my space bar should be on my keyboard. As a result, I’ve programmed tapping the left one to insert a space, but holding it down acts as CTRL, and tapping the right acts as backspace, while holding down the right acts as shift.
Pretty cool. Thank you. I like watching videos on all these types of keyboards.
The true magic of QMK is that you can flash the programming onto the device and all of these features work independent of the system it’s connected to.
Often keyboards are advertised as having much of the same customizability but it depends on companion software to work.
That is not the case with QMK
That is a seriously underrated feature and I wish I could find a ‘mmo mouse’ with the same capability. Would pay many dollars for this, personally.
Seems like a cool company though! Someone’s gotta come around and make one someday.
If you don’t feel comfortable soldering and building your own I can highly recommend Keychron. Good out the box feel and great build quality. They also have everything from a standard 100% keyboard down to 60%.
I can solder and do all that, but I honestly don’t want to now after watching how the process could be very lengthy. I’ll look into keychrone. Having dedicated media keys is a very important thing to me, if a keyboard doesn’t have it, I won’t even look at it. Thank you for the recommendation. Do you have any model number in mind that you recommend? I like red switches and 100% size keyboard
The K5 Pro will probably fit your bill.
Do you have any knowledge about the V6? My friend just gifted me one for Christmas. What are the odds!!!
I’m so excited for my new Killer Whale but my girlfriend won’t let me use it until Christmas.
