>Each time I go to meets its normally the same thing you see over and over just with different variations.

This is the point at which you need to decide whether to let your own creativity loose.

If YOU design your own keyboard(s), you can make them as different from everything else out there as you want.
You don't necessarily have to design everything from scratch either.
You can buy some portions outright, and have other portions custom built.

The keyboards in the pic below both use off-the-shelf KPRepublic 60% cases, but are a night and day departure from the original keyboards those cases were designed to house.
I designed those layouts myself, for my own use, in two very specific locations.
I had plates cut, to mimic the mounting of the originals, but with dramatically different layouts, then hand-wired everything together, using Elite-C controllers.

https://preview.redd.it/yzertqdmpdqa1.jpeg?width=1226&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=e8810befd9f9c4f35c7df7172df5b71b16d21cef

I love the Nuphy keycaps so much, I've been using the air75 for a couple months now. Great work keeb

I don't have any use for a knob on my keyboard.

My speakers, and my headset, each have their own dedicated knobs for volume.
They also have controls for other functions, which would not be easily mimicked by a keyboard knob.
My headset, for example, has a mix knob that allows me to raise/lower the relative volumes of the in-game audio, and voice chat.

Just FYI, VIA is an app for customizing layouts and features on a board running QMK with VIA support. I like it, too, but it's not a separate firmware, as much as an optional feature of QMK. A lot of boards built for QMK but which didn't originally support VIA can be updated to support it.

There are also other GUIs available for customizing QMK boards, e.g. VIAL, reportedly due to limitations of VIA, but I haven't gotten into those, yet.

Wow! thats a limited edition concrete recolor of the gateron Road Blockers.

I have to use a Mac for work and there are buttons for screen brightness built into the keyboard. I debated mapping brightness to the knob on my personal board instead of volume because I work in visual arts and design, but ultimately decided on volume being more important. That could be fun if you don't need volume on your board though!

Awesome thank you so much. I have over 12 boards and it seems like I am losing the itch. Started off with budget boards, tried a Frog TKL and recently got a Therav2 and am like meh. Was going to see what the Mode hype was but now not sure if I should jump in.

Yes, I was initially drawn to the Epomaker because of the compact southpaw layout. But the absence of arrow keys made me hesitate. This is great information to know, thank you so much!

That's awesome to hear, and thank you for confirming it too!

I have a feeling there will be some folks rather annoyed with some of my purchases later this year... 🤓

Yep! Comes as one of the spare keys.

Is the green ENTER key is also the part of the keycap set? Looks very nice btw.

Thank you so much for the advice. Greatly appreciated

Yep, fits perfectly. It’s the regular K3 that has the weird off center stabs for the space bar, the pro has standard stab placement.

You can buy from upgrade keyboards and get whatever switches you want, still won't be hotswap but you will have options.

Just curious/ to confirm, does Nuphy's space bar fit on the K3 Pro?

Definitely. When you're buying a custom keyboard you have to keep in mind that it's not all black and white. Expensive doesn't mean better, more complex doesn't mean better and manufactured outside of China doesn't mean better.

Take your time picking out a keyboard and make sure it's coming from a reputable makers that has made good keyboards in the past. Some great examples are Geonworks, westfoxtrot, ai03, TGR, Vertex and SingaKBD. The board you're buying doesn't necessarily have to come from a well known maker, but it really helps if you're new and can't recognize good projects yourself quite yet. Even if you find something from a less known/new maker, you can always ask around and see what other hobbyists here on Reddit or Discord think of it. Getting a few opinions before you dive into something is always a good idea, especially since keyboards are a big investment in terms of time (if you're joining a GB) and money.

It's fine, not amazing, but I love it for the fact that it's a very condensed southpaw with the F-row. Exactly the layout I want on a board so there's not many other options.

The biggest quirk to get used to is when reaching for Ctrl with my left pinky, I sometimes press the numpad enter by accident - I put a box navy in that key so I have a safeguard compared to the other speed switches.

The software is clunky and mistranslated, no QMK support, but it's been good at remembering to stay on my custom layer - the primary one can't be changed. Really difficult to figure out custom LED patterns/colors.

If you like modding boards it's certainly one that can be improved in a lot of ways - filling the case and taping the PCB is easy enough, but I don't like the plate it comes with so I designed+lasercut a new one - that's still a work in progress though.

The Q12 would honestly be the best option if you just want a really nice southpaw out of the box, but it's way chunkier than the gk96.

I paid cash money for one of these boards. They have a particular kind of switch I wanted to try out.

That is true, the level of quality is definitely different. Maybe it’s just the tiers I am looking at and not necessarily where they are manufactured from I should be concentrating on. Budget vs mid vs high end tiers and the boards they are custom built from ground up.

> Every now and then I come across boards like Keycult and even the Frogs in which you can tell the level of quality is different.

The thing you're noticing is probably the quality and attention to detail in the design process of the keyboard, not the manufacturing part.

A mill in China and a mill in the USA will do the job equally well. Any CNC machine that is capable of milling a keyboard will do the job pretty much exactly as good as the next one. The finishing process (mediablast, anodization, coating etc.) is what you'll notice most across different keyboard manufacturers.

Many coveted boards that have very unique design language and aesthetics are still ultimately ‘made in China’ because they have a very robust CNC market.

For you? Certainly https://imgur.com/a/T6JFzOY

This is good information. Maybe I should go old school heheh research custom cases and match them up to a good quality PCB. That would bring out some uniqueness to my lineup.

Got more pictures from different views? Looks amazing. But biggest props to the Nuphy keycaps, though.

I don’t really watch him, I draw on the Deksthority wiki and my own personal knowledge generally for keyboard/switch IDing.