Keebtalk post.
Just finished my latest homebuilt board. 3-D printed case, masonite plates, box navy switches, Akko SA-L keycaps.
For this one, instead of manually hand wiring the entire matrix, I designed that part in KiCAD and sent it off to JLCPCB (minimum order quantity also means I have four more of them with no particular need). I still manually wired it to the raspberry pi pico though. There’s also a new and really user-friendly tool called “Pog” for the Python based KMK firmware. That was really nice.
I guess there are probably multiple schools of thought on that, right? Some people would be so locked into their muscle memory that it would be aggravating. For some other people, typing is kind of like playing an instrument and they have that mental plasticity where knowing one "instrument" helps them adapt quickly to a new one. Mentally, I type very much as a hybrid activity blending hand-eye coordination and muscle memory. I can type reasonably well on a non-split ortho, by my standards, but it doesn't feel better. Splits mess with my head and give me whiplash though, because nothing is anywhere near where it's supposed to be, purely in my physical field of vision, and the centerline has always been sort of a vague suggestion for me.
You could well adapt very quickly. MicroCenter in the US sells a pretty cheap Planck, and KPRepublic has some reasonably priced ones that go bigger.
I'll give it a go someday. I'm in the UK, we don't gave many places to see custom keyboards in person, but I don't imagine it'd be too difficult to find an ortho PCB and a case to mess around with.