[IC] DCS Cafe | Final Renders, Kitting, Colors & Vendors. GB live 2/7 to 3/10

[yuukou_]

DCS Cafe



My co-runner Ken and I have always loved the GMK Cafe set. With the growing popularity of DCS, we thought right now is a great time to run this. We've made sure to get the approval from the original designer of Cafe to run this as well.
In an effort to keep the colors as true to the GMK Cafe as possible, the colors for DCS Cafe are:
Alphas: SP stock “WEA” to substitute for GMK L9
Modifiers: RAL 8019 https://www.ralcolorchart.com/ral-classic/ral-8019-grey-brown
Accents: RAL 1001 https://www.ralcolorchart.com/ral-classic/ral-1001-beige

Renders



F1-8X by Geonworks





Flanör FRL

_{Renders by: Pontus (https://www.instagram.com/www_pontus/)}


Kitting/Details
WYSE/Gorton font will be used
Purse-style Caps Lock
After IC #2, the majority of people specified that they were okay with the stock colors, these new kitting renders reflect that, alongside the slightly adjusted kitting.


<sub>Base Kit


Alt Alphas Kit


Numpad Kit


40's Kit


Spacebar Kit


Extensions Kit


Novelties Kit


10u Kit


Text Mods Kit</sub>

Pricing
*After IC #2, the majority of people specified that they were okay with the stock colors, the updated final pricing here for the GB reflects that. As before, MOQ for base will be 75, and then 25 for child kits.


Base Kit : $140
Alt Alphas : $57
Numpad: $20
40's: $35
Spacebars: $23
Extensions: $22 - $23
Novelties: $30
10u: $5
Text Mods: $32

Comparison Pictures (Stock vs RAL)
*For the IRL pictures, we used the original GMK keycaps, only two colors are shown here because the 3rd color was originally already using a stock SP color, and won't be changing, but if you would like to see a comparison shot, please let us know.

IRL Comparisons (GMK on left, SP stock color on right):
Accent Color




Modifier Color





Render Comparison:


<sub>All SP Stock Colors


Custom RAL Colors</sub>


Timeline
Interest Check through September 23rd, 2024
Interest Check #2 through November 18th, 2024
Group Buy (Live!): February 7th, 2025 through March 10th, 2025
Production estimate: Q2 2025

Vendors
US #1 : spkeyboards https://spkeyboards.com/products/dcs-cafe
US #2 : Divinikey https://divinikey.com/products/sp-dcs-cafe-keycaps
CA: Deskhero https://www.deskhero.ca/products/sp-dcs-cafe-keycaps
Asia: Geonworks (will be in-stock at a later date)
OCE: Cafege https://cafege.com.au/products/group-buy-dcs-cafe
UK: Prototypist https://prototypist.net/products/group-buy-dcs-cafe
EU: Eloquent Clicks https://eloquentclicks.com/products/dcs-cafe-keycaps


IC Form
https://forms.gle/dPLmL16unWHY9AsBA
https://forms.gle/R3wp5c2VqihgU36P8

For all updates, you can join our discord below, and/or follow our Insta/Twitter
Discord:: https://discord.gg/KV7UJ2Ynh9
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dcs.cafe/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/cafe_dcs

Special Thanks
Thank you to Langelandia, the original designer for Cafe, for giving us their blessing to run this, and also for being so open and willing to help.
Thank you to Frank (ENOMOOSHIKI) with his help with proofreading the IC.
Thank you to kayso for help with the 40's kitting.
Thank you to the vendors partnering with us and the people interested who provided feedback.

Thanks for looking!

[yuukou_]

Changelog
IC #2 Updates (11/3/2024):
- Updated Kitting
- Updated Kitting Renders
- Comparison Section and Pictures Added
- Pricing Added
- Vendors Added
- New IC Form Added

Additional IC #2 Updates (11/4/2024):
- New separate EU Vendor (TBD right now)
- New comparison images

GB Updates (2/10/2025):
- Final Kitting Posted
- Final Pricing Posted
- Final Vendors with links

[Zouabee]

I just got my espresso machine, been feindin coffee every morning. Love this.

[TheManicGeek]

Love the look of this set, WYSE font was also a fine choice. GL with the IC, hope this set does well!

[enomooshiki]

looking good!

i think a bit of adjustments to the base kit would be nice.

GLWIC!

[Kokaloo]

i'll give this two weeks before it's put on hold for pricing concerns

[Meepergon]

I AM SO IN

[emalider]

Yes please.

