I'm not dead yet! As others have noticed, my personal life has just be a little crazy. Between getting married, some scary medical news that thankfully turned out to be not so scary, and some other exciting news I can't quite share yet I've been a bit preoccupied. However, this keyboard is still very much a passion project for me and it would take a lot more for me to ever let it go.
A major slowdown for me has been prototyping, I've shared quite a bit that seems to work out in renders and even some base printing, but overall just doesn't quite work in the end. The best example I can give is the extra keys at the top of the board. While they've been something I've very much wanted to integrate, stability comes back to be a huge pain time and time again. I know flip flopping on key layouts does not help you guys at all with figuring out how you want to lay out your setups, and I'm terribly sorry it's been a bit of back and forth with it. I'll be posting what the final layout will look like in a second, with two notes:
1) The main cluster PCBs do have extra holes for the arrow clusters. Because of our current manufacturing plan, this is something we should be able to offer as an option right out of the gate.
2) The oft neglected external number pad will be available in two layouts, one for a standard number pad and the other for F keys/hot keys if you need direct access to such keys constantly.
A major part of the slowdown with the protyping was that it was being done on a machine that was never designed for what I was trying to do with it, namely dual extrusion. After cutting open my hands more than once trying to remove support material (and in one case needing stitches), and still having to fight to get decent prints we ended up investing in another printer. This new machine, unlike the previous was purpose built for dual extrusion and has made prototyping an absolute dream compared to the previous unit. No more cleaning up parts, they just go into the tank for an hour or two and are ready to go from there.
When I was experimenting in the different ways to produce manufacturable designs for the adjustable mount, I found that they were just getting more complicated. I took a step back, took a breather and readjusted my thinking (thankfully the 40min drive to and from work gives me a lot of time to think). I hit upon a design that would make the casings much cheaper to mold, would allow you to replace a joint if it were broken, makes the electrical connection automatically (instead of having to open the device to make the cable connections) and of course opens up the door for future designs/ideas.
So the first thing to note is a change in thickness:
1. First 3d printed design, probably the closest in terms of height
2. Midway through the design cycle, this case was taller to accommodate more jack sizes
3. The tallest design by far, this design allowed for ethernet cable sized jacks and 12mm thumbscrews to make it reasonable to tighten down. It also intergrated the folding stand and the 1/4"-20 threading
The flat design in the picture above is done using what I've been calling the travel bridge:
(the white stuff you see in some of the holes is support material that hasn't been removed yet)
When flat, from the bottom of the case (including feet) to the top of the new keycaps (more on that in a minute) it measures in at 32mm. By comparison, the last version of the case was about 24mm for just the base. Once I can get them ordered, the bars will house PCBs that make the electrical connection.
This same design can be swapped out for the adjustable arms:
You'll also notice what I lovingly call the cheese grater at the top of the case. This is the mounting point for stands/external mounts/etc. and is still a bit of a work in progress.
This also being more travel friendly, I also revisited some earlier designs:
I've been extremely happy with this setup, and barring major issues I'm done doing any major tinkering with it or the layout.
The last thing worth mentioning that I've been working on is a new keycap style. I've used it with both DCS and DSA and there were things I liked and didn't about both styles, so I've been working with a new cap style that combines what I like about both.
DSA, DCS, new style (unnamed)
This new style was the last thing I printed on the old machine and even with it's less than stellar tolerances the caps fit nicely on the Cherry & Matias stems. I haven't printed a full set yet for complete testing but that's underway, even on the new machine it'll take about 24 hrs to print them all. So far though I've been very happy with how comfortable they seem to be, I'll update more when I've had a few more days of testing.
The last few notes worth mentioning:
1) I've decided to hold off on the RGB backlighting for now. It complicates the setup and while I would love to include it, it isn't as vital to getting Axios out. I will however be leaving connection points in place so that it can be added in down the road to the existing design.
2) Dropping the RGB backlighting frees up a fair bit of power consumption, which lifts the barrier to what I think is a more important feature: Bluetooth. I'm currently working with someone local to get Bluetooth integrated into the design both for regular usage and configuration of the device.
3) Yes, those cutouts at the top are for screens. OLED screens to be more exact.
EDIT: Big shoutout to Kurplop for reminding me that while I had my head down at the grind stone I was being terribly negligent here