RK61

I've gotten QMK boards for as little as $21, you just have to keep your ear to the ground. The wired QMK/VIA Royal Kludge RK61 is a pretty cheap dependable option despite the awful default layout and the source code in the QMK repo works and a VIAL port is easy and worthwhile. My Github.

Yuck. Just no. Here's what I would recommend: 60%: Redragon K717 Pro * ($18) CIDOO QK61 * ($60) Skyloong GK61 QMK/VIA * ($54) Royal Kludge RK61 QMK/VIA * ($40) Womier WK61 Pro * ($29) YMDK DK61 * ($88 barebones, wooden case) KBDcraft Adam 60% * ($70 lego case) 65%: Womier VK66 Pro * ($39) Royal Kludge RK R6

40%: Inland MK47 * ($40) 60%: Redragon K717 Pro * ($30) CIDOO QK61 * ($60) Skyloong GK61 QMK/VIA * ($54) Royal Kludge RK61 QMK/VIA * ($40) Womier WK61 Pro * ($31) YMDK DK61 * (barebones, $88 wooden case, $38.50 bare PCB) KBDcraft Adam 60% * ($70 lego case) 65%: Womier VK66 Pro * ($39) Womier Q61 v2 * ($42) Ro

This one is easy so far, if their web app is hosted at QMK.something it's the scam. If you see "usevia.app" or "vial.rocks" it's at least emulating QMK. Emulating? Yes, there are proprietary boards that are "VIA compatible" or "QMK compatible" that have ported the VIA module to run on top of an emul

Then no Raspberry Pi based boards are open source because the Rpi boot process is psycho closed magic. :) (I still did a VIAL port for my Pi60-HSE) Honestly, I think QMK should make an exception for wireless drivers and establish a hard API boundary for them, like Linux did for video cards, and you

I know it's not a popular board, but I personally think the latest QMK-based RK61 is quite nice... but not with the stock layout. The standard RK61 layout is terrible. Awful. It's designed by someone on acid. BUT... If this is the QMK RK61 you can program it to use the right hand modifiers as arrow

It's a fairly old board, there's nothing particularly special about it other than the cool programming trick with the arrow keys. It's also soldered which is kind of something to avoid. It's mostly historically interesting. It was amazing when it came out but now any QMK board is almost certainly be

40%: Inland MK47 * ($35) 60%: Redragon K717 Alcor * ($33) CIDOO QK61 * ($60) Skyloong GK61 QMK/VIA * ($54) Royal Kludge RK61 QMK/VIA * ($40) Womier WK61 Pro * ($31) YMDK DK61 * (barebones, $88 wooden case, $38.50 bare PCB) KBDcraft Adam 60% * ($70 lego case) 65%: Womier VK66 Pro * ($39) Womier Q61 v2 * ($42)

If you feel up to installing new firmware or at least wiping the layout with a new JSON file, I've been using the Royal Kludge RK61 as a platform for firmware hacking. The stock layout is terrible but since the source code is posted it's easy to modify and with 16 layers in VIA there's plenty of roo

If you get the RK61, get the QMK version so you can fix the awful default layout, either using VIA (some ideas and instructions and layout.json files) or with custom firmware (link).