[Fraaaan]

The community put most SP projects on hold because of their unreasonable prices so I'd please ask you to do the same.

They don't deserve our business with their current prices.

[Jampot_298]

I agree with Fran tbh

Did you get quotes from SP? If so, how do they look?

Set looks great btw, thank you for uk iso and icon mods

[taiyox]

Filled out the form - big fan of the colorway! Good luck with the IC

edit: I agree with the price concerns though.

[Piperaceae]

I love this. Please don't listen to the price whiner contingent on here that wants to shut down SP, and somehow magically hope that sweatshop cloners will invest in producing doubleshot ABS DCS molds with the Wyse font, and then turn around and sell their sets to us for buttons and twine. Some of us do support American labor, with real livable wages for the workers cranking our niche luxury products out.

Let's be real - no one is holding a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to buy decorative plastic playsets. If you don't want to buy them, don't. But trying to scare off designers and interfere with their ICs crosses a line.

[Manukbs_]

Love the set, kitting looks unrealistic having in mind DCS pricing

[pixelpusher]

Big fan of cafe and brown sets in general.  I joined the GMK group buy on day one and own every kit, including the dark alphas.  But I will say that the colors in the OG are not optimal.  The brown isn't rich.  The light alphas were the worst part for me.  They feel more like a dingy white than creamy.  It's really hard to make the set pop on almost any board.  I've put it on 30+ keyboards at this point.  The only time I'm ever satisfied with the set is with the dark alphas.

I'd 100% be down for someone trying to recreate the spirit of GMK Cafe in DCS but with improved colors.

[Maxximum]

Looking forward to this set GLWIC!

[yuukou_]

I see a good number of concerns over pricing. We have already reached out to SP for quotes, but it is also MOQ dependent, so that is also part of the IC, to see who is interested, what price people are comfortable with and trying to see if we balance those. If need be we will evaluate if we need to split some of the base kit into child kits if that helps the set run, but ideally we wanted a base kit that has high compatibility.

Big fan of cafe and brown sets in general.  I joined the GMK group buy on day one and own every kit, including the dark alphas.  But I will say that the colors in the OG are not optimal.  The brown isn't rich.  The light alphas were the worst part for me.  They feel more like a dingy white than creamy.  It's really hard to make the set pop on almost any board.  I've put it on 30+ keyboards at this point.  The only time I'm ever satisfied with the set is with the dark alphas.

I'd 100% be down for someone trying to recreate the spirit of GMK Cafe in DCS but with improved colors.

I would be open to this, but would be something we still need to explore on our end, as we have only done initial color matching against the original GMK set.

Thanks everyone for the feedback and support!

[kajahtaa]

Looks awesome.

ne alps avail ?

[Rob27shred]

I love this. Please don't listen to the price whiner contingent on here that wants to shut down SP, and somehow magically hope that sweatshop cloners will invest in producing doubleshot ABS DCS molds with the Wyse font, and then turn around and sell their sets to us for buttons and twine. Some of us do support American labor, with real livable wages for the workers cranking our niche luxury products out.

Let's be real - no one is holding a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to buy decorative plastic playsets. If you don't want to buy them, don't. But trying to scare off designers and interfere with their ICs crosses a line.

This 100%! If you think it's too pricey just don't buy, no reason to try to scare designers off from using SP. The hobby would not be where it's at without them & I do not want see what it would look like without them.

[Rob27shred]

Look awesome OP, but I would echo other's sentiments of the base kit being too big given SP's recent quotes on DCS sets. At the very least I'd separate the novelties out into a child kit of their own. Other than that GLWIC!

[Langelandia]

I approve of this message =)

[ZavaZ86]

Another nice DCS set about to be destroyed by SP pricing

[norinori]

Could probably do away with iso/numpad from base

along with the purse capslock.

[Poesjuh]

Rush rush


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[LXVRGS]

the purse stays

[yuukou_]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say thanks for all the feedback, and to keep it coming. Ken and I are continually looking at it and discussing. On our side, we have decided that we will likely cut down the base kit somewhat, but to what extent is still up in the air.
So that we can get another round of feedback from everyone, we will likely be doing another round of IC, once this one wraps up and we can collect all the feedback, adjust the kitting according to what we want in combination with feedback,
and getting solid numbers for pricing. We also plan to have vendors ready for the 2nd IC, and I will update the timeline accordingly once I know when that will start and end.

Thanks again to everyone for the support!

[nessMINI]

God, I love DCS profile.  I don't know why it doesn't get more love.

