[IC] Serenity - Seamless F13 TKL

[HoodrowThrillson]

Serenity
Seamless F13 TKL by Hoodrow Thrillson
IC form

But Hoody, why bother designing another boring F13 TKL? Don't you think there's already so many options out there for everyone?
Well, yes. I took the same approach I had with all my keycap sets, I make what I want and hope that people out there are looking for the same thing. No, it's not smart business since I'm not trying to fill a void or a niche area of the hobby, but that's why I'm making this IC.

As a marketing professional, I understand the importance of well thought out copy and using popular terms to help sell a product, but to be honest, I'm kind of tired of a lot of the copywriting I see here where it goes above and beyond to garner interest for their item. Some of them are written to the point where it's like 95% fluff. To not end up like that, I'll just give you the facts straight.

Specifications:
TKL
Top mount
Seamless
F13
7 degrees
DB
Side underglow
Brass weight under alpha
Stainless steel circle weight (blank circle weight step file will be posted after GB so y'all can get whatever you want made)
Plate materials: Aluminum, open to others (let me know in the IC form)

Colors:
Olive (it's green but I chose a color to match GMK Olive so it's olive)
Burgundy (it's red but it's a darker shade)
Black (it's literally black)

Originally the design was seamed and a prototype was made (I have it on hand if anyone has questions), but I've made the move to make it seamless. Prototype will be delivered when it gets here.

Vendor has been found, build stream and sound test will be done after it arrives to me so I can do a quick mock up build.

Renders

Olive Renders

More

Burgundy Renders

More

Black Renders

More

Underglow

More

[HoodrowThrillson]

This is my post

Seamed prototype photos with the same green as the render (something something lighting something something)



(Note, I asked for an engraved circle weight this time around instead of laser etched)

https://i.imgur.com/wxzV5zm.mp4
Underglow video, please excuse my messy ass desk

[MK47]

Is it top mount?

[HoodrowThrillson]

Is it top mount?

Yes, I totally forgot to add that. I've fixed it now.

[LightningXI]

Is it top mount?

Specifications:
TKL
Top mount



also, very nice, will keep an eye on this - the side windows look pretty cool.

[Dumbass]

The colours are nice, not a fan of the engraving on the front though.

[HoodrowThrillson]

The colours are nice, not a fan of the engraving on the front though.

I've spoken with friends and they're torn. Some like it, some don't like it.

I am re-evaluating the engraving but no changes planned yet.

[Senpai_deezy]

I really like this, but I do have one question and that is if it is jane top mount or something else

[RA Can]

[amorino]

My problem with the front engraving is that the S is huge and almost touch the top edge, the remaining letters have more space on top than on bottom and that feels weird.

[ankit]

n e target pricing? can we see the plate mounting point locations?

[Senpai_deezy]

^^^

[The0rigina1]

Not very big on the engraving indeed

[dingusxmcgee]

Nice

[Kokaloo]

T H R I L L

[ZavaZ86]

Seems like the whole thing is pretty much set in stone already which makes the question of why is this even an IC. Is it just to get enough people to split the cost because that's what it seems like tbh.

[Keeblet_257]

I have a question about the underglow. Is it supposed to be seen from the top? Judging from the last one or two pictures I see that there is LED bleeding. Sorry if its not called LED bleeding, I just meant he green light between the sidebezels and keycaps.
The other question I have is about the vendor. Since the vendor has been found yet, will it be okey to share the name of the vendor or will it get published later on.

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

Front engraving could be smaller maybe? As it is the Serenity isn’t very serene

Love the olive green and the back weight design. Honestly I’d buy as is too.

[ankit]

As a marketing professional, I understand the importance of well thought out copy and using popular terms to help sell a product, but to be honest, I'm kind of tired of a lot of the copywriting I see here where it goes above and beyond to garner interest for their item. Some of them are written to the point where it's like 95% fluff. To not end up like that, I'll just give you the facts straight.

 Can we at least have a of list plate materials proto'd/planned or would that fall under fluff?

[HoodrowThrillson]

I really like this, but I do have one question and that is if it is jane top mount or something else

Jane top mount

n e target pricing? can we see the plate mounting point locations?

Since I've never ran a keyboard GB before, I don't know what the pricing will look like.

Seems like the whole thing is pretty much set in stone already which makes the question of why is this even an IC. Is it just to get enough people to split the cost because that's what it seems like tbh.

Aren't most keyboard GBs more or less set in stone? When I do my keycap ICs, I pretty much have 95% of the details figured out. This is the same case here.

