Hey, folks!

[amharris]

Hi, everyone (in the GeekHack community),

It's great to have finally got around to joining.
Over the past few weeks, I've been digging through many threads, absorbing knowledge of many people and feel that it's time I ought to join.

I wish to venture on a project of building a bit of an 'end-game' keyboard, at least for the coming decade.
So, I want it to meet my satisfaction. I'm quite the person for perfection, so I wouldn't want to regret a large investment.
I don't mind shelling out quite a bit but don't want to regret my decisions.

I'm a little brain-dead this evening, so having a back and forth conversation with some folks who'd be willing to take this journey with me would be greatly appreciated.

As a heads-up, I've been strongly favouring Signature Plastics to produce key-caps for me.
It'll be expensive for some one-off produced key-caps; but if they meet the best standards, I'll accept that fact.

I've also been investigating SwillKB and producing the plate, etc.

All-in-all, I don't want to have to deal with much DIY side of things; at least from an angle of tooling. It's not because I don't want to but because it would be a large investment and my lack of experience would no doubt result in an imperfect result.
I suppose my desired limit would be to fit things together but not have to deal with buffing sharp edges down, soldering, etc.
Then again, if I got a PCB, I suppose I would have to.

If worst comes to the worst, I could give it a shot but I don't have the equipment (let alone anything of high quality) and that would incur a cost in itself.

Anyhow, it's great to finally introduce myself to the community and I hope that I can learn, get involved and also meet some great people along the way.

Cheers,
- Alistair

[jerue]

Welcome to Geekhack!

If you get Signature Plastics to produce some keycaps, post an interest check! Maybe some of us will like the keycaps too and can contribute to your cause 

[jerue]

.

[amharris]

Welcome to Geekhack!

If you get Signature Plastics to produce some keycaps, post an interest check! Maybe some of us will like the keycaps too and can contribute to your cause 

Yeah, I could do.
At the moment, I'm keen on a past Group Buy design, though - if possible - there are a few tweaks to make to it.
One, that has been accepted by them, is a change to the layout [Programmer Dvorak/dvp]; but still, overall, an 87-key/tenkeyless ANSI layout would cost around $750 USD.
I reside in the UK, so I have to keep in mind that is excluding tax as well -- painfully expensive, but I am willing to get a hold of the best, as I said. I'm sensitive to some colours and it's nearly perfect in that regard, if not that [coincidentally]!

I suppose I could take inspiration from it and update it.
If it passed a group buy, then at least it'd be considerably less!

...but first of all, would you be willing to discuss keyboard construction with me, explain what 'Poker' really is (in the keyboard context of course!), what and how that relates to the GH60? I've done a bit of digging but haven't quite found what I'm looking for (in order to gain a true understanding).

Here's an example from matt3o on Deskthority that I found over the weekend:
http://deskthority.net/resources/image/7678

I love the barebones look of that but also as to how it is nice and high-quality and appears to make use of top-notch materials.

Cheers,
- Alistair

[jerue]

...but first of all, would you be willing to discuss keyboard construction with me, explain what 'Poker' really is (in the keyboard context of course!), what and how that relates to the GH60? I've done a bit of digging but haven't quite found what I'm looking for (in order to gain a true understanding).

Here's an example from matt3o on Deskthority that I found over the weekend:
http://deskthority.net/resources/image/7678

I love the barebones look of that but also as to how it is nice and high-quality and appears to make use of top-notch materials.

Cheers,
- Alistair

Ooo, that keycap set is DSA Retro! It's very nice, matt3o actually just did an SA version of that set, which ran on CTRLALT for a little while. Signature Plastics made that set IIRC. If you're looking to do a spin-off, I would suggest another retro gaming console (the Retro sets are based off the Commodore 64).

Poker is a series of keyboard produced by Vortex/KBTalking, a group community. They have released several iterations, the newest being the Poker 3, or POK3R. The main difference between the Poker and the GH60 is that the GH60 is entirely customizable, meaning you can flash your own software and whatnot to it. Pokers have a programming layer, but do not offer the same deep level of customization found on the GH60/KC60/etc.

[amharris]

...but first of all, would you be willing to discuss keyboard construction with me, explain what 'Poker' really is (in the keyboard context of course!), what and how that relates to the GH60? I've done a bit of digging but haven't quite found what I'm looking for (in order to gain a true understanding).

