[IC] Drakon

[JagdPietr]

“Of old, they talked about the mythical beast – the Drakon – the spawn of mystery, elegant yet terrifying.”
-   The Man of the Golden Hair People



Hi all!
I’m JagdPietr (Ya-gid-pyi-ter), a long-time lurker here on GH and I hope you take a look in my board design.

 
The Drakon





Specs:
-   Burger Mount
-   7 degree typing angle
-   Custom designed Plate (Brass, Alum, or PC)
-   0.91” OLED Display (Vertical Positioning)
-   Rotary Encoder with 4 Directional Presses (N, S, E, W) and center push
-   USB-C with ESD Protection Support
-   Custom Badge








The Mounting:

More

Having tried and used the burger mounting, I decided to make it as this board's mount-type. The said mounting type greatly reduced pings from the switches and plate, as what I observed in some of my boards.

The Layout:

More

I really designed this board to accommodate my personal preferences. During the first phase of the design, I eliminated some keys that I don't really use: Right Alt, Right Ctrl, and Menu key. I instead included a nav cluster with .25u blockers, Fn key, and another key to balance the lower row. I also decided to make the Right Shift to be 1.25u to accommodate the nav cluster.

The Design:

More

This keyboard has its design cues from other notable and well-known boards such as Satisfaction75 and Evolv75. But I think the main difference is that this is a 60% with the OLED on a non-conventional place. This is because of the PCB space accommodation, bezel adjustment, and the viewing angle.
PCB Space accommodation – The total surface area of the PCB is very limited, and to save space I put the OLED in that area.
Bezel adjustment – Having thick bezels means much costly manufacturing, so thinner bezels are for reducing the cost.
Viewing Angle – The OLED is put in that area so that viewing it is not that hard. Plus, the user should be able to see the display without having to lean forward.

Colors:
Matte/Glossy Blue
Matte/Glossy Black
(subject to changes, depending on the suggestions)

Pricing:
TBD (I’m targeting sub-400usd)

Status:
PCB – done/design ready for manufacturing
Case – done/design ready for 3d printing for adjustments

Group Buy?
TBD


Additional Notes:
Actually, due to the fact that I cannot order PCBs below than 5, I’ll be running a 3-kit acrylic version GB on my local group. Maybe I'll be pursuing an alucase GB if this is received well . I really plan on buying and funding the case first than relying solely on renders in the future.
Better renders will all be added after some time because of some financial hurdles, so please bear with me for a while 

I’m all positive for feedbacks, so here’s the form if interested: https://forms.gle/93r3Q5ioQQRUctQ26



Credits to
MR. Ram.I. for helping me with the PCB design
bananathock for the case design and aesthetics
Kachiko for the help and other cool things

[JagdPietr]

Reserved

[bananathock]

Nice!
 

[radsan]

Wow people have been asking for a 65% with encoder/oled support. Nice.

[fropsie]

Intruiged with that layout there. Seems to be some fairly noticeable gaps between caps

[bigern302]

Hot.  I’ll be following this for certain. 

[fropsie]

Intruiged with that layout there. Seems to be some fairly noticeable gaps between caps

I also want to point out a few things.
A) The "flex cut" itself would just not work. Those slits are far too thin, and don't cover enough of the plate to even be good enough for your intent.
B) The selected mounting method just doesn't make much sense. It looks like you have taken an attempt at making it a leaf spring plate, given up and opted to screw it in. Word of advice, stick with one or the other. Right now the plate is just not that good looking, and doesn't seem that good in terms of function. Have one or the other, since screw holes makes the "leaf spring" obsolete and vice versa.
C) Renders... Just try to fix them please.
D) Pricing. $350 USD or less is not reasonable to be quite frank. For the things you want offered with this board, it just doesn't even seem realistic. My suggestion would be to put an N/A next to that price until you have quotes for the board, pcb, hardware, etc. so you can actually think about what the selling price and MoQ would be.
E) Please remove some of the filler stuff. Some additional things aren't really needed.
F) It is best not to hide the statement about running some acrylic cases in order to test things. I would also suggest just sucking it up with the pricing and prototyping the real thing as well as the actual pcbs. You are running an IC for a what seems to be alu case are you not? So maybe that should be the focus.

These are just some thoughts on your IC. Do not take this as someone trying to tear your idea down, but take it constructively. Look at some other keyboard ICs such as the 7v by gok and try to build yours like his. Cheers.

