First of all let me address my and Frosty’s relationship to this group buy and DrHubble. Frosty had talked to Hubble about the Mira and volunteered to supply money for the intial PCB’s for testing and prototypes. He wasn’t reimbursed for this and volunteered to help the geekhack community have a keyboard designed by a member and hopefully produced in America. Since then he collected all the information about preorders and worked to straighten out the confusing number situation.
I became involved mainly because of the same reasons and since I’m “retired” I had the time to go to shops and try to find shops that would be willing to do a small project like this. Little did I know what I was getting into.
With Hubble being a student in high school and getting ready for college communication was difficult and he has been slow to respond at times. Without boring you with the details eventually I was able to find a shop that seemed interested in producing the keyboard and had a source to have the plate made.
While the prototype was done Hubble was getting ready for college and communication was slow both with me and the shop. Adjustment had to be made to the design and apparently efforts were made to cut all corners possible (according to the shop) in order to meet the price point of $400 range. I didn’t participate in these discussions. Once the prototype was done I collected it, took pictures, and sent it to Hubble.
I talked to the shop foreman, their CAD person, and machinist and realized that there were design flaws that needed to be changed. One area was to thin, some radius increased machine time, the plate mounting was difficult to machine, and the base was responsible for the majority of the cost. I attempted to speak to Hubble, received no response, talked to the shop who seemed to be cooling to the idea of producing the Mira, and eventually both the shop and I received revised CAD files. After revision the shop gave us an estimate with a MOQ of 200 boards that would need finishing and anodizing. This put the cost of the board at $400+, not including me shipping 200 5 lb pieces of aluminum out of state, getting finished at one location then transported to another location in the same town to get anodized.
Obviously there are several issues here. First we can’t sell 200 keyboards. Second – shipping increases the risk of damage and moving 1000 lbs of aluminum would be costly. Third – quality control. The boards would need to be checked every step of the way. There would be damaged boards so that would need to be factored in. Fourth – reshipment, probably back to me for sorting, rechecking, packaging, then shipping. I would also have to collect the PCB’s from Hubble or from Winkeyless. Finally I can’t even guess the cost – the shop told me $350 each for 200 boards or $700 each for 100.
Hubble felt he wanted to try it and that is the last I heard from him.
After Frosty cleaned up the number mess and after the prototype several members contacted me with shops or offers to help. I’ve followed through with some of them and most were unsuccessful. One offered to rework the CAD files and fix some of the issues that the shop had pointed out to me. We did so and I’m getting two prototypes made which I am paying for. I also talked to another PCB maker and he is willing to sell me PCB’s with the SMD soldering done.
If the shop is willing I could possible to the Mira in batches of 25 at a cost of around $650 a piece. I can’t guarantee that price until I actually receive confirmation from the shop that they want to do the project and give me a quote. It would have to be made overseas and probably shipped to me and then to the individual buyer.
There is possibly one other option. I can have the base redesigned to make the back flat like other keyboards keeping the design the same on the sides. This would cut down machine time and cost and I can try to get other estimates. I could go back to Hubble’s original plan for mounting the PCB and plate similar to how it is done with the Cheat but some members and the machine shop expressed concerns about that. I have no idea what the cost would be in that situation.
Well, that is where the “Mira” stands at this point in time.
