[IC] Glow SA, Glow-in-the-Dark profiled SA, PRICES ADDED 2019-02-17

[scud80]

is there a reason not to include a 40% kit as an option (aside from a little more design work)?  concern that people might join and then withdraw if it doesn't make MOQ?  this is the first time i've participated in discussion prior to the initiation of a GB, so it's all new to me.

[clasicks]

is there a reason not to include a 40% kit as an option (aside from a little more design work)?  concern that people might join and then withdraw if it doesn't make MOQ?  this is the first time i've participated in discussion prior to the initiation of a GB, so it's all new to me.

Reason for most being that it ends up as a waste of time - they rarely meet MOQ unless its a carbon or pulse on MD type of thing

[Parva Ovis]

As a 40% user, all the keys I need are in the current kits. I'd rather buy a bunch of kits and have plenty of keycaps left over for other things than buy a 40% kit that probably won't make MOQ.

EDIT: I myself am not a 40% keyboard. 

[scud80]

i forget that i'm a minority of a minority in that my 40/50% are also columnar (and split even).  most 40% users are probably more of the vortex core/etc type.

[emenelopee]

New render time:

[scud80]

i *really* like that one

[_ODIN_]

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I posted this as a pre-interest check in the Keycaps thread (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=94212.0), and there seems to be enough positive feedback to start a legit interest check. I was worried when SP said the weren't taking new orders for PBT SA, but the latest new is SP are getting new molds tooling put together and will be ready to take orders for SA PBT in about a month! Preamble out of the way, this is the Glow SA keycap set!

For your inner child, Glow-in-the-Dark anything is almost as good as the smell of a new He-Man action figure or the feel of those stretchy sticky hands. Also they look great with backlight with a nicely diffused glow that lasts even when you turn your keyboard lights off! During the day, a nice yellow/cream. A perfect accompaniment to whatever flavour of SA you're sporting.

To keep things simple, I'm imagining keeping this two sets: 60% Base covers ANSI 60% boards in the usual fashion; 100% Upgrade bumps this up to the full 100% incl. F-row, numpad cluster, arrow cluster, and, maybe, some novelties (currently placeholders, thoughts and pics welcome if anyone has any suggestions).  UPDATE: Kits are expanded following community feedback. Currently about 85% complete.

Images below are the same set: with lights on, and in the dark. Colours are taken from pipette-sampling the web images, but having the Poison SA key on hand, they're pretty closely represented. Colouring is moot however - we all know what colour GitD is, and that colour is: AWESOME.

Profile: SA, 112343
Manufacturer: Signature Plastics
Material: Thick PBT
Legends: Dye-sub Black
Colour: GLOW-IN-THE-DARK!
Sets: 60% base, 100% upgrade


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UPDATE 2018-04-22: MOCKUP RENDERS:

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SIGNATURE PLASTICS REFERENCE MATERIAL:

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Material photos from PMK https://pimpmykeyboard.com/sa-poison-key/:

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UPDATE 2018-04-08:

While we wait for SP to finalize their tooling and send out new spec sheets and get ready for price quoting, a minor update and housecleaning. Expecting more logistic information toward the end of April, in the meantime novelty progress and tidied up presentation. These are all the current ideas, not all will be used. Vote for your favourite and as always feel free to suggest anything you want to add.

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And a quick daytime shot of the caps among Carbon Orange and MaxKey Ninja:

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UPDATE 2018-03-04:

- New and improved layouts following community feedback;
- Novelties are still being worked on, still looking for inspiration.
- Extended ISO NORDE support isn't there yet - any specific requests for this?
- Other than tweaking the kits and novelties a little, design will go slow down until SP can confirm their latest SA capabilities: not all keys are available on the preferred rows (see image below) which is being rectified by SP as we speak.

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UPDATE 2018-02-28:

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Limiting to two kits makes life much easier for all involved, and it would need a really good argument for me to split further (feel free to try!). As much as I'd like to consider the more exotic Planck/Colevrak/Split options, this is not the set, not the first time around. Within this boundary condition, I'm open to suggestions. Any extra keys would be dumped into the 100% Upgrade set.

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So I'm putting this to the hive mind - any interest for Glow SA?

Help feed the hype monster

And if you want to help feed the hype monster, here's a banner to add to your footer:

Go to:

Profile > Forum Profile > Signature

Under signature copy and paste this jibberish:

Code: [Select]

[url=https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=94287.0][img]https://i.imgur.com/dILX8xk.png[/img][/url]
Then hit "Change Profile" button on the bottom to finish. Thx!

iso norde pls. greetings from germany

[heavyheaded]

Not supporting HHKB-style boards (so many coming out now) with the ctrl, backspace/delete, 7u space with 1.5/1u keys...seems like a huge mistake.

