[IC] CNC Aluminum Case for Topre RealForce TKL keyboards

[avid]

Would european proxies be a consideration? Either mykeyboard.eu or candykeys.com

[fine_italian_leather]

Would european proxies be a consideration? Either mykeyboard.eu or candykeys.com

The people at mykeyboard.eu are really nice and they've been proxies for keyclack group buys, I bet they'd be up for it.

[bello2185]

Yeah, a EU proxy would be great! Can vouch for mykeyboard.eu, great shop.

[Burt Macklin]

EU proxy would certainly be ideal (considering all the usual expenses we have to pay, on top of already not so cheap stuff). If at all possible, please consider that option 

[norbauer]

How would that work exactly? These guys have an address in the USA to which I would ship? If so, I'd be happy to do that rather than shipping internationally. Several people used proxy shipping services in my last group buy by just entering the address of the proxy service when checking out.

[fine_italian_leather]

How would that work exactly? These guys have an address in the USA to which I would ship? If so, I'd be happy to do that rather than shipping internationally. Several people used proxy shipping services in my last group buy by just entering the address of the proxy service when checking out.

Basic idea would be: ship EU orders to them from manufacturer, have them ship to EU customers. They are based in Belgium. It would mean cheaper shipping for EU buyers and probably no VAT.

[norbauer]

How would that work exactly? These guys have an address in the USA to which I would ship? If so, I'd be happy to do that rather than shipping internationally. Several people used proxy shipping services in my last group buy by just entering the address of the proxy service when checking out.

Basic idea would be: ship EU orders to them from manufacturer, have them ship to EU customers. They are based in Belgium. It would mean cheaper shipping for EU buyers and probably no VAT.

I think these will probably be made in the USA, though. Does that change the calculus?

[fine_italian_leather]

How would that work exactly? These guys have an address in the USA to which I would ship? If so, I'd be happy to do that rather than shipping internationally. Several people used proxy shipping services in my last group buy by just entering the address of the proxy service when checking out.

Basic idea would be: ship EU orders to them from manufacturer, have them ship to EU customers. They are based in Belgium. It would mean cheaper shipping for EU buyers and probably no VAT.

I think these will probably be made in the USA, though. Does that change the calculus?

Owner is necromanx on reddit and r/mk discord, talk to him and do the math.

[chakku]

Are you able to rehost the photos of the prototype? 404 on Dropbox.

[norbauer]

Are you able to rehost the photos of the prototype? 404 on Dropbox.

I'm working on fixing the issue. I had been using Dropbox for all my forum photos, and that horrible, horrible company just decided the other day to drop support for their "Public" folder, breaking millions of links to images hosted all around the web. I'm switching to hosting these on my own web server. It'll just take me a day or two to find and update all my old links. :S

Sorry for the trouble.

[necromanx]

How would that work exactly? These guys have an address in the USA to which I would ship? If so, I'd be happy to do that rather than shipping internationally. Several people used proxy shipping services in my last group buy by just entering the address of the proxy service when checking out.

Basic idea would be: ship EU orders to them from manufacturer, have them ship to EU customers. They are based in Belgium. It would mean cheaper shipping for EU buyers and probably no VAT.

I think these will probably be made in the USA, though. Does that change the calculus?

Owner is necromanx on reddit and r/mk discord, talk to him and do the math.

Hi.  I am also here on GH ;-)  Items made in the US will have import taxes and VAT applied when shipped over to us.  However, a proxy might still be be beneficial for EU countries.  Besides the price agreement we would work out, grouping all EU orders will remove a part of the import duties and have cheaper shipping to the customer.

[xondat]

How would that work exactly? These guys have an address in the USA to which I would ship? If so, I'd be happy to do that rather than shipping internationally. Several people used proxy shipping services in my last group buy by just entering the address of the proxy service when checking out.

Basic idea would be: ship EU orders to them from manufacturer, have them ship to EU customers. They are based in Belgium. It would mean cheaper shipping for EU buyers and probably no VAT.

A buyer based in the EU will always pay VAT on an item. The only savings from an EU proxy will simply be shipping.

[necromanx]

VAT yes.  But there are more costs involved.
1) Product price
2) Import fees
3) Import administration fee
4) VAT
5) shipping

A couple of those costs can be cut with a proxy.  It also avoids import hassles like items being stuck at customs etc.

[norbauer]

How would that work exactly? These guys have an address in the USA to which I would ship? If so, I'd be happy to do that rather than shipping internationally. Several people used proxy shipping services in my last group buy by just entering the address of the proxy service when checking out.

