[IC] Keychron Q3 - TKL

[cheswick]

Q3
by Keychron
Website 
Discord

• Full aluminium body
• Gasket mount
• TKL layout
• Out of the box QMK & VIA support
• Gateron screw-in stabs
• 5Pin ANSI/ISO hotswap PCB [southfacing]
• Preinstalled Force case mod/Top break mod [silicon between top and bottom case]
• South facing LEDs
• Physical switch to switch between layers *Explanation down belown
• Barebones: 149$
• Fully assembled: 169$

Our concept was to make a true gasket-mounted full aluminium keyboard that would provide excellent flexibility for typing. And it can be customized and adjusted exactly the way you want it to be. So we made it fully support QMK and VIA, making it easy for everyone to program every keystroke. For this we upgraded the chip to a STM and we changed the ribbon cable to a normal cable so its not that easy to break it for people new to this.




*You don't have to use this switch, you can also switch through the layers purely by using VIA, it's just something on top where u can switch between 2 set layers.
As an example:
Switch state 1: VIA layer 1
Switch state 2: VIA layer 3




Options

Board options

• Fully assembled version including Gateron Pro switches and PBT keycaps OSA profile [OEM height and SA look][atm ANSI only!]: 169$
• Barebone: 149USD

Case colors

• Carbon Black
• Space Gray
• Navy Blue

Plate options

• Steel [default]
• FR4
• PC
• Brass

Size

• Width: 137mm
• Lenght: 365.17mm
• Front Height: 23.77mm
• Back Height: 32.64mm
• Feet Height: 2.7mm
• Angle: 5.26 degree
• Weight: 1.96 Kilogramm

Informations
We are working on the first prototypes; this will be an unlimited run of the board, and real-life photos of the boards will be available later.
The estimated launch for this board is expected to be Q1 2022

Edit:
- WKL, rotary knob(F13), tsangan bottom row are things we are working on and may come in a separate run. To keep the price as low as it is, we need to make the board as simple as possible and appeal to as many customers as possible.

- Bluetooth isnt there, because BT and VIA arent working together, Keychron devs are on it but aslong VIA dont work with BT we will hold on wired only.


For release we now have 2 versions:
TKL:


TKL with Knob:

[Poesjuh]

First

And as a question: would be nice to see the internals as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[swifthunting]

Keychron has been on a roll with these Q series boards. Really great value for money, and a great entry point for those who are new to the hobby. Not a TKL person myself (the Q2 is more my speed) but really love the design language of all these Q boards, and the overall direction Keychron has been going in.

[cheswick]

First
And as a question: would be nice to see the internals as well.

Internal pictures will be added later

[tordj88]

Please ensure there is enough clearance in the top housing for the keycaps. With the q1, there is a chance that the keycaps will touch the top housing if the gaskets are not placed properly.

Another idea is to make sure that the gasket is easy to attach correctly. Owlab's gasket sock is a good example.

[LJ_Dude]

Dude, this looks great. Definitely going to get it to replace my gmmk tkl once I have the money.

I just have one question: do QMK and/or VIA work on Linux, specifically Ubuntu 20.04?

[Ella]

Dude, this looks great. Definitely going to get it to replace my gmmk tkl once I have the money.

I just have one question: do QMK and/or VIA work on Linux, specifically Ubuntu 20.04?

qmk doesn't run on the computer, it works independently of the OS.
via does support linux

[chyll2]

Is WKL option part of the plan?

[nightrai]

Is there a rotary knob option?

[GetRickRolld]

finally, a budget TKL that is gasket mounted

[cheswick]

WKL, rotary knob(F13), tsangan bottom row is stuff we try to put into a limited run on the Q3 but we have to check on this later on

[HugoChowsky]

Please consider tsangan bottom row. Thanks.

[sayers]

IMO F13 is a great idea, either you have an extra key for use/place for artisan or unusual spot for a knob which shouldn't be that bad. The tsangan bottom layout might be tricky because with other options there would be a lot of variations of PCBs and trying to do this with alternative keys in north facing is kinda ugly but maybe thats just me

[stidal]

pre-installed 'force break' mod is pretty sick. glad to see that community feedback/solutions are being implemented in a more elegant way to solve these boards' issues

[synchromatik]

WKL/Wireless options plox

[alexfry]

I’d really love to see it in a plain silver/clear anno finish.

