[IC] Hover TKL Rev. 2

[Tippo]

Hover TKL Rev. 2


1. Rework and changes
After gathering feedback and the testing of the first prototypes. I decided to rework the initial Hover TKL to address the major issues it had.
Mainly ergonomics, uneven underglow and the price. I tired to stay true to the initial design as much as possible and the ideas behind it and i came up with following.
1. Ergonomics: Reduced overall size, height of the keyboard and lowering the PCB in the case to get a lower EKH / (front height)
2. Underglow: Added window at the front of the Keyboard and more LEDs on the PCB.
3. Price: By reducing size, complexity and changing to a magnetic assembly of the case.


2. The reworked design
The new design is still centered around the hovering effect but is also more committed to the base design idea. That has been the hoverboard from BTTF. That's why it the engraving has changed to fit the theme.
It also is now only on the back accent piece to achieve a clean aesthetic from the front view of the board.

The magnetic covers are gone now as they were a big factor to the higher pricing before. To still make the assembly and disassembly as easy as possible i decided for a magnetic approach for the closing mechanism.
The bottom is now more rounded to fit more to the overall design.

I made a new form for the new design to not get a mix up with old entries. If you already have made an entry in the old form i ask you to please fill out the new form.
Thank you for your understanding.


New IC form
Discord server
Youtube trailer

3. Specifications
Price target: 400$
MOQ: 50
The MOQ and price target aren't set in stone and might change in the near future.

Case
Material: 6063 aluminium
Finish: anodized or e-coated
Accent pieces
Material: 6063 aluminium
Finish: anodized without laser engravings
Weight
Material: 6063 aluminium
Finish: anodized laser engravings
Internal weight
Material: brass
Finish: sandblasted and clear coated
Switchplate
Material: 6063 aluminium and FR4
Finish: anodized black
PCB *QMK / VIA compatible*
Daughter board: ai03's uDb-c3
Hotswap: 1.6 mm, no flexcuts

Solder:  1.6 mm, no flexcuts

Typing angle: 5.5 degrees
Front height: 20.5 mm (21.4 mm with feet)
EKH: 23 mm
Dimensions: (l/w/h) 395 mm x 136 mm x 31 mm
Weight: 1.8 kg (CAD value) I will update it when the prototypes are here.
Vendors: TBD
Color options: The top voted colorways so far are shown in the rendered images.









4. Prototypes
The prototypes for the new design are currently in production. I will update this bit once i have them on hand.

5. Render
Here are some rendered images of the new design with the most voted colorways, the colors might vary from the production units.









Album here



6. Wrist rest

Even though the EKH went down significantly it is still pretty high due to the design limitations. To make a wrist rest that would fit the keyboard and would still be affordable i decided to go with a full PC wrist rest.
The Price would be around 25- 40 USD depending on the unit count.
here are some renders:






Thank you!
Feel free to ask me any questions or give me feedback, criticism or suggestions.
Thank you for your attention.

[trashem]

this is really interesting, I love the concept!!! out of curiosity, is there a specific reason (e.g. cost, structural stability, just practicality’s sake) why the underglow window on the front is split into two small strips instead of running the full length of the board? even that small gap in the light breaks the floating illusion slightly, and I’d be worried about the effect being completely lost in any situation other than “room lights totally off, underglow brightness all the way up”. but that’s just nitpicking tbh, it’s a really awesome idea!

[Tippo]

That's a good question. I was considering a full underglow window at the front and back at some point but had concurrence about the structural stability as the material in these areas is "only" 3mm thick. It wouldn't brack under normal use but i wasn't too sure about a fall or something of that sort. I will look into this with some simulations. The other think i noticed is a slide change of acoustics in the areas of the windows. Thanks for the suggestion. 

[Thumb Key]

Looks so cool!!  like a spaceship parked on a tabletop

[Rhienfo]

Personally don't like the side bezels, way to chonky for me. The side profile is cool though.

Can the explosion diagram is really hard to see the mounting of it, could you maybe change the diagram so I can see everything more clearly. And the ekh is something I would like to know as well.

GLWIC

[Tippo]

Zea i get that with the bezels. I personally like them but i do understand that those are not for everyone. The actually do have a purpose.



