Author Topic: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring  (Read 15724 times)

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Offline Damsuu

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[IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« on: Tue, 17 May 2022, 21:43:30 »
Hello, Damsuu here. Long time keyboard enjoyer and longtime lurker. I’ve been designing boards in the darkness of my little workshop, and I believe it is finally time I come out of the shadows with my first public showing.

I wanted to present a new board that I've been working on: the Zera60 or Zera. Named after the Japanese word for gelatin- Zerachin, which I got the idea for after looking at the polycarbonate reminding me of agar, a food additive that I have used extensively when making some of my favorite snacks such as coffee jelly.

It's my version of the classic o-ring mounted style with a few changes that give it a bit of flare.

[Prototype photos]
https://imgur.com/a/34R8L3g





why another o-ring board?

To put it as simply as possible- I just really like o-ring boards. The sound is something I enjoy and the build process is super easy, super painless, and is fun to rebuild.


So why the Unikorn style backplate and db placement? Allow me to explain-

I like angled db… looks good.

In regard to the backplate it has more to do with sound than aesthetic. Sure, it looks nice but the difference in sound between a solid frame versus one with a large dense piece breaking up the sound is night and day. It also helps in creating a bit of heft to the board which is something I have always been a big fan of.



Then what sets the board apart from the others?

Simple and subtle design.

-It's definitely not for everyone but the side profile is unique with the stepped chamfer effect, and I think it creates a really interesting look with the underglow.

-The mounting points are in such a way that the bottom row is nice and bouncy while maintaining an all around comfortable typing experience. The 4:2 style gives a nice solid feel to the board without compromising the structure or sound.

Most importantly the price.

I know the struggles of wanting a board but not having enough money to drop on a rectangle. It’s a real struggle especially for the broke college student such as myself. Which is why I made it a goal to create a board that has the sound profile I was looking for without decimating my pockets. I know the price isn’t some kind of game changer like the Cannonkeys Bakeneko but it still does reach a price that I would be (as a keyboard addict) okay with paying for a board of this type.

Originally it was going to be a private buy for just my friends and myself, but over time the plan changed. My friends and I loved the way it turned out and wanted to share it with more people.


TL; DR – It’s an o-ring board with the aim of great sound and feel without compromising on the aesthetics and price


Specs

- 60%

- o-ring mount

-Dimensions

294mm x 108mm

19mm front height

6 degree typing angle

-Silver PVD backplate/coated brass

-Will only be running in Polycarbonate to stay on theme- Clear frosted and (fingers crossed) black poly

-Weight is approximately 700g unbuilt or 1.54 lbs

-QMK/VIA compatible PCB with RGB underglow

Plate options:

Alu full/half

POM full/half






Price range
At the time of the IC the plan is to run the board at a price of ~200-250 USD which would include the case, pcb, and accessories*






Quantity
About 100-200 (soft cap)




Vendors
Keyspensory (US)

Want to shoot for somewhere in July for the GB start
and I'm not entirely sure I want to run it outside of the US so that I can quality check everything myself but that’s what ICs are here for-




I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read this and comment. Feedback is more than appreciated and I’m excited to continue this journey with everyone.

Special thanks to Freather of Keyspensory and CMM for helping me with the PCB :^)
As well as OnlyJuice for support through helping by buying a proto. Love u bb <3

Please consider following socials and discord for further updates! Thank you!

https://discord.gg/GDU6MZFncY

https://www.instagram.com/dokkeybi/

Offline Amoto

  • Posts: 5
  • Location: Los Angeles
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #1 on: Tue, 17 May 2022, 22:03:35 »
Is there any particular reason the LED looks so dim? I want the full RGB-rave experience

Offline Damsuu

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  • Posts: 11
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #2 on: Tue, 17 May 2022, 22:05:37 »
Is there any particular reason the LED looks so dim? I want the full RGB-rave experience

as dim as my brain. Luckily for the PCB, that can get brighter. I on the other hand... am stuck here.
but really, the board has 8 leds underneath which I thought would be enough but the bottom is definitely lacking so the final production run will have 16. Should be good enough to blind the sun.