[donutcat]

Not supporting HHKB-style boards (so many coming out now) with the ctrl, backspace/delete, 7u space with 1.5/1u keys...seems like a huge mistake.

I'm pretty sure every single key you mentioned is there if you look at the actual mockups and not just the renders.

[emenelopee]

Oops, that's on me - tidying up the OP and I hid too many images. All kits and novelties should be visible by default now.

[_ODIN_]

novelty idea (size 1 u) : https://goo.gl/images/iY9V1H

[haichungcn]

This set looks great. May I suggest adding a ghost icon to the novelties ?

[My therapist said so]

I like this a lot. If it supports ISO Norde, count me in 

[mogo]

I like this a lot. If it supports ISO Norde, count me in 

This was brought up on the last page, see below.

- Extended ISO NORDE support isn't there yet - any specific requests for this?

Full Norde like SA Carbon or SA Oblivion:

R3 ALT GR 1U / R3 ALT GR 1.25 / ALT GRAPH 1.5
With tertiary legends (!)
R4 1.25 Shift
Iso enter
Yes please.

I'm afraid you're in a minority of one for NORDE at the moment: ISO tends to not fare too well, let alone NORDE, so g l o w is limited to the UK ISO which I'm not expecting to reach MOQ anyway (we'll see when the MOQ numbers come through from SP, and fingers crossed it does) which has the keys you listed other than AltGr.

Generally, I've been a little slow on further dev as I've had a ton of irl stuff on my plate recently. Messing around with Rhino/VRay today, hoping for some decent results, but as I said earlier in this post, emissive materials are tough to make look good: current experiments are resulting in all-glowing mass with no contrast from key to key as you can't cast shadows and highlights on light-source materials so they come out all flat. As before, more as it develops.

Thanks again to all for the interest and discussion, it's nice to see the idea has some legs. Let's make it happen' cap'n!

[emenelopee]

novelty idea (size 1 u) : https://goo.gl/images/iY9V1H

Doesn't interest me, but it might other people. I'll do a mockup for the forever delayed novelty poll and we'll put it to the masses to decide.

This set looks great. May I suggest adding a ghost icon to the novelties ?

Ditto. There were suggestions for an emoji ghost, and we looked at Lego ghosts. I hadn't mocked up the former, while the latter is there in spirit in the ghostface.

Unfortunately the novelty mockups take time which I recently haven't had.

I like this a lot. If it supports ISO Norde, count me in 

As mogo noted, this has been covered - so far that's two requests for Norde which isn't enough to get that ball rolling I'm afraid. ISO UK is as far as ISO will go, we'll see if that hits MOQ once everything begins moving in earnest, though judging by other previous GBs, this is not a certainty.

[shieldme]

I'm brand new to the corners of the internet involving keyboards but I've had a mechanical keyboard for awhile and this set is what I want to start out with.

[emenelopee]

Progress anouncement: There's a little bit of a delay on SP's end, the latest, as of this posting, is they're still a couple weeks away from having anything shareable on the new tool results and updated spec sheet. The waiting game continues. Let's keep this ball rolling, we'll get something solid to work with shortly! In the meantime I'll mess around with some more renders, and get the final novelties sorted.

I'm brand new to the corners of the internet involving keyboards but I've had a mechanical keyboard for awhile and this set is what I want to start out with.

Great to hear, and nice to see the word is getting out into the world.

[mogo]

I'm brand new to the corners of the internet involving keyboards but I've had a mechanical keyboard for awhile and this set is what I want to start out with.

Hey, welcome in! Condolences to your wallet, it's about to take a beating. It's a deep dark rabbit hole. But as a place to start, I totally endorse a sculpted SA set. So satisfying to type on, no matter what it looks like.

[madhias]

After a while this one will be the GB I will join again! PBT, SA, GID, awesome! GID!

[captsis]

I'm brand new to the corners of the internet involving keyboards but I've had a mechanical keyboard for awhile and this set is what I want to start out with.

Hey, welcome in! Condolences to your wallet, it's about to take a beating. It's a deep dark rabbit hole. But as a place to start, I totally endorse a sculpted SA set. So satisfying to type on, no matter what it looks like.

This set will light the darkness a bit!

[shieldme]

I'm brand new to the corners of the internet involving keyboards but I've had a mechanical keyboard for awhile and this set is what I want to start out with.

Hey, welcome in! Condolences to your wallet, it's about to take a beating. It's a deep dark rabbit hole. But as a place to start, I totally endorse a sculpted SA set. So satisfying to type on, no matter what it looks like.

This set will light the darkness a bit!

Thank you for the welcome! Is this set considered sculpted SA? I saw the Mito SA Pulse drop and those looked amazing but I really like the colors and glow in the dark capability here.