Basic idea would be: ship EU orders to them from manufacturer, have them ship to EU customers. They are based in Belgium. It would mean cheaper shipping for EU buyers and probably no VAT.

I think these will probably be made in the USA, though. Does that change the calculus?

Owner is necromanx on reddit and r/mk discord, talk to him and do the math.

Hi.  I am also here on GH ;-)  Items made in the US will have import taxes and VAT applied when shipped over to us.  However, a proxy might still be be beneficial for EU countries.  Besides the price agreement we would work out, grouping all EU orders will remove a part of the import duties and have cheaper shipping to the customer.

Cool. Feel free to PM or email me and maybe we can figure something out!

[Puddsy]

Are we closer to a timeline on these RF cases?

I want one

[necromanx]

Cool. Feel free to PM or email me and maybe we can figure something out!

Done :-)

[CandyKeys]

Would european proxies be a consideration? Either mykeyboard.eu or candykeys.com

Would be also down, but seems a bit too late.

Still here if required.

[panzermuffin]

Would european proxies be a consideration? Either mykeyboard.eu or candykeys.com

Would be also down, but seems a bit too late.

Still here if required.

Having too many EU Proxies. What a time to be alive!

[norbauer]

Are we closer to a timeline on these RF cases?

I want one

I was hoping a GB in the next month or less. I'm supposed to get final pre-production samples and pricing in the next week or so. Then I want to try powder-coating it. But that should be all I need to take some nice pics and get a pre-order rolling.

Confirmed with the workshop, btw, that winkey blockers will be possible, so I plan on doing that as an option.

[hayt]

Are we closer to a timeline on these RF cases?

I want one

I was hoping a GB in the next month or less. I'm supposed to get final pre-production samples and pricing in the next week or so. Then I want to try powder-coating it. But that should be all I need to take some nice pics and get a pre-order rolling.

Confirmed with the workshop, btw, that winkey blockers will be possible, so I plan on doing that as an option.

Thank you for the update! Definitely going to be going with the WKL option


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[ewwgin]

My wallet is so ready for this!


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[avid]

Will WKL only work with realforce 86? Or how will it be implemented on 87? Considering how the topre spacebar is 6.0 it would be nice if it was possible to do a 1.5 block 1.5 spacebar (7) 1.5 block 1.5 layout.

[Damonskv]

Will WKL only work with realforce 86? Or how will it be implemented on 87? Considering how the topre spacebar is 6.0 it would be nice if it was possible to do a 1.5 block 1.5 spacebar (7) 1.5 block 1.5 layout.

It, will work only with realforce 86 pcb

[jkmac1]

Very keen for this one!

[romevi]

OMG.

You said PCBs will be available too, right? For the WKL?

Or maybe I'm thinking of something else.

[clasicks]

The PCB prototypes arrived today! I've been too busy with other stuff today to test (namely shipping out what seems like mountains of keyboard boxes), but I should have some updates soon.

The shop also promised me samples of the production CNC case around this week (but that was three weeks ago), so it's time to go give them a nudge soon. I'm hoping to shoot some video of these being machined from the sample run.

he did say this above mr romevi - not sure if that means wkl pcbs

[pixelpusher]

The pcb he is referencing is the custom daughter board to convert it to USB-c. It's part of the kit

Magsafe-style cable on the outside (with USB type A on the other end). For those who prefer a regular cable, the magsafe head can be pulled out and a USB-C cable used.
The kit includes a custom internal cable and sub-PCB to replace the stock Topre cable that goes inside the case.

[consolation]

Just a heads up, the RF 87 sale on MD closes in 3 hours and it's @ 133/140 units.

[norbauer]

The pcb he is referencing is the custom daughter board to convert it to USB-c. It's part of the kit

Magsafe-style cable on the outside (with USB type A on the other end). For those who prefer a regular cable, the magsafe head can be pulled out and a USB-C cable used.
The kit includes a custom internal cable and sub-PCB to replace the stock Topre cable that goes inside the case.

confirmed. reece has it right.

WKL just means popping off your windows keys and having blockers there instead. Doing that apparently is, like, a thing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[avid]

The pcb he is referencing is the custom daughter board to convert it to USB-c. It's part of the kit

Magsafe-style cable on the outside (with USB type A on the other end). For those who prefer a regular cable, the magsafe head can be pulled out and a USB-C cable used.
The kit includes a custom internal cable and sub-PCB to replace the stock Topre cable that goes inside the case.

confirmed. reece has it right.

