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geekhack Marketplace => Vendor Forums => GMK/UNIQEY => Topic started by: GMK_Andy on Tue, 21 May 2024, 11:19:56

Title: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: GMK_Andy on Tue, 21 May 2024, 11:19:56: Hey everyone - I just wanted to gauge interest in the vintage Cherry Spherical Profile (similar to DSA). I know part of our limitations at this time are that we don't have all of the molds necessary to cover many larger boards, so I'm specifically interested in 40's folks/smaller formats/splits/etc. I'll try to get a full list of the caps we do have available, but in the meantime if this is of interest to you please just let me know here so I can properly start to gauge interest and see if this is something we should start looking into.

Thanks :thumb:

**Context**
After attending Keycon and the Columbus meetup I was asked at both about the vintage Cherry Spherical Profile - so I mentioned I would start a thread for folks to share their interest/feedback on it....and here it is!

**Edit**

If you have a set you are using already, feel free to post pics as well for others to see.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: un_related on Tue, 21 May 2024, 11:22:07: Count me IN
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: Rob27shred on Tue, 21 May 2024, 13:43:46: I'd be interested in this, although with decent layout coverage. Regular ANSI WKL at the very least. What other old molds are you guys hiding BTW?
Oh here is a pic (not mine) of the caps in question for people to see!
[attachimg=1]
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: Rhienfo on Tue, 21 May 2024, 14:47:43: if they are uniform like dsa then I probably wouldn't get them cause I really like a curve with keycaps and not having it is a big turn off for me, but if others like that then I'm fine with having a new profile type for those people, everyone should be catered to somewhat.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: The Pig on Tue, 21 May 2024, 15:00:08: Love that profile but haven't been able to use them as the original sources didn't have standard modifiers. Would be interested in sets of classic colours. :cool:
LED windows are a must :p
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: notcheese on Tue, 21 May 2024, 15:07:07: Interested for sure!
Uniform!
Also, 1.75u and 2u spacebars, 1.25u and 1.75u shift, 1.75u enter would be great.
QAZ keys would be a great addition as well if that's possible.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: headshot on Tue, 21 May 2024, 15:07:53: count me in
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: Pontus on Tue, 21 May 2024, 15:21:11: Very interested! :D
On one of your old keycap performance sheets you list 3 different heights for the "Standard (M8)" profile, any possibility of you reviving all 3?

(https://i.imgur.com/ZWJS8VT.png)
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: Soyo on Tue, 21 May 2024, 16:34:48: Super duper interested.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: paperassgasket on Tue, 21 May 2024, 16:38:48: I see 40's support, I buy.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: patcoll on Tue, 21 May 2024, 16:42:58: Interested for sets with good 40s support.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: druz on Tue, 21 May 2024, 16:47:21: Definitely interested
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: cosmic_one on Tue, 21 May 2024, 17:00:20: Very interested! Would love to see more spherical profile options out there.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: baconspoon on Tue, 21 May 2024, 17:36:00: If you give me small mod keys for 40s and 30s, I give you money. Very simple. I don't need any keys bigger than 1.75u except spacebars.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: ramble on Tue, 21 May 2024, 17:57:33: One more for 30s and 40s! Alphas and small bars are really all I need. 1u mods are great; some wider mods are nice but not needed. Thanks for exploring it!
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: GMK_Andy on Tue, 21 May 2024, 19:48:12: Quote from: Pontus on Tue, 21 May 2024, 15:21:11
Very interested! :D
On one of your old keycap performance sheets you list 3 different heights for the "Standard (M8)" profile, any possibility of you reviving all 3?

Show Image
(https://i.imgur.com/ZWJS8VT.png)

So in this sheet the cylindrical profile is standard Cherry (why we call it CYL now - just to differentiate from MTNU which is spherical) - the M8 profile is interesting though. I'm not sure what we have of those still, but I can look into it. I'm assuming that we would also not have quite a few molds that modern group buys would want, but I can do some digging. For the near foreseeable future though I'm going to try to just concentrate on the vintage spherical profile - if there seems to be enough interest in the M8 stuff I can make another thread for them.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: xLeHoy on Wed, 22 May 2024, 00:56:51: I need, count me in
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: LavenderB on Wed, 22 May 2024, 02:22:04: I think this would also work well with an MX HHKB, since those vintage keyboards that used these had layouts that resemble an HHKB somewhat. If people agree with me on this, providing HHKB support would be a good idea. Personally, I don't think I would buy this though, because I'm just unlikely to get a keyboard I would like to use this on. Even I don't want to own that many keyboards.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: GMK_Andy on Wed, 22 May 2024, 17:22:30: Quote from: LavenderB on Wed, 22 May 2024, 02:22:04
I think this would also work well with an MX HHKB, since those vintage keyboards that used these had layouts that resemble an HHKB somewhat. If people agree with me on this, providing HHKB support would be a good idea. Personally, I don't think I would buy this though, because I'm just unlikely to get a keyboard I would like to use this on. Even I don't want to own that many keyboards.

