3rd Millenium Keyboard R&D Project

[SpectreiiI]

This is my trial at launching a new serious research and development project with the goal of providing valuable resources from which the keyboard community as a whole can accelerate development of modern keyboard technology.

This project is based on a core observation (which is a matter of my opinion) that I have made regarding keyboard tech as stands on this day, the 15th of June, in the year 2018 of the BC/CE calendar. It is as follows:

    Though there has been significant advancements in commodity keyboard technology, high-end keyboard tech has remained (essentially) unchanged for the past 25 years.

I have observed numerous attempts to advance keyboard tech in that time. From what I have observed (which has informed my opinion derived), the primary reason why none of these attempts have been successful is that either; (a) the approach was far too exotic to implement at scale, or (b) the market-appeal of improvements in the attempt(s) could not justify adoption which could sustain the effort.

That said, there are many new options which the mechanical keyboarding community has embraced and are quickly being implemented. Unfortunately, (in my opinion) the lion's share of these are only available to people who are; (a) willing to pay upfront and deal with often-delayed group buys, and (b) more often than not require significant knowledge and practical skills to assemble, solder, and program.


[Fair Disclosure: (more than) a bit of *****ing follows]

This has led me, once a (self-described) afficianado of mechanical keyboards, to just about leave the hobby entirely. I love keyboards, and I love the aesthetics, mechanics, electronics, and code which power them, but I am sick and tired of having keyset a which has (theoretically) perfect sculpting arrive with crappy inconsistent dye subbing. I am sick and tired of having a group buy keyboard case arrive on time, just to have to wait for my (mass) delayed key-cap set. I am sick and tired of settling for cherry style switches because I can't get keycaps for anything else or (heaven forbid) I have to get a degree in electrical engineering to design my own electrocapacitive pcb.

There has to be a better way
This is my attempt to collect community feedback, and hopefully help, to find novel solutions. We must unite the clans. Our kids keebs could depend upon it...

[killyou]

That's a grand undertaking. I can already tell what's the community feedback will be like:

- compability with MX keycaps
- switches like zealio but better
- switches like topre but better
- nordic/colevrak/whatever compatible plz

I myself would like to see programmable 60% Pok3r style with electrocapacitive switches, silenced with MX compatible sliders made of zealio-like plastic for low friction and lightly lubed out of the factory. Wouldn't mind fresh and minimalistic case design like Massdrop ALT or new Vortex cases but with underglow and thin bezel. Switches plate mounted and low profile case.

Oh and I forgot to mention that noone except gamers/IT guys/graphic designers will spend more than 30$ on keyboard. Most of the demographic simply don't care as long it looks OK and types. That's the reason why we don't have high quality mass produced keyboards in the first place. Since big companies figured out how to make cheap keyboards people started buying them instead of expensive ones. Mechanical keyboards are getting more popular nowadays only thanks to the cost going down. Like new Coolermaster keyboards with gateron switches that will be selling for 70$ or something, that will be huge. Established brand, good quality, relatively cheap. They are going to get another segment of the market that is not using mechanical keyboards at the moment. If they get their price even lower then they will again get more of the market that is not using mechanical keyboards due to the cost.

[SpAmRaY]

Needs more tl;dr

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[switchnollie]

[Kevadu]

You speak as if the issues in the keyboard community are technical, but then you go and complain about things that are, by and large, not technical in nature.

The real 'problem' (if you can call it that) is that most consumers are perfectly happy with $10 rubber dome boards.  Most of the developments in keyboards in the last 30 years have been focused on reducing their cost, and they've done that.  They've also compromised some quality in the process, but for a lot of people that's a sacrifice they're perfectly willing to make.

Anything that's not a $10 rubber dome keyboard is a niche today.  'Gamer'-oriented stuff has become popular in recent years because that's a relatively large niche.  There are a lot of gamers startings to become conscious of the limitations of cheap keyboards.  But it's still niche and the stuff they want isn't necessarily what a pure typist wants anyway.

Stuff like custom keycaps face very limited runs because the market for them is extremely small.  Making custom keycaps for anything not MX-compatible would face a market even smaller than that.  It's not good business, but that's not a technical problem.

[clik_clak]

You speak as if the issues in the keyboard community are technical, but then you go and complain about things that are, by and large, not technical in nature.

The real 'problem' (if you can call it that) is that most consumers are perfectly happy with $10 rubber dome boards.  Most of the developments in keyboards in the last 30 years have been focused on reducing their cost, and they've done that.  They've also compromised some quality in the process, but for a lot of people that's a sacrifice they're perfectly willing to make.

