I like the Granite option. Olivetti is a bit boring, and we'll all have enough Dolch soon with Ivan's upcoming group buy.
What's the pricing like on these? Pretty cheap, right? I should be in for 2 sets to help us get to the MOQ twice as fast.
Thanks for taking this on, nuclearsandwich. I suggest you put up a poll for everyone to vote. I suspect that if the price all-in is under $20, Alps enthusiasts would want to buy one of each. I know I would buy any of them, so if you narrow it down to the overall most popular of the three and run that GB first, then you can take a shot at running the second most popular, if you're not totally exhausted by then.
Azure or Purple would look hawt on a KingSaverShow Image(http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm207/GhostofHarry/6E5B85CD8272-2.jpg)Show Image(http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm207/GhostofHarry/7D2B8272-1.jpg)
I will try to ask taihao to lower the MOQ
I told them our problems of the add-on pack in the mx keycaps GB
And they are will to lower MOQ from 500 to 300
So I think it is kind of possible to lower the MOQ for this case too
What stabilizers are they going to use? And which boards are these caps going to fit? As far as I know, there's very limited ANSI 1.25x boards. Which isn't a problem for me but it's going to be hard to hit MOQ when there's so little modern ANSI layout boards.
Will the caps fit an AT101W or Apple AEK? What about minitouch fans?
What stabilizers are they going to use? And which boards are these caps going to fit? As far as I know, there's very limited ANSI 1.25x boards. Which isn't a problem for me but it's going to be hard to hit MOQ when there's so little modern ANSI layout boards.
Will the caps fit an AT101W or Apple AEK? What about minitouch fans?
We need these stabilizer inserts--
http://imgur.com/a/vq9iQ
Will the caps fit an AT101W or Apple AEK? What about minitouch fans?
What stabilizers are they going to use? And which boards are these caps going to fit? As far as I know, there's very limited ANSI 1.25x boards. Which isn't a problem for me but it's going to be hard to hit MOQ when there's so little modern ANSI layout boards.
Will the caps fit an AT101W or Apple AEK? What about minitouch fans?
Looks like I need to focus on the layout aspects as it seems to be way more important than color choices for most folks.
| Board | Modifiers | Enter | Backspace | Left Shift | Right Shift | Stabilizers | Space Bar |
| AT101 | 1.5x, Winkeyless | ANSI | 2x | 2.25x | 2.75x | ALPS | 7x |
| AT101W | 1.25x, Winkey | ANSI | 2x | 2.25x | 2.75x | ALPS | 6.25x |
| AT102W | 1.25x, Winkey | ISO | 2x | 1.25x | 2.75x | ALPS | 6.25x |
| Ducky 1008XM/1087XM | 1.25x, Winkey | ANSI | 2x | 2.25x | 2.75x | Costar | 6.25x |
| Focus 2001 (old) | 1.5x, Winkeyless | Bigass | 2x | 2.25x | 2.75x | ALPS | 7x |
| Focus 2001 (middle age), 9000 | 1.5x, Winkeyless | Bigass | 2x | 2.25x | 1.75x | ALPS | 7x |
| Focus 2001 (late) | 1.25x, Winkey | Bigass | 2x | 2.25x | 1.75x | ALPS | 6.25x |
| Solidtek ASK-6600U | 1.5x,1.0x,1.25x mixed, Winkey | Bigass | 1x | 2.25x | 2.75x | Costar | 6x |
| Typical Vintage Board | 1.5x, Winkeyless | Bigass | 1x | 2.25x | 2.75x | Variable, frequently ALPS | 7x |
| Matias TP4 | 1.5x, 1x mixed, Winkey | ANSI | 2x | 2.25x | 2.25x | ALPS? | 7x |
The Dell AT101(W) is the most available ALPS keyboard in the used market and easily the most accessible in terms of cost by a huge margin. This is probably the fastest approach to hitting the MOQ. And we can always support Matias by retrofitting Dells with his switches if this is a big deal (for more than one person).
Does anybody here know what kind of stabilizers the Rosewill RK-6000 uses? It's loaded with 55cN clicky Alps clone switches made by Tai Hao. And it wouldn't surprise me if Tai Hao made those keycaps too.
This keyboard is pretty low cost ($50) and would possibly be a good option to support (Except it's not ANSI. Has a big-@ss-enter key.)
EDIT:
Looks like Tai Hao actually makes the Rosewill RK-6000. On their website, the keyboard is called "F21-7D APC".
dell at101, sgi granite, acer kb101 and Packard Bell T9201 are all the same and the only difference between them and at101w is space bar stabs they all use alps style stabs no costar crap.
dell at101, sgi granite, acer kb101 and Packard Bell T9201 are all the same and the only difference between them and at101w is space bar stabs they all use alps style stabs no costar crap.
No, the big issue is thgat the AT101W needs 1.25x modifiers, while the others need 1.5.
There are definitely more swap options out there for Winkeyless board layouts... I've only found late-generation Focus FK-2001s as a source of doubleshot 1.25x modifiers, and they have poor swappability on other keys.
I'm new to the group buy stuff so this is probably a long shot, but is it possible to just buy add-on packs without the full board? I'm trying to build an ALPs Ergodox. I'd buy the full board+add-ons too as the full board isn't too expensive but honestly I wouldn't use like half the keys.
All right to show my noobiness even more about this group buy stuff. When we talk about 500 units for the MOQ, are we talking 500 caps in total or 500 sets? Seems like 500 caps in total is doable if 5 people get a set of caps ... so I'm assuming that is not the case. I tried to find a FAQ somewhere about this but I couldn't find one so sorry if this is such a simple question.
Does SP even have all the sizes for ALPS?
OTOH, if they can do DSA ALPS, that probably streamlines selection quite a bit.
Does SP even have all the sizes for ALPS?
OTOH, if they can do DSA ALPS, that probably streamlines selection quite a bit.
I have my doubts about hitting 500 for an alps buy. But if we can go with SP with a slightly higher cost but a realistic MOQ, that would be best. Unfortuantly there aren't that many Alps lovers
I'd be down for starting with a set of just the 1x keys to simplify and get the ball rolling. Sorry I didn't make time to fill out the survey. For what it's worth, I'd like to kit out two abs M1s (straightforward ANSI 104 layout), and maybe one or two Dell AT101Ws, although I know those have problematic modifiers.