My problem with the front engraving is that the S is huge and almost touch the top edge, the remaining letters have more space on top than on bottom and that feels weird.

it's not necessarily almost touching the top edge. the N is equidistance from the top bottom of the cluster and top of the arrow cluster

Not very big on the engraving indeed

noted

I have a question about the underglow. Is it supposed to be seen from the top? Judging from the last one or two pictures I see that there is LED bleeding. Sorry if its not called LED bleeding, I just meant he green light between the sidebezels and keycaps.
The other question I have is about the vendor. Since the vendor has been found yet, will it be okey to share the name of the vendor or will it get published later on.

So the LEDs are mounted on the underside of the PCB along the edge that has the acrylic side pieces. There will be some light bleed due to the nature of where the LEDs are. The amount of bleed would be determined by how bright you make the LEDs

[HoodrowThrillson]

Front engraving could be smaller maybe? As it is the Serenity isn’t very serene

Love the olive green and the back weight design. Honestly I’d buy as is too.

Originally the plan was to engrave some kind of image like stacked rocks or something but I couldn't figure out anything that would work. I will play with the font and engraving size to figure this part out.

Can we at least have a of list plate materials proto'd/planned or would that fall under fluff?

That's not fluff, just haven't decided entirely. A part of me believes I should only offer an aluminum plate because the plate file is already public with some vendors offering different materials in that plate in stock.

[ankit]

That's not fluff, just haven't decided entirely. A part of me believes I should only offer an aluminum plate because the plate file is already public with some vendors offering different materials in that plate in stock.

Based af. Do this.

[HoodrowThrillson]

I was confused as to why the engraving looked different and realized it's different from the one I originally used. Will get this fixed in the renders to get a better portrayal of what the board looks like

[el_lento]

Nice project, personally prefer the original design, not a fan of seamless. I know this a well known plate design but it would be nice that you include an image where you can see it so everyone can get a look at it. What is the internal spacing from the bottom of the plate to the bottom piece of the keyboard?

[Keeblet_257]

That's not fluff, just haven't decided entirely. A part of me believes I should only offer an aluminum plate because the plate file is already public with some vendors offering different materials in that plate in stock.

this might sound like a dumb question for ppl that know the answer to that but where are the plate files? I would normaly join the Discord and simply use the search tab or use control+f but the IC was held pretty simple and I dont think that I have missed a link to the discord or a plate file. If it's a commonly used plate file for TKLs or one from a board that is commonly used, where could I find it or where should I search for it?

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

I’d love a design in place of text on the front. I’ve seen your sets you’ll come up w something great.

[Puddsy]

i dig it

[Backspace2]

Like some said, not huge on the engraving. E-white would be a good color too

[Zensa06]

Is this WKL only?

[HoodrowThrillson]

Like some said, not huge on the engraving. E-white would be a good color too

Don't worry, renders weren't the correct engraving.

Nice project, personally prefer the original design, not a fan of seamless. I know this a well known plate design but it would be nice that you include an image where you can see it so everyone can get a look at it. What is the internal spacing from the bottom of the plate to the bottom piece of the keyboard?

I would hate to come off as rude but it's a top mount using a jane v2 ce plate. There's plenty of examples of what the inside would look like.

Nonetheless, here is a screenshot of how it mounts to the top.



Internal spacing from bottom of plate to top of PCB is 3.5mm, PCB is 1.6mm, bottom of PCB to bottom of keyboard (internally) is 2.5, so 7.6mm

I’d love a design in place of text on the front. I’ve seen your sets you’ll come up w something great.

I would love to but in terms of aesthetic, I found it difficult to find something that fits. In lien of this, the rear circle weight does feature a mountain scene with stars.

this might sound like a dumb question for ppl that know the answer to that but where are the plate files? I would normaly join the Discord and simply use the search tab or use control+f but the IC was held pretty simple and I dont think that I have missed a link to the discord or a plate file. If it's a commonly used plate file for TKLs or one from a board that is commonly used, where could I find it or where should I search for it?

Google Jane v2 (or v2 ce) plate

Jane v2 CE plate is here (control+f plate). Yutski's original files require small tweaks but that is the basis.

i dig it

thanks puddsy

Is this WKL only?

I am tempted to offer it only in WKL as it is the one true layout.

[xef]

Looks really nice. The side glow reminds me of Duck boards and that is the perfect underglow implementation imo. Hopefully there'll be an alternative top engraving or option to not have one. GLWIC

btw wkl f13 one true layout

[spedywin]

its notbad

[elvenmonster]

Lovely colour and really like the laser etched weight! I also low key like the seamed version a lot, but ofc this is all preference. GLWIC!

[elongatedmusk]

underglow good

[Keeblet_257]

this might sound like a dumb question for ppl that know the answer to that but where are the plate files? I would normaly join the Discord and simply use the search tab or use control+f but the IC was held pretty simple and I dont think that I have missed a link to the discord or a plate file. If it's a commonly used plate file for TKLs or one from a board that is commonly used, where could I find it or where should I search for it?