[KaosJ]

Nice, i'll follow this 

I'm not sure about the vertical display tho, it's a bit too small to fit words, maybe you can merge the display with the badge and make a bigger vertical badge instead of the oled.   
Also not sure about this plate.

Any pic of the bottom of the board?   

[KaosJ]

Intruiged with that layout there. Seems to be some fairly noticeable gaps between caps

I also want to point out a few things.
A) The "flex cut" itself would just not work. Those slits are far too thin, and don't cover enough of the plate to even be good enough for your intent.
B) The selected mounting method just doesn't make much sense. It looks like you have taken an attempt at making it a leaf spring plate, given up and opted to screw it in. Word of advice, stick with one or the other. Right now the plate is just not that good looking, and doesn't seem that good in terms of function. Have one or the other, since screw holes makes the "leaf spring" obsolete and vice versa.
C) Renders... Just try to fix them please.
D) Pricing. $350 USD or less is not reasonable to be quite frank. For the things you want offered with this board, it just doesn't even seem realistic. My suggestion would be to put an N/A next to that price until you have quotes for the board, pcb, hardware, etc. so you can actually think about what the selling price and MoQ would be.
E) Please remove some of the filler stuff. Some additional things aren't really needed.
F) It is best not to hide the statement about running some acrylic cases in order to test things. I would also suggest just sucking it up with the pricing and prototyping the real thing as well as the actual pcbs. You are running an IC for a what seems to be alu case are you not? So maybe that should be the focus.

These are just some thoughts on your IC. Do not take this as someone trying to tear your idea down, but take it constructively. Look at some other keyboard ICs such as the 7v by gok and try to build yours like his. Cheers.

I agree on everything except point D, it's definetely possible to make a $350 board with this specs without sacrificing too much the quality of it. The fact that we see many expensive boards doesn't mean $350 is no longer possible.
Absolutely not saying that the other are overcharging, they just have a different target buyers and offering different things. Given a random board, it could be produced with $250 or $500 for example, the point is to make quality worth for the price you are paying. 

[fropsie]

Intruiged with that layout there. Seems to be some fairly noticeable gaps between caps

I also want to point out a few things.
A) The "flex cut" itself would just not work. Those slits are far too thin, and don't cover enough of the plate to even be good enough for your intent.
B) The selected mounting method just doesn't make much sense. It looks like you have taken an attempt at making it a leaf spring plate, given up and opted to screw it in. Word of advice, stick with one or the other. Right now the plate is just not that good looking, and doesn't seem that good in terms of function. Have one or the other, since screw holes makes the "leaf spring" obsolete and vice versa.
C) Renders... Just try to fix them please.
D) Pricing. $350 USD or less is not reasonable to be quite frank. For the things you want offered with this board, it just doesn't even seem realistic. My suggestion would be to put an N/A next to that price until you have quotes for the board, pcb, hardware, etc. so you can actually think about what the selling price and MoQ would be.
E) Please remove some of the filler stuff. Some additional things aren't really needed.
F) It is best not to hide the statement about running some acrylic cases in order to test things. I would also suggest just sucking it up with the pricing and prototyping the real thing as well as the actual pcbs. You are running an IC for a what seems to be alu case are you not? So maybe that should be the focus.

These are just some thoughts on your IC. Do not take this as someone trying to tear your idea down, but take it constructively. Look at some other keyboard ICs such as the 7v by gok and try to build yours like his. Cheers.

I agree on everything except point D, it's definetely possible to make a $350 board with this specs without sacrificing too much the quality of it. The fact that we see many expensive boards doesn't mean $350 is no longer possible.
Absolutely not saying that the other are overcharging, they just have a different target buyers and offering different things. Given a random board (any), it could be produced with $250 or $500 for example, the point is to make quality worth for the price you are paying.

My point is to put something realistic. As someone who has run a board before, and is in the process of working on running 2 more within the upcoming couple months, such low "estimated" pricing just isn't realistic. Considering the seeming complexity of the side profile with the case top, it is enough of a given that this board will not be at 350 nor sub 350, assuming OPs vendor wants to make money either.

