Hi everyone! I’m planning on getting a split keyboard to replace my planck, but I don’t have a soldering iron.
What are my options ? Ideally I want:
DIY, no soldering involved
QMK firmware
40% format
The keyboard I’m leaning toward is the let’s split as it’s a planck split in two halves, but it seems that you need to at least solder the keycaps yourself, which I can’t.
The Iris Rev 8 might be just what you’re looking for. In any case, I think the term you’re looking for is “hotswapable” since you want DIY without soldering.
Personally, I have the Ergodox EZ and I love it. It almost meets all of your requirements but I think it’s more than 40%.
Or one could buy any of the existing pre-built splits. Which might be more expensive, but it does not involve something one very explicitly said they don’t want to do.
I’d rather spend twice as much on a well built keyboard with warranty than trying to solder one together myself and botch it up, and then it suddenly costs more than if I just bought a pre-built one.
It’s not about the cost, it’s more about my current situation, storage space, and besides this specific use-case, I have no use for it (and I dont like buying stuff I don’t use).
Both voyager and moonlander are prebuilt, right ? I like the voyager, but might like just a few keys under the thumb compared to my current planck layout.
they’re prebuilt as in: no soldering iron needed. I’m unaware if the switches/keycaps are on out-of-the-box, but that’s like 15min of “keeb hobbying” to put them in.
Bought a moonlander about 2 months ago. It comes fully assembled, there are multiple switches to choose from and blank or qwerty style keycaps. It is hotswap and comes with a tool for pulling caps and switches included, so you can change things up as needed. Iirc you can buy it barebones without switches if none of the ones they have are right for you.
It runs on QMK but they have their own configurator which is super handy imo.
Add comment