The Vortex Pok3r
I have been looking around for some time for a mechanical keyboard and wondering if I could get away with a 60% one. 60% means that you take a regular keyboard and drop off the numeric keypad, the arrow keys, the insert/delete/etc cluster and the function keys (F1, F2, etc)… The great thing about the Pok3r is that while it is 60%, it does have most keys as possibilites and the ability to reassign keys on the keyboard itself, allowing for some interesting combinations. Here are some notes about configuring a Vortex Pok3r to be how I (currently) like things.
Restting:
- You can reset a layer by holding Fn+r for 5+ seconds.
- You can reset all layers by holding the 2 keys on either side of the spacebar (default Alt) for more than 5 seconds.
I like to have the caps-lock mapped to Ctrl, but I have also had people suggest to map the Fn key to that, so that they can easily access the Fn layer on the keyboard. I’m not sure if my muscle memory will be able to handle the change!
Fn+RCtrl enters into programming mode.
Maps caps-lock to RCtrl always:
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Fn+Caps , LCtrl , Pn
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Caps , LCtrl , Pn
Swap Cmd/Alt on left of spacebar:
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Alt , Win , Pn
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Win , Alt , Pn
Vi keys for arrows and page up/down:
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Fn+h , Fn+j , Pn
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Fn+j , Fn+k , Pn
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Fn+k , Fn+i , Pn
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Fn+f , Fn+o , Pn (makes Fn+f = PgDown)
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Fn+b , Fn+i , Pn (makes Fn+b = PgUp)
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Fn+i , Fn+h , Pn (makes Fn+i = Home)
Move Fn to bottom-left:
- unplug keyboard, set dip-switch 4 to on, plug in keyboard, press Fn (source), press LCtrl (destination), Pn (source), Pn (destination)
You can now swap Cmd/Alt on right of spacebar:
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Alt , Win , Pn
- (Fn+RCtrl) ; Win , Alt , Pn
Remember to exit programming mode with Fn+RCtrl !
Media:
- Fn+s = vol -, Fn