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Black Diamond 75

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DryStudio:
Hello, I'm a designer who's passionate about supercars and mechanical keyboards. I also enjoy playing games such as Forza Motorsport, Valorant and Rainbow Six.

I want to make something different, so I spent my free time designing a new keyboard together with FARSOUL. We call this keyboard Black Diamond 75, and it takes its inspiration from the modified all-carbon Lamborghini Aventador - the MANSORY Carbonado (also known as the "Black Diamond"). Our goal is to bring its sleek, angular-line design language into this keyboard.


Carbon fiber cannot be missing from true supercars. Therefore, I want to build Black Diamond 75 from carbon fiber to recreate some of that supercar flair. I went to a creator space and made several samples to see how we could integrate carbon fiber into our keyboard design.






Being a gamer myself, I want to implement 2.4G support, so that the latency is not compromised when I'm using the keyboard wirelessly. I found out that the latest 2.4G modules have a latency that can go as low as 1ms, so I want to give this dongle a try to see how well it works.


I'm stuck in a dilemma trying to figure out the appropriate typing experience. As a mechanical keyboard enthusiast, I want it to be thocky with enough flex, but that doesn't go too well with gaming. For gaming, I just need switches with a short actuation distance, such as Cherry MX Speed Silver or Kailh Speed Silver Gaming for quicker reaction speed. Flex won't help here at all. Seems like I have to make a choice between those two. I'm playing around with different mounting methods to see what I can do to make a balanced keyboard that has a good typing feel and typing profile, but can also perform well while gaming.

I will keep updating this thread as we make progress with this board. I also made a Discord server where I will post updates: https://discord.gg/qmjvMhyDKZ

gamebynight:
I would absolutely suggest going with flex over fast switches. Users can always opt for their own faster switch. Flex and soft typing may not help gaming performance but it will help the keyboard feel better to use, which will make it better for gaming on inherently.

DryStudio:
I've finished making the remainder of the case parts. These parts are crafted from aluminum with the help of CNC. For the bottom cover, I chose a thick piece of aluminum measuring 2 cm. This is the same process Apple uses for their bottom case of the MacBook Pro. This is the aluminum piece that will become the bottom cover:


The bottom cover takes 4 steps to finish:


The palm rest and the other decorative parts are milled from a 1.2 cm thick piece. Final result looks pretty neat I would say:


I'm going to assemble the whole thing and see how it looks.

EdgeOfInfinity:
the individual parts look cool machined, now we need to see it assembled! cool project

DryStudio:
I put everything together and snapped some pics using a camera. I add some LEDs and PBT keycaps and I must say I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Still working on the internals, but I feel I have a clearer vision now on how to achieve a good balance. I'll share it here when I have something new to update.

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