[KaosJ]

But still this is possible (even if i agree for the TBD in case he didn't got quotes/moq yet), especially if you go for china, which is not always the synonymous of bad.   
If you see, he didn't specified some things which could make the price a lot higher or smaller, e.g. he has at least 3 pieces of brass, he didn't said for example if it's PVD or any other cheap coating which could create a 50/100 price difference already

[JagdPietr]

Intruiged with that layout there. Seems to be some fairly noticeable gaps between caps

I also want to point out a few things.
A) The "flex cut" itself would just not work. Those slits are far too thin, and don't cover enough of the plate to even be good enough for your intent.
B) The selected mounting method just doesn't make much sense. It looks like you have taken an attempt at making it a leaf spring plate, given up and opted to screw it in. Word of advice, stick with one or the other. Right now the plate is just not that good looking, and doesn't seem that good in terms of function. Have one or the other, since screw holes makes the "leaf spring" obsolete and vice versa.
C) Renders... Just try to fix them please.
D) Pricing. $350 USD or less is not reasonable to be quite frank. For the things you want offered with this board, it just doesn't even seem realistic. My suggestion would be to put an N/A next to that price until you have quotes for the board, pcb, hardware, etc. so you can actually think about what the selling price and MoQ would be.
E) Please remove some of the filler stuff. Some additional things aren't really needed.
F) It is best not to hide the statement about running some acrylic cases in order to test things. I would also suggest just sucking it up with the pricing and prototyping the real thing as well as the actual pcbs. You are running an IC for a what seems to be alu case are you not? So maybe that should be the focus.

These are just some thoughts on your IC. Do not take this as someone trying to tear your idea down, but take it constructively. Look at some other keyboard ICs such as the 7v by gok and try to build yours like his. Cheers.

Thank you for these!
Re:A) Yes, I'm quite aware of those "flex cuts," so I'll be adjusting them to make them more usable rather than just unusable and annoying.
Re:B) I will be adjusting the plate itself, because I'm quite aware that those leaves were all made because of unnecessary worry. I'll be sticking to burger mount instead
Re:C) Soon I will be asking someone for the renders, coz right now I don't have the fund yet
Re:D) Yep, that price is actually too good to be true, but I will be doing my best to make the prices go down. But for now, maybe I will be not making any price point.
Re:E) Will do!
Re: F) Yes, this will be an alucase version. And yes, I'll not hide that acrylic version info.

Thanks a lot! I will be editing the post 

[JagdPietr]

Intruiged with that layout there. Seems to be some fairly noticeable gaps between caps

I actually posted the wrong layout
But it's fixed now 

[JagdPietr]

Nice, i'll follow this 

I'm not sure about the vertical display tho, it's a bit too small to fit words, maybe you can merge the display with the badge and make a bigger vertical badge instead of the oled.   
Also not sure about this plate.

Any pic of the bottom of the board?

Actually the plan for the OLED will be for some small notifs and some indicators, and maybe I can do a bigger badge for another board.
The plate will be adjusted tho 

[fropsie]

Intruiged with that layout there. Seems to be some fairly noticeable gaps between caps

I also want to point out a few things.
A) The "flex cut" itself would just not work. Those slits are far too thin, and don't cover enough of the plate to even be good enough for your intent.
B) The selected mounting method just doesn't make much sense. It looks like you have taken an attempt at making it a leaf spring plate, given up and opted to screw it in. Word of advice, stick with one or the other. Right now the plate is just not that good looking, and doesn't seem that good in terms of function. Have one or the other, since screw holes makes the "leaf spring" obsolete and vice versa.
C) Renders... Just try to fix them please.
D) Pricing. $350 USD or less is not reasonable to be quite frank. For the things you want offered with this board, it just doesn't even seem realistic. My suggestion would be to put an N/A next to that price until you have quotes for the board, pcb, hardware, etc. so you can actually think about what the selling price and MoQ would be.
E) Please remove some of the filler stuff. Some additional things aren't really needed.
F) It is best not to hide the statement about running some acrylic cases in order to test things. I would also suggest just sucking it up with the pricing and prototyping the real thing as well as the actual pcbs. You are running an IC for a what seems to be alu case are you not? So maybe that should be the focus.

These are just some thoughts on your IC. Do not take this as someone trying to tear your idea down, but take it constructively. Look at some other keyboard ICs such as the 7v by gok and try to build yours like his. Cheers.

Thank you for these!
Re:A) Yes, I'm quite aware of those "flex cuts," so I'll be adjusting them to make them more usable rather than just unusable and annoying.
Re:B) I will be adjusting the plate itself, because I'm quite aware that those leaves were all made because of unnecessary worry. I'll be sticking to burger mount instead
Re:C) Soon I will be asking someone for the renders, coz right now I don't have the fund yet
Re:D) Yep, that price is actually too good to be true, but I will be doing my best to make the prices go down. But for now, maybe I will be not making any price point.
Re:E) Will do!
Re: F) Yes, this will be an alucase version. And yes, I'll not hide that acrylic version info.

