12 Apr 2016

Thanks for the continued support. I appreciate all those who continue to read these.

Two things came out of nowhere this past week which were things I thought I’d never see.

HHKB Professional BT

HHKB Professional BT Profile The first one. I’m sure this hasn’t flown under the radar at all, but if you didn’t know, there is finally an official bluetooth HHKB. Ripster’s yearly keyboard predictions have always included the hope for a HHKB 3 and I’m not sure if this counts but, it is close.

Nearly everything seems good with this latest HHKB iteration. The only complaint I can think of is the bluetooth addition has ruined the aesthetic of the keyboard. I have always thought of the HHKB as meticulously designed and a very aesthetically pleasing product. As you can see from the images, the bluetooth addition culminates in a protruding monstrosity to put the batteries.

HHKB Professional BT Reverse

Important Information:

  • 3 Months Battery Life with battery saving on. 1 to 1.5 with battery saving off (allegedly, but probably not a lie)
  • 2 AA Batteries
  • Cross platform support (Mac & Windows but I would imagine you could get it to work on anything linux)
  • Any colour if it’s black
  • Available to Pre-order releasing 22nd of April
  • ¥29,700 - £192 - $274

Differences from The Pro 2:

  • Uses a Micro USB on the keyboard for when bluetooth is not in use
  • Additional rubber bumpers beside the feet
  • Logo says “HHKB Professional BT”

Buying one is going to require living in Japan or a proxy.
The other option is hasu’s bt controller. The advantage with this controller is that it is not going to portrude from your HHKB. However, you will get significantly less battery life.

The Textblade

The second thing I thought I’d never see. The Textblade has been a keyboard in production for a long time. The short brief is that it is a small keyboard designed to be portable but retain some nice typing feeling. It has been notorious for not being shipped to those who pre-ordered it but at least some people are getting theirs. I am not entirely sure if this is a wide release or they are just being released to testers.

Typing Video:

I wouldn’t quite buy one of these just yet as I really want to know a bit more about how it is to type on.

More Specialeemade Sleeves

Specialeemade 60% sleeve These seem to be some very nice hand made sleeves. I don’t have one myself but I think they look awesome.

Prices:

  • Fabric 60% sleeves with no vinyl - USD$25 + Shipping
  • Vinyl 40%, 60%, 65%, TKL pre-made sleeves - USD$30 + Shipping

  • Custom orders - USD$35 + Shipping

  • Specialeemade Web Store

Typed on HHKB Pro 2

05 Apr 2016

M10-A Macropad Prototype

A photo posted by @ramaworks on

The Macropad is a small keypad (macropad) designed by RAMA, who you may recognise as the person behind these aluminium keycaps.
It’s small size means it isn’t for everyone but with the ability to program it to anything you want, you can use it for whatever you desire. It’s not out yet but I am keeping an eye on this. So I will definitely post about it on release.

Hunger Work Studio TMX

HWS TMX Smiling jack This is a working example of a Topre and MX stem hybrid. Many attempts to do this have been in the works for a long time, but this is a very good example of it working.
It’s possible that this Deal with It Jack could be the possible massdrop collaboration.

CoolerMaster Wrist Rest

Cooler Master are thinking of making some wrist rests and are looking for community feedback.

They are only doing TKL and full-size rests at the moment, as they do not make any 60% keyboards themselves.

Planck on massdrop

It was only a matter of time, the planck is back on massdrop. After a very successful first run, it is back with the newest iteration of the pcb. Most notably in the latest iteration is the speaker.

It is also worth mentioning that another ortholinear keyboard is also on massdrop. The preonic is similar to the planck except it has an additional row in top. This makes it closer to a 60% and might be more suitable for those who don’t like the planck’s size.

TK78 Launching Soon™

TK78 60% numpad This is not the greatest announcement as the actual keyboard is still not available to buy. However, it is said to be finished, so that would indicate that it is coming soon.

If you couldn’t tell from the picture, the TK78 is a 60% with the addition of a numpad. From all the photos it looks to be a solid product and the aluminium case is similar to the POK3R.

Typed on HHKB Pro 2

01 Apr 2016

Dodgy

Dodgy caps Dodgy has been around for a while I only wish they were a little more active. They have quite a unique two piece construction and an excellent stamp on the back.

Dodgy artisan cap There was a new design in January which I was quite a fan of but no sales to speak of. I’m sure there will be more in the future but it is a shame some makers are so rare in their appearances.

Clack

It has most definitely been confirmed that clack is or has least been back for the past month. This month has brought us clackvent. Where each day has brought a lucky person a keycap, I am not one of those but there is still hope for the future.

How clackvent works is you follow the thread like a hawk and await the daily instructions on how you can attain a keycap. This is often a simple task but the volume of people doing it means it is infinitely harder to getting the single cap.

Retro

Sad news for now but Retro is currently on hold. Nothing seems too bad, but I hope this is not the end of retrocaps.

PunksDead (Alive)

“I can assure you that this is not an April fools joke :thumb:”

Well today is the day and hopefully something happens. The reason for all the excitement and hope that something will happen is the amount of teasing that has mostly taken place on instagram.

Tease 1 Tease 2

Tease 3:

A photo posted by BunnyLake (@ctrlalt.io) on

Threads worth watching in the eventuality that something happens.

