[IC] GMK CYL ZX | Doubleshot Sublegends!

[Beesley]

Now with Doubleshot Sublegends!

Inspiration

ZX takes inspiration from the classic Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Incorporating the bright colors and grey keycaps to your modern board.

Along with bringing you the more sculpted typing experience using Cherry R0 & R5

Kitting

Non-UV Printed Alphas have been removed due to GMK confirming the sub legends will be doubleshot!

Deskmat

Colors

Row Comparison

Metal Artisan Collab

R0 Collaboration with MVKB & Salvun

Renders

Event Horizon by MVKB

Model13 by Plyktra

Austin by DriftMechanics

Austin by DriftMechanics

[Afresh]

Looks good! Good luck boys

[xLeHoy]

Looking nice. GLWIC!

[dededecline]

Is this GMK? The colors and R0/R5 would indicate as much but it’s not explicitly said.

[spikedsynapse]

I like it a lot!

[cthalupa]

Is this GMK? The colors and R0/R5 would indicate as much but it’s not explicitly said.

Potentially. We're considering our options - there's been some interest expressed from other manus getting R0/R5 molds made and they're also OK color matching to stock GMK colors, but we've not finalized vendors or manus at this time.

I've also got spectrophotometer scans for all the stock colors and we'll be going hard on color matching if we do end up pursuing an option besides GMK.

[MoltenKhor]

I'm totally in for this one 

[LightningXI]

Cool looking set. I'd be inclined to get it if it's through GMK.

[Manukbs_]

Yes yes yes yes

[bigdonnerz]

Why are you doing an IC and posting kitting when you haven't picked a manu. Also if you go GMK do moulds for this set exist already?

[ankit]

Would you consider replacing the 1.5u backspace legend from "<- Back" to "Backspace", it's usually the preferred legend choice.
Are the sublegends going to be pad/UV print or doubleshot?

[cthalupa]

Why are you doing an IC and posting kitting when you haven't picked a manu. Also if you go GMK do moulds for this set exist already?

Lots of reasons!

Feedback on the manufacturer is actually really valuable, which we're already seeing - both in posts in here and in the IC form. Some people are specifically interested if we run it with GMK and not interested if we don't. That's going to factor in on decisions we make.

The kitting is largely independent of the manufacturer - we want a proper R0/R5 set with compatibility for the most common boards that can take advantage of it. If we end up working with a manu where molds need to be made, then we'll be setting the kitting. If we go with GMK, we believe our kitting should match the molds used in other R0/R5 sets, and if there are any mistakes on that front we will adjust as necessary prior to the GB.

Getting feedback on kitting in general is valuable. There's a lot of keyboards out there with a lot of layout considerations, and the extra eyes can help us catch things we missed.

Yes, GMK has R0/R5 molds. To my knowledge the only sets that have run with R0 and R5 have been GMK, e.g. Carbon https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=96488.0 , ASCII https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=103218.0 , iris, some extension kits, etc. You can see a list of GMK molds in the PDF at https://uniqey.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008759900-Designing-a-Custom-GMK-Keycap-Set-Guide

[cthalupa]

Would you consider replacing the 1.5u backspace legend from "<- Back" to "Backspace", it's usually the preferred legend choice.
Are the sublegends going to be pad/UV print or doubleshot?

I'll check with Beesley on the backspace. (Edit: Yep, we'll make this change.)

Sublegends will depend on the manu. We've not ruled out dyesub at this time, but if the set ends up being doubleshot in general the sublegends will likely be pad/UV print.

[baekihyun]

R0/R5 Would highly prefer if the subs ended up being doubleshot, set looks great though!

[fruitykeeb]

We chatting in texmechs about this, but just logging my interest for 3-key 40s and Alice bars

[cthalupa]

R0/R5 Would highly prefer if the subs ended up being doubleshot, set looks great though!

These would require a whole lot of new molds to do doubleshot sublegends, unfortunately, which would be very cost prohibitive. Also probably a pretty significant rework to meet the tolerance requirements.

[baekihyun]

R0/R5 Would highly prefer if the subs ended up being doubleshot, set looks great though!

These would require a whole lot of new molds to do doubleshot sublegends, unfortunately, which would be very cost prohibitive. Also probably a pretty significant rework to meet the tolerance requirements.

Yeah I realize that Just not a fan of uv/pad print personally, might be worth considering a separate alphas kit without the pad print (front print is fine)? All up to demand/pricing though, I realize I'm in the minority about this

[LightningXI]

Would you consider replacing the 1.5u backspace legend from "<- Back" to "Backspace", it's usually the preferred legend choice.
Are the sublegends going to be pad/UV print or doubleshot?

Glad that ankit suggested this change - I didn't notice it at first. Glad it'll be changed!

[Rob27shred]

A proper R0 to R5 kit in a banging colorway! Well sign my ass up LOL! Seriously though I really like this design & the vintage vibes to keep on theme a lot! I'd be down for this in GMK or Keykobo TBH.

[mgsickler]

Count me in if it’s GMK.