[M]

I'm brand new to the corners of the internet involving keyboards but I've had a mechanical keyboard for awhile and this set is what I want to start out with.

Hey, welcome in! Condolences to your wallet, it's about to take a beating. It's a deep dark rabbit hole. But as a place to start, I totally endorse a sculpted SA set. So satisfying to type on, no matter what it looks like.

This set will light the darkness a bit!

Thank you for the welcome! Is this set considered sculpted SA? I saw the Mito SA Pulse drop and those looked amazing but I really like the colors and glow in the dark capability here.

Yes, this set is sculpted (different key rows have different heights)

[chrisharrisx]

I'm in for this set when it's released, with one more vote for black legends!

[emenelopee]

I'm in for this set when it's released, with one more vote for black legends!

Don't worry about the legends, they're staying black. The blue was just a little side investigation which never stuck.

And welcome! The more the merrier!

[emenelopee]

For no reason other than playing around while waiting for SP, here are some rendered novelties for the up and coming novelties poll. A point if you notice the error. More this weekend hopefully.

[_ODIN_]

For no reason other than playing around while waiting for SP, here are some rendered novelties for the up and coming novelties poll. A point if you notice the error. More this weekend hopefully.

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very cool. :thumb:

[lecorsair]

Missing the two blanks in the reflection - my cat pointed it out to me =p

[Parva Ovis]

The renders look great! Just one little thing is bothering me, and that's how the filament looks a little warped to me. I realise I mentioned it seeming "squished" in an earlier post and never explained what I meant.


I think it would look better being more like the ones on the right, where the amount of space between the novelty and the keycap edge is more proportional between the sides and the top/bottom.

[Parva Ovis]

EDIT: double post. Oops.

[emenelopee]

Agreed, it could do with spreading out a little more. Because the surface of the cap is not flat, and in particular R1 is at a fairly steep angle, the projection of the 2D sketch gets elongated along the curved surface plane.

I've been using the filament from the bulb icon which works in the bulb context but I agree it's a little too slender for the stand-alone. For this special stand-alone case, which I'm 80% sure will end up being the identity icon, I'll make an updated one as you have mocked up, and perhaps some additional loops for the 1.25u to fill out the space more. A few more trials are needed. I'll see what it looks like on the [return] key as well.

The exact appearance won't be known until the project gets passed into SP's hands for their graphics people to coordinate and position, so these are all representative anyway.

For reference, some old-timey bulbs. Some are elongated, some are squat, so it's really a visual call more than anything, but I prefer the legs of the filament hitting the edge of the cap as much as possible so it's not just sticker floating in the middle without context:

[Krastoff]

Some more ideas while we wait 

[_ODIN_]

Some more ideas while we wait 

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wow.... very cool  :thumb:

[scud80]

of the novelty suggestions i've seen so far, i think my favorites are the light bulb (though i personally prefer the non-filament version), the beaker from the original post, the radioactive symbol, and the glow text.  others that i think would be neat are a jack o lantern, and a ninja head.  something along these lines:



just random images i found on the web ... not actual graphics that i created that i think would look good on caps.  my photoshop skills are severely limited.

[mogo]

Godspeed has a lot of cool novelties, but the one that stood out that I realized Glow should have is that power icon!

Simple and lovely. What do y'all think?

[scud80]

i do like the power icon idea

[_ODIN_]

I like the ufo as well

[emenelopee]

Thanks for the ideas ladies and gents. I'm messing around with a few of these today, just a few quick thoughts, in reverse order:

- UFO. I like it! It's a little close to the Godspeed theme, and the images with the cows and whatnot are a little too complex and detailed for a keycap, but I'll see what comes out from the experiments;
- Power button. I feel this is a little too specific a function for a novelty. Does anyone have a dedicated power button on their keyboard?
- Godspeed These are generally excellent novelties, all within a solid theme. I'm also trying to keep within a general "glow" theme rather than scattergun a bunch of unrelated knickknacks, and without stealing too much from existing precedent. In this case, outer-space has a little too much overlap (see UFO above)
- Alien, Ninja, Pumpkin. These is neat, but a good example of unrelated knickknack. They would work in an emoji- or similar themed set, but they don't speak "glow" to me. The pumpkin in particular is a little too close to kitsch.
- sunset, evolution - I don't think these would translate too well to dye-sub, they'd need a significant loss in detail which would lose the design;

The above may seem like I'm poo-pooing any and all ideas coming in, but I'm just trying to be fair and critical for novelties to make sure all that get mocked up are already solid enough before spending too much time on them. Each design takes quite a lot of time to get through iteration and render, and I'm already eliminating some of ones that I've already worked through that in the end don't seem quite right.

Keep 'em coming, there's gold in them thar hills!

