[IC] ePBT SimpleJA R2 - Group Buy Live

[ai03]

ePBT SimpleJA R2
ePBT SimpleJA is back - the much-requested vintage-styled keyset has returned, this time with improved key variety and compatibility.


Latest status: Group buy live; waiting a short span prior to locking thread
Project page on website with latest updates

Also, to improve communications, all updates regarding my projects will be centralized on the status page and mirrored to Discord for push notifications.
Since I often forget to check and post updates to every single location, please use the update page for guaranteed latest status updates.
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The Past In the Present
SimpleJA recreates the vintage "cross-positioned" legends of vintage Japanese keyboards with legends as faithful to historical examples as possible.
Many hours of research were conducted to implement historically-existent legends; those that did not exist in the past were crafted anew to blend in with the rest.





Adapting For What's Next
ePBT SimpleJA's kitting has been revised significantly from R1 to R2 to improve compatibility with a wider variety of layouts including ergo, ortho, and compact boards.
In addition to an optimized base kit which covers the typical, niche kits such as the ortho and JIS/ISO kits have been revamped to bring the retro aesthetic to the most unique of keyboards.





Upon the Best Canvas
SimpleJA R2 implements EnjoyPBT's newest toolings for more than just warp-resistant spacebars.
Scoop-only homing keys help to accurately reproduce the original vintage keysets, and short convex spacebars assist in delivering a physically and visually pleasing typing experience on unusual key layouts.



Specifications

Vendors: KBDfans (Global), MyKeyboard (EU), Candykeys (EU), Mechboards (UK), Yusha Kobo (JP), ApexKeyboards (CA), Daily Clack (OCE)
GB Period: Oct 15~Nov 15 2021
Pricing: 89USD Base Kit

Kits:





Note: Due to kitting changes, the Vega render is now outdated due to lack of 1U 拡張機能 keys.

[seikoholic]

Lets goooo, IN IN IN!

[IO Sam]

Pingmaster vibes... Yes please!

[rockydbull]

I appreciate the changed of ) above 0. Can't tell you how many times I have hit 8 and 9 for () because of the labels.

[jhtx]

Yes!! Been waiting for this

[Kokaloo]

damn this really is the state of keyboards
clicking an ad on the interest check subforum only for the first link in that thread to route me to your website which advertises your set better
if there is time to make some changes epbt is very fair with 40s child kits, rather than just running straight and pure ortho

[paopao]

nice

[Fraaaan]

Do you plan on having regional vendors or just KBDfans?

[ZavaZ86]

Please consider other vendors than kbdfans. I would like to have proper qc and not suddenly receive half the kit and then get a 10$ coupon off as a solution.

[violeaf]

Very much appreciated update! It's a great looking set and I'm looking forward to the GB

If I may contribute a suggestion, I'm by no means an expert, but seeing you've included most of the UK ISO keys, would you also consider adding the R1 1u \|ロ, such is seen in the bottom right layout on this? http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/af2fbe03793ad24dc9c06bbbccd1d914

Again, great set and thank you

[Dyto69]

Definitely considering this set, I hope you can get some regional Vendors because i don't like buying from KBDFans (I live in Europe)

[Herkuleszcz]

Is there a chance for white mods kit?

[$W4GK!NG]

Set is very nice, but please consider another vendor that is not KBDFans, possibly Hex for SEA

[hali]

no 40s 

[nguyenhimself]

Set is very nice, but please consider another vendor that is not KBDFans, possibly Hex for SEA

Ew no. Horrible shipping rates to non-Singapore countries.

[nguyenhimself]

I was just thinking about this set the other day. Love it.
BTW, is the beige the same as that of a classic EnjoyPBT set?

[JQ27]

Definitely considering this set, I hope you can get some regional Vendors because i don't like buying from KBDFans (I live in Europe)

Very much appreciated update! It's a great looking set and I'm looking forward to the GB

If I may contribute a suggestion, I'm by no means an expert, but seeing you've included most of the UK ISO keys, would you also consider adding the R1 1u \|ロ, such is seen in the bottom right layout on this? http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/af2fbe03793ad24dc9c06bbbccd1d914

Again, great set and thank you

Loving it, thank you, although same comments from me as these two folks from above.