[Kokaloo]

might be the one r5 set i'll bend on... hopefully there's some room for 40s and more bars

[paperassgasket]

Feels disingenuous to have set based on a tiny keyboard that lacks tiny keyboard compatibility

[Patty]

IC filled! I know this was mentioned already but would also love to see alice support!

[involuntarysoul]

any chance for monotone N9 alt alpha?

could be a great alternative for Boneyard/Nines enjoyer

[Beesley]

40s community has spoken and 3 key 40's has been added. Also added a spacebar kit.

[cthalupa]

Astute observers might notice an additional change, too.... Like a certain German manufacturer being labeled in the images
(Edit: And the title now too)

[cthalupa]

any chance for monotone N9 alt alpha?

could be a great alternative for Boneyard/Nines enjoyer

I think we'd need to see a decent amount of interest to consider it. It's not great building out child kits, having people purchase based on the expectation those hit MOQ, etc., and then have them not reach it or force vendors to do a buyout for it to reach MOQ, so we really only want to do things we believe will hit MOQ naturally.

[Jae-3soteric]

Astute observers might notice an additional change, too.... Like a certain German manufacturer being labeled in the images
(Edit: And the title now too)

Good choice. Def going to be in on this one

[DirtyGingy]

This set looks amazing. My only concern are the legends. I love the look, but if any top legending is done with UV or pad printing, I'm out.

[vhaarr]

I think we'd need to see a decent amount of interest to consider it. It's not great building out child kits, having people purchase based on the expectation those hit MOQ, etc., and then have them not reach it or force vendors to do a buyout for it to reach MOQ, so we really only want to do things we believe will hit MOQ naturally.

I mean I won't even dare ask for NorDeUk, but I'd definitely buy it :-P

Needs a different desk mat though.

That said if I was to give any feedback here it's that I really think the set is missing proper sublegends for the numpad. The official ZX spectrum numpad definitely had some really weird choices in the numpad layout and functions, and I think they deserve to be reflected in this set. Even though they're crazy af LOL

[HubertThemad]

GLWIC, Beesley. Would love to pick this up since I'm out of grey GMKs 

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

This is superb. Looking forward to it.

I’d buy any R0 R5 gmk set that runs as I like it.

[Zyrophr]

Dope

[Kokaloo]

all in. excited!

[Necrolegion]

I dig it!

[CryosFear]

R1 1U Backspace? I'm so in.

[konstantin]

Nice inspiration and nice realization. The kitting's pretty on point too. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

R1 1U Backspace? I'm so in.

Lol, I was just about to say that key is pretty unnecessary, but it looks like at least someone cares about it

[sirieous]

Looks pretty neat

[Little4Real]

I really hope the subs are double-shot. I haven't been interested in a GMK set in a very long time until these, but if they're UV printed, I'm out.

[cthalupa]

So, the subs unfortunately *have* to be UV printed. They are not workable in doubleshot, even if it was somehow economically viable for us to get that many new molds. There are just too many areas that are too fine in detail or have to small of a radius for them to be possible within the doubleshot mold guidelines.

Now, I want to be clear I'm not promising anything here, and this is purely to try and get a better understanding of the concerns and gauge the interest in potential solutions, but:

If an alternative alphas kit was offered without top sublegends, would this be acceptable? Would you still want the front print legends, or for those to also be removed?


(Also, what is the general concern with UV printed sublegends? I'm typing this on a GMK set with UV sublegends right now and think it's quite nice. Durability concerns? The slightly raised feel of the sublegends when typing?)

[tactilesbad]

never gotten the hate for UV print, GMK's at least. they last immensely longer than the surface texture on their caps. my griseann printed subs have been holding up for years unscathed

not sure if people crying for UV print ever even experienced it

[aicyborg]

ZX Spectrum is a specifically UK thing and not having UK keys in base for this really sucks. Please consider adding UK support - it's like six keys and it literally suits your theme so well.

Clive would want it. 

[nickthaskater]

This would have been such a good SP SA set. RIP.

Still, very nice. IC filled.

[twitchytheinsideman]

a set featuring both r0 and r5. wowza

[Beesley]

Added a no top UV print alpha option for those that dislike them.

EDIT: UK ISO also added to base kit.

[shadewind]

Any chance of R3 Home key for us 75% users who like Home/End right above the arrow keys?

[tactilesbad]

I'd rather have alice support in base than those 6 UK keys that 99% of the buyers will never use

[cthalupa]

I'd rather have alice support in base than those 6 UK keys that 99% of the buyers will never use

We've had significantly more IC/etc. responses asking for UK support than alice support at all, even before we made the bars kit. And while the ZX Spectrum line didn't have UK legends like this on them, we are sympathetic to the argument that with a set that takes inspiration from a British electronics company has some specific kinship with UK legends.

And... practical reality is that bars kits meet MOQ, a full international kit with the gradient is a pain and likely wouldn't meet MOQ, and a UK ISO specific kit would be a pricing nightmare.

Every change we make is going to have competing interests so we've got to try and strike a balance that makes the most sense between "Supports the largest number of people," "Stuff that can feasibly hit MOQ and get made," and "Keeps pricing reasonable."

[MartinThePolarBear]

That Deskmat goes so unbelievably hard. I love everything about this

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

[AMZ]

Count me in!