28 Jul 2015

Community

Geekhack Fund-raiser

To keep geekhack running a fund-raiser has been started. The fund-raiser is taking the form of a giveaway where you can get an item for however much you donate. This is currently for CONUS as shipping costs would make this less of a fundraiser.
There do seem to be some interesting items available. Currently on offer are Cherry t-shirts and Cherry window stickers. However, not all items and t-shirt designs are being shown so you will not know exactly what you are getting. My favourite item shown is the Cherry branded beer stein.

Boardmakers

This is the best keyboard podcast there is. It is interesting to hear all about the keyboard production and thoughts behind all the designs.
This week’s episode features livingspeedbump of Keychatter.

Keyboards

Scalaria Orders Haven Ended

This shouldn’t be too helpful news as this is the end of the sale period. But for those who partook. They will now be on their way to production. As this is a community project, I find these particularly interesting and worth keeping an eye on.

https://reddit.com/r/blahlicus

TextBlade Getting Closer to Shipping

Because of the rocky entirety of the TextBlade project, I am not entirely confident that this will be fulfilled. It is an interesting project which is why I think it is worth following.
The reasons for the delays are almost all speculative. As updates are a bit far and between.

TGR-Jane

This image is a render

This is a custom keyboard currently in the Groupbuy phase. I thought this was something I should mention as it is of very high quality and only 20 will be made. It’s winkeyless (no winkeys) very aluminium and comes with a fancy brass weight. This is one of my favourite things about this keyboard. Although this is becoming a common thing to do, I always think it looks great. At around $420 this is an expensive keyboard but looks to be of excellent quality. Unfortunately this is out of my price range, but I think this will be a great keyboard for any collection. It is one of the nicest customs I have seen in a long time.

Keycaps

New Alps Keycaps

This is a rare sight, because this is the first of its kind on this scale. Massdrop is offering Alps keycap sets in black, dolch and olivette colour schemes.
I believe this was foreshadowed by the v60’s listed on mechanicalkeyboards.com. Although these are the mx variants, it showed that KBP is interested in producing the dolch colour scheme. Perhaps this groupbuy will help gauge the communities interest in more interesting Alps keycaps.

Typed on SSK

21 Jul 2015

I was away last week and I regret not writing the week in keyboards for that week. This week I will cover everything for this week, and the week I missed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Keyboards

Smart68

This is a project that has been going for a long time and has not had a lot of movement. I believe that some made it out into the wild back in its inception. However, this was in the Chinese market and a long time ago. Feng on geekhack, who I know for running geekkeys and various groupbuys, has reinvigorated the project and a groupbuy is expected in August.

What makes the smart68 different is the ability to change switches without a need for soldering. The carbon fiber plate is also another selling point. However, I do not know of the benefits of this material. A recent groupbuy for carbon fibre plates has been successful but I have not seen them out in the wild.

Geekhack reference post

No BeamSprings

This was something that slipped under my radar until recently. A while ago Cindy on deskthority looked like she was getting an interesting collection of keyboards that might have been beamsprings. For those who don’t know, the beamspring could be considered the next level up from the model M and M. Rarer, the beamsprings are highly sought after and rarely sold. This seemed like it would be an interesting lot of keyboards and there was a good amount of interest. The important part is the deal has fallen through and it is possible the community will not see these resurfacing. If they do it could be for a higher price.

AUNK

This is another 60% design that I took too because of the design philosophy behind it. From what I understand this project is creating a more universal keyboard that supports as many language variants as possible.

AUNK stands for Awesome United Nations Keyboard. This project isn’t being rushed and the pcb is being designed to a high standard.

More information

KC60 Delayed By a Week

This is not terrible but I am sure some will find this frustrating. Through the drop the maximum quantity was increased and I wonder if they overstepped in how many they thought they could make.

Atomic PCB Kits Up for Pre-Sale

For now you are able to pre-order the PCB in a kit. Some prototypes are available but in limited quantities. I was hoping to get one of these but I’ll see what will happen. However, after the last episode of board makers I have become quite taken with the philosophy behind the planck.

Keyboardio

This kickstarted keeps going and is currently at $652,001. I am not a huge fan of this keyboard but do find it interesting that this particular project is getting this amount of backing.

A New Model F

This is another project that I had not seen until recently. This is something that I think requires its own post because it is so interesting. This type of keyboard is interesting as no one has been able to make custom buckling spring keyboards viable. The project is to recreate the kishsaver faithfully but allowing for more people to get them. The kishsaver is the Model F which is close to a 60% layout.

