[GB] [Cancelled] Dolores - Commissions Open

[Current Keyboards]

Discord (where most updates are)

-> Group Buy is Now Live <-

-> Color Configurator <-

Named for the Dolores river in Utah and Colorado, this board is a two piece aluminum case with a new type of gasket system that creates a much more even flex across keys and transmits much less vibration to the case.

                - 6061 Aluminum
                - Custom 65% hotswap PCB compatible with VIA in ANSI layout
                - Custom 65% soldered PCB compatible with VIA with ISO, split spacebar, split backspace, stepped caps, and 7u spacebar
                - 13 Cerakote colors to choose for both top and bottom.
                - Completely hidden screws internal to case
                - 6 degree typing angle
                - Top plate is available in aluminum, FR4, and POM
                - Delivery in late Q3 2022
                - GB starts January 20th at 9am PST
                - First come, first serve to 300 500 units
                - Price is $585. High due to machining complexity and two Cerakote applications per board.
                - Switching to commissions only. Reach out directly on Discord or currentkeyboards.com if interested.
                - Will be available worldwide directly through my website currentkeyboards.com, I use Stripe as a payment system on my GBs without issue.

          

          

          

          

   

Being a consumer product mechanical engineer, I spent a lot of time in finite element analysis testing different ideas for the top plate gasket system. I quickly found that many of the traditional 6 gasket systems were much too stiff to damp out vibrations and the center alphas were much stiffer than the corners. Some six gasket variations I tested saw the alphas only flexing 20-30% of what the corners flexed. Using the plate to integrate flex like many do seemed to be flawed. To solve both these issues, I've moved to a much smaller gasket with stiffer lever arms at the corners. The smaller gasket allows more of the vibration energy to be dissipated into it (as counter-intuitive as that sounds). I found that with four gaskets in the prototype the center did vibrate a little (which wouldn't have shown up in FEA) and moved to an 8 gasket system but with softer gaskets. The concept is even better now as the plate is stiffer and translates more of the energy into the gaskets.

Discord (where most updates are)

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-> Group Buy is Now Live <-

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[Current Keyboards]

Hi all,

With a heavy heart, we are going to cancel and fully refund the Dolores GB. Currently, sales are going well and we are on pace to sell the MOQ of ~100 units. While I can get this done, the cost of the parts, Cerakote QC difficulty, and risk in producing the complicated geometry makes it riskier at these lower-end volumes. If anything goes majorly wrong, even at $585, we may be coming out of pocket to get the GB done. For these reasons and the general instability of the manufacturing and shipping this year, we’ve decided to cancel and refund with no plans to restart.

If you have preordered a Dolores you will receive a “canceled order” email Monday and a full refund for the GB and shipping. It will take at least a few days for Stripe to post to your bank account. Please let me know if it hasn’t by February 5th. I apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused. We want to call it early to avoid tying up your money for too long.

Current as a whole will continue. We’d like to produce much smaller numbers of far more unique boards. My theory with Dolores and Hatchet was that very unique designs and customization might sustain the higher manufacturing costs. Unfortunately, it isn’t at a volume to build a stable business. For future boards, we would like to sell maybe dozens of units just to cover our own costs of making these new designs. Giving our Discord and email list the first chance to buy. This started out as purely a fun hobby, and we’d like to go back there.

If your heart was truly set on a Dolores. I may (big emphasis on may) be running a few commission boards. Please reach out if you have an interest. They will be quite expensive (think $1800+). Will only be available with soldered PCBs.

Thank you all for the support over the last two years! We’ll be back with something interesting! Please reach out if you have any questions.

- Current Keyboards