The distance they create to the base makes it harder to see it even from lower angles.
And sorry i can't quite figure out what you mean with ekh. Could you tell me the meaning. I am not natively speaking English. So please bear with me.

[Rhienfo]

Zea i get that with the bezels. I personally like them but i do understand that those are not for everyone. The actually do have a purpose.

Show Image

The distance they create to the base makes it harder to see it even from lower angles.
And sorry i can't quite figure out what you mean with ekh. Could you tell me the meaning. I am not natively speaking English. So please bear with me.

Ah fair enough.

Ekh is effective keyboard height, where you measure from the bottom of the case (without bumpons) to the center of the bottom row stems. Just a better more standardised way of doing front height that I mainly use to judge front heights. Here is a github link if you need to know more - https://github.com/Croktopus/effective-keyboard-height
(I know it's in english but hopefully you can still understand it nonetheless)

[Tippo]

Got it. I updated it in the Specifications area. It's a great standardization.
Thanks for the link. I will use ekh as well in the future.

[Tippo]

I was looking into the possibilities to even out the underglow for a better effect.





There are clearly "dark" spots in those areas. It is a lot harsher on the camera than in person but still recognisable. It happens because of the small distance between the underglow windows and the table so the light can't spread so evenly as on the other sides. To make it easier to manufacture and keep the structural stability I decided on a 3-window approach in the front.



This should minimize the dark spots.

[KeebRehab]

Will you consider going with a smaller layout given how big the bezels are?

[Tippo]

Actually yes. I considered going with a 60 / 65 layout but decided to make the TKL layout first as it's my preference. I like them big chunky boards. I wouldn't rule out the possibility to make a 60/65/75 version in the future of the board. Doing it now would require for me to prototype everything again and this would probably exhaust my budget atm.

[KeebRehab]

I see! This is just my preference but I think it would look really good with the F13 F-row on top of the main cluster (basically if you just took the current layout and shaved off the right cluster).
GLWIC!

[Tippo]

So just so there is no misunderstanding. Do you mean a layout like this:



I could make some quick and dirty render with an alternate layout over the weekend. Just to get some ideas.

[KeebRehab]

Yes that's what I meant! I really like the symmetry of this as compared to standard 75%s.

[Rhienfo]

Yes that's what I meant! I really like the symmetry of this as compared to standard 75%s.

This is supposed to be an unique tkl, why are you mentioning this. It's not important at all.

sorry that comment served no purpose in the conversation.

IMO this layout looks really off to me. Probably doesn't help that I don't like 75s in the first place. A standard tkl is probably the more agreeable layout and personally better.

[WU]

Spaceships are so cool

[KeebRehab]

Yes that's what I meant! I really like the symmetry of this as compared to standard 75%s.

This is supposed to be an unique tkl, why are you mentioning this. It's not important at all.

sorry that comment served no purpose in the conversation.

IMO this layout looks really off to me. Probably doesn't help that I don't like 75s in the first place. A standard tkl is probably the more agreeable layout and personally better.

Yeah I understand and that's fine. It's why most keyboards are TKLs.
I'm coming from a perspective of someone who wants something new from each board I own. And as someone who owns a TKL and a big bezel 65% (Class65), I'm not likely to go for a big bezel TKL at this point.
I'm just one person though!

[Tippo]

Hey it's me again. I've put in a render area for the requested colorways so far. I am not sure if all requested colors are possible, will have to ask the manu. I've seen the VOD of Black Simon's stream and thought about what he had to say about my IC. The big criticism is the pricing and MOQ. As I am not so experienced in the hole GB stuff on the monetary side, I've probably overshot my price and MOQ expectations. There still some unclear cost to me like shipping+ vat to the vendors and what the vendor wants for it in the end. I will look further into it and have some negotiations on lower moq and pricing with my manu's. Thanks for the great feedback so far. I really appreciate it.

[gotin]

looks amazing!

[knorkegeil]

will the GB run of this board have split right shift support?
Because some of the pictures of the prototype build show split right shift, but the layout support pictures for the PCBs dont have split right **** included

[Tippo]

The solder version for the prototypes does have right split shift. I could include it in the hotswap version if you want.

