[GB] Lunar II - Complete; awaiting extras sale

[ai03]

Lunar II
Second generation compact AEK keyboard by Switchplate Peripherals and ai03

Building upon the legacy of the first generation design, Lunar II brings the acclaimed curved design to a more accessible price, complete with an entirely seamless exterior, increased typing comfort, and solenoid support.


For details on the board, please see the IC thread.

Vendor links:
Switchplate Peripherals Unit cap reached
TypePlus Unit cap reached

All units have sold; GB has closed accordingly.
The project will move to manufacturing phase following final confirmations.

Units have begun manufacturing. (09/03/22)
PCBs have finished manufacturing; cases have finished machining and are heading into finishing/anodizing/coating phase. (12/01/22)
Currently waiting on reanodizing for some silver unit ano issues; final packaging and shipment to vendors to follow afterwards. (08/20/23)
Units have completed fulfillment; awaiting extras sales. (11/24/23)


GB Specifics

Pricing
Base kit:
 - 419USD at Switchplate Peripherals (US)
 - 399USD at TypePlus (CN)
Extra PCBs: 39USD each
Extra plates (Alu): 29USD each
Extra solenoid kits: 10USD per pack of 2

Colors
- Anodized silver
- Anodized grey
- Powdercoat roughly color-matched to AEK keycap off-white

Plate Options
- Unified backspace
- Split backspace

Launch Time
26th @ 9PM Pacific Time = 27th @ 12PM China Time

Unit Cap
100 per vendor (if that even manages to sell out)

ETA
For now, Q2 2023 as a (hopefully) worst-case scenario



Color Renders

Silver


Grey


Powdercoat Keycap-Matched




Q&A

Q: Is this the best board to pair with clicky Alps?
A: My personal opinion is "meh" - it has a softer typing feel (for an Alps board) that helps reduce fatigue during extended use and pairs well with both linear and tactiles, but the side-effect is that it somewhat mutes the loudness that clicky Alps are known for.
That being said, it's by no means terrible either.

Q: 100 units per vendor? I'm worried that I won't be able to secure a unit!
A: The unit cap exists to keep the GB within manageable scale of each vendor.
If the board somehow ends up selling out quickly, I'll follow it up with more Alps-specific boards in the future.

Q: Which vendor should I order from?
A: The easiest method is to choose by distance - for example, if located in North America, Switchplate Peripherals would likely offer lower shipping rates.

[DirtyGingy]

When does the GB end?

[max.clacks]

When does the GB end?

From Switchplate Peripherals: "100 total units available. Group buy will close August 26th 2022, or when all slots are filled. "

[ai03]

Availability update

Switchplate Peripherals has reached their unit cap of 100 and have ended their sales.
TypePlus still has the board available, but is nearing their unit cap.

[Vanquish]

So I put my order down for a Lunar II. I didn't go for any of the extras. Just curious, say that one day the solenoids eventually go bad, would it be difficult to source another that is compatible with the PCB and case?

[eyedrop]

So I put my order down for a Lunar II. I didn't go for any of the extras. Just curious, say that one day the solenoids eventually go bad, would it be difficult to source another that is compatible with the PCB and case?

Maybe you should buy it for $10.  Why put yourself in that situation one day?

[Puddsy]

So I put my order down for a Lunar II. I didn't go for any of the extras. Just curious, say that one day the solenoids eventually go bad, would it be difficult to source another that is compatible with the PCB and case?

Maybe you should buy it for $10.  Why put yourself in that situation one day?

Agree with this, but also solenoids of various sizes are relatively easy to find. Buying an extra now saves you the trouble of having to figure out the part number to buy a replacement, which can sometimes be difficult.

[ai03]

Group Buy Closed

The unit cap has been reached at both vendors; sale has ended accordingly. A huge thanks to everyone that joined in and made this project possible.

After final confirmations, the project will enter the manufacturing phase.

So I put my order down for a Lunar II. I didn't go for any of the extras. Just curious, say that one day the solenoids eventually go bad, would it be difficult to source another that is compatible with the PCB and case?

I apologize for not seeing this question earlier - the solenoids shouldn't fail; however, they are a specific compact model chosen for 5V operation that are custom-terminated to the PCB's connectors and tailored to by the case's screw points.
While it is completely possible to run the board without solenoids as a regular SKCM/SKCL board, for long-term use buying an extra pair may help in case something goes wrong.

[dantambok]

wait.. how did i miss this?! 

[ai03]

A brief update on progress:

• PCBs have finished manufacturing.
• Cases have finished machining, and are now proceeding to the finishing/anodizing/coating phase.

[nateth]

I'm kicking myself for missing this!!!!

[hzh0525]

What an attractive curve it has!

[0junk]

Q2 is coming to an end this month. Any updates on how this is progressing? thanks!

[ai03]

Sorry for the long span without an update - things are finally wrapping up production after some delays.

While QCing and packing the units, Kevinplus discovered that too many silver units were having anodizing consistency/surface grain issues; to fix this, several silver cases are undergoing reanodizing.
The expected ETA is around a few weeks, but I'll report back if there's any further specific date.

Due to challenges such as batch international shipping, all units will ship at the same time rather than the grey/beige units shipping alone first.

[pixelpusher]

Sorry for the long span without an update - things are finally wrapping up production after some delays.

While QCing and packing the units, Kevinplus discovered that too many silver units were having anodizing consistency/surface grain issues; to fix this, several silver cases are undergoing reanodizing.
The expected ETA is around a few weeks, but I'll report back if there's any further specific date.

Due to challenges such as batch international shipping, all units will ship at the same time rather than the grey/beige units shipping alone first.

Thanks for the update.   

[Morbii]

Beautiful board, sad I couldn't get in on this.

[0junk]

Sorry for the long span without an update - things are finally wrapping up production after some delays.

While QCing and packing the units, Kevinplus discovered that too many silver units were having anodizing consistency/surface grain issues; to fix this, several silver cases are undergoing reanodizing.
The expected ETA is around a few weeks, but I'll report back if there's any further specific date.

Due to challenges such as batch international shipping, all units will ship at the same time rather than the grey/beige units shipping alone first.

Thanks for the update!

[dorkvader]

I received mine today and wow it's great. Just need to finish waxboiling the switches and I'll build it.

I see there's a SN74VC1G74 flip flop driving an IC I was not able to identify (which must take the Q output of the flip flop and route it to either solenoid). These together with MOSFETs Q1 and Q2 drive the solenoids.

Edit: got it built and typing on it now.
Edit2: the solenoids seem to be implemented in the firmware using haptic keycodes which is what I see in the QMK docs, unfortunately these don't seem to be recognized in via, so if someone like me accidentally overwrote these on the function layer, they can no longer control the solenoids without resetting the keyboard

[ai03]

I see there's a SN74VC1G74 flip flop driving an IC I was not able to identify (which must take the Q output of the flip flop and route it to either solenoid). These together with MOSFETs Q1 and Q2 drive the solenoids.

Yep - the circuit converts the single haptic output from the MCU into a round-robin output between the two solenoids.
The diagram looks something like this:

Edit2: the solenoids seem to be implemented in the firmware using haptic keycodes which is what I see in the QMK docs, unfortunately these don't seem to be recognized in via, so if someone like me accidentally overwrote these on the function layer, they can no longer control the solenoids without resetting the keyboard

I've been struggling with this as well - at the time that I designed the PCB, the haptic keycodes worked fine by punching it into the Via "any" keycode field; with recent changes it seems to no longer be the case.
The best bet for now might be using QMK Configurator and flashing the compiled firmware output.