hello! i am the creator of the diverge, i havent been on an online forum for 7 years now (unless you count reddit) so excuse me if I seem out of place, please feel free to give some opinions or ask some questions and i will try my best to answer them
here's some updated information for those of you who want to know
features- 6 KRO per side
- 72 fully programmable keys
- 10 enableable layers
- media keys
- fn and pm keys
- fn and pm keys work across the keyboards
i've completed a new version of the driver yesterday as well as the new custom driver software (the one that you have to download/install manually), now, the Fn and Pm layers work across the two sides, the two sides could talk to each other if the custom software is installed. currently the custom software is written in C#, so it will only work on windows machines (i did not test the thing with mono, so not sure about linux or mac)
about mei am a college student majoring in computer science, i currently live in hong kong (i moved from california back to hong kong earlier this year), i am mostly a software person, but i know how to work with laser cutters, electronics (am audiophile who makes his own amps), 3d modelling (maya) and just general computer related stuff
plans about the futureafter i am done with the diverge, i will probably branch off and make other types of keyboardw on the market as well, i do plan to do a matrix layout 60% keyboard next, after that, i would like to look into modular keyboards
current sales and the "business"i need to sell 20 kits for this to be considered successful, currently i've sold 14 kits, so the current evaluation on how successful this is would be "fair," currently, i've set up my "business" such that it is extremely scalable, so thats kind of nice
by the way: what does "preassamble" mean??? i just want to be sure that i won't have to solder anything.
pre-assembled means that its going to be fully assembled when it arrives on your doorsteps, you wont have to do any soldering or assembling other than plugging in the usb cables
This illustrates where a more competitive price point can be (not just talk, but actual hit-the-street numbers), and self-produced. This is a HUGE and positive action for the community. I'm looking forward to see how this develops. Not just this one keyboard he's done, but his overall process. Everyones eyes should watch this carefully, I think he's got a good model and if he adjusts the design and can meet a some requests...he can set the gold standard. I've seen and been involved in similar projects, and this has all the earmarks of a successful program. Of course it's fairly early and there's plenty of room for failure, but as we speak there is a deliverable product, which is 90% of the process.
I tuned down an offer about 3-4 years ago for a keyboard start up. The reason? Because the handwriting was on the wall that the process/advancements would get down to this level where quality, custom products would be able to be self-produced. Geekhack is a large part of this ovarall spread of knowledge and excitement.
Hell, I put his link in my sig!
thank you for having faith in me! i will be honest with you, the production costs could be even lower if i had better equipment and if i was producing in bulk
right now, the biggest cost related problem i've ran into is the key caps, it is very hard to get cheap, quality key caps in a specific layout with words printed/etched on them, for example, the PBT key caps on my store costs $40, thats ludicrously expensive, why? because i am actually buying 87 key key cap sets
retail and splitting them up to form the required keys needed for the diverge
the only way i could keep my prices low was to have my own key caps printed, and believe me, they wont even do business with me unless i ordered a relatively large quantity(i had to order so much that there's no hope of selling all of them this batch), thats what i did, but the fact to the matter is, the key caps that i order made are inferior in every way (single shot ABS, flat profile) but i had to do it or else the key caps themselves would be ridiculously overpriced
The keyboard has a different name on it in the pictures than the final product ...
just for your information, geminus is latin for twin/double/of two pieces