WiddleKitty

Keycap with Coffee Grounds

I’m fairly certain these keycaps are from WiddleKitty. WiddleKitty popped up not so long back with some impressive first tries. They also made their own aluminium master

Pictured above is a keycap with coffee grounds in the top which gives it an incredible visual texture.

The other eye-catching cap I saw a long time ago was the Ransom Note keycap: WiddleKitty Ransom

I would be very interested in getting one of these coffee keycaps. I have tried a similar theme myself but mine turned out more like milky latte’s.

Please do a sale.

ZorbCaps

Carbon Metaljar artisan keycap Zorb has had a lot of sales since I last mentioned them. Pictured above is the Carbon MetalJaw which was featured in the Carbon Mine Sales.

But luckily there is one running right now but this is also a sad sale. As zorb has retired from designing their own keycaps, all future designs will be outsourced to their 9 year old sister. This seems like a solid decision and I can see why this has happened.

Running as of the 1st of April: It’s only $15 for a design by one of the hottest designers currently out there.

WoB

WoB has launched a new site featuring the many designs that were teased on instagram. These are very creative but not entirely to my taste.
One thing I am quite interested in is the rifle keycap puller which was teased a long time ago at the beginning of WoB.

R.A.G.

R.A.G mod set flehrad has finally ascended and bought one of the better keyboards on the market. And with this ascension they quickly began work on making some mod sets. Mod sets are not at all easy and get even trickier when you introduce more colours. I am interested to see where this goes.

Jelly Key

Starry Night cap Jelly Key has been the talk of the town for what seems like forever. But they are still not widely available. They do look awesome and there isn’t much else to say.
They will probably be sold through the facebook store which has been in testing.

There is also another store but every jelly key is sold out.

Ericaps Debut

Rosegold keycap These are on the top side of my favourites from the past few months. Bold colours and simple designs done with apparent competence. Ericaps had a debut sale on the 16th of march featuring 3 designs.

KatzenKinder

katzenkinder mx + fn sets This month KatzenKinder has been prototyping MX + Fn set. A couple of sets were sold on mechmarket. But I expect more will be coming when they are no longer in the prototyping stage.

HumbleOracle

Humble oracle first attempt Just a first attempt but it’s nice to still see people pop up.

KeyForge

Keyforge sneaky potato Sneaky Potato has a number of designs but I would say the saber is my favourite.

Rama

Rama CNC Keycaps & Macropad The RAMA CNC caps have been produced and shipped, and they do look exactly as promised. They also look to come in some incredible looking packaging.

In other keycap news. RAMA also has an Aluminium mould prototype. This is similar to HWS’s $ynth.

Hullabaloo_Goat

Sculpting advice Hullabaloo_Goat wants some sculpting feedback. If you have anything constructive, I’m sure it would be appreciated.

HWS

Pink HWS Easter Keycap Offering My favourite of the Lot
On the 23rd of March there was an Easter sale. This sale took place on techkeys.us and was first come fist serve.

HWS and Massdrop

deal with it jack artisan 2.0 This is not the first time they have collaborated with Massdrop, but the good news is that it will happen again.

HWS :~$ynth

There has been some movement on the keycap making aid the $ynth. On the left you have the pre-production model and on the right you have the production. It’s not quite ready as it was almost released a couple of weeks ago. HWS $ynth prototype

HKP

Pastel colour Trooper HKP Artisan HKP also rode the easter sale wave featuring a nice amount of pastelly pink.

Eat_the_Food

Halfshell artisan on hhkb Very popular and very awesome. I was taken by these caps the moment I saw them. Eat_the_Food or Nightcaps was the hype before jelly key. It started out with the half shell pictured above.

I wanted to share this image because it looks like a matte painting from STAR WARS.

Fugu Set Fugu Set

There are too many good caps to show off so have a look at the whole albums.

So far Nightcaps has been a constant stream of good stuff.

Coz

The Coz Caps Sale happened on the 19th of February and appeared to be very popular.

They have also made some new designs that have yet to be sold.

RAWr keycap

KeyKollectiv

As always it is a little hard to keep up with all that KeyKollectiv has done as they get up to a lot. But one thing that happened was the booper and KeyKollectiv collaboration.

The other good news is, mods are back on the menu. The latest mod sale is currently live. bubblegum crisis pink

SuitedUp

Legion keycap The French Cuff sale happened featuring new designs.

I also highly recommend reading Bambino’s thread as there is lots of good information if you want to make some keycaps. You will also get to see a lot of upcoming keycaps.

Demiils

Waddles keycap gravity falls Just a little bit of sculpting from a new person. I really like the look of the pig and even with the uneven surface it looks like something from a clay animation.

Chesapeake_Stripper

I was skeptical of these keycaps when I first saw the renders but they have come out very nice. With the renders as smooth and detailed as they were I just didn’t think they would translate to the 3d printing.
They are available to purchase from shapeways.

KeypressGraphics

Keypress totoro Totoro Cap in the wild
A couple of new designs on keypress graphics. But they really caught my attention again as I saw the Totoro cap on reddit.

It is also worth mentioning that they are doing an artisan roundup of all the keycaps on shapeways.

CFC

boba fett keycap CFC has been popping up a little bit here and there with flash sales of boba heads. They are not readily available as of today.

Typed on HHKB Pro 2

Thanks to everyone who liked my fb page from this week and the last. My new social buttons are doing as exactly as they intended. If you follow me on any of the following, I would most appreciate it.