Hello to the geekhack community from iKBC

[iKBC_Keyboards]

Hello guys!

We are so thrilled to finally enter the geekhack community and be able to show you guys our keyboards made for you, enthusiasts!

We design and manufacture high-performance mechanical keyboards for keyboard enthusiasts but let's start with a little story to let you guys know who we are (please don't fall asleep before the end  ):

iKBC was founded by a group of enthusiasts!
Their common interest brought them together, and they gradually formed a stable group. In order to develop the keyboard that all of them would like and recognize, they were always discussing and debating with one another about it,
"Until one day, a story was shared by everyone."
This story was originally about the camera king - Hasselblad. Hasselblad company was founded in 1841 and is the most well-known medium format camera manufacturer in the world. It started just as a small shop of business for photographic light-sensitive equipment in 1887. It then became the US Kodak's distributor in Sweden in 1908. However, it was Mr. Victor Hasselblad who started the production of the camera. Victor, born in 1906, was a photographer of birds, and an ornithologist in Sweden, and was also a well-known Swedish expert of photographic equipment at that time. It was his dream to create a SLR camera whose lens, film backs and viewfinder that could be replaceable. After World War II broke out, the Swedish Air Force captured the Luftwaffe reconnaissance camera from the German Air Force, and they asked Victor whether he could imitate and create a camera just like that. Victor replied: "No, but I can make a better one!"
Many people must have heard this story before, and people who pursue excellence will resonate with this. This story also inspired those keyboards fans, who worked spontaneously together, and were determined to create an ideal keyboard themselves! As a result, iKBC was born.
iKBC stands for "THE KEYBOARD TO CHEER YOU UP", which means “the keyboard that can bring you a pleasant experience”.

We recently launched our F-Series in the U.S. market and if you are a little curious and want to know more about our mechanical keyboards you can visit our following pages:

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/iKBCkeyboards/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/ikbc_mechkeyboards/


We love being part of this community and we would love to read what you have to say about our keyboards!

You can contact us via our facebook page or simply here!

We hope that you will enjoy our keyboards as much as we do!

iKBC Keyboards

[Lepidus]

Welcome! Its great to see an ikbc representative around.

This F series of yours, is this the one with an aluminum case that someone posted on reddit today?

[iKBC_Keyboards]

Hello Lepidus!

We are glad to read that you're happy to see us around 

Well, the picture posted today on reddit is a picture of a work-in-progress project of the F-Series made of Aluminium, for now it is just a project, not a final product, our R&D team has been playing around 

I have attached some pictures taken by users of the current F-Series (RGB Mech Kb) available in full size & tenkeyless.

See you around

iKBC Keyboards

[Lepidus]

Hello Lepidus!

We are glad to read that you're happy to see us around 

Well, the picture posted today on reddit is a picture of a work-in-progress project of the F-Series made of Aluminium, for now it is just a project, not a final product, our R&D team has been playing around 

I have attached some pictures taken by users of the current F-Series (RGB Mech Kb) available in full size & tenkeyless.

See you around

iKBC Keyboards

Awesome! Hope this project of yours go ahead, I would totally buy an aluminum tenkeyless RGB keyboard.

About this current F-87, it uses cherry switches, right? So the LEDs are SMD? On you website the switches are pictured with regular 3mm leds, but thats just the regular one color version, right?
Does the keyboard have dual PCB like the Ducky Shine 5 / Pok3r RGB, or just one PCB with built in leds?

Also, now that I mentioned Pok3r, can you tell what exactly is your relation with Vortex? I see Pok3r is mentioned on your webpage as iKBC Pok3r, but here its usually sold as Vortex Pok3r. Are you the same company?

[xtrafrood]

Awesome! Welcome aboard

[iKBC_Keyboards]

Thank you Lepidus and csmertx for your warm welcome!

Lepidus, you will find the answers to your questions below:

The F87 and F108 both use Cherry MX Switches and SMD RGB leds. The F108 and F87 use one double layer PCB.

Regarding your question about the relationship between Vortex & iKBC, Vortex is the parent company of iKBC, and the latter designs and produces the keyboards.

