Has there been more information about that? I think I saw a rumor of it, but no confirmation. I didn't want to go digging through Reddit after a rumor I could have imagined 😬
If I had to guess, that orientation is just for the keyface slope. I had a tough time getting all my keys comfortable to press and wound up with some wacky looking things (nowhere as clean as this).
Fair enough! Like I said in my previous reply, my first venture into the world of custom or ortho boards was the Ergodox infinity, which I got as a kit on Massdrop. I didn't have to deal with getting all the little bits like controllers or displays. Everything was included and compatible, which made it really approachable - plus I didn't do any leds. I definitely felt like I was in over my head at times with the corne, but it was fairly straightforward in the end and I'm really happy with it.
Seconded, that panel looks very clean. Nice job on it.
I had a couple solders on my corne leds that looked fairly good but didn't work reliably. Iirc, I removed and resoldered a couple connections, but reflowing may well be easier. Even fully removing was pretty quick and easy, so I think you won't have much trouble, especially knowing which keys are acting up.
Do it! Can't have too many keyboards, just too small of a desk...
Here is a build guide. I bought my components from Little Keyboards (MX hotswap v3.0.1 kit in purple, gray tint technician case, 128x32 white OLED screen x2, and Elite-C v4 x2). I believe my LEDs came from Amazon, just making sure I matched the sizes in the build guide and whether they were surface mounted (SMD).
I will probably eventually post my first ortholinear, an Ergodox infinity, which is where I got my first real soldering experience (and a bunch of extra Cherry Browns). Neither keyboard was too difficult. My biggest suggestion would be to take your time. I spent a lot longer than average and I think I only had 1 or 2 solders that needed touching up at the end.
In everyday use, I love it. It's taken a bit of tweaking to get a layout I'm really happy with and getting used to that, but it is very fast and efficient having everything within a key of the home row. For me, the biggest change in my comfort while typing was switching to ortholinear, especially split, and I recommend it to anybody and everybody. If you're on the fence and not sure about having so few keys, there are other similar boards that have more rows. That definitely eases the transition. I have never been big on using the number row and opt for the 10-key instead. I just have a layer set up to cover that with my right hand just like on a normal board.
They are these. They've held up pretty well. I have noticed esdf (instead of wasd) are smoothing out a bit, but not bad overall. Really happy with how they look in person!
Black 108 Key Cherry Profile PBT Double Shot Side-lit Shine Through Translucent Backlit keycaps for MX Mechanical Keyboard Filco (Only Keycap) https://a.co/d/6Cy6JHQ