Thanks a lot! I will be editing the post 

Great lad! Looking forward to the progress of this IC and looking forward to its GB

[Inner-Ear]

Wow people have been asking for a 65% with encoder/oled support. Nice.

Not quite a 65% without the right side vertical column of keys. I'd like to see the OLED and badge removed and replaced with the 65% vertical keys

[Wolframme]

Looking very nice, you've got my interest.

[ufomer]

Looks great! I'm definitely interested. Any idea as to the pricing/GB date?

[Rew23]

Looks great! Is that the badge under the Knob? If so does custom mean we can choose what goes on it?

[JagdPietr]

Looks great! I'm definitely interested. Any idea as to the pricing/GB date?

As for now, I'm looking at sub 400 usd (or lower), and may run in Q2 or Q3 of next year 

[JagdPietr]

Looks great! Is that the badge under the Knob? If so does custom mean we can choose what goes on it?

Thanks!
The badge is located just below the OLED, and yes I may very much consider make other custom designs for the badge.

[Vidhur100]

This would be endgame for me I just have two critical things holding me back. I would suggest fewer curves and sharper edges and function keys. Overall great design tho

[JagdPietr]

This would be endgame for me I just have two critical things holding me back. I would suggest fewer curves and sharper edges and function keys. Overall great design tho

I can say that the case design will have a major revision after I run the local acrylic version, and that is to address the curves and add some edges. I am not quite sure with the addition of some function keys, but this will be considered as well

Thank you for the interest tho! 

[HODO]

This is great design!

Can I say some of my opinion?

It's just my guessing. I'm afraid if your hand block the OLED display while you turning the Rotary Encoder. how about changing the positions of them each other? so you can read the display while turning the Rotary Encoder.

And this is just personal taste but In my opinion, it will be cleaner design if you get rid of the gold spare under the OLED display, and make the OLED display longer or bigger so it can have more visibility!
I wish the OLED display have some big and simple information making it readable at a glance, without putting your eyes closer to the OLED display.

Sorry for my poor English

[JagdPietr]

 

This is great design!

Can I say some of my opinion?

It's just my guessing. I'm afraid if your hand block the OLED display while you turning the Rotary Encoder. how about changing the positions of them each other? so you can read the display while turning the Rotary Encoder.

And this is just personal taste but In my opinion, it will be cleaner design if you get rid of the gold spare under the OLED display, and make the OLED display longer or bigger so it can have more visibility!
I wish the OLED display have some big and simple information making it readable at a glance, without putting your eyes closer to the OLED display.

Sorry for my poor English

Thank you for your interest!

Yep, there really is a worry about the position of the OLED being covered with the right hand, and changing their positions with the rotary might solve the issue; however, the design is put that way because:
1. it is not all of the times that you look at the OLED. You only do so to know the status and other information in a glance (what locks are on, the layer, etc.
2. putting the OLED to the farthest right corner may require you to lean forward.
All of these implementations are to be confirmed with the acrylic version run that I am going to launch later next month. If the design is not a good one, then it will be redesigned to make the most from it.

Still, thank you for expressing your interest and your thoughts and opinions are noted for the redesigning stage. Thank you!

[MadBinton]

Think this is a fun board. While I do love 65%s, and have a TOFU 60 with directional keys, the 2U LShift on that is a pain.

But looking at this, it seems 2.25u LShift, but a 1,25U (??) RShift? Personally, I don't use Rshift all that much, so it suits me well, but that does seem like an odd keysize that you won't find in many keysets? I seem to have just one GMK set that has it and some cheap thin XDA PBT caps, but that would be limiting.

That said, I do really enjoy the 0.25u blockers around the arrows and the screen in that location is cool.

Would you (probably after the GB) care to release the CAD files so I could 3D print one and just buy the PCB?  (Or an extra with the board form the GB)

I recently designed my own board and it turns out Geetech Pro Carbon PLA is awesome 3d print case material and with a 1.5mm and 3mm max thickness plate gives something I really enjoy.

That said, very cool work, joined your other GB today, and looking forward to this one too!

[ninjacore]

Will their be a WkL option like the acrylic version?