EDIT: Oof, these are taking a lot longer than expected. Some over-done progress renders of a few of my favourites.



I don't like the UFO which looks like a mushroom. Strangely enough I haven't gotten to drawing a mushroom. Is that irony?

[Krastoff]

No worries about rejection of ideas! Just throwing things out there and see what sticks. I'm aware of the need for simplicity, so if anything, I expect the stuff I show to be different if people do end up liking them. They're mostly cobbled together from various clipart/free vector sources + some editing to show an idea.

Anyway, I really like the anglerfish  I prefer the round LED over the rectangular one. The glow array looks great! Something about the bare filaments though.. they bring to mind concertina wire for me.

The UFO does look like a mushroom when not magnified. It's your subconscious speaking to you about mushrooms  ) I was thinking maybe lose the cone bottom, but now it looks like a guy looking up at a giant mushroom:



Keep up the great work!

[scud80]

i'm also not particularly bothered with ideas being rejected ... though with your comment about the pumpkin being kitschy, that's kind of the point.  i mean, these are things to accompany a glow in the dark keyset after all.  and my interpretation of the power button is that the glow is off in the light, and then it's like the button is pressed when the lights go off and the glow power comes on.  if you want to be really slick and have lights that can be controlled over wifi you could probably even program the key to do exactly that.

[donutcat]

That anglerfish one is pretty ballin. With the led ones, maybe make the legs a tad shorter so they can be sized up a smidgen?

[emenelopee]

That anglerfish one is pretty ballin. With the led ones, maybe make the legs a tad shorter so they can be sized up a smidgen?

Yeah, came out pretty good!

The LEDs are a little anaemic, I was thinking of scribble-ising them in lieu of the rigid linework they currently have. Yoshi's Island style. As with the filament and the angler, dye-sub should give much more freedom in line texture than double-shooting, worth exploring.

Any love for the eye? It's nothing to do with the theme but definitely cool and makes use of the dye-sub process that wouldn't be possible with double shots. Shout out to whoever floated the idea (I'll dig out the user from the thread, holler if anyone knows offhand).

The rest (other than the array, filament, and bulb) I'm fine with dropping.

I think a series of candle/lightbulb/LED/umm ... anything else in the progression ... would be quite neat.

And I've surprised myself by quite digging the swirl. Thematically redundant, but I'd like to think I can break my own rules. See: newsprint eye.

[mogo]

I don't see what the eye has to do with this set. Halftone stippling may look cool but if you're going to use it, hold the symbol to the same expectations as any other legend, insist that it is related to the concept of glow

[emenelopee]

I don't see what the eye has to do with this set. Halftone stippling may look cool but if you're going to use it, hold the symbol to the same expectations as any other legend, insist that it is related to the concept of glow

If you look closely there's a glint in the eye 

[Al41]

I've thought of some ideas for the spiral that I think may fit the theme better and might be easier to print on keycaps. I made a few quick designs but I have no experience with design so these would need some more work. Just wanted to put some ideas forward.

Edit: I was going for a galaxy look on 3 of them. My thinking was 'what's more luminous than a galaxy?' I also thought it would fit the theme well. The other is just like a twilight zone type spiral i thought would be easier to put on keycaps.

[_ODIN_]

I've thought of some ideas for the spiral that I think may fit the theme better and might be easier to print on keycaps. I made a few quick designs but I have no experience with design so these would need some more work. Just wanted to put some ideas forward.

Edit: I was going for a galaxy look on 3 of them. My thinking was 'what's more luminous than a galaxy?' I also thought it would fit the theme well. The other is just like a twilight zone type spiral i thought would be easier to put on keycaps.

i would like to define that idea to a simple radar scanner with one or two signals

[mogo]

I don't see what the eye has to do with this set. Halftone stippling may look cool but if you're going to use it, hold the symbol to the same expectations as any other legend, insist that it is related to the concept of glow

If you look closely there's a glint in the eye 

ehhhh neither close nor a cigar.

[Al41]

I also like the first filament with the ends that extend to the bottom of the cap. As well as the starburst pattern, lightbulb, and pretty much the whole middle row. I'd say you picked some good favorites.

And I've surprised myself by quite digging the swirl. Thematically redundant, but I'd like to think I can break my own rules.

^That was my original thinking for the swirl. Not much to do with theme. Just thought it would look cool glowing  )

[emenelopee]

Slowly but surely getting the renders done. I haven't checked in with SP this week, will do tomorrow.

Some geometric star shapes added, the Lego faces just to see, and the UFO is now looking a lot better.

[euphxenos]

How about a laser hazard symbol?

[Parva Ovis]

How about a laser hazard symbol?

Without the "hazard" triangle around it, it could definitely make a good icon.