Offline GuavaJoe

  • Posts: 3
  • Location: San Diego, California
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #3 on: Tue, 17 May 2022, 22:14:14 »
Would love to see more weeb engravings on final production

Offline Damsuu

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Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 17 May 2022, 22:16:51 »
Would love to see more weeb engravings on final production

That can be arranged... considering maybe blank or having an actual image lasered on. The text on the weight was meant to be a placeholder.

Offline SDKCAMPING

  • Posts: 183
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 17 May 2022, 22:31:25 »
Another day another modded Bakeneko with a Unikorn bottom  :p in all seriousness good luck with gB there is a lot of competition considering everyone is making something similar now
Blue Gray Ciel 60 with BCPs | E-white 7V (plateless) with Aqua Kings

Offline Damsuu

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  • Posts: 11
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 17 May 2022, 22:34:55 »
Another day another modded Bakeneko with a Unikorn bottom  :p in all seriousness good luck with gB there is a lot of competition considering everyone is making something similar now

 :-[ I know. This was supposed to out a while ago but I got delayed by multiple factors out of my control. Not to say the Bakeneko is bad but I did design this from the ground up if that means anything LOL. Basically saying, I'm stupid and I should have just used the bakeneko files. I pride myself in being of below average intelligence sometimes. but anways... ty! Gonna be hard to get it up there but I'm definitely gonna try

Offline granola bar enthusiast

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  • Location: USA
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #7 on: Wed, 18 May 2022, 08:31:56 »
this is a real great design despite just being... well another unikorn-inspired board, good luck with the IC,
I'm split between using my own 3d model and getting one CNC'ed for myself or joining this GB
« Last Edit: Sun, 22 May 2022, 11:04:29 by granola bar enthusiast »

Offline unknownangel

  • Posts: 1
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #8 on: Wed, 18 May 2022, 09:41:49 »
How involved were you with the papersky kyuu gb?  You were a prominent figure in the GB portion of the round 2, and you're still offered as a donation button and on their page and listed on the website as a "CCO". From what I gather, that GB is having quite a bit of problems and still doesn't have machinable parts yet.

https://paperskystudio.org/products/damsuu-dono-button
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0599/1455/1468/products/damsuudono.png

Offline Damsuu

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Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #9 on: Wed, 18 May 2022, 11:10:51 »
How involved were you with the papersky kyuu gb?  You were a prominent figure in the GB portion of the round 2, and you're still offered as a donation button and on their page and listed on the website as a "CCO". From what I gather, that GB is having quite a bit of problems and still doesn't have machinable parts yet.

https://paperskystudio.org/products/damsuu-dono-button
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0599/1455/1468/products/damsuudono.png


You're not wrong, I was involved in fixing the plate and creating the 2 piece weight, which to my knowledge weren't a problem in manufacturing. But my involvement since then has been basically nothing. After doing those things I've basically left the whole server, just doing what I was asked to do and nothing more. I wish I could help the people that are in that limbo of will it won't it but that's just out of my control. Reset is definitely a nice guy but the dude just did too much. As far as machinable parts I remember seeing something about them being fine now? Not 100% sure on that.
Funny enough, idk why that dono button exists, I haven't gotten anything from the gb in terms of financial gain. Basically did it for fun.
Sorry if this wasn't the answer you were hoping for. I really don't know much aside from the things I worked on.
« Last Edit: Wed, 18 May 2022, 11:36:41 by Damsuu »

Offline chat and team

  • Posts: 135
  • Location: Towson, Maryland
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #10 on: Wed, 18 May 2022, 14:11:53 »
Probably the best keyboard ic ive seen this month. Good job

Mod edit: Cleaned up
« Last Edit: Thu, 02 June 2022, 09:36:40 by HoffmanMyster »
geekhack mods constantly break tos and refuse to read
Chinese overlords won

Offline Damsuu

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Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #11 on: Wed, 18 May 2022, 14:56:15 »
Probably the best keyboard ic ive seen this month. Good job would change tldr to "I wanted  pc unikorn and money"

I can't tell if this was meant as a backhanded compliment or not... but thank you. I do have plans to recycle the gb money into making future stuff in stock as I along with every other human being hates waiting and gb format is rough on the soul.