6u center stem spacebar is always pretty unique to HHKB - I'd be very doubtful we would already have that mold currently.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: TenorMadness on Thu, 23 May 2024, 00:22:06: Definitely interested with 40s mods. Such a unique profile I have to add it to my collection!
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: un_related on Fri, 24 May 2024, 09:59:52: Since Ophidios isn't wanting to post it himself, I guess I'll do the honors :p

[attachimg=1]

The board that raised my own awareness of the profile was his Let's Split, and after typing on them I was blown away at how comfy the caps felt. It felt as if every cap was the "scooped" version of DSA, but the dish didn't feel as narrow at the bottom as something like MT3. TEX ADA profile is extremely similar, but sadly their legends are not doubleshot, and the infilled laser-engraved legends are distracting.

Being able to run more exciting colors that GMK provides is extremely appealing to me, especially if the profile gains enough momentum to start supporting full-size boards.

**Edit**

I will raise an army of Plancks, each clad in the initial run(s) of this profile if that's what it takes to make this a reality!
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: TomahawkLabs on Fri, 24 May 2024, 10:05:19: Dark brown caps with white legends will forever be the best looking keycap colorway possible. Makes me want to search down a set of SA Amazing Chocolatier.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: blacksimon on Sat, 25 May 2024, 12:59:44: While I understand that minimizing risk makes sense for new product development, investing in molds for a layout that represents under 10% of the customer base may not be the best start. If it goes poorly the total loss would be within an order of magnitude of a full base kit.

You should have analytics on hand to see the the actual target market for 40% buyers - consider a fully developed full size base kit if you're serious about the project (I think its great)

just my dos pesos
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: LASERman Projects on Sat, 25 May 2024, 13:40:56: Have you guys seen MTNU Rascals IC (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=122814)?
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: GMK_Andy on Mon, 27 May 2024, 09:34:36: Quote from: blacksimon on Sat, 25 May 2024, 12:59:44
While I understand that minimizing risk makes sense for new product development, investing in molds for a layout that represents under 10% of the customer base may not be the best start. If it goes poorly the total loss would be within an order of magnitude of a full base kit.

You should have analytics on hand to see the the actual target market for 40% buyers - consider a fully developed full size base kit if you're serious about the project (I think its great)

just my dos pesos

To be clear, this is why I was essentially just gauging interest from folks with 40's, smaller layouts, etc. For comprehensive sets, we are currently concentrating on Cherry and MTNU (which is the sculpted spherical). If this was something possible to run just for 40's with existing molds, that would be a different story as it would be much easier and lower risk. This is truly just gauging interest right now - are people still interested in uniform profiles? What size keyboards are you interested in it for? etc. I try to consistently watch what the community is looking for, and haven't seen a ton of uniform profile kits - certainly not like 4+ years ago when DSA was really running quite a lot (DSA Granite was the highest selling set in the community there for a spell even), so I truly am curious as well what the interest and desire for uniform profiles even is currently as well.

Thanks for taking the time to respond and give feedback :)
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: ggggggg on Mon, 03 June 2024, 12:15:11: Do you have an overview of what size molds you have (convex small bars seem unlikely) with what type of legends? That'd make it easier to gauge what small boards could be kitted out.
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: GMK_Andy on Mon, 03 June 2024, 12:23:03: Quote from: ggggggg on Mon, 03 June 2024, 12:15:11
Do you have an overview of what size molds you have (convex small bars seem unlikely) with what type of legends? That'd make it easier to gauge what small boards could be kitted out.

Yeah I'm going to work on seeing what we would have and will update here as I find out :thumb:
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: dvorcol on Wed, 18 September 2024, 17:22:41: GMK currently makes two profiles: CYL and MTNU. Will this third one be called CSP (Cherry Spherical Profile)?
Title: Re: Vintage Cherry Spherical Profile
Post by: GMK_Andy on Mon, 04 November 2024, 11:13:06: Quote from: dvorcol on Wed, 18 September 2024, 17:22:41
GMK currently makes two profiles: CYL and MTNU. Will this third one be called CSP (Cherry Spherical Profile)?

That may be jumping the gun just a bit, but it does follow and makes sense.

I'll be providing more updates on this early next year, this is definitely something we have seriously been looking at this year.