Author Topic: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder  (Read 5559 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline eveningdownpour

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 7
  • Location: Michigan, United States
Hello everyone, this is my first post not as myself but as Efflorescent Design, a studio comprised of myself and my brother.

I have always had something of a unique taste, and I have found it very unfortunate that there just aren't many keyboards on the market suited to my taste. My brother comes from an engineering background, and I have been something of a mechanical keyboard enthusiast for years, so we decided to try our hand at designing a keyboard. We're currently exploring running a SMALL (Think 25-30 units, tops. We are not comfortable with QC on anything larger.) GB for this board, if reception is positive, people are interested, and we manage a WORKING PROTOTYPE before moving to the group buy creation stage.

This post is less of an IC, and more of a community questionnaire. While I did give the option to leave an email to be notified of the actual IC, if you're not terribly interested, we would still welcome your feedback. Before I link the form, however, allow me to show some (admittedly primitive) renders and cover a few basics.

Our current build idea is an Anodized Aluminum case with a carbon fiber plate gasket mounted with 3mm rubber or silicone cord, and a Stainless Steel weight.

The Empyrean 68 features a 6.5 degree typing angle, with a USB type C PCB with QMK support, a Stainless Steel knob, and no externally visible screws. We will be commissioning the PCB from a reputable PCB designer from GH, because neither of us has an advanced understanding of circuitry.

Our first major inquiry is that of the color. We have two very distinct coloration ideas, and cannot decide between the two, which is the primary reason for this Pre-IC questionnaire. Without further ado, allow me to present to you, the Empyrean 68 SKY, a Sky Blue face and an E-White base, with a single Stainless Steel Weight:




and the Empyrean 68 CLOUD, with an E-White face and base, with two Stainless Steel Silver accent weights, plus a Stainless Steel weight:




Please note that the Empyrean 68 CLOUD features two extra smaller stainless steel side-weights, whereas the Empyrean 68 SKY features a cutout that shows the E-White base layer.

Another question we would like to pose to the community is about the layout, which I will save for the form.

This is getting long, so allow to me to wrap up. Our Pre-IC/Community Questionnaire is available here: https://forms.gle/YvVtMoDWZkbACtcQ6

Even though this is only a very preliminary stage, I already owe many people thanks. I want to thank ai03 for the very necessary feedback that our first design was nonsensical and terrible, and the wider keyboard atelier community for being such a valuable resource for newbies. I also want to thank allfallsdown/NoLullaby for all the links and useful information and references that allowed us to get started.

Thank you so much for reading! Sorry for any formatting shenanigans, I am not very familiar with the formatting on here.






« Last Edit: Tue, 04 August 2020, 01:12:28 by eveningdownpour »

Offline Gbanek

  • Posts: 9
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #1 on: Tue, 04 August 2020, 01:08:15 »
This looks sweet. I love the blue but the base of the cloud is very interesting

Offline Baionlenja

  • Posts: 122
  • Location: Finland
  • +B
    • www.baionlenja.com
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 04 August 2020, 02:13:53 »
ne fillets avail?

Offline -Jerry-

  • Posts: 336
  • Location: Bath, UK
  • OR '1'='1'
    • Jerry Talks Tech
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 04 August 2020, 02:50:27 »
That a really clean and unique looking design, I love the split cluster and encoder combo.

I think I prefer the SKY, overall, it’s quite cute.
"Romeo"     "Split75"   "Melody96"     "KBD8X MKII"     "Womier K87"

Offline Willtato

  • Posts: 68
  • Location: London
  • I like small Keyboards
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 04 August 2020, 03:00:44 »
If the sky version were to proceed, how opaque is the bottom?  I would imagine underglow should make a nice RGB lit cloud. 

Sent from my HD1913 using Tapatalk


Offline dont_settle

  • Posts: 3
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 04 August 2020, 03:11:52 »
I can’t put my finger on it but something about this gives me a retro-gaming vibe

Offline FunBox

  • Posts: 39
  • Location: US
    • Null
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 04 August 2020, 03:15:37 »
I can’t put my finger on it but something about this gives me a retro-gaming vibe
Kinda reminds me of the controls on an arcade cabinet. Maybe that's it

Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk


Offline sartarelli

  • Posts: 16
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #7 on: Tue, 04 August 2020, 04:08:28 »
Interesting design, always like some change from the standards. What is the difference between the two layout options?

Offline menuhin

  • Posts: 1225
  • Location: Germany
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #8 on: Tue, 04 August 2020, 04:12:33 »
...
and the Empyrean 68 CLOUD, with an E-White face and base, with two Stainless Steel Silver accent weights, plus a Stainless Steel weight:
Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Please note that the Empyrean 68 CLOUD features two extra smaller stainless steel side-weights, whereas the Empyrean 68 SKY features a cutout that shows the E-White base layer.

...
...

