Alish 40 | GB and Vendor Announced!

Howdy fellas, I've never done one of these, so I suppose I'll keep it nice and short to try and keep myself from looking like a goober.



Why did you make this stupid thing?

I fell in love with cheap through hole kits a while ago. I also happened to fall in love with 40's. But after an hour or more of typing on a "standard" 40, my wrists and hands would get pretty tired.
I noticed I felt much more comfortable typing on Alice layout boards, but I hated reaching for keys in the next zip code. So I came up with this thing.


Why this kit over the other 69,000 through hole kits out there?

So, I've built my fair share of through hole kits. With this board, I intend to solve a bunch of little gripes I had with them. First and foremost I wanted this thing to be as cheap as possible.
I have tried my best to make this one of the easiest kits on the market to build, granted I've got some experience with soldering, but this kit took me 45 minutes to put together.
I think it looks pretty rad, but that's subjective of course, you be the judge.
Wanted compatibility with many different dev boards, therefore it utilizes a Pro-Micro footprint.
With QMK working on adding RP2040 support hopefully soon, that would allow the use of running QMK and your choice of either via/vial on the super feature rich KB2040.
Until then, I've already got KMK working on a KB2040 for those really trying to keep the cost down.


Any nifty features at least?
Colors dependent on IC, would like to only have to order a few different colors if possible. Options are in IC form.
In the pursuit of keeping costs down, its pretty featureless.
It has an optional encoder under the left palm.
I'm still deciding on LED strip backlighting or not, answers on IC form will likely dictate that.

How many buckaroos?
Really trying to keep the cost of the kit down to 30 USD + shipping. This price includes everything you need minus switches, keycaps, and a pro micro equivalent.

PLEASE NOTE: The art in IRL Prototype pictures WILL NOT be on the board, the KiCad Viewer is the current iteration.
When I first made this board, doing an IC or GB was not on my radar. I cannot seem to contact the copyright holders for the art used.

The prototypes I have in hand are completely featureless.
Again, I originally did this just for me, but I've gotten a lot of folks asking where they can buy one. So I'm trying my best is what I'm trying to say.
Probably (for now) going to restrict purchases to North America only, not for sure though.
I decided no matter how this goes, I want an encoder, so I'll post V1.1 pics once I order them and get them in.

Thanks for your time, all feedback is appreciated.