There are not nearly as many options for choc keys, particularly if you are mainly interested in ascetics. You can can get dyed mbk caps, off the top of my head I know Clickety Split has them. I’m sure you can find similar for different regions as well.

There is also Asymplex for both a variety of solid color CS profile as well as the occasional batch of artisan keycaps made. Also solid color DES caps with choc stems.

You could try out QMKs swap hands feature. I’ve not tried using myself but have considered doing so for this use case exactly.

All the 3D printed parts were a just under 95usd. This total could have been lower but due to the modular nature of the keyboard there are a number of small parts that are at or below the minimum volume and thus the cost for printing them ended up getting rounded up to $1 min part cost which added up. I’m working on consolidating some of the parts into larger pieces to limit this and reduce the total parts count for my next build. The down side is of course less modularity but I’ve already got a good idea of what I want so that is no big deal.

Wow that could actually be really sick. I kinda worry that it would end up being a mediocre mouse and suffer as a keyboard as a result but even still…

The flexible pcbs look great, very interested for the next build. Also potentially interested in the “pad” mcu you are working on there.

I’m transitioning from a flat split keyboard already so the difference isn’t really that great and it didn’t take long. In general though I’ve found the best way to learn new layouts is to just jump in and start using it. Practice practice practice. Oh and skip the labeled keys, they will only hurt your learning speed.

Previous board:

First keywell keyboard. Previously was using a custom flat pcb build:

Not too bad a learning curve transitioning from that. About a day maybe two to get up to previous typing speed but I’m also experimenting with some layout changes now. Thumb cluster was immediately so much more comfortable.

That’s awesome. I’ll message you when I’m looking to build again. If your design works even as a starting point it would save huge amounts of time.

When I build another I’d love to give flexible pcbs a try. What are the matrix dimensions of your PCBs? Thinking I might try a 4x6 layout next build.

For now there is no way I’m reopening this thing again unless I really need too. I have a new respect for all the hand wired builds out there. I wouldn’t say they build was tough exactly but it was tedious.