Infinity keyboard is back on MassDrop

[jacobolus]

I think lots of people underestimate how challenging some of the things MassDrop has to do (even when just fulfilling routine orders, not even designing new stuff). I was at their office yesterday at the Bay Area keyboard meetup, and I’ve visited there a couple other times, and from what I have been able to observe walking around their office and chatting with people, they absolutely do care that everyone gets what they ordered, as fast as possible, and have their problems solved, etc. But they’re still a team of a few dozen people, going through some amount of growing pains, so they can’t just wave a magic wand and instantly fix everyone’s issues.

I think in particular they had some substantial difficulties with the first couple batches of Ergodox kits they sold, just properly sourcing all the parts and getting them all put together into boxes. That was back when they were still doing a lot of the fulfillment out of their own office, and they had to go back and forth with a bunch of customers to make sure everything got sorted out. They’ve learned a lot since then, but annoying issues still come up all the time, outside of anyone’s ability to control them.

For instance, they were telling me yesterday about how somehow their supplier for some switch tester with a bunch of different MX switches in it just decided to not include one of the switch types in any of the orders, without telling anyone. So all the switch testers got sent out, and the first Massdrop heard of the problem was when customers started asking them why they were short one switch. Which means they had to scramble around for a couple days to dredge up a few hundred of a rare type of switch and mail everyone an extra. I don’t have any personal insight into their margins on that kind of product, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a screwup like that totally wipes out the profit from that drop.

And that kind of thing isn’t some unusual occurrence when you’re trying to order a thousand different items from a thousand different vendors and handle logistics to get everything out to customers around the world. Similar screwups are basically a daily occurrence, and being stuck in the middle responsible for making sure everything gets the right place is a huge huge pain in the ass.

[ideus]

By success I meant happy customers. Customers are not very happy now: The configurator is not working, so people are stuck with the layout they do not like, or they should go into the trouble of low level programming.

Note, they’re definitely working on new configuration software. MassDrop (and also HaaTa/Parak/OverKill) have fairly big goals for this project, it’s not like they’re done with this yet.

Where are you seeing these not very happy customers though? I just read through the last 15 pages of discussion at MassDrop’s site and I see a couple people complaining about chattery switches and discussing debounce times / algorithms, one guy complaining about the USB cable having a stupidly big collar, several people complaining about international shipping costs, one guy asking for some assembly help, a couple people asking about pre-assembled keyboards, a bunch of people who seem pretty happy so far, and another bunch who have general questions.

Easy programmability is central to Infinity, people may not be complaining, but at least for me the issue was a no-go for a second kit, and I should say that I really want this to work - I was the 10th in the second drop-, and I also believe they are very fine people, but sometimes it appears they are overwhelmed by the huge orders they are dealing with for example with Granite. I really hope they do better with this particular fine kit soon.

[jacobolus]

ideus: If you have a specific desired keyboard layout you want someone to make for you in KLL and can’t wait for a better graphical configuration tool (the current one should be fixed asap, but it’s kind of limited, and it might take weeks or even months for them to make a brand new one from scratch and get it up to full function), I’m sure someone here can figure out how to make an image for you to flash to your keyboard.

[ideus]

ideus: If you have a specific desired keyboard layout you want someone to make for you in KLL and can’t wait for a better graphical configuration tool (the current one should be fixed asap, but it’s kind of limited, and it might take weeks or even months for them to make a brand new one from scratch and get it up to full function), I’m sure someone here can figure out how to make an image for you to flash to your keyboard.

Yeah, I thought in that possibility already, I may revisit the idea, however I am a layout freak that would hardly be settle with no exploring multiple options; actually, that was one of the motivations to get it in the first place, I already have enough fixed non-programmable keyboards around. My kit will be patiently waiting for some easy way to program it, when the fine MD team finally get this issue solved. Thank you for the tip. 

[jacobolus]

however I am a layout freak that would hardly be settle with no exploring multiple options;

I’d recommend at least giving the plain text KLL format a try then. There’s a lot of fairly sophisticated stuff you can do with it, and I’m not sure if a graphical tool is ever going to be able to fully represent all its features.

If you do try it, and you need any help / get stuck / etc., you can hop on IRC (#geekhack channel on Freenode, or hit this web client) and ping HaaTa directly. I’m sure he’d be glad to hear feedback and I know he wants to make sure everything works and people can use it.

[ideus]

however I am a layout freak that would hardly be settle with no exploring multiple options;

I’d recommend at least giving the plain text KLL format a try then. There’s a lot of fairly sophisticated stuff you can do with it, and I’m not sure if a graphical tool is ever going to be able to fully represent all its features.

If you do try it, and you need any help / get stuck / etc., you can hop on IRC (#geekhack channel on Freenode, or hit this web client) and ping HaaTa directly. I’m sure he’d be glad to hear feedback and I know he wants to make sure everything works and people can use it.

I want to give it a try at some point, however I am very short on time these days at my job. But again, I really appreciate you took the time to provide this feedback.

[daerid]

If you're on OSX/Linux, it's actually very easy to build a layout. If you're on Windows, you can set up a VM to do the job pretty easily. And KLL is very easy once you get the hang of it. It becomes super  easy and quick to tweak your layout and reflash it.

[ideus]

If you're on OSX/Linux, it's actually very easy to build a layout. If you're on Windows, you can set up a VM to do the job pretty easily. And KLL is very easy once you get the hang of it. It becomes super  easy and quick to tweak your layout and reflash it.

As most things in life, after the required learning curve, get easy. The point being the Infinity was promoted along with an EASY configurator, not as a KLL, Linux based programmable keyboard.