Google Jane v2 (or v2 ce) plate

Jane v2 CE plate is here (control+f plate). Yutski's original files require small tweaks but that is the basis.

thanks for help, I found the files.

[soundstage]

Only WKL option available? No WK?

[HoodrowThrillson]

its notbad

we take those

Lovely colour and really like the laser etched weight! I also low key like the seamed version a lot, but ofc this is all preference. GLWIC!

I'm not 100% sold on the laser etched weight so I'll be getting an engraved weight to see if I like that better. A part of me wants to see people infill the design in the weight since I think that's always interesting

underglow good

glowgang

Looks really nice. The side glow reminds me of Duck boards and that is the perfect underglow implementation imo. Hopefully there'll be an alternative top engraving or option to not have one. GLWIC

btw wkl f13 one true layout

I would consider a no engraving option but I'm not entirely sold on it. My logic is that, for me personally, I find a hard time determining what a keyboard is when the top has nothing "special". Light bars, accent pieces, etc. on the top piece allows it to be easily distinguishable. I find engravings to do the same (to a less complex degree) since I can look at what's engraved and easily determine what board it is.

this might sound like a dumb question for ppl that know the answer to that but where are the plate files? I would normaly join the Discord and simply use the search tab or use control+f but the IC was held pretty simple and I dont think that I have missed a link to the discord or a plate file. If it's a commonly used plate file for TKLs or one from a board that is commonly used, where could I find it or where should I search for it?

Google Jane v2 (or v2 ce) plate

Jane v2 CE plate is here (control+f plate). Yutski's original files require small tweaks but that is the basis.

thanks for help, I found the files.

No problem, google is your best friend for plate files

Only WKL option available? No WK?

I'm tempted to offer it only in WKL but I am open to running a WK version as well. IC form will better determine this.

[Friendship]

nice, I dig this board, the under glow, the colors, the soft look. not big on the engraving but I agree with TKLs needing soooomething to differentiate sometimes but not ultimately necessary. text can be polarizing while a line or small icon or something tends to be more generally agreed upon.

One suggestion if you like the aesthetic of the laser etch but want a more premium depthy look of the routing you could do a tumble finish to the routed weight. just an idea

GLWIC!

[QWER|key]

Seems like the whole thing is pretty much set in stone already which makes the question of why is this even an IC. Is it just to get enough people to split the cost because that's what it seems like tbh.

That's part of what an IC is for, surely. It's not just to feed back, it's to make sure there is enough interest to fund it.

[Puddsy]

Seems like the whole thing is pretty much set in stone already which makes the question of why is this even an IC. Is it just to get enough people to split the cost because that's what it seems like tbh.

That's part of what an IC is for, surely. It's not just to feed back, it's to make sure there is enough interest to fund it.

These days, ICs are mostly just a heads up that something is getting made and a way to get people to spot any major oversights in your product before you stake a bunch of money on it. Part of that is because many people will view your IC as incomplete if you don't have a basically complete product, part of it is because the community is big enough now that it's pretty rare for something to not get made so long as the person making it does a little marketing. It's not like back in the day where you had to convince the other few dozen people in the community to spend money on your stuff. 

Plus, if you have a complete IC for a bad product, people will be sure to let you know very quickly.

[HoodrowThrillson]

Seems like the whole thing is pretty much set in stone already which makes the question of why is this even an IC. Is it just to get enough people to split the cost because that's what it seems like tbh.

That's part of what an IC is for, surely. It's not just to feed back, it's to make sure there is enough interest to fund it.

These days, ICs are mostly just a heads up that something is getting made and a way to get people to spot any major oversights in your product before you stake a bunch of money on it. Part of that is because many people will view your IC as incomplete if you don't have a basically complete product, part of it is because the community is big enough now that it's pretty rare for something to not get made so long as the person making it does a little marketing. It's not like back in the day where you had to convince the other few dozen people in the community to spend money on your stuff. 

Plus, if you have a complete IC for a bad product, people will be sure to let you know very quickly.

This is the state of Geekhack.

[ubmit]

I dig i! Just want to mention that the engraving above the arrow cluster seems a bit big too me as well, but I loved the font.

[Puddsy]

i either missed or ignored the proto pictures last time i looked at this thread, that green is nice

[Diggidy]

.

[ubmit]

well put: you can't win

[amorino]

I don't know what I was looking when I commented that the S was centered but other letters are not, they definitely look centered on all renders and prototype photos now. Sorry 🤦‍♂️

Underglow looks awesome. GL.

[icey_keebss]

oh my gawd this looks so good

[LMarci]

It looks nice, but you should have waited and posted the IC when you at least have a proto. Est. pricing would be nice too.

[Cylent]

Me when I see this IC: Firefly Theme Song

Seriously though I'm interested in this one if the price is right.

[sirieous]

neat rectangle will consider hope the front engraving is made a bit smaller