Here's an example from matt3o on Deskthority that I found over the weekend:
http://deskthority.net/resources/image/7678

I love the barebones look of that but also as to how it is nice and high-quality and appears to make use of top-notch materials.

Cheers,
- Alistair

Ooo, that keycap set is DSA Retro! It's very nice, matt3o actually just did an SA version of that set, which ran on CTRLALT for a little while. Signature Plastics made that set IIRC. If you're looking to do a spin-off, I would suggest another retro gaming console (the Retro sets are based off the Commodore 64).

Poker is a series of keyboard produced by Vortex/KBTalking, a group community. They have released several iterations, the newest being the Poker 3, or POK3R. The main difference between the Poker and the GH60 is that the GH60 is entirely customizable, meaning you can flash your own software and whatnot to it. Pokers have a programming layer, but do not offer the same deep level of customization found on the GH60/KC60/etc.

I mentioned the GH60 and 'Poker' construction, so I was referring to that -- sorry if I was unclear.
I'm not looking at those key-caps from Signature Plastics. When the time comes, I may reveal it; but I'll want to check with them as, due to it being a past Group Buy set, a one-off remake may be a touchy matter and I'm sure they won't want everyone doing it.

Regardless, I feel as though I'll likely publish my own design.
If only Neue Haas Unica wasn't an expensive typeface (or - better yet - libre), I'd love to make use of it. The same would apply to Droid Sans too.

I'll sketch up some ideas with a variation of libre typefaces.

Cheers,
- Alistair

[rowdy]

Welcome to Geekhack!

Here's a tip - there is no such thing as an "end game" keyboard.

There's been a few threads about end game keyboards:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=61033.0
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46256.0

In general people build what they think is an end game keyboard, and then a new PCB is created, or a new case, or a new keycap set, or perhaps a PBT version of a previously ABS-only keycap set, something always turns up and you wish you could buy that.

Then you realise that your end game keyboard is just another step on the journey.

There are one or two people that I have seen who have settled on just one keyboard, or perhaps two keyboards, and just use that.  No artisan keycaps.  No replacement keycap sets.  No additional customisation.  But such individuals are few and far between.

If you are looking at building a custom keyboard, most of them do involve soldering.  There are people who will do the soldering for you, if you so wish, and you can do the rest of the assembly.  It all depends on how much you want to spend, now much time you want to wait, and ultimately how much you really want to do yourself.

Good luck

[amharris]

Welcome to Geekhack!

Here's a tip - there is no such thing as an "end game" keyboard.

There's been a few threads about end game keyboards:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=61033.0
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46256.0

In general people build what they think is an end game keyboard, and then a new PCB is created, or a new case, or a new keycap set, or perhaps a PBT version of a previously ABS-only keycap set, something always turns up and you wish you could buy that.

Then you realise that your end game keyboard is just another step on the journey.

There are one or two people that I have seen who have settled on just one keyboard, or perhaps two keyboards, and just use that.  No artisan keycaps.  No replacement keycap sets.  No additional customisation.  But such individuals are few and far between.

If you are looking at building a custom keyboard, most of them do involve soldering.  There are people who will do the soldering for you, if you so wish, and you can do the rest of the assembly.  It all depends on how much you want to spend, now much time you want to wait, and ultimately how much you really want to do yourself.

Good luck

Hey,

Well, I meant it in a more expressive manner but it's a good point regardless. It is indeed important to remember that there will always be something new around the corner.
Though thanks for the links. 

...and I'm sure that I'd be keen on someone else doing the soldering for me and then I could follow up with the rest of the assembly.
At least there's flexibility in that; and that's precisely what I want -- flexibility in how much I can do myself.

Would you be willing to PM me to clarify my current understanding of several things, as I don't wish to flood the main 'New Members' section, even though it's my thread [I feel as though it would be going beyond its purpose at such a point].

Cheers,
- Alistair

[rowdy]

Although you're welcome to PM me, I'm not as technical as people think

Much of what you need can probably be found linked from the recommended reading thread, but please ask anything else you are not sure about

[demik]

Sup

[beehatch]

hi

[demik]

nm, u?

[rowdy]

Doesn't seem a successful test