WKL just means popping off your windows keys and having blockers there instead. Doing that apparently is, like, a thing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Do you know if there is any way to get this to work with realforce 87? I would love a WKL realforce, but the RF86 is quite rare.

[norbauer]

The pcb he is referencing is the custom daughter board to convert it to USB-c. It's part of the kit

Magsafe-style cable on the outside (with USB type A on the other end). For those who prefer a regular cable, the magsafe head can be pulled out and a USB-C cable used.
The kit includes a custom internal cable and sub-PCB to replace the stock Topre cable that goes inside the case.

confirmed. reece has it right.

WKL just means popping off your windows keys and having blockers there instead. Doing that apparently is, like, a thing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Do you know if there is any way to get this to work with realforce 87? I would love a WKL realforce, but the RF86 is quite rare.

I designed the case around the 87U, actually.

[avid]

I designed the case around the 87U, actually.

I mean the blockers in WKL version. Problem with 87 is that it has 2  "1" keys on the right side and the lack of symmetry might look weird if going WKL.

[norbauer]

I designed the case around the 87U, actually.

I mean the blockers in WKL version. Problem with 87 is that it has 2  "1" keys on the right side and the lack of symmetry might look weird if going WKL.

Oh, good point. Clearly, I am unlearned in the ways of winkeylessness. Can you guys help me understand which models would be suited to a WKL version and which wouldn't? I only have an 87U and 91U on hand. I need to figure out how wide to make and where to position the blockers.

[avid]

I designed the case around the 87U, actually.

I mean the blockers in WKL version. Problem with 87 is that it has 2  "1" keys on the right side and the lack of symmetry might look weird if going WKL.

Oh, good point. Clearly, I am unlearned in the ways of winkeylessness. Can you guys help me understand which models would be suited to a WKL version and which wouldn't? I only have an 87U and 91U on hand. I need to figure out how wide to make and where to position the blockers.

Basically all WKL are using this layout:
(1.5) block (1.5) (7 space) (1.5) block (1.5)           

Where the block size is =1.

realforce 86 has this layout, so it will fit like a glove. Problem is this model is not for sale, and is quite rare. Much more so than novatouch i'd guess.

Realforce 87: Use (1.5) (1) (1.5) (6 space) (1.5) (1) (1) (1.5)
On left side, would work. On right side it would be a problem.

If there was a fix, this need to get done: 
-get a 7 spacebar. (which is easily fixed)
-remove one (1) spacer.
-move all right side modifiers 1 step to the right.

So the question is if the PCB could be fixed to do this, basically if it allows the 1 movement to the right. It's easy to remove sliders, but if there is holes that support this layout is the question.

[norbauer]

I designed the case around the 87U, actually.

I mean the blockers in WKL version. Problem with 87 is that it has 2  "1" keys on the right side and the lack of symmetry might look weird if going WKL.

Oh, good point. Clearly, I am unlearned in the ways of winkeylessness. Can you guys help me understand which models would be suited to a WKL version and which wouldn't? I only have an 87U and 91U on hand. I need to figure out how wide to make and where to position the blockers.

Basically all WKL are using this layout:
(1.5) block (1.5) (7 space) (1.5) block (1.5)           

Where the block size is =1.

realforce 86 has this layout, so it will fit like a glove. Problem is this model is not for sale, and is quite rare. Much more so than novatouch i'd guess.

Realforce 87: Use (1.5) (1) (1.5) (6 space) (1.5) (1) (1) (1.5)
On left side, would work. On right side it would be a problem.

If there was a fix, this need to get done: 
-get a 7 spacebar. (which is easily fixed)
-remove one (1) spacer.
-move all right side modifiers 1 step to the right.

So the question is if the PCB could be fixed to do this, basically if it allows the 1 movement to the right. It's easy to remove sliders, but if there is holes that support this layout is the question.

OK, this makes sense to me. 1u blockers on each side of a 7u spacebar, where the keys to the right of the spacebar number three rather than four. Thanks, avid.

So my question for the folks who wanted WKL would be: did you guys plan to use it with an RF 86 keyboard, or to make a modification to your plate/PCB in some manner as discussed above? If the former, does anybody have an 86U that they could loan me for a week or so to take measurements?

[Damonskv]

I designed the case around the 87U, actually.

I mean the blockers in WKL version. Problem with 87 is that it has 2  "1" keys on the right side and the lack of symmetry might look weird if going WKL.