Offline Backspace2

  • Posts: 46
  • Location: United States
  • Third most used key on the keyboard is Backspace!
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #12 on: Wed, 18 May 2022, 19:40:39 »
I really do like it! Adding the pics from the Imgur link to the IC would be a lot better. Otherwise, GLWIC!
Yes

Offline Damsuu

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Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #13 on: Wed, 18 May 2022, 23:10:42 »
I really do like it! Adding the pics from the Imgur link to the IC would be a lot better. Otherwise, GLWIC!

I agree, I just didn't wanna make it too long. Thank you for the interest! <3

Offline khraxion

  • Posts: 6
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #14 on: Thu, 19 May 2022, 10:47:18 »
I was just thinking to get a commissioned case to get something like a PC Unikorn, so this GB would save me a lot of money.

From Europe, so would like it if I could get it from here as well.

GLWIC

Offline Damsuu

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  • Posts: 11
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #15 on: Thu, 19 May 2022, 17:37:10 »
I was just thinking to get a commissioned case to get something like a PC Unikorn, so this GB would save me a lot of money.

From Europe, so would like it if I could get it from here as well.

GLWIC
Thanks for the interest! I do believe Keyspensory can ship to EU, but in the event an EU vendor reaches out to me I'll be sure to consider it and let everyone know ahead of time. Although the likelihood of that is quite low considering I want gb to start in 2-ish months which doesn't give a lot of time to figure out logistics between vendors.

Offline joshbortguy

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Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #16 on: Thu, 19 May 2022, 19:21:04 »
Nice

Offline Damsuu

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Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #17 on: Thu, 19 May 2022, 22:24:30 »

Offline Botty212

  • Posts: 71
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #18 on: Fri, 20 May 2022, 02:59:03 »
I was just thinking to get a commissioned case to get something like a PC Unikorn, so this GB would save me a lot of money.

From Europe, so would like it if I could get it from here as well.

GLWIC
Thanks for the interest! I do believe Keyspensory can ship to EU, but in the event an EU vendor reaches out to me I'll be sure to consider it and let everyone know ahead of time. Although the likelihood of that is quite low considering I want gb to start in 2-ish months which doesn't give a lot of time to figure out logistics between vendors.
dont mind me... I am just preparing for 40$ shipping since I am getting one.

Offline OnlyJuice

  • Posts: 2
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #19 on: Fri, 20 May 2022, 05:21:53 »
Love the side profile. Glad to see this project move forward and hope you'll succeed habibi

Offline Damsuu

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Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #20 on: Fri, 20 May 2022, 14:05:24 »
Love the side profile. Glad to see this project move forward and hope you'll succeed habibi
Love your side profile.  :p ty

Offline datAintFalc0

  • Posts: 8
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #21 on: Mon, 30 May 2022, 15:00:43 »
i'm actually pretty stoked about this! i missed out on the "polyneko" trains, so seeing this possibly run in july is exciting to me. i've never been a fan of 60s until recently since i had to start going into the office much more lol. anyway, been fiending for a nice polycarb board - hope this works out!

Offline Damsuu

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Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #22 on: Thu, 02 June 2022, 09:18:16 »
i'm actually pretty stoked about this! i missed out on the "polyneko" trains, so seeing this possibly run in july is exciting to me. i've never been a fan of 60s until recently since i had to start going into the office much more lol. anyway, been fiending for a nice polycarb board - hope this works out!

Thank you! Seems like there's enough interest that the project will move forward. I want to try for black polycarbonate as an option as well but that one is a little more difficult and would need substantial interest. So I appreciate the interest from everyone so far and hope for some more good news soon~

Offline NihonCK

  • Posts: 69
Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #23 on: Sun, 04 September 2022, 20:46:39 »
Why does the weight say Zerachin? do you mean Zerachan?

Offline Kokaloo

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Re: [IC] Zera 60% O-ring
« Reply #24 on: Sun, 04 September 2022, 22:03:53 »
Probably the best keyboard ic ive seen this month. Good job

Mod edit: Cleaned up

hey dude you could message me your geekhack conspiracy theories i would love to read them