Once again, thank you for your warm welcome, if you have any questions do not hesitate 

iKBC Keyboards

[iKBC_Keyboards]

Hello everyone!

It's been some time since our last post and we wanted to share with you a video for you to discover our iKBC F-Series RGB Mechanical Keyboards starting with the iKBC F87 RGB.

.

Let us know your thoughts about this board, we love getting feedbacks! And if you have any questions simply hit the reply button and let us know!

iKBC Keyboards

[pon10]

Hey IKBC

Do you have furture plans Of ISO versions?

And Welcome:)

[menuhin]

Welcome iKBC, keyboard enthusiasts from Sweden! Hallå!

Very informative introduction! 
Can you throw names of a few key engineers from your interest group, and show us some of your prototypes? This will get your product image closer to those created by the community here.

Many of us (enthusiasts?) have a long wish list about products, for example, I want hot-swappable, fully-programmable 75% PCB for Alps switches or TKL PCB will also do. So welcome and please listen to our wishes.

[switchnollie]

Welcome

Do you plan on making the TKL with an aluminum case?
I think I saw one from you guys but it was a TenKey.

[menuhin]

By the way, only a few companies have PBT doubleshot backlit (translucent legend) keycaps, and I found only iKBC has the PBT doubleshot caps with decent looking legends (from their C87 / G87 series?)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/IKBC-KBC-G104-PBT-Double-shot-White-Translucidus-Backlight-Backlit-Keycaps-Key-Cap-for-Mechanical-Gaming/32643820797.html

Only white color set is offered as a separate set, can't find the grey/black color set.
It probably is in OEM profile - why can't these caps have Cherry profile? LED clearance? Really want to have a black set in Cherry profile.

[iKBC_Keyboards]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your questions and warm welcomes! we really appreciate!

We will try our best to reply to your questions below:

regarding pon10's question:

We do have ISO version of the keyboards for the european market, we don't sell them yet on the U.S. market however. We got some request from the U.S. and we will work on it and see if we can make available the ISO layout for other market where the ANSI layout is the main one.

regarding menuhin request:

Yes we will definitely share more content and information regarding our upcoming products and prototypes, we started hiring a U.S. team not too long ago and we are still in the process of setting up our office in the U.S. and we will soon share with you guys more of our work. Keep an eye on the forums and our facebook page

Also we understand that the community has many wishes regarding the ideal boards, while we can't make everyone's wishes come true, we do our best to listen to the trends among the community and we try to add features and design that have been awaited for a long time, but as you might know, we can't add everything and anything as it must be financially realistic. Please keep sharing your thoughts and wishes for upcoming boards, some of them might come true in the future!

Regarding the backlit PBT Double shot keycap in black for Cherry profile, you can find a set here, on the website of our parent company:

http://www.vortexgear.tw/vortex2_2.asp?kind=45&kind2=221&kind3=&kind4=1013

We will soon provide the Backlit PBT Double shot keycaps of all our models as a stand alone package, you will be able to buy the keycap sets, we will let the community know once available online.


regarding switchnollie's question:

We produced a limited edition of the F108 (Full Size) in black aluminium that we put on Massdrop, the community loved it and we will produce, during 2017, a full aluminium version of our F108 RGB (probably black & silver aluminium colors). As for the F87 (TKL) we will also make a full aluminium version, available during 2017, we can't be more precise at the moment.

Thank you all for your inquiries, keep up the good work!

iKBC Keyboards

[pon10]

Thanks for your reply guys!, Looking forward to follow upcoming versions, an especially forward for a F series / aluminum -  TKL ISO version. 

[Hand]

Is the MF108 with MX Clear switches available in the U.S.?

[hackware]

I've just about worn out the little user guide trying to set my keyboard leds... (MF-108)

Great keyboard!  But the leds are driving me crazy...

I would very much like to set the leds to a soft blue, for ALL KEYS, and STOP...   NO BLINKING, CHANGING, NOTHING but typing with solid soft blue...

All the blinking modes might be great for the kiddies, but I am a professional programmer of over 30 years, and want no blinking distractions...

And yes, some of my software uses the scroll-lock key, which your firmware seems to trigger on...   :-(

william...