[ai03]

If I may contribute a suggestion, I'm by no means an expert, but seeing you've included most of the UK ISO keys, would you also consider adding the R1 1u \|ロ, such is seen in the bottom right layout on this? http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/af2fbe03793ad24dc9c06bbbccd1d914

I believe I can get that done prior to GB; I'll try to get that done ASAP.

no 40s 

I've received quite a few request for 40% kits (especially over Discord) and am definitely considering it, but there'll be some limitations:

• I'll first have to ask KBDfans/ePBT which keysizes are available, since I don't have a full list on hand and don't want to promise a nonexistent keysize or one whose tooling would take months to complete (had bad experiences with tooling delay with ModernJA).
• Since I've personally no knowledge of 40% key sizes or kitting, I'll have to consult with people with the knowledge regarding a moderate coverage set of keys needed.
• Since kitting is genuinely challenging, I'll have to obtain permission from the people I consult regarding use of their knowledge on my own projects.

Not super confident that I can get all that done and prepare production data/all the behind-the-scenes prep prior to GB, but if things work out it'll happen.

BTW, is the beige the same as that of a classic EnjoyPBT set?

Unless ePBT has changed up their default colors, it'll be the usual beige/tan combo that's used in quite a few of their keysets.

Definitely considering this set, I hope you can get some regional Vendors because i don't like buying from KBDFans (I live in Europe)

Do you plan on having regional vendors or just KBDfans?

Please consider other vendors than kbdfans. I would like to have proper qc and not suddenly receive half the kit and then get a 10$ coupon off as a solution.

Set is very nice, but please consider another vendor that is not KBDFans, possibly Hex for SEA

Since KBDfans is a global vendor and draws a significant amount of sales from global sales, I'm not sure if KBD will be willing to add too many vendors.
I'll have to ask them and see if they respond regarding the matter.

[$W4GK!NG]

Set is very nice, but please consider another vendor that is not KBDFans, possibly Hex for SEA

Ew no. Horrible shipping rates to non-Singapore countries.

Where do you live. Shipping from Hex to Thailand was relatively cheap


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Puddsy]

i do not vibe with the center-left aligned legends, just looks weird to me

probably comes from years of using blanks or top-left aligned caps, maybe it looks better in person

[kidviddy]

Looks great, and I like some of the additions to the ortho kit when compared with ModernJA, particularly R2 コントロール and R1 オルト, which I wish I had in my ModernJA kit!

I don't know if there's time or scope for changes, but the only remaining frustration I have with ModernJA which it would be nice to improve if possible is an alternative to the Windows keys. As a non-Windows user, I'd much rather have some alternative like メタ, コマンド (or even 命令, I think I might have seen this actually used somewhere but I can't seem to dig it up right now), スーパー, コード, システム, or any of the other common alternative names used for this key. As it is, with ModernJA I am using 拡張機能 here and then 次面 for the *actual* function key, but I'd rather have a dedicated command/system key if possible.

I know you have gone to a lot of effort to find genuine legends from actual vintage keyboards that you can use rather than arbitrarily taking an English legend and making it katakana, so it might take a bit of work to find something appropriate, but I for one would appreciate the option. If you're open to the idea but don't have time to research further legends, let me know and I'll see if there's anything I can dig up.

[Arcoril]

Absolutely love this set! However, would it be possible to get barred homing keys for F, J, and 5 in addition to the scoops? I'll definitely give the scoops a try but if I don't like them I'd like to be able to fall back to barred homing keys.

[haystack]

Absolutely love this set! However, would it be possible to get barred homing keys for F, J, and 5 in addition to the scoops? I'll definitely give the scoops a try but if I don't like them I'd like to be able to fall back to barred homing keys.

I'm sure you already know this, but for people who don't: in a set like this homing bars throw the sublegends out of alignment with the rest of the row, so it's an overall design tradeoff and not simply a bar vs. scoop homing preference issue.

[blakstealth]

I'm ready for this!

[kajahtaa]

i do not vibe with the center-left aligned legends, just looks weird to me

probably comes from years of using blanks or top-left aligned caps, maybe it looks better in person

how dare u

NEC example:

[XiXora]

Wouldn’t mind some 1.5u System/OS keys for HHKB (and another 1u alt).
R1 /| would be nice in iso kit as most of uk iso is in there anyway.

Thanks

[ai03]

Absolutely love this set! However, would it be possible to get barred homing keys for F, J, and 5 in addition to the scoops? I'll definitely give the scoops a try but if I don't like them I'd like to be able to fall back to barred homing keys.

Unfortunately I'll have to skip on adding them, since removing them in favor of scoop-only was one of the major improvements from R1 to R2 in terms of aesthetics.

As a non-Windows user, I'd much rather have some alternative like メタ, コマンド (or even 命令, I think I might have seen this actually used somewhere but I can't seem to dig it up right now), スーパー, コード, システム, or any of the other common alternative names used for this key.

I'll give it a shot, but it's one of the most difficult ones to tackle without sounding cheesy or tacky (オルト is already borderline in my opinion), so no guarantees that I can come up with something in-line in time.

Wouldn’t mind some 1.5u System/OS keys for HHKB (and another 1u alt).

The 拡張機能 1.5U keys have been added to base for that purpose; there are two 1U alts in total if using the ergo/ortho kit. I decided to move as much out to child kits as possible to make base kit as affordable as possible.

R1 /| would be nice in iso kit as most of uk iso is in there anyway.

As per the prior response, working on it right now.

[ZavaZ86]

Thing is kbdfans is extremely expensive for eu buyers so the sale figures would be really low if you/kbdfans stick with them only

[superdoedoe]

Thing is kbdfans is extremely expensive for eu buyers so the sale figures would be really low if you/kbdfans stick with them only

ah yes, this will really take a hit to sales. Only two Europeans will buy instead of three

[UGunaLOSE]

Very excited for this. Shame about the barred F and J, but certainly not a deal breaker.

Looking forward to future improvements and GB date!

[ai03]

Kitting Update

Based on feedback, SimpleJA R2 has been overhauled with the following changes prior to group buy:

- Added support for many 40% keyboards; credits go to matthewdias#2671 for help and assistance.
- With the above change, the ortho kit has been renamed the extension kit.
- All 1U Ctrl/Win/Alt have been moved from extensions kit to base for simplicity.
- 1.5U super equivalents from base to extension kit.
- Added ISO |￥ロ key to JIS/ISO kit.
- Removed the windows logo keys; replaced it and the previous 拡張機能 keys with more fitting 機能 and 実行 keys in a variety of sizes.
- Added general use function keys 切換 to extension kit in case the above two are not enough to fill general functions.

The kitting diagram will be updated in the first post shortly to reflect these changes.
Note that due to the changes and loss of previous 1U 拡張機能 keys, the Vega render is now outdated.

[andrew4]

I do want this set. A couple of questions: I can't see a backslash anywhere, most sets have far too many. And the only 厶 I can see is the UK ISO one (I'm not complaining as I'm a UK ISO user so I want that). Thanks for adding 40s and UK ISO.

It does seem strange to go to the effort of adding all that extra ISO support and then not have regional vendors.

[PokeH]

Cleeeaaannn

[nguyenhimself]

- Removed the windows logo keys; replaced it and the previous 拡張機能 keys with more fitting 機能 and 実行 keys in a variety of sizes.

I love you. Thank you!
Looking forward to the GB.

[amillie]

I keep telling myself I don't need more keycap sets but I really, really want this.

[ai03]

Group Buy Live

I apologize for the delayed announcement; while the GB launched on the 15th, initially the kitting images were incorrect and life became too busy to release a notice after it was fixed.


The keyset is now available for purchase. Group buy closes on November 15.
Base kit price has unfortunately risen to 89USD due to increased manufacturing costs, but hopefully it's still within accessible range...


Direct links:
KBDfans (Global)
MyKeyboard (EU)
Candykeys (EU) - Supposedly the page will exist later
Mechboards (UK)
Yusha Kobo (JP)
ApexKeyboards (CA)
Daily Clack (OCE)


Due to the large-scale nature of the group buy and how little info I receive from the vendor side in terms of progress/updates, I'll refrain from launching a GB thread and instead recommend that everyone check the GB updates from each vendor/KBDfans instead for much more timely and accurate updates.
Since the IC has finished its lifespan, I will lock this thread shortly; for urgent support please contact me via Discord/contact form on website or the vendor(s) directly.