First let me say I had no earthly idea what I was getting into or I never would have said I would help get the Mira produced. I’ve learned a lot about group buys, aluminum, coating, and machining cost. Truthfully I still know very little. Second, before you quote a price for anything see how much it is going to cost to buy it or make it. Assume lost or damaged items, time, and shipping. If you don’t do that it will cost the organizer of the group buy money and everyone will be unhappy. If you are designing something to make – find someone who runs the machines that the item will be made with. If it is a keyboard find out what contributes to the cost of making it. The material is not the problem – time and how much the object has to be handled is. If they have to touch it, move it, flip it on its side, change cutting tools, it takes time and costs money. The initial Mira prototype took over 18 hours to make – thus the cost of $2000. There is a very good reason most keyboards look similar – cost of production.
So why does the Mira cost so much to make and what are some of the issues with the design. These issues were brought up by the CAD guys at the first machine shop, geekhackers, and actually LZ commented to me about some issues that unfortunately turned about to be true.
First the issues with the first prototype were the length of the blockers, the size of the :Esc: hole, and the separation of the function keys. LZ mentioned something about this initially to me and I didn’t understand what he meant. Turns out the Koreans apparently have a standard template for the top of a TKL keyboard from what I’ve been told. All of this has been corrected.
Next is the USB hole. This contributed both to time machining because of the bevel and requiring the aluminum machine to be flipped over on its side to be machined and I suspect the location also contributed to the time being machined.
If you look at the Duck boards, KMAC’s, and LZ’s boards usually the USB hole is on the edge of the top or bottom of the shell and is usually a straight hole.
This has been corrected on this last prototype.
Machine shops sometimes round the edges of two pieces being joined together like the initial prototype.
This was corrected on the second prototype
This probably had little or no effect on the cost but it is something to watch for if you try manufacturing a keyboard.
There are several things lumped together in this next cost increasing part of the design. Hubble tried to keep the cost down by utilizing the method OTD uses with The Cheat.
Here he utilized the round tabs seen here. It does work and when I dismantled my Cheat to have it reanodized I discovered the previous owner had used a thin cloth tape to create a snug fit. The first machine shop complained about this because they felt it didn’t add enough support. They also kept muttering about how the inside radiuses were time consuming to mill. At the time I didn’t understand what they were talking about and never received an answer that helped me. I thought they were talking about this corner –
That is not exactly it. They were talking about the area the screw goes through and holds the plate and case together. They created more machine time. That has been changed to the standard method of attaching the plate to the top and making the inside of the case straight.
The base of the case was made slightly thicker to prevent the deformity that occurred during anodizing. I have no idea what this is called and the only answer I’ve gotten from anodizing companies that the metal was to thin. If that is true how do they anodize screens?
We’ve used brass on these prototypes and I have the concern that another group will complain about its use. Due to these concerns probably Mira and the number of the case will be placed on the brass rather than names of individuals involved in the design and manufacture of the Mira.
Brass is easier and less expensive to machine than stainless steel. The stainless steel was cut out of a solid block and the brass was done the same way.
After discussion with the person doing the CAD and the machine shop we feel it will be less expensive if that is done by cutting three pieces out of a flat sheet. I’m not sure of how much this will reduce production cost but it should diminish it.
This is not truly a cost cutting measure but an aesthetic improvement - if you notice the original prototype cure the edge were it meets the case is rounded
This machine shop has been able to sharpen that edge which makes it “cleaner”.
Lastly is a design change that reduces machine time by about two hours and improves the stability of the Mira when typing. It changes the angle of the case by about one degree and reduces the height of the Mira into the range of other custom keyboards. Hopefully it may lend itself to a diffuser plate but that hasn’t been discussed yet. The back of the initial design looks like this
LZ mentioned something about the back angle of the case. His English is not good and my Korean is nonexistent and all I understood was the angle was bad, and problems with the function row. If you type “vigorously” and utilize the function row the keyboard may rock. Under normal conditions this is not a concern but it can happen.
This view demonstrates the curve and the lip at the back of the case. The screws go through here to hold the case together.
Apparently that area takes at least two hours of machine time. Obviously that is significant. It has been suggested that the rear of the case should be redesigned like this
This will reduce machine time, increase stability of the case, lower the height, and improve the angle of the typing surface. Hopefully this is acceptable to all of you.
Photoelectric mentioned that the “Mira” logo looks like “O’Mira” . This was true on the initial prototype
And the current prototype
I agree to an extent. Due to size constraints and uncertainty about how a change would affect the proportion of the lettering to the size of the case I’m at a loss of what I or the CAD person could do about this.
The changes I’ve mentioned in design along with the change in the plate hopefully will get this down to a price everyone is comfortable with. Any comments, thoughts, suggestions are welcomed. Tell me what you think -I and others are trying to get this to a price we are all comfortable with.
