Forcing people to buy uk kitting if you want iso accent key...
Please consider a numpad kit and maybe an international kit.
Also, I feel like the blue accent mods should have the grey legend for contrast, not the arrows yellow
As it stands now you seem to be using legends inspired by a variety of Wyse boards, with the return legend enter key from a Wyse ASCII and icon backspace from a WY-85. However, I think this combination of icon + text, text only, and icon only clashes. I would prefer if legends from the Wyse PCE were used instead, which are standard icon + text. The other legends could be offered in the extension kit. I also am personally not a fan of the icon FN key, particularly on a vintage inspired set.
Having seen the prices of recent DCS sets as well as some quotes, I don't think having this many kits is a good idea. I suggest dropping the 40s support and accents from the modifiers kit and moving them to the extension kit, and moving the numpad into the modifiers kit. That way you get a full base kit for a reasonable price. TKL only base kits are really not ideal, the price of the numpad kit as standalone will be very rough with the MOQ that this set would be hitting.
Please consider changing “macro” column to relegendables - for XT support.
You really do have my hyped. I have some KLE mock ups of what I was toying with if you want a peek. And I think NorDeUK is probably all it would need. I would want it for Norwegian myself. And I know the German layout tends to be pretty popular as wellForcing people to buy uk kitting if you want iso accent key...
This may not be an issue if I just roll the ISO kit in with the other mods and alphas. I was worried two ISO enters in the mods kit was too much for non-ISO users, but also that the UK kit wouldn't be as viable if it were smaller. But not having accent-key parity in the mods kit does stink, as someone who uses ISO.Please consider a numpad kit and maybe an international kit.
I see you found the numpad! I'd be all onboard with an international kit if it could sell. My concern is that then more languages you add, the pricier it gets, but each buyer is still only using the same handful of keys from it. Putting UK ISO of all languages in was purely selfish on my part, since it's how I roll even as an American, I'll admit. If people are willing to buy an international (I'm assuming NorDeUK?) kit though, I have no objections to offering that.Also, I feel like the blue accent mods should have the grey legend for contrast, not the arrows yellow
I haven't even thought of that, but I'll do up some comparisons and see how it looks! I don't want to lose too much yellow though on the kits that are designed to bring the color.As it stands now you seem to be using legends inspired by a variety of Wyse boards, with the return legend enter key from a Wyse ASCII and icon backspace from a WY-85. However, I think this combination of icon + text, text only, and icon only clashes. I would prefer if legends from the Wyse PCE were used instead, which are standard icon + text. The other legends could be offered in the extension kit. I also am personally not a fan of the icon FN key, particularly on a vintage inspired set.
Having seen the prices of recent DCS sets as well as some quotes, I don't think having this many kits is a good idea. I suggest dropping the 40s support and accents from the modifiers kit and moving them to the extension kit, and moving the numpad into the modifiers kit. That way you get a full base kit for a reasonable price. TKL only base kits are really not ideal, the price of the numpad kit as standalone will be very rough with the MOQ that this set would be hitting.
Indeed, I own a WY-85 Gate Array myself and that was my main inspiration, but I took legends from across their full spectrum of boards. I can see the clash being jarring, and I'm open to settling on one standard look for all the mods (probably icon + text). I didn't draw much from the PCE because it felt too normal, if that makes any sense; it doesn't have all of the weird legends and layout quirks, and didn't feel as recognizably "Wyse" when transposed to a modern board, since they can't make use of giant bottom-row modifiers.
I did deliberately change the Fn both to modernize it, but also genericize it, so it could be a "layer" symbol, a hamburger menu icon, Fn, or just an OS-agnostic meta key. Wyse boards didn't really have a ton of bottom-row legends to draw inspiration from. The Win 3.1/95-era menu icon with the pointer and drop-down menu felt busy and too Windows-specific. I want to pay tribute to the original Wyse boards, but I don't want to make an exact replica of them, I do want to modernize some elements to make them more relevant to people who have never even seen a Wyse board.
