[GB] The Monarch: Alps 60%+LHTK (Shipped)

[Spaceman1200]

Just got back from picking up the polycarb!

Show Image

Water bottle for scale  ;D

Thats a big ole piece of carb!!

[skullydazed]

Water bottle for scale 

I'm having a hard time figuring out how big that is, do you have a banana?  )

I have PCB's and lighting on hand. Here are all the underlighting parts split up and ready to be distributed to everyone:



I got the PCB's on Monday, but unfortunately it has been a busy week for me and I haven't been able to get them all checked out yet. The assembly house didn't really pack them all that well unfortunately:



So far I've been able to check out 10 of them. All of them seem to be complete, and 8 of them so far have tested out completely fine. One had the USB connector come off but I should be able to reattach it without problem. Another one isn't working, I'll need to do more in depth troubleshooting. Unfortunately I had to take a trip unexpectedly earlier this week and have been trying to catch up ever since. Expect to hear more about the remaining boards soon!

[KaminKevCrew]

Water bottle for scale 

I'm having a hard time figuring out how big that is, do you have a banana?  )

I have PCB's and lighting on hand. Here are all the underlighting parts split up and ready to be distributed to everyone:

Show Image

I got the PCB's on Monday, but unfortunately it has been a busy week for me and I haven't been able to get them all checked out yet. The assembly house didn't really pack them all that well unfortunately:

Show Image

So far I've been able to check out 10 of them. All of them seem to be complete, and 8 of them so far have tested out completely fine. One had the USB connector come off but I should be able to reattach it without problem. Another one isn't working, I'll need to do more in depth troubleshooting. Unfortunately I had to take a trip unexpectedly earlier this week and have been trying to catch up ever since. Expect to hear more about the remaining boards soon!

I like seeing that label on my bag of lights

Too bad about the pcbs! hopefully the rest of them will test out well!

[skullydazed]

Only 6 boards left to check out! I'm taking a break for dinner so I thought I'd post a little update.

So far almost every board has worked. There are 4 boards that I need to investigate some more, they don't talk on USB and I've done zero troubleshooting. I'm pretty confident I can find and fix the problems. I also made this for you:

(Don't worry about the sound that's made when I put the PCB into the jig. The mic made it sound way louder/harder than it actually is.)

[deductivemonkee]

Water bottle for scale 

You kidnapped Bluenalgene??!!?!?!?!??!!!!!??

[KaminKevCrew]

Only 6 boards left to check out! I'm taking a break for dinner so I thought I'd post a little update.

So far almost every board has worked. There are 4 boards that I need to investigate some more, they don't talk on USB and I've done zero troubleshooting. I'm pretty confident I can find and fix the problems. I also made this for you:

(Don't worry about the sound that's made when I put the PCB into the jig. The mic made it sound way louder/harder than it actually is.)

That is very cool! I'm really excited to have one of these in hand! Out of curiosity, what is the language you used for the script described in the video? Also, does it basically just upload the firmware onto the board once an unprogrammed one has been plugged in? That's what it sounded like, and that's very cool!!!

[pchatterjee]

Anyway to buy one of these still?

[skullydazed]

That is very cool! I'm really excited to have one of these in hand! Out of curiosity, what is the language you used for the script described in the video? Also, does it basically just upload the firmware onto the board once an unprogrammed one has been plugged in? That's what it sounded like, and that's very cool!!!

It's just a bash script I whipped up, for now it only supports OS X but I wrote it in a way that it'd be easy to add support for other OS's too:

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh

if ! [ -d $1 ]; then
echo "Usage: $1 <keyboard> [keymap]"
exit 1
fi

cd $1

if [ -z "$2" ]; then
dfu_cmd="make dfu"
else
dfu_cmd="make KEYMAP=$2 dfu"
fi

while true; do
# Wait until we see an atmel mcu ready to program
sleep 1
case $(uname) in
Darwin)
if ! ioreg -p IOUSB | grep -q ATm32U4DFU; then
continue
fi
;;
*)
# If you're looking at this because you can't use it on your OS why not submit a patch?
echo "Unsupported OS! Sorry. :("
exit
;;
esac

# Program it
$dfu_cmd
clear
done


[sean]

Hopefully the other boards have a simple fix to them. I really appreciate the hard work and dedication you have put into the GB

[KaminKevCrew]

Anyway to buy one of these still?

That is very cool! I'm really excited to have one of these in hand! Out of curiosity, what is the language you used for the script described in the video? Also, does it basically just upload the firmware onto the board once an unprogrammed one has been plugged in? That's what it sounded like, and that's very cool!!!

It's just a bash script I whipped up, for now it only supports OS X but I wrote it in a way that it'd be easy to add support for other OS's too:

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh

if ! [ -d $1 ]; then
echo "Usage: $1 <keyboard> [keymap]"
exit 1
fi

cd $1

if [ -z "$2" ]; then
dfu_cmd="make dfu"
else
dfu_cmd="make KEYMAP=$2 dfu"
fi

while true; do
# Wait until we see an atmel mcu ready to program
sleep 1
case $(uname) in
Darwin)
if ! ioreg -p IOUSB | grep -q ATm32U4DFU; then
continue
fi
;;
*)
# If you're looking at this because you can't use it on your OS why not submit a patch?
echo "Unsupported OS! Sorry. :("
exit
;;
esac

# Program it
$dfu_cmd
clear
done


Sweet! I'll have to see about getting this over to Windows when I have some time. Would be nice in case I end up with a ton of pcbs for some reason...

[stoic-lemon]

Thanks for the insight into the process. This community needs more videos like this.

[koalapear]

I got the black bolts in! (Not the most exciting thing, I know  )




I had to get the stainless (silver) ones from a different place and they have yet to arrive.

In other news I got word from the waterjet place that they just got the aluminum stock today and that the plates should be done by Monday. I'll be taking everything up to my uncle's on Friday. His part will probably take a week or two, not sure exactly but we'll see.

I also called the Cerakote place to verify the quote I got back in October was still good, which it is. They did however say that they are completely swamped right now, so hopefully that clears up by the time we're ready to get that part done.

The PCB fab has also agreed to make us two more PCBs to replace the nonoperational ones.

If all goes to plan and the Cerakote doesn't take too long we should be ready to ship everything out at the very end of February, but plan on early March just in case! 

[sean]

Thanks koalapear, I can't wait!

[KaminKevCrew]

Awesome!

[stoic-lemon]

Thank you.

[koalapear]

The water jet order is ready for pickup! Unfortunately I won't be able to make it down there until Wednesday thanks to school. Hopefully everything looks good when I do! 

Also the stainless steel/silver screