[IC] Altair and Altair-X Round 2

[upas]

>> Give us your feedback here <<

Altair / Altair-X Round 2


We’ve been super excited by the reception that Altair and Altair-X have received from those who joined the first group buy. Most extras have been sold, so Altairs are really only available aftermarket now.

We’ve heard from a lot of people that there might be enough interest for a second round of Altair and Altair-X. A bunch of round 1 participants who bought an Altair now want to try an Altair-X, or buy some extra foams, PCBs, etc. And there’s an even larger group of people who missed out on round 1.

So we are considering an Altair / Altair-X round 2. There is one caveat, though.

ai03 is pretty busy. He’s been working hard on a new design, and won’t really have time to make any further changes to Altair, as he is still heads down on this new design. That new design probably won’t be revealed until next year. I’ve been able to see some sneak peeks, and everyone is in for a treat. We don’t want to ask him to stop work on that design.

But this means an Altair round 2 will be identical in design to round 1.



Personally - I don’t think this should be a blocker for a potential round 2. The feedback we’ve received about Altair and Altair-X has been overwhelmingly positive. This makes sense since ai03 had worked on it in some form for 5+ years when it initially went on sale for round 1’s group buy in 2024.

Round 2 Changes

There are some things we will make sure to focus and fix in round 2, though. In round 1, we encountered one issue with the threads for the daughterboards due to a manufacturing error. It wasn’t a major issue, as longer screws would fix the problem, but it didn’t technically match the design. This will be fixed in round 2.

Because the design will be the same, we’ll plan on offering Altair and Altair-X in new colors for round 2. I’ve already shown a couple of the potential colors in the IC, but we want to offer colors that weren’t present in R1. Some colors we’re thinking about are e-beige, red, lilac, navy, silver, forest green, burgundy, and black.

And while we aren’t changing the design, we can offer some other addons. Some ideas we’re playing with for new extras are a more portable carrying sleeve, PBS keycap set, solderable PCBs, and fancier USB cable to connect the two halves. If you do have any ideas of what else you’d want to see offered in a round 2 - please let us know in the IC form!

>> Please give us your feedback here <<


Wireless

I know that in round 1, a common request was to add wireless to Altair/Altair-X. Altair/ Altair-X was designed to be a wired board. Without any design changes, this isn’t really possible as there is no space for a battery.

And while ai03 does want a wireless Altair sometime in the future, as mentioned earlier, ai03 is currently busy with a separate project to make any design changes, so this current round 2 will remain wired-only.

Pricing

Pricing will depend on interest, but despite new tariffs, we hope we can match pricing from R1. As a refresher, that would be $300 for Altair-X and $315 for Altair.
The default kit would also be the same, unless IC feedback shows that we should make some changes.

We need your feedback!


Ultimately, this is an interest check in the truest sense of the words - to gauge interest in a round 2 and see if it’s worth pursuing. The design has already been tested, we know it will all work, so as soon as we have enough interest, we can schedule and get going on a round 2 group buy - even as soon as next month.

>> Please give us your feedback here <<

More Details on Altair and Altair-X

If you’d like a refresher on Altair and Altair-X, please check out the original IC post by ai03 as well as our product page on CannonKeys.

[upas]

Reserved

[upas]

So this came up in Discord discussion - someone asked about a potential tenting kit.

That would require extra design work, but that's something we could do, since we wouldn't have to change the case design, and could likely use the weight mounting points.
It would mean you couldn't use the weights - but the weight reduction might actually work out well for tenting.

But if this is something that a lot of people want, this is something we can look into.

Just let us know in the IC form!

[TheManicGeek]

GLWIC! Any chance of seeing a PC case? Asking for me.

[upas]

GLWIC! Any chance of seeing a PC case? Asking for me.

I'll have to ask the factory - we would only consider it if they can do proper threaded inserts.

[Kokaloo]

I will continue to wait until wireless is an option

[BodyOrgan]

E-Beige, Silver weight, Solder PCB

Tenting kit sounds good too. Especially if it has mounting options.