The render looks more like POM face and POM base - looks like POM heaven to me.
GLWIC!
Wishlist: 1) nice thick Alps caps; 2) Cherry profile POM;
More
Wishful-list: 1) We order from keyboard-layout-editor.com; 2) usable Trackpoint module for all keyboards
IBM M13 black
NeXT non-ADB keyboard (AAE)
HHKB Pro 2 HasuBT
[~90WPM, in love with Emacs, and Lisp]

Offline eveningdownpour

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 7
  • Location: Michigan, United States
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #9 on: Tue, 04 August 2020, 19:54:01 »
Holy crap, this is such a great response! I did not expect this much. Thank you guys so much  :D

Now to answer some questions:
@sartarelli the difference is whether the FN key is on the keyboard and the winkey is in the split cluster, or whether the winkey is on the keyboard and the FN key is in the split cluster.
@willtato as we are planning to use E-White coating on anodized aluminum, it would likely not shine through at all, nor do we plan on led lighting. Sorry!

@Gbanek @-Jerry- @Gbanek Thank you so much!

Please do fill out the questionaire, because the voting right now is pretty tied and I really want to know which version the community is more interested in. Leaving an email is totally optional!

Offline eveningdownpour

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 7
  • Location: Michigan, United States
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #10 on: Wed, 05 August 2020, 00:55:30 »
Oh and @baionleja not sure what you mean by any fillets available... The board does have fillets edges, if you're asking about that

Offline hottrout

  • Posts: 1487
  • Location: Norn Iron
  • I'd Hit Dat Key
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #11 on: Wed, 05 August 2020, 05:20:02 »
Interesting.
Current Daily Driver : Virgo - Ultramarine - Standard Lube  |  WTB : Topre Realforce Hi-Pro, please PM me if you have one for sale.

Systems -
More
Work |i9-7940x@4.8ghz|32GB(3600)|STRIX-RTX3090Ti|Bespoke Water, 360m Rad|X299 Prime Deluxe|EK x299 Monoblock|Optane 900p|2x1TB 960 Pro|2x10TB Helium|Dell U3415W + Dell UP2116Q
Home |i9-13900ks|32GB(7300)|Rog RTX 4090|Asus Z790 Rog Maximus Hero|Torrent Air|2TB 990 Pro|2TB 990 Pro|Dell AW3423DW QOLED|NEC MultiSync|Drobo16TB
Mining |i5-7500|16GB(2400)|H110 Pro BTC+|8x1080Ti|2x1650Watt PSU

Plus 40 years of collecting retro computers, consoles, games, peripherals, mainframes and mini's as well as their software, keyboards, games and manuals. 100's of systems including every Amiga model made
  Keyboards -
More
IBM 3101 | IBM 3276 | IBM 5150 | IBM ModelM | Dictaphone Dual Display | Vintage Cherrys (1982 onwards, just about all of them) | Commodore (all of them) | Nixdorf | Siemens | ICL | Apple (all of them) | Filco Majistouch | KBDFans 5degree - Chocolate | Rama M6-B - Moon | CA66 Silver | ClueBoard Graphite/PC | Varmilo VA69M Silver | E7-V1 SE Yellow | Rama U-80 Space Grey | VN66 Navy | BOCC Frosted Polycarbonate | Rama M10-C Midnight | FLX Virgo Teal & Black | Rama M60-A LYN Kuro | Space65 CyberVoyager WhiteGold | Space65 CyberVoyager Terminal | Hyper 7 | Clarabelle Sandblasted Polycarbonate | Elongate Mini 1800 Blue | Petrichor 1800 Red | Vulcan Maja Ergo Green | Think6.5v2 RoboCop | Jacky Bear 65% E-White | Sakabato CB87 TKL Champagne | KCK KY-01 Aquamarine | Jae J-01 F&F E-White & Copper | S7.7 E-White | The Adélie Blue | NIX OxalyS80 LE Dark Polycarbonate | Mesa TKL E-White | Smith & Rune IRON180 Graen/Brass | Skog Reboot Desert | CU7 Black | ROTR Silver & Copper | RAMA Kara Soya | Grid 650 E-White | SIX5 LE Aluminium & Gold | OwLab Voice65 Grey | BOX 75 Black Stainless Steel | Onyx E-White | Ikki68 BT Charcoal | Smith & Rune Iron 165 Graphite & Stainless Steel | Epoch 80% Black | RAMA Thermal SEQ2 Kuro | Paper Crane Gerald65 SE PC & CF | CB1800 ZANBATO | GLiTCH | Eclipse Grey & SS | TGR Tomo Silver | Mountain Ergo Black | Keebwerk NASU Black/Red | Phase One 65 Grey | Command TKL Fire | Chalice Frosted | VIENDI 8L Shadow | | Vulcan Maja PC | Glove 80 | Matrix 8XV 3.0 Starry Night | Sagittarius Grey Lilac | AKB OGR & Numpad Dolch | Type K Black

Offline eveningdownpour

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 7
  • Location: Michigan, United States
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #12 on: Wed, 05 August 2020, 14:30:41 »
@hottrout thank you so much!!

Offline eveningdownpour

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 7
  • Location: Michigan, United States
Re: [IC?] Empyrean 68, a dual split cluster 68% with a rotary encoder
« Reply #13 on: Sun, 09 August 2020, 19:48:35 »
Thank you so much to everyone who took part in this poll! I will be closing it now, and my brother and I will begin finalizing the design and working toward a real IC with full renders, a chosen design, and a few changes. Thanks again to everyone for helping!