[Tippo]

I overhauled the IC as it was confusing at some points. I also added a changelog to address the issues on the protos. I want to provide the best possible Board i am able to design so any feedback and suggestions for changes are welcome. I changed some pictures to pictures made by KenGuru who is currently testing the board for me so i can get some opinions that are not mine and therefore not biased. Big shout out to him and his awesome photography skills. To make communication easier the people interested in the Hover TKL and its journey I opened up a Discord server that is linked at the end of the Design section. The server is still a work in progress but feel free to join and have a chat with me.

[Tippo]

Some Updates on the current state of the IC

Changes
There are a lot of changes to the board so i decided that they are too many to just let them flow into the production units without testing. That's why i decided to go for a second round of prototypes. The changed 3D-data and so on are finished and will be quoted in the next days. I tried to simplify some parts to reduce the production costs and to get a better price target. All changes are posted on my discord server in detail.

Expanding IC and why
To get more feedback and possible entries for the GB i will start an IC on Zfrontier. Reducing the MOQ is quite hard to do as it will increase costs conciderbly and reduce color options. The MOQ for colors is 35 pcs with HongTu. So going down to 50 might only enable 2 color options. If there is somebody who can help me set up an IC on Zfrontier please contact me. I posted the full cost calculations on my Discord server.

Typing Demo
KenGuru who already made great pictures of the Hover TKL has also uploaded some typing demos of the board. Please Check out his channel here and show some love.

Wristrest
I will sadly have to rework the wrist rest for the Hover TKL. I got the feedback to round the inner corners more to make the design more cohesive. I totally agree! But current design will be too expensiv with this manufacturer. I can't offer a wrist rest that will cost (in production) more than 60$ at an moq of 50. I would rather get a cheaper one from ETSY or something. Thats why i will try to rework the wrist rest to achieve some appropriate pricing. If you have any Ideas or suggestions feel free to express yourself. changing the manu for the wrist rest may cause mismatched coloring.

Cover engraving
The engraving on the covers is for most people too generic and doesn't fit the board. That's why i will try to make some different designs and before the next prototype round. As always don't hesitate to make some suggestions. I will post the designs here and on the discord server to get some feedback.

[trashem]

definitely understandable update, thanks for checking in! I really think this keyboard is something special and (car maintenance/vet bills/overall universe willing) I’m penciling it into my 2024 budget for sure.

[Tippo]

Any color requests for the next protos?
I will order 3 new units.

[trashem]

the purple from the renders would be interesting to see, I think a coppery orange might be fun as well!

[Tippo]

Merry Christmas!
I have an important update for the Hover TKL project. As I said I am about to order new prototypes to test all the changes. I decided to try a rework of the Hover TKL to reduce the production costs of the Keyboard. I want to introduce you to the Hover TKL Rev. 2.kenguru_kbd did a great job again editing the video for the Hover TKL rev. 2.

Please check out the video to see all the changes.

I need your opinions on the revision 2. I tried to stay true to the original Design to not disappoint the people that already had an interest in it. The production costs certainly went down with rev. 2 changes so i might be able to reduce the new price target to 400 USD. If you're fine with the revision I will order the next prototypes in the new design.

Thanks to all the people that are supporting and following this Project. I hope you have a great Christmas and some quality time with friends and family.

[Sicklestudio]

Looks nice!

[NumPadEnjoyer]

If you were to make a 65 of this in the future would it be possible to have some left side macro keys? Or would dedicated left side macro keys be something you could add on this? If not totally fine but it would be a great benefit to be

[Tippo]

There is a smaller layout planned in the future, but I haven't decided on the which in particular. I will probably make a survey for the next one. I totally agree on the macro keys. The wide bezels are pretty much inviting for it.
There is a little easteregg in this trailer for the rev. 2 Design of a 60s concept I made at the end. here

[Tippo]

I will update the the interest check to the new design soon. I am just not sure if I should wait for the new prototypes to arrive before the update.

[Tippo]

As the new prototypes are in production and will arrive soon, I updated the IC. Please note that i made a new form for feedback and to count interests for the revision. If you filled out the old form and you are still interested despite the changes, then please fill out the new form.