Oh, good point. Clearly, I am unlearned in the ways of winkeylessness. Can you guys help me understand which models would be suited to a WKL version and which wouldn't? I only have an 87U and 91U on hand. I need to figure out how wide to make and where to position the blockers.

Only 86u pcb will be compatible with the Wkl case, there is also a model 89u which has built-in blockers, I know at least 2 guys here on geekhack who put 86u
Into 89u case, having a real 84u realforce. Details you can find here https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=88485.msg2393427#msg2393427

Also you can find stunning jokrik's photos.

I personally find the idea of creating wkl version absolutely wonderful.

[norbauer]

I designed the case around the 87U, actually.

I mean the blockers in WKL version. Problem with 87 is that it has 2  "1" keys on the right side and the lack of symmetry might look weird if going WKL.

Oh, good point. Clearly, I am unlearned in the ways of winkeylessness. Can you guys help me understand which models would be suited to a WKL version and which wouldn't? I only have an 87U and 91U on hand. I need to figure out how wide to make and where to position the blockers.

Only 86u pcb will be compatible with the Wkl case, there is also a model 89u which has built-in blockers, I know at least 2 guys here on geekhack who put 86u
Into 89u case, having a real 84u realforce. Details you can find here https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=88485.msg2393427#msg2393427

Also you can find stunning jokrik's photos.

I personally find the idea of creating wkl version absolutely wonderful.

Maybe I'm missing an important part of the premise, but given the limited availability of the 84, 89, etc., why couldn't we just block 1u winkey on the left and both the 1u winkey + 1u context menu key on the right to make it for the 86u instead? Is is the asymmetry that would bother people?

[avid]

Maybe I'm missing an important part of the premise, but given the limited availability of the 84, 89, etc., why couldn't we just block 1u winkey on the left and both the 1u winkey + 1u context menu key on the right to make it for the 86u instead? Is is the asymmetry that would bother people?

Can anyone who know photoshop/random editing program maybe mockup a RF87 with the different versions norbauer is suggesting.  You don't happend to have a top-down picture of the RF-aluminum case?

I really like WKL design and i think using a 2u blocker on right side would look great.

Did a fast pair of blockers. I think it would look fantastic!

[hayt]

Would it be possible to offer (2) WKL versions? One for 87u and one for 86u?

If not, I have 87u and would most likely not go with a WKL if it is only specifically for 86U, or if it blocks off two keys on the right side of the spacebar (which I find odd)

[norbauer]

Would it be possible to offer (2) WKL versions? One for 87u and one for 86u?

I think that would be asking a bit much of the machine shop, and it would certainly become quite expensive. If we're going to go with a WKL option (which actually seems a bit more questionable to me given this new info), we should try to figure out which of the two it's going to be, I'm afraid. I had originally assumed that folks were talking about 1u blockers on the 87U just over the winkeys, leaving the context menu key intact, but that's not even an option anyone has yet proposed. It seems there are more subtleties to the issue than I had initially appreciated.

[hayt]

This is what I had in mind, biased towards 87u

[avid]

According to deskthority wiki, realforce 86 stopped sale december 2013, making it a real rarity.

The question now is what does looks best:
1u - 1u blocker
or
1u - 2u blocker

[pixelpusher]

This is what I had in mind, biased towards 87u

(Attachment Link)

if you're doing blockers, this makes the most sense to me.  also looks the best

[avid]

made two mockups of haytorious pictures for comparison. Reposting your pic for easier comparison:

[usopia]

I would not use the WKL option but when I look at the two pictures of avid and haytarius, avid's looks a lot better for me. This one remaining 1u key in the bottom row will look something wrong.

[fine_italian_leather]

Photoshops of prototype case with blockers.

[avid]

Very nice! They both look great.

[dgneo]

Please block the right menu key, not the right winkey, as makes it impossible to use with an 86u.

[clasicks]

Please block the right menu key, not the right winkey, as makes it impossible to use with an 86u.

86u or bust, the WKL option for 87u is just kinda ghetto IMO

[norbauer]

Please block the right menu key, not the right winkey, as makes it impossible to use with an 86u.

Perhaps this might be a compromise solution. It provides that WKL look for 87U users, would have a nice symmetry (1u blockers, each the same distance from their closest key boundary), and would be compatible with both models. (This is all assuming that the 86u even has the same plate as the 87u and is thus compatible with my case in the first place, of course.)