[pixelpusher]

God, I love DCS profile.  I don't know why it doesn't get more love.

Generally because it's thin and people think thick keycaps mean better keycaps.  Not always true, and depends on the switch and keyboard

[conternecticus]

Definitely very interested! GLWIC

[madmax13]

If you do a deskmat for this, I love the MW "Color Wheel" matt they ran with their set.

[twitchytheinsideman]

finally a dcs set with icon mods.

[SafeAtShore]

DCS minibars don't exist, do they? You should change the labels in your kitting image from SB to R4 (the render seems to be non-convex already).

[Mecxs]

Why are there 2 tabs?

[Poesjuh]

Dcs set with a large base kit for a change. Yes will be more expensive but at least you can use it on more than a wkl tkl.

OP: let’s cut down the base kit.

Sad days.

[yuukou_]

Thanks everyone for the feedback on the first IC. We already went over the feedback, and are working on the changes for next IC round. We are aiming have updated kitting, pricing, and vendors for the next IC, so that any changes will only be small. I'll be posting more frequent and smaller updates in the Discord, but will also post here, when we have an exact date for the next IC round, and of course when it is live. Thanks again!

[linearscringe]

please add 1.5u Super which supports both Mac and HHKB layout

[yuukou_]

Hi all,

Just wanted to post a small update before we post the large one for the second IC. This project is not dead, we are just waiting on some responses and confirmations, and then I will get all the new info and form out for everyone for IC 2. Thanks again for the interest!

[yuukou_]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your patience, the new IC form is up along with the new details! Please take a look and let us know what you think!

[William_S_Jones]

I like it, looking forward to these!

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

[conternecticus]

I like the stock SP mods more: it has a brown tint to it. That's according to the renders, the photo of the SP color chip for the modifiers is very hard to inspect. More IRL photos in different lighting would help.

[yuukou_]

I like the stock SP mods more: it has a brown tint to it. That's according to the renders, the photo of the SP color chip for the modifiers is very hard to inspect. More IRL photos in different lighting would help.

I'll get with Ken, when he's back and get more pics, thanks!

[Piperaceae]

It looks like the stock colors are a tad more vivid. I think personally I prefer those to the RAL.

[randolf_the_gray]

Agreed. Like the stock colors. Something new and will help with kit pricing. ☕️

[linearscringe]

kitting looks good, colors look good

hit 'start gb' button

[Ickis1337]

Please add another EU vendor. Prototypist in the UK is the worst choice for everyone else in the EU because import duties have to be paid for goods from the UK. The UK has not been part of the EU for a long time. I therefore strongly suggest either Oblotzky, Delta Keys or Eloquent Clicks.

[Poesjuh]

Looks like new kitting right? Nice!

Also I second the request for an actual EU vendor that’s part of the EU. Nothing against Proto, Jae’s our Bae, but mostly due to relatively expensive shipping from the UK to the rest of Europe buying from him almost always turns out to be more expensive that straight from an EU vendor.


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[yuukou_]

Please add another EU vendor. Prototypist in the UK is the worst choice for everyone else in the EU because import duties have to be paid for goods from the UK. The UK has not been part of the EU for a long time. I therefore strongly suggest either Oblotzky, Delta Keys or Eloquent Clicks.

Amended, we will be adding an EU vendor, just needed to check if it was good with SP. I will update when we have one nailed down.
I have also added new comparison images, if you have any additional feedback that is different, feel free to submit another response, just mention it in the notes section.

[Minisofu]

Love the colours chosennn, nice kitting as well. Super duper goodluck with GB !!

[yuukou_]

Looks like new kitting right? Nice!

Also I second the request for an actual EU vendor that’s part of the EU. Nothing against Proto, Jae’s our Bae, but mostly due to relatively expensive shipping from the UK to the rest of Europe buying from him almost always turns out to be more expensive that straight from an EU vendor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Please add another EU vendor. Prototypist in the UK is the worst choice for everyone else in the EU because import duties have to be paid for goods from the UK. The UK has not been part of the EU for a long time. I therefore strongly suggest either Oblotzky, Delta Keys or Eloquent Clicks.

Thanks for the feedback, I have updated the post, and confirmed with my co-runner now that Eloquent Clicks will be the vendor for EU

[mr_foggy]

Thanks for the feedback, I have updated the post, and confirmed with my co-runner now that Eloquent Clicks will be the vendor for EU

thanks for the efforts in bringing an EU vendor onboard, but be aware that EC is struggling with refunds at the moment.

[JQ27]

For the text mod kit, any ISO Enter avail?