[upas]

Hey all,

Just wanted to provide an update given how the IC has been received so far, and what we're planning on doing based on the results we have so far.

Overall - while I know not everyone who answers YES on an IC will buy, we do have more than 100 YES rsponses, so it looks like we have enough interest to move forward with an R2 at a 100 MOQ.
The hope is that more people hear about it once we schedule the GB, and we'll be able to hit our 100 unit MOQ.

So far, the top 3 colors are Silver, Forest Green, and E-Beige, in that order. So unless the IC responses change a ton, we'll probably go forward with these three.

In terms of addons, which is where we're really going to focus and spend a lot of time:
- Solderable PCB, Coiled Interconnect Cable, and a portable carrying sleeve were really popular. We will work on these.
- Walnut wrist rests were more popular than maple ones - if we bring back wooden wrist rests, they will be walnut again
- Soft wrist rests were a common ask as well - we will look into this.
- While we're going to keep the brass weight as default to match R1 pricing, we will quote out stainless steel weights (sandblasted, not polished) so if people want silver weights, they can get them as extras. Expect them to be a bit pricey.
- I've designed a tenting kit which centers a 1/4'"-20 tripod mount under each board's center of mass, it needs to be tested and will likely be offered in aluminum, if it functions well. Aluminum instead of brass would help keep costs down, and also shave off weight for tripod mounting.


Please keep sharing the word about Altair R2! We have some work to do here to prepare and test these addons, but once we have, we'll try to get the GB scheduled - perhaps even before the end of the year.

EDIT: Also, people really want a matching PBS set, so we'll try to get one of those done too. Likely instead of the NicePBT Training Set.

[BodyOrgan]

- While we're going to keep the brass weight as default to match R1 pricing, we will quote out stainless steel weights (sandblasted, not polished) so if people want silver weights, they can get them as extras. Expect them to be a bit pricey.

Is there no way to offer the stainless steel as an alternate option vs just an extra? I'd be getting E-Beige with the stainless steel weight, and then swap my current Dark Grey's brass for it. I really don't need two sets of brass weights.

[upas]

- While we're going to keep the brass weight as default to match R1 pricing, we will quote out stainless steel weights (sandblasted, not polished) so if people want silver weights, they can get them as extras. Expect them to be a bit pricey.

Is there no way to offer the stainless steel as an alternate option vs just an extra? I'd be getting E-Beige with the stainless steel weight, and then swap my current Dark Grey's brass for it. I really don't need two sets of brass weights.

So this is tough. If we had say 500+ IC responses, there's a chance we could do something like this.
But with the current level of responses, I don't think it'll be possible.

Basically, if you offer the option of steel included vs brass included, plus Altair-x and Altair (which have different weights) - the MOQ gets split too small to make this affordable. The price would have to go up.

To make it a bit more clear, let's imagine 100 people join the group buy.
50 of them get Altair-X and 50 get Altair.
Then 25 get Altair-X with Steel, 25 Altair-X with Brass, 25 Altair with Steel, 25 Altair with Brass...

Now for each set of weights we're looking at a 25 MOQ - which is much more expensive than a 50 MOQ or 100 MOQ.

So basically, that's why we have to default to one or the other.
We'll quote it out, but in general - Brass pairs better imo with both E-Beige and Forest Green, and is generally less expensive, so it makes sense to go with Brass by default.

If the stainless steel price is competitive with brass, maybe we can consider going steel by default, just to mix it up compared to Round 1 - but we also want to match round 1 pricing, which makes any price increase in default kit difficult to stomach (on top of potential tariffs we'll have to deal with).

[halfling_barista]

Thanks for the interesting details. Glad you’re considering a tenting kit!

It sounds like the tripod design would leave the rest of the weight channel open. I’m not sure if there is a feasible way to do this, but I’d love if there is a way to also cover the weight channel in some way so it looks cleaner with the tenting kit installed. It doesn’t need to be metal or match the original weight dimensions - maybe even a plastic inset that could rest on 2-3mm ledges sticking out from the tripod piece? Just an idea.

[BodyOrgan]

We'll quote it out, but in general - Brass pairs better imo with both E-Beige and Forest Green, and is generally less expensive, so it makes sense to go with Brass by default.

I agree, which is why I would swap the brass from my grey unit to the beige, and move the silver to the grey. I do see your predicament. Hopefully you'll find a solution in which I can get a silver weight, and avoid ending up with parts I'll never use.

I'm also fine with a silver aluminum weight over stainless steel if that somehow makes it feasible, and it's heavy enough to properly anchor the Altair. I remember ai03 saying something about the weight being required for the X otherwise it would tip over. Not sure if the Altair has the same problem.

[upas]

Thanks for the interesting details. Glad you’re considering a tenting kit!

It sounds like the tripod design would leave the rest of the weight channel open. I’m not sure if there is a feasible way to do this, but I’d love if there is a way to also cover the weight channel in some way so it looks cleaner with the tenting kit installed. It doesn’t need to be metal or match the original weight dimensions - maybe even a plastic inset that could rest on 2-3mm ledges sticking out from the tripod piece? Just an idea.

The tripod design covers the whole weight area - it's a new design, not the 3d printed one that ai03 made.
You will have to bring your own tripod mount though.

[halfling_barista]

The tripod design covers the whole weight area

Sounds great!

[upas]

Update:

Based on IC results, it now looks like the colors that are now winning are Silver (by a landslide), Forest Green, and Navy.
RIP my favorite Red and E-Beige options!
These are the options we'll likely run in the group buy (along with black, 4 colors total)

It also looks like most people want the wooden wrist rests to come back in Walnut - so they will come back in R2. Further IC results have further confirmed this.

We also looked into making soft wrist rests.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to find a manufacturer who could make our desired style of soft wrist rest with a shape to match Altair's front profile.
For a soft wrist rest, I'd recommend buying one of those mousepads with a soft gel type wrist rest and using that as best as possible, or buying a foam wrist rest and manually cutting it to match.

The solderable PCBs are designed and tested, and will be offered with the GB.

For the soft carrying pouch, we've received our initial prototypes. While not finalized, we're pretty close.
Sizing wise, it works fairly well but needs a little more space to fit 2 usb cables (one interconnect, one for keyboard to PC) - so we'll be making some slight adjustments.
Due to some factory miscommunications, the cases also close via zipper instead of velcro. While zippers feel more secure, they are also metal and risk damaging the finish on the keyboard. We're getting this changed as well.
Overall, we're close enough that this is no longer blocking the group buy from starting.

We got pricing on steel weights and tripod-mount capable aluminum weights as well.
The steel weights are going to be pricey, but will be offered with round 2 for both Altair and Altair-X.

We received our sample tripod weights, and they function well. But we've made some further improvements and they now feature ARRI pins as well, for more stability.
The images shown here are the initial test version which functioned well enough, but we decided to try to make them as utilitarian as possible.



For a coiled interconnect cable - this was pretty popular, so we hope to be able to offer this as an addon as well, in the $5-$6 ballpark range.
These aren't going to be super fancy cables, but rather standard coiled USB 2 C-C cables. For fancier cables, people have different tastes and desires, so we wanted to offer something a bit more standard with wider appeal, but inexpensive.

Finally - we currently have a PBS keycap set being designed to match the Altair perfectly. We need a bit more time to show that off, but hope to have more details soon.

Summary:

In summary - we are now preparing for the group buy! We hope to launch Altair / Altair-X Round 2 sometime in mid-September.
We hope to have a firm group buy date announced by end of week, along with some renders of the new addons.

Final colors - Black, Silver, Forest Green, Navy

New addons:
Steel weights
Tripod mount weights
Soft carrying pouch
Solderable PCB
Coiled Interconnection Cable
PBS keycap set (TBA)

All the addons from R1 will also come back, except for the NicePBT Training Set