I went with a lot of kits in part because that's how my previous set wound up. I pitched a frugal monokit to Signature Plastics, and had them come back asking me to break it up into eight kits, add a full 40's kit, and more than double the overall size of it. But that was in SA, and working with SP directly, so I don't think that translates well to this scenario. I expect to combine and cut kits once I get a gauge of their popularity.Please consider changing “macro” column to relegendables - for XT support.
I'll think about it! I would miss having "real" keys with the classic legends, but want this to work for as many people as possible.
Thank you everyone for the feedback so far! At some point soon I'll go through and standardize the mod legends, do some tests of grey-on-navy, and add in the 6u bar.
You really do have my hyped. I have some KLE mock ups of what I was toying with if you want a peek. And I think NorDeUK is probably all it would need. I would want it for Norwegian myself. And I know the German layout tends to be pretty popular as well
Does SP still have the molds for these legends?There is a good chance. They hoard the molds apparently. You can always email them yourself and they are generally very helpful.
So someone has just approached me privately and asked me to delay or stop this interest check, saying they have vendors lined up for their own version of a Wyse-inspired set, plus the 2020 runner's formal blessing dating back to 2021. But I have no way to verify this yet. They seem to be working on a moogle kit, not a full set. I can't find any posted interest checks for their effort.
I'm not sure what to do here. I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but a full set seems very different from a moogle kit, and I don't see anything that suggests their effort was ready to launch.
I do have an SA version designed as a backup. It was my initial focus, before thinking DCS was more viable.
So someone has just approached me privately and asked me to delay or stop this interest check, saying they have vendors lined up for their own version of a Wyse-inspired set, plus the 2020 runner's formal blessing dating back to 2021. But I have no way to verify this yet. They seem to be working on a moogle kit, not a full set. I can't find any posted interest checks for their effort.
I'm not sure what to do here. I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but a full set seems very different from a moogle kit, and I don't see anything that suggests their effort was ready to launch.
I do have an SA version designed as a backup. It was my initial focus, before thinking DCS was more viable.
I paused this IC because I'm relatively new to this, and wanted to proceed with caution. This is my 2nd design, but my first IC. I'm not super active on GeekHack, and unfamiliar with the culture. I was caught off guard when I got a takedown request six hours after posting.As someone who is STOKED for the moogle kit (and really need it), I understand why the other guy asked for a pause. Seeing how the 2020 version failed, I think having it run without any "competition" (as much as it isn't) does make some sense.
I wasn't sure if this person had any authority to shut my IC down. Were they a mod? Do they have some form of ownership over the colorway?Are they some sort of scene bigshot that could ruin my design 'career', is it is? I felt like the right thing to do was pause and take stock of things. I haven't done anything irreversible.
I personally believe both of these sets can coexist. They're vastly different, and don't overlap each other. If you have vintage caps, the logical choice is to get the compatibility kit. If you don't have old keys, and don't plan to hunt any down but still like these colors, a full set may make more sense. Why buy too many or too few keys? Get whichever set you need!
If you're a hardcore vintage Wyse fan, of course you'll want to use something more stylistically in keeping with that look. My set isn't that; it's a takeoff on Wyse's colors, but not intended to be a replica at all. My concept is, "What if Wyse started up as an enthusiast keyboard company in 2024? What layouts would they support? What colors would they emphasize? What funky legends could carry over?"
The DCS version is not dead. I can't say anything specific yet, but I've had discussions that have left me optimistic. Same goes for the SA version.
If you want to express support for this, that's great! Keep on keeping it civil; I have nothing against the other runner or their set. I want it to succeed, because I think there is a market for it! I think both can coexist, and I'm evaluating options now that I have more information. I hope the other runner will reconsider their stance.
I paused this IC because I'm relatively new to this, and wanted to proceed with caution. This is my 2nd design, but my first IC. I'm not super active on GeekHack, and unfamiliar with the culture. I was caught off guard when I got a takedown request six hours after posting.
