Code name: MP.C
Greeting everyone, it's been a while since our last project and despite a quite successful Weaven and Lustro, we haven't got the chance to make a legendary tenkeyless keyboard of our own.
It's not the first time we try, but the result is not that much different from other keyboard on the market until this time.
So here it is, a very careful design with screwless exterior, gasket damping, wireless support and a separated USB module.
SpecificationsLayout: Tenkeyless.
Typing Angle: 7.5 degrees.
Material: Aluminum for case. Aluminum/Carbon fiber for plate. Aluminum/Steel/Copper for weight.
PCB: Non-hotswap with modular MCU support Bluetooth/RGB. QMK firmware.
Mass: From 2.9 Kg
Unit quantity: 150
Price: US$480
Vendors:
Worldwide: zFrontier THE STORY TRIVIUM KEYBOARD
MP/CHALLENGE
WHAT IS THIS?
In my recent meetup with some members of the Vietnam Mechanical Keyboard Group, there was a guy coming to me and asking me about the story behind this keyboard, the reason why I would bother to make it since everyone was making keyboards at the moment, and what my inspiration was. Therefore, I think I should tell a little story about it.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TRIVIUMTEK
The story started six years ago, when I and my friends started Triviumtek, our first design was a tenkeyless keyboard, unibody with a very sophisticated mounting bracket system and a weight of around 3.5 kilograms. We were really into it. However, as the cost of making it was just too high and we also got a lot of QC problems, we decided to make something easier, and thus, the Weaven was born. Because it was very successful, we tried our luck with the tenkeyless version of it one more time. Although this time we were so confident that we would make a big hit with this keyboard, we were still unable to deliver it for the second time.
Since our second failure with this layout, everyone decided to leave as they did not feel the urge of making it anymore. Even I questioned myself either and the answer was also “It doesn’t worth it”, so I stopped.
After a few years of “self-quarantine” away from the mechanical keyboard community, one day, I received a new keyset called /dev/tty with a new profile from one of my friends. He said it was very pleasing to type. Since then, I realized that it has been too long since I tried something new, and I really wanted to come back. But how?
When I started thinking about it, I spied everywhere, from Geekhack, Reddit, etc. to our VNMK group, and I was surprised that the number of keyboard makers is so huge. Therefore, the only logical way would be modifying and releasing the next version of our beloved Weaven keyboard, making it in another layout like 65%, 75%, etc., since its original design makes the scale-up process unbelievably easy.
However, what is the point of doing that?
Another thing that has been in my mind was when I was playing around our communities, I realized that despite having a huge number of keyboard junkies and a lot of well-known keyboard designers, no one was ever talking about the Vietnamese keyboards. Everyone just knows about numerous of Chinese famous brands, or Korea stuffs. Yes, those brands really did set the bar for everything, and everyone just tends to follow them. But isn’t it too boring? For that reason, I decided to try the hard way - the 100% Vietnamese way!
THE SLIDING MECHANISM & POCKET HOLE JOINERY
In our very first design, the keyboard heavily depended on the sliding mechanism. The plate would slide into the Main Body and the bottom part would also slide all the way either, which created a problem. This made the assembly process become a pain in the ass. The form was put more weight over the function, which is not acceptable, thus the mounting bracket system was born. With this design, we can just assemble everything, drop it in the Main Body, and then fix it with the bracket later. The only downside was that we would have to sacrifice the elegance of having only two bolts by adding two more for the mounting bracket.
When designing this board, I wanted to make it easier to customize weights and/or colors and to replace parts. Also, to be honest, I have never been a big fan of the screwdriver, which is with a normal keyboard, you would have to remove from 6 to 8 screws/bolts to change the bottom and replace the brass weight or something like that. Therefore, I do not want my customer to deal with such problems. Then, suddenly, I found the pocket hole joinery - very popular joinery in the world of wood making. Voilà!!!
STYLING
Let’s face it! This will be a really heavy keyboard, thus, in order to lift it, we will need something to stick our hands to it. Therefore, it would be logical to cut a hole at the side of the keyboard or to make it curved. I went with the cut-out solution, as it would provide more balance for our hands when we lift something heavy. The last problem would be styling. It has to be gorgeous! At that time, I was watching the Star Trek series again. I was in love with the Retro-Futurism vibe of it and, also, a little bit influenced by the Boeing space-ace cabin, which explained the styling of the side profile and the whole keyboard.
THE THIRD TIME'S A CHARM!!!
Last but not least, this is the third time Triviumtek has tried to make a tenkeyless keyboard and my first time trying to come back with something out of the box, so it is a real challenge for me as well as for the brand. And we accept it. With all these reasons, the official name of the keyboard should be MP/Challenge. I hope you guys would like it. Live long and prosper.
-C-
Prototype is being machined right now, expected to delivery on Jan 20. I will update more on this thread as soon as I received the case.
Update: Videos of the machining process
Feb 13 updates:
The China factory still need a government approval before coming back to work, they should receive it on Feb 25 so I will wait for them until then. If after Feb 25, they cannot comeback to work, I will shift everything back to Vietnam. Our Vietnamese partner have experiences running the Lustro and Weaven projects so qualities should be better than before.
Changes in design: I decided to change the internal of the keyboard a little bit so we can reduce price. I'm hoping that we can achieve US$480 for the whole package.
April 9 updates:The 2nd rototype was being machined yesterday and will take 7 working days to finish, there're 3 additional parts for easier machining so we can drive down the cost.
The PCB and Bluetooth feature: We change the MCU for a better one and finished the battery test and the final battery type should be NiMH in AA-size, it does not have the flexibility of a polymer one but it's safer so we will go with it.
April 21 Update: Color vote result and Cerakote optionHere's the result of your vote, the top 5 will make their way to the GB, also, what do you think about Cerakote option? It can be done but it will cost a little bit more
Thank you!
After a long discussion with zFrontier, we're happy to announce that zFrontier will be our only vendor and will cover every region. Group Buy will go live on their platform on this Saturday, June 13, 2020
