The CW60 GB has now concluded the first part of its journey for me personally, almost a year delayed to date, as my second CW60 arrived yesterday. I held out hope that my second CW60 would be any different than my first CW60, but unfortunately, it was not.
The CW60 design appears fundamentally flawed, even after 4 prototypes. The JST cutout in the bottom case is too small to house the PCB's JST connector with cable and is resting on the floor, acting as a tray mount post.
Here is some pictures with measurements I took from my two units.
Here is even more pictures and videos from the Reddit link below.
This has been reported and acknowledged in the Reddit thread
PSA: CruelWorld 60 has unexcusable design flaws thread 6 days ago.
The GB runner has offered temporary solutions, working towards a permanent solution while they investigate the extent of the problem. A Google Form, only available through their
Discord, is set up for us GB participants to report that they are affected.
While I do appreciate that this issue is being taken seriously and addressed, I find the approach somewhat lacking. The problem has been known for over 12 days now, and shipments should have been halted for an immediate check on the extent and validity of the claims. In the process, it would be prudent to examine the TKL files and conduct control measurements on the produced boards to ensure other SKUs are not impacted. I for one asked for my second CW60 not to be sent as this is clearly not a tolerance issue.
Identifying the cause should be a matter of minutes. Open Fusion 360, measure the cutout, and if it's less than 7.1mm (a generous estimate), the design is fundamentally flawed and all units are affected. Both my two cases' cutouts measure ~6.05mm, and they're supposed to accommodate a 7mm JST connector and cable. This cutout should not be anywhere near 6mm (which coincidentally is the width of the JST connector component on the PCB). Not on prototype 1, 2, 3, 4, or let alone the GB run.
Moreover, there appears to be another design flaw in the CW60 that's masked by the small cutout: the reset button is too close to the bottom. This claim is backed by those who desoldered their JST connectors and soldered the wires directly onto the PCB, reporting that the reset button now hits the bottom case, necessitating its desoldering as well. Back-of-the-envelope math suggests that it is highly plausible. This suggests that this issue has been overlooked in all four prototypes prior to the Group Buy.
As if this was not enough, here is an incomplete list of other design or fulfillment issues that have been reported, ranging in severity:
- USB port misaligned
- JST cutout on the TKL I argue is misaligned, the connector has in the lower 0.x mm clearance to the bottom case (i.e. it will hit the bottom case when typing).
- Carrying case too small to house the keyboard wrapped in fiber cloth, which is neatly folded on top of the keyboard. While this may seem like a minor issue, I can only imagine the amount of hours that have been spent cleaning the keyboards from case foam and worrying about ano flaws. I estimate I have spent easily 1h between my two keyboards.
- Missing engravings on the Skunkworxxx editions
- 12 months delayed fulfillment
- No MDPC-X JST cable
- Missing components, mine was missing bump-ons
- Shipping by UPS rather than DHL which was what we paid for at the start of the GB. May not be such a big deal for some countries where UPS is actually competent.
If you are a GB participant, I highly suggest you join
Cruel World Discord to stay up-to-date with all the latest developments while we complete the last part of this journey.
