Hey! I saw posts from here on my feed, and have been sucked in. Beautiful keyboards!

But, I’m a bit overwhelmed with options. If I want to get started with an EMK, what would you suggest?

I am comfortable with general soldering (though haven’t done surface-mount), so putting a kit together should be doable. I use a Dvorak keyboard layout, so would prefer a way to customize keycaps. But … I would prefer a kit that comes with everything (or at least a checklist), and doesn’t require me to figure out what components to order, to help ensure I have compatible parts.

Thanks for your suggestions!

  • apfel
    3•2 years ago

    Depending on what region you’re in, there’s probably gonna be some folks selling cool ergomech kits. I’m personally in the EU, can recommend keeb.supply, Keycapsss, 42keebs, splitkb.com, Keygem.

    I’m probably forgetting some, and these are only the EU-based ones. Maybe someone else could recommend vendors in other regions :)

    • @Risk
      5•2 years ago

      Whew boy, what a rabbit hole chancing into this thread was for me.

      Went to keeb.supply and then that fantastic word document on keyboard layouts and now I want to buy a soldering iron, hundreds of pounds of keyboard parts, and learn an entirely new layout.

      • apfel
        3•2 years ago

        Aay very happy that linking that document in the intro to small keyboards helped someone :)

        You can also easily try alternative layouts on your current keyboard via tools such as kmonad.

    • MouldyCOP
      2•2 years ago

      Thanks for the recommendations. I’m in Taiwan…so hopefully there is either cheaper shipping somewhere, or I can figure out the right Chinese for these and search…

      • MouldyCOP
        3•2 years ago

        I did find a vendor in HK. Close by with shipping covered. Looks like I may start there.

        • apfel
          2•2 years ago

          Nice! Let us know what you end up with!