Will the PCB be cross compatible with the C1 TKL?

[Potatomonkey]

WKL or at least tsangan optional row pls

[Akele]

Please ensure there is enough clearance in the top housing for the keycaps. With the q1, there is a chance that the keycaps will touch the top housing if the gaskets are not placed properly.

Yes, if you could make this board so it's compatible with non-ISO keycaps like MT3, DSA, etc, that'd be great. The interference issues with MT3 keycaps on the Q1 are rather annoying.

[ropetight]

Please ensure there is enough clearance in the top housing for the keycaps. With the q1, there is a chance that the keycaps will touch the top housing if the gaskets are not placed properly.

Yes, if you could make this board so it's compatible with non-ISO keycaps like MT3, DSA, etc, that'd be great. The interference issues with MT3 keycaps on the Q1 are rather annoying.

This. Also interested.

[yuityr]

Would be interested in a wireless option for this.

[breckstar]

In for a cheap TKL.

[cheswick]

Wireless and VIA dont work together, keychron is on it to implement BT into VIA.
For the corners keychron is working on it. Unluckly MT3 fitted on the review units but saw afterwards when we got feedback from customers, that it could happen per unit, that mt3 dont fit sometimes. We worked on it so smth like this wont happen again.

[quantumlocke]

Are you taking feedback? Because the spacing on the F-row is terrible. I’m interested in a Q series TKL in theory, but this weird F-row spacing is a dealbreaker for me. You could probably fit an F13 or a knob I there. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, but at least evenly distribute the F keys across the available space.

[cheswick]

Are you taking feedback? Because the spacing on the F-row is terrible. I’m interested in a Q series TKL in theory, but this weird F-row spacing is a dealbreaker for me. You could probably fit an F13 or a knob I there. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, but at least evenly distribute the F keys across the available space.

Yes I am, we are already thinking about making it a F13 layout where a badge/rotary knob/artisan could fit

[potato_panda-]

Wireless and VIA dont work together, keychron is on it to implement BT into VIA.
For the corners keychron is working on it. Unluckly MT3 fitted on the review units but saw afterwards when we got feedback from customers, that it could happen per unit, that mt3 dont fit sometimes. We worked on it so smth like this wont happen again.

When you say you've worked on it so it wont happen again, does that mean future batches of the Q1 wont have this issue? Been looking at getting one but I'm worried about the MT3 issue.

[Twin_5thDrop]

i like this alot plz make it

[poutine]

Would be interested in a wireless option for this.

would love to see the possibility for bluetooth connection like with the other keychron boards

[SDKCAMPING]

Are you taking feedback? Because the spacing on the F-row is terrible. I’m interested in a Q series TKL in theory, but this weird F-row spacing is a dealbreaker for me. You could probably fit an F13 or a knob I there. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, but at least evenly distribute the F keys across the available space.

That is literally a traditional TKL F-row!more TKLs have this spacing than F13. I like the way it looks, so I vote to keep the F-row layout the way it is !!

[Akele]

For the corners keychron is working on it. Unluckly MT3 fitted on the review units but saw afterwards when we got feedback from customers, that it could happen per unit, that mt3 dont fit sometimes. We worked on it so smth like this wont happen again.

Thanks for the response. Really glad to hear that Keychron will ensure future keyboard are compatible with MT3 keycaps.

[Sandersoni]

Nice.
Looking for a white case colour. Also curious for a transparent case option.
Wireless/Bluetooth option would be nice.

[lw88]

I hope that the case bottom is thicker to reduce reverb and that the side gaskets are gone for a bit of extra softness.

If you do that you'll be absolutely leagues ahead of glorious.

[SRTChrisS1]

I'm surprised that the target price of this will be the same as the Q1 despite weighing more.

[bansheetango]

No backlight? Didn't see it mentioned anywhere. It was nice to have on the Q1.

[moh18one]

No backlight? Didn't see it mentioned anywhere. It was nice to have on the Q1.

It is (south facing) according to their website.

[unni]

from where do u get the 4 types of plate info ? nothing mentioned in neither in their website nor in facebook group

[cheswick]

I hope that the case bottom is thicker to reduce reverb and that the side gaskets are gone for a bit of extra softness.

If you do that you'll be absolutely leagues ahead of glorious.