It is a complicated project that is interesting to watch develop. The price of $350 might be a bit steep for those wanting to get into buckling springs. Another project to mention is the new model M which I had confused this with.

New Vendor ‘KBDcraft’

This is another Korean maker with some nice designs. But with promise of other products and services to come. The debut designs are a cherry g80-1800 and a HHKB style keyboard. Both designs are interesting in their own right but I found the g80-1800 in particular to be quite stunning. Whereas the HHKB design is the exact thing I want, apart from the logo on the front.

This new website is part run by or just partnered with Leeku who has created 1800 pcb’s in the past.

Realforce on Massdrop

This is something that I though mentioning as this is the first Topre board on Massdrop. The HHKB has always been in the voting stage but nothing has ever happened. I’m not sure what this might mean for the future. But it is nice to see. It is not the greatest drop as there are only limited units available and there is one price tier. The drop also comes with 4 matt3o PBT spacebars.

I can’t say that I’m not tempted by this. However, I am not interested in the variable weight and not brave enough for the 55g. I also prefer the grey. All in all this will be good for some but not for others.
The drop is priced at $215 + shipping

Keycaps

Xenics PBT Doubleshot

This comes from ripster who always seems to be on top of all new manufacturers. Not a lot of information other than they are PBT doubleshot and from a Korean company Xenics. Again these keycaps are plagued with a not so nice font.

Photos of the Adler Keycaps

This was an interesting GB that did quite well. Being GMK, only good things are expected. I expect these photos will be comforting to all who participated.

Typed on SSK

07 Jul 2015

Community

Geekhack

Geekhack is back with new hosting and all seems good. The DOS ended and not a lot was said.
With the return of Geekhack, a long time moderator and site admin Mkawa has stepped down from those roles.

Board Makers

For those who don’t know this is a mechanical keyboard podcast This continues to be a very good podcast that I very much enjoy. For anyone in the mechanical keyboard hobby, this podcast will give you some insight and information into the whole keyboard process.
I was most excited for the Atomic PCB’s which are getting closer. There is a lot of shipping around involved but the coming weeks could be interesting for the Atomic.

Ripster

Today I was surprised with a new wealth of ripster posts. This all happened very quickly today but I am happy to see ripsters guides making a comeback.

With the quiet announcement/discovery of the QuickFire Rapid XTi Ripster has a sample and has posted a gallery.
https://redd.it/3brz70
From the looks of things this looks to be a nice stock keyboard.

Keyboards

The Diverge II

Blahlicus is back with the second revision of the ErgoDox alternative the Diverge II. This is really a great project as it is making split keyboards more accessible than the ErgoDox did. It is cheaper and only uses 1u caps. You can preorder it with a surprising amount of custom options. You can choose the switches how assembled you want it, the colour of the case and the keycaps. Blahlicus is another rare member of the community who is offering something quite special.

The Last KBT Keyboards

I found this to be the most interesting and keyboard news this week as it is at least a new product. I believe this was teased a while back with the announcement of KBT making their own switches, and this is what they have done.

With two sources in Chinese I do not exactly feel informed on the specifics of the keyboard and the switches. The keyboard is called the ‘Next’ and features KBTs ‘Squirrel Axis Switches’. These switches both remind me of Gateron switches and project zealio at this point do not know if there is any connection.
The keyboard itself has 108 keys and blue led’s. The project page suggests something about the case being low profile and thin without being too heavy.

I also found it interesting that the project is being crowdfunded. The ‘kickstarter’ has rewards such as a big-ass enter key pillow and a keychain.

EliteKeyboards

The HHKB Pro 2 is $15 off at the moment. This is not the greatest deal, but if you are in America you wont find it much cheaper at a retail location.

Mechanicalkeyboards.com Stocking FC660C

This has been quite the hard keyboard to get hold of lately, and mk.com is making that easier. If I hadn’t a HHKB, I would be seriously tempted by this.

Signs of the New PMK

PMK have just put up the deep space DSA set up in their store for purchase. This is all part of them stocking popular GB’s of keycaps which are always in demand. I am interested to see how well this works. This could be very beneficial for PMK and I do hope it works out because the community can only benefit from this.

The Last Brobot V2 Auction

This is most definitely artisan territory, but this is a limited engagement. A Topre and an MX brobot are up for auction on [CTRL]ALT. These are aluminium CNC milled brobots which will not go cheap. Although you only have a day, this will quickly go out of many peoples price range.

Hotkeys Sale

Just a heads up a sale is happening tomorrow on the 8th of July. This is featuring the new designs that were shown a while back in his design thread on geekhack. The best pictures are on his instagram

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Typed on Cherry MX 6.0