Latest News:
- HHKB tops will be an option after significant feedback and community requests!
- Travel cases will be added to every order!
- Limited Edition Forms live on 1st February at c. 10am EST
- Standard Edition live on 8th February at all vendors - 10am EST
Hello everybody
This is the Interest Check for my second board, the J-02. A fully featured 60% with Brass internal weighting, removable pen rail, full isolation mount design, carbon fibre plate and with a USB-C daughterboard.
After the success in proving the execution of my first board (the J-01; more info and pics/videos
HERE and a build stream
HERE ), I wanted to do something a little less extreme from a layout perspective and that was more accessible both in terms of layout options and availability.
Design & Inspiration The original idea for this board actually precedes the J-01; but at the time I wanted to prove that the design, aesthetics and mechanisms worked. This design is centred around a top and bottom piece anodised in the same colour, with a thick brass insert through the middle; and extruding through the top to form part of a pen rail.
This was influenced by the old school vintage boards which used to have pen rails incorporated in the design for office workers; and I wanted to do a modern take on that. Its currently magnet mounted; although this may change in the final design to something more robust.
The dark colours were inspired by the current ‘black and brass’ movement that is seen in lots of household design and features, but I would like to offer dark grey and perhaps a white if there is interest.
In terms of the shape, again I wanted to do a take on vintage boards, offering a slab of a keyboard, nestled neatly on a wedge. This makes the board easy to pick up, reduces the final weight of a full sided and back design, and gives it a timeless floating look in line with the J-01.
J-01 side profile by Kwer
The board is constructed from multiple pieces, and is fairly involved. The mounting system is full isolation mount using Nitrile rubber, as seen on the J-01 and the Kepler. Below are some exploded views of the board showing construction; although I’m looking at opportunities to enable the gaskets to come pre-assembled as one unit that stretches around the plate post soldering.
The idea behind this design is to remove all contact of the plate with the case - removing any inherent ping or resonance transference by contact. This works exceptionally well as seen on the J-01 and Kepler. The idea behind the CF plate is to retain a robust typing experience with a softness added to the bottom out from the gaskets incorporated into the design. As a material CF feels very much like brass; however as its not a metal it doesn't have any issues with ping, and presents a strong note with a pleasant timbre and acoustics. The plates will also have acoustic assisting cuts made in strategic places for both ISO and ANSI variants.
Features - Full Isolation Gasket Mount
- USB-C via a daughterboard
- Custom 60% PCB with JST breakout and ISO/ANSI support
- Fixed Carbon Fibre Plates – offering ISO and ANSI variants (plate files avail once GB starts)
- Unique Pen Rail – Currently Magnet Mounted ; may change before GB
- Thick brass middle and Pen rail for weight and aesthetics
- Top and bottom are anodised aluminium – colours TBC
- Tops will be available in WKL, full 60 and HHKB most likely if interest is there for all three
- 7 degree typing angle
Layouts Here is a simple KLE showing the layouts that will be available on the PCB. If there is enough feedback to add other things I'm open to that - please let me know in the comments below. Plates will be fixed as ANSI or ISO with both caps options and split right shift. The ANSI File will also support split backspace for HHKB. Plates files will be available if anyone wants to get one made to something more specific based on the PCB support that gets added/changed.
PCB Compatibility
Fixed ISO Layout
Fixed ANSI Layout
PrototypeI have already had a prototype made, and I’ll be hopefully building this on stream on
Sunday 29th September 8pm UK, noon PST on the Top Clack channel.
The additional tops will also be prototyped prior to the GB to make sure everything is in order and to ensure success.
My inspections of the prototype have found it to be of a very high standard and I’m excited to build the board for real – I’m currently just waiting on custom gaskets and PCB’s, all of which should arrive this week.
Group Buy / Vendors This GB will be run via Vendors - these are still be TBC although the EU proxy is likely to be MyKeyboard.EU. I just dont have the time personally to QC and validate all boards etc in a reasonable time-frame; and I wouldn't want o pass delays on to buyers due to my tardiness.
Date: Feb 2020
Pricing / Vendors:
US - Cannon Keys (Upas)
- Limited Edition price -
$625 (Share of 15 units with Jae)
- Standard Edition Price -
$460 (100 units avail)
EU - My Keyboard - (necromanx & NecrowomanX)
- Standard Edition -
€460 (50 Units avail)
EU - Jae
- Limited Edition -
€625 (share of 15 with Cannon Keys)
Asia - iLumKB - (iLouis_07 | iLumkb.com)
- Limited Edition -
845 SGD - (5 Units avail)
- Standard Edition -
620 SGD - (50 Units avail)
Limited Edition - Raffles will run on the 1st Feb for 24 hours, with winners selected from the entrants for both Asia and ROW lists.Standard Edition - FCFS sales will open on the 8th Feb at the relevant Vendors.Kits include:
Limited Edition
- E-white/Black Top Case
- WKL, HHKB or 60% options
- E-white / Black Bottom Case
- Copper middle weight
- Copper Pen Rail
- 12 Magnets
- Hardware & Bumpons
- Triple Layer Gasket
- PCB (QMK Compat)
- Daughterboard / Cable
- Carbon Fibre Plate (fixed ISO or fixed ANSI)
- Travel Case
Standard Edition
- Black or Space Grey Top Case
- WKL, HHKB or 60% options
- Black or Space Grey Bottom Case
- Brass middle weight
- Brass Pen Rail
- 12 Magnets
- Hardware & Bumpons
- Triple Layer Gasket
- PCB (QMK Compat)
- Daughterboard / Cable
- Carbon Fibre Plate (fixed ISO or fixed ANSI)
- Travel Case
GB will be open from the 8th until the 29th (its a leap year) of Feb or until all units have sold.
Discord : You can follow the design more closely here -
https://discord.gg/MGVQCVGMore imagesWKL Renders
Bingsu from Project Keyboard
MoDo Light from Janglad
Firefly from Emir
ThanksMany thanks to the following for your help and support:
- David and Yullia from MyKeyboard for their ongoing support and help in getting the set into IC
- Kwer, Egla, Max, Poesjuh, Swires, Tobbles, Stocks and Yian for their incredible friendship and support
- Satanarchist for all of his time, effort and CAD support
- E11iot for his PCB designs
- MacSurfy and UndercoverBrother for the amazing renders
Updates - HHKB tops will be offered in the GB!!
- Price / Dates announced for all vendors 11/01
- Costs / Dates / Times Will be announced in early Jan
- Final Colours agreed (renders of all options soon): Standard Edition: Black with Brass accents or Space Grey with Brass accents. Limited Edition: E-white/Black with Copper Accents - 16/12
- Final Tops agreed with Vendors - WKL and 60% (HHKB will not run due to low interest) - 16/12
- Added IC form - 10/11
- Added Bingsu, MoDo Light and Firefly renders - including full HHKB - 21/10
- Added WKL Renders at end of OP - 05/10
- all prototype parts now on hand - 27/09
- Prototype build stream Complete - VOD on Youtube (
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAIHiFKJt69HNad6reiq8pg/videos) (29/09)
- US Vendor Announcement - The US vendor will be CannonKeys!! (29/09)
- GB Date - Feb 2020!