If you dont want to use teh side gaskets, just dont install them But yes bottom case is thicker

[cheswick]

No backlight? Didn't see it mentioned anywhere. It was nice to have on the Q1.

Will have normal backlight like all other boards too, will add southfacing LEDs to the post

[cheswick]

from where do u get the 4 types of plate info ? nothing mentioned in neither in their website nor in facebook group

Cause im the guy behind the boards who had the idea etc? Im working together with keychron to make this happen. Im not employeed or paid, just doing this in my freetime to give new people in the hobby a better budget entry compared to the entry options I had when I joined.

[nvh2092]

from where do u get the 4 types of plate info ? nothing mentioned in neither in their website nor in facebook group

Cause im the guy behind the boards who had the idea etc? Im working together with keychron to make this happen. Im not employeed or paid, just doing this in my freetime to give new people in the hobby a better budget entry compared to the entry options I had when I joined.

Thanks a lot for the contribution, also do you have anyplans for a 65s layout with 2 macro columns on the right side for keychron? Like this:

[cheswick]

from where do u get the 4 types of plate info ? nothing mentioned in neither in their website nor in facebook group

Cause im the guy behind the boards who had the idea etc? Im working together with keychron to make this happen. Im not employeed or paid, just doing this in my freetime to give new people in the hobby a better budget entry compared to the entry options I had when I joined.

Thanks a lot for the contribution, also do you have anyplans for a 65s layout with 2 macro columns on the right side for keychron? Like this:

Ur welcome. Special layouts like this will maybe be a thing later on. First we wanna cover all normal layouts and will start with alice stuff afterwards and southpaw etc

[autobot]

Interested, but will wait for a WKL/stepped caps lock layout, and some more unique finishes like olive/cyan/e-yellow

Is stepped caps lock possible with hot swap? Never seen it, never understood why. If it is possible, it’d be quite a differentiator.

[Reebes]

Reading that BT isn’t comparable with VIA, but the ikki68 lists via compatibility for the Bluetooth variant. Is that a mislabeling on their part?

[cheswick]

Reading that BT isn’t comparable with VIA, but the ikki68 lists via compatibility for the Bluetooth variant. Is that a mislabeling on their part?

Its tricky, as far as I know (dont own an Ikki68) this can only be done atleast atm by using the ikki in wired mode when configuring it in via and after that in Bluetooth mode it will use the safed setting from the wired setup.
Hope you got what I tried to say

[Reebes]

Reading that BT isn’t comparable with VIA, but the ikki68 lists via compatibility for the Bluetooth variant. Is that a mislabeling on their part?

Its tricky, as far as I know (dont own an Ikki68) this can only be done atleast atm by using the ikki in wired mode when configuring it in via and after that in Bluetooth mode it will use the safed setting from the wired setup.
Hope you got what I tried to say

Interesting. That actually doesn’t seem like a very significant compromise to me. If I understand correctly, the only thing the ikki68 CAN’T do is configure using VIA over Bluetooth? Seeing as how needing VIA would be pretty rare after the first time, this doesn’t appear to be a big deal at all.

If the same design can be applied to this board, I’ll be picking up a BT version for sure!

[growler]

The plot thickens....

Sent from my SM-G980F using Tapatalk

[piit79]

Interested, but will wait for a WKL/stepped caps lock layout, and some more unique finishes like olive/cyan/e-yellow

Is stepped caps lock possible with hot swap? Never seen it, never understood why. If it is possible, it’d be quite a differentiator.

AFAIK stepped caps-lock should be possible with hotswap sockets - the socket for one two option would have to be rotated 180 degrees (ie., the switch would be in the "north-facing" orientation as opposed to the usual "south-facing" one). Cherry switches are known to have some issues with the north-facing at least in one of the rows, not sure if it's relevant for R3 (where Caps Lock is).

[Necrolegion]

Any chance for a Tsangan layout with stepped Caps Lock?

[cheswick]

For release we now have 2 versions:
TKL:


TKL with Knob:

[nvh2092]

For release we now have 2 versions:
TKL:

Show Image

TKL with Knob:

Show Image

Same price for both versions?

[cheswick]

Same price for both versions?

Edit: NO should be 149$ Barebones, 169$ fully assembled for knobleses and +10$ for knob