I couldnāt recall this GB ever running, so after a quick search, I saw āThese keycaps are set to be shipped out in April, 2020ā on the GH pageā¦ which is four months before I got into this hobby. Glad to see theyāre rewarding customersā (forced) patience!
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Casually looking at 21kbās 2551 SAW keycaps and noticed this little typo:
It should say āDaten Freigabeā but hopefully that was just a flub on the renders and protos.
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What if flipped space bar, but DSA?
Itās kinda neat, though - as IO Sam points out, this isnāt so much a weird crazy new idea as a different approach to the venerable Model Mās plate design. Would I personally buy it? No. Do I think itās cool someone did this? Very much.
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Wait, where is that super flexible PCB thatās connected at the rows by ribbon connectors? Seems like a good implementation for it.
Ergonomics aside, Iām thinking about how drastically different some MX switches feel based on what angle I press them. I imagine this keyboarding experience would be off-putting. Only one way to find out!
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The guy decided a flipped spacebar wasnāt enough so he flipped the entire keyboard.
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Such a german word 
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Pretty sure nobody else cares about this but:
A groupbuy I bought into switched processors on the PCB to the RP2040 during production, then moved the majority of the coding effort to a non-QMK firmware and started developing a closed-source commercial front-end to that other firmware.
Typical keyboard group buys do two levels of exploiting open source:
- sell keyboards
- hoard wealth and contribute nothing but just enough code to get the keyboard to work in QMK.
This was a new more advanced form of open source exploiting:
- sell keyboards
- hoard wealth
- make half-assed port to QMK
- focus the majority of support/development on new firmware and a commercial GUI tool instead of improving QMK or the other firmware.
Anyway, thatās why Iām selling a Lulu. It still looks like a great split keyboard for anyone who doesnāt care about this stuff. Iāve worked on open source software for twenty years and it just pisses me off.
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So, not Boardsource, not affiliated with them, just someone who tends to favor KMK nowadays and feels like I can contribute some info.
Obvious a switchup mid-gb is a shitty move almost all the time, especially if end results drastically differ from expectations, that I wonāt dispute.
What I would assume happened is somewhere along the line the intended controller option ran out with a 50week+ lead time like so much of the component supply still does nowadays. In cases like this, the RP2040 has been a super awesome option for basically always being available, but until April(?) was pretty dry on any QMK support. On the other side, it had KMK support from nearly the beginning, making that a new obvious choice to work towards.
Regarding Peg development, itās a huge boon for KMK to have a VIA/Vial equivalent to simplify the workflow even more. Having said that, I canāt dispute that diverting attention away that was supposed to be directed at an open project is something that shouldnāt have been the case, especially not as a change from what was laid out in the gb expectations. I will say that at least Peg is still fully featured in its free version, and they have several avenues for a life license to the pro version without needing to pay the $10.
Having said that, what makes you consider the QMK port of the board to be half-assed? I would expect a manufacturerās obligation to end once their product is fully functional, and that contribution past that point to be an exception and not a norm.
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Youāre absolutely right, I believe it became unfeasible for them to use the same controller and thatās why they switched to the rp2040. I donāt mind it getting KMK support either, thatās also open source and would have been a totally reasonable solution if they decided to make a free and open source graphical interface on top of that. A KMK maintainer is on the boardsource discord and has no problem with this, and thatās fine. I think I am basically the only person who is upset about that change.
Maybe half-assed isnāt the right term, but to me Itās not a complete port because they went out of their way to develop a graphical front-end and point users to it instead of the open option which means the closed software gets more work, focus, attention, and has already diverted progress from either KMK (or QMK) having another improved graphical interface that is as free as the firmware code. To put it another way, the QMK firmware is half-assed for the lulu because it doesnāt have the graphical interface, it doesnāt have the attention of the users, and truth be told the KMK version doesnāt have the graphical interface unless youāre willing to use the non-free software which I imagine most people will use just fine because itās the easiest option.
Itās like if you bought a keyboard from RAMA and before the fact they said itād be X, and they even delivered X plus Y, but Y is so bad for the keyboard community overall you donāt want anything to do with RAMA anymore. This isnāt as bad as RAMA suing their former designers or whatever, but to me it is pretty bad overall to the community to have another closed-source graphical front end that is also commercial.
Iām glad someone else understands whats going on here, even if we donāt agree about the effect.
Someoneās mom is a savage.
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Iām going to sound like a cynic, but I have my doubts about the legitimacy of this āfind.ā
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Keebmonkey Keyboard Wireless Display Box - Stand | Mechanical Keyboards | Components Mechanical Keyboards | Drop So Dorp is selling this for 100 bucks but wait if you dont want the stand its 88 bucks what a barginā¦
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Yeah, I thought so too. Who knows, people lie for karma all the time.
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https://www.keebmonkey.com/products/james-donkey-a3-gasket-keyboard-kit
KeebMonkey sure has some funny product names on their site.
I say, Reginald, have you tried the latest luxury input device from James Donkey?
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yeah, I wanna know the story of James Donkey. I remember that brand showing up on MK.com a few years back, too. So random. Sounds like a US Southern nickname, but maybe just a bad Chinese translation.
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South facing LEDs so better than most 75 percents in that price range!
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Extremely bomb
I havenāt heard someone say āthatās bombā since, idk, the 90ās? Iām sure they meant something different but it made me chuckle.
Hereās some more top-shelf Engrish:
ā¦improve the previous green keyboard switch voice hoarse, smelly keyboard switch, serious noise and other deficiencies, with a crisp and pure voice, the sound of nature, shock appearance, is a burning green keyboard switch, loved by the majority of users
wat
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voice hoarse, smelly keyboard switch burning
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I ran that phrase through Bad Translator with four passes and I think it may have improved the descriptionās legibility:
Improve the sound of the old green keyboard, Cent of the keyboard, Hazardous noise, other linadaciones, pure voice and sound of nature and shock, is the most favorite burn key.
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