I wasn't sure if this person had any authority to shut my IC down. Were they a mod? Do they have some ownership over the colorway? Are they some sort of scene bigshot that could ruin my design 'career', is it is? I felt like the right thing to do was pause and take stock of things. I haven't done anything irreversible.
I personally believe both of these sets can coexist. They're vastly different, and don't overlap each other. If you have vintage caps, the logical choice is to get the compatibility kit. If you don't have old keys, and don't plan to hunt any down but still like these colors, a full set may make more sense. Why buy too many or too few keys? Get whichever set you need!
If you're a hardcore vintage Wyse fan, of course you'll want to use something more stylistically in keeping with that look. My set isn't that; it's a takeoff on Wyse's colors, but not intended to be a replica at all. My concept is, "What if Wyse started up as an enthusiast keyboard company in 2024? What layouts would they support? What colors would they emphasize? What funky legends could carry over?"
The DCS version is not dead. I can't say anything specific yet, but I've had discussions that have left me optimistic. Same goes for the SA version.
If you want to express support for this, that's great! Keep on keeping it civil; I have nothing against the other runner or their set. I want it to succeed, because I think there is a market for it! I think both can coexist, and I'm evaluating options now that I have more information. I hope the other runner will reconsider their stance.
Please keep this alive! I made a GH account just to say this.
should just run it now since wyse compatibility kit is put on hold because small kits have ****ty prices lol
Love this set a lot, but I'm curious about the mod design. Why is the backspace icon only while other mods are either icon + text or text only? Is it a reference that I'm missing?
should just run it now since wyse compatibility kit is put on hold because small kits have ****ty prices lol
It will (hopefully) run, whenever SP gets back to me. Our last correspondence was in July, when they contacted me about another set in manufacturing, and asked if they could run this (I had sent them a preliminary design earlier this summer). I said yes, and then sent them finalized designs based on the feedback here. No word since; they're painfully slow at replying to messages. They'll need to contact me again soon because that set in manufacturing should be wrapping up around now, so hopefully they'll give me status updates on both.
Just an update, I checked in and received some positive news about this. No dates or anything yet, but things are moving along. I'll let you know more when I can!Fantastic News!
October Update:
Last month SP reiterated that they're interested in offering SMRT in DCS, but there's still no firm commitment or time frame. I have a short window to work on it this fall, before the Selectresque group buy starts taking more of time time.
One concept I've been playing with is a scaled-down DCS monokit version, that would be easier for SP to produce:Show Image(https://i.imgur.com/7ZOYTyS.jpeg)
But I've also been using this time to port SMRT to alternate profiles as a backup option. A vendor approached me a few weeks ago about designing for Keyreative's KAP profile (doubleshot Cherry, in ABS or PBT), and that's currently the strongest candidate. I've already designed several potential KAP kits, including a large base with minivan and UK ISO baked in; a full 40s kit; NorDe and Mac kits; and a yellow alert-style accent row.
Potential KAP Kits and Render:Show Image(https://i.imgur.com/DptbnV0.jpeg)Show Image(https://i.imgur.com/YDEr8lr.jpeg)Show Image(https://i.imgur.com/CDhMDPR.jpeg)Show Image(https://i.imgur.com/xaq1M8o.jpeg)Show Image(https://i.imgur.com/kEaHcEQ.jpeg)Show Image(https://i.imgur.com/F0m4ebp.jpeg)
So we'll see. It's likely I'll move forward with KAP if I don't hear anything firmer from SP, since I don't want to see yet another Wyse-themed set wind up in limbo.
Just a heads up for anyone thinking of supporting this set, the runner and I were previously discussing WYSE sets, and we agreed that my compatibility set should run before this set. However they have now blocked me so I cannot contact them regarding feedback on their set. I have also heard from others that the designer is adamant and is not open to feedback on some of the legends. Please think twice before you support this project