Anything that's not a $10 rubber dome keyboard is a niche today.  'Gamer'-oriented stuff has become popular in recent years because that's a relatively large niche.  There are a lot of gamers startings to become conscious of the limitations of cheap keyboards.  But it's still niche and the stuff they want isn't necessarily what a pure typist wants anyway.

Stuff like custom keycaps face very limited runs because the market for them is extremely small.  Making custom keycaps for anything not MX-compatible would face a market even smaller than that.  It's not good business, but that's not a technical problem.

This post pretty much sums up my thoughts on the OP, too...

You start by saying you want to advance keyboard technologies, then go off on a tangent how you don't like how long it takes keysets to arrive....Two completely different things.

That's awesome you want to advance the technology for keyboards....

what are YOUR thoughts on how that can happen, besides getting keycaps to you faster?

[SpectreiiI]

You speak as if the issues in the keyboard community are technical, but then you go and complain about things that are, by and large, not technical in nature.

The real 'problem' (if you can call it that) is that most consumers are perfectly happy with $10 rubber dome boards.  Most of the developments in keyboards in the last 30 years have been focused on reducing their cost, and they've done that.  They've also compromised some quality in the process, but for a lot of people that's a sacrifice they're perfectly willing to make.

Anything that's not a $10 rubber dome keyboard is a niche today.  'Gamer'-oriented stuff has become popular in recent years because that's a relatively large niche.  There are a lot of gamers startings to become conscious of the limitations of cheap keyboards.  But it's still niche and the stuff they want isn't necessarily what a pure typist wants anyway.

Stuff like custom keycaps face very limited runs because the market for them is extremely small.  Making custom keycaps for anything not MX-compatible would face a market even smaller than that.  It's not good business, but that's not a technical problem.

That's one way of looking at it. Another way is that nothing has been produced that justifies most people spending the extra money, and a complete lack of innovation on the industrial engineering side has made mechanical keyboarding components less and less cost-effective, which only exacerbates the problem.

I believe that a clean sheet redesign of each and every component of the boards will allow for more cost-effective means of manufacturing for the more numerous components. It could also reduce the overhead and setup costs for limited runs of custom components. This will allow for better market penetration (including OEM adoption) as well as decreased dependency on group buys for niche runs.

[SpectreiiI]

Day 2 Status Update: Initial Concepts and Decisions

Work has officially begun. Doing a clean sheet redesign of the keyboard is quite a task. Having already put a substantial amount of work into the designs of various switch, keycap, layout, and packaging concepts, I have quite a bit to draw on. However, having designed those components within the constraints of traditional mechanical keyboard conventions, nothing is exactly applicable. Furthermore, to immediately dive into development, especially considering the comprehensive scope of the endeavor would be less than responsible. A few key guidelines must first be established. These are a work in progress, so please be considerate.

They are as follows:

• The resulting product(s) should be substantially more cost-effective to produce than existing products of comparable performance and specification
• Switch and Keycap dimensions should be compatible with all existing layouts and adhere to existing ANSI and ISO standards.
• Keycap clearances and mounts on switches should allow for existing keycaps of the Cherry/Topre varieties to be mounted.
• Packaging of switches (including any electrical clearances) should allow for universal axial scaling at 1mm of key travel per ever 2mm of overall switch height, with a minimum target of 2mm/4mm and a maximum of 5mm/10mm.
• Switch assemblies should not require conductive contacts, or any other mechanical element which prohibits them from operating when exposed to moisture, particulates, residue, or oxidation
• Switches must not require more than 4 parts to operate; a housing with a bore and mounting features, a piston style "slider" with a key-cap mount and feature(s) that prevent radial movement, an elastic or compression element which serves to reset the slider position, and an element which triggers an actuation event such as a magnet, conductor, insulator, or optical element
• Switch geometry must allow for a central source of light to illuminate a backlit keycap on-center, with a 12mm target area
• Switches must allow for peripheral elements such as stabilizers, dampeners, as well as tactile, audible, optical and haptic feedback elements
• Any displaced operating elements, such as contact leafs absent from a switch, should be at least as cost-effective to the overall product for a given function and specification

[Row009]

I will not burden you with all that I have on my mind right now, but one thing that you should realize is that most people don't give a damn!
You are so far high up your own rare hobby that you forgetting that the average consumer has not even the slightest amount of interest in keyboards.
They don't think about it, they don't care about it.
Keyboard enthusiasm is an EXTREMELY niche environment, well beyond that of even mechanical keyboards users (I'd go as far to say that even most mech-keyboard users don't care that much about keyboards). Company executives are doing what they are elected to do - make more money for the company by innovating where it is needed, not satisfy a small cult.
 
All that being said, I'd love to see you succeed in your process.