Hey everyone! Breaking the silence with some news! Got my second Pearl revisions in (PURPLE AND TITANIUM), along with the brass plates. Heres the update.
PCB design is final. USB-C to USB-A only. Official QMK can be added in the future, but not for Round 1 GB. For now will send u/jetpacktuxedo a PCB to see if he can port QMK to it.
Cases were close to perfect. Anodize hooks were visible on the insides and the weights were kinda rough.
QUALITY IS NOT PERFECT. New design works wonderfully though. Light doesn't bleed through indicator holes to each other, corners and weight are rounder, plates slide in better, usb notch is cut and the usb hole is just right. Figured out the correct mounting hardware as well.
The brass plates will be sandblasted in the future, not polished. They sound and feel really nice. More of a clink than a click when compared to an anodized plate. Price will be higher for the brass option. And stainless steel plates will be offered as well. There will be 8 plates offered. One universal and 7 combinations of split space, split backspace and split shift. The non split plates will offer support for costar stabilizers and PCB mounted cherry stabilizers. PLATE mounted stabilizers will not be supported as the cutout would be too small to allow PCB mounted stabs and the PCB mounted stabs are more common. For the split options (opened up), only cherry stabs will work.
WHY 8 different plates? Its because of the ALPS. ALPS switches are wider than cherry switches, while cherry switches are taller. This means that when you split and open the plate such as to support a 2u backspace, the ALPS switch won't grab if you build a 2u ALPS on a split plate. It won't grab because it needs support on its sides to grab onto the plate. This really isn't a problem, but if you are REALLY PICKY and SURE you will build a 2U backspace only, then you might want to choose the unspilt backspace plate. Heres an example picture.
I saw some price mentions and wanted to address that. A blocked JD45, which is really the Pearls little brother costs $250 on mechanicalkeyboards dot com. Problem is that you cant buy one because they are out of stock. Pearl offers RGB, a weight, USB-C, brass/stainless steel plates, more CASE, and a ton of more colors than the JD45's black/silver. That all adds up, and is why the price isn't as low as WE ALL wish it was. We including me, because my intentions aren't to profit off this GB, i just want others to enjoy the Pearl and be able to get one and love it.
Now that everything is in order, i will be running the GB in a few months, maybe 2. So mark your calendars and save your money! Shipping might be expensive too for international, and it will be added on top of the price. I'm thinking $20 for CONUS in a flat rate priority box, and for international shipping i have no idea what to do, so any suggestions will be appreciated.
A complete Pearl buy will include a sticker, case, weight, plate, RGB diffuser, PCB, usb-c cable, screws and clear rubber feet.
Any chance we could see a prototype picture with something other than SA profile keycaps at some point (personally would love to see an example with GMK caps). Pictures in which the split spacebar option is utilized would be nice aswell.
Will get GMK pics soon (hoping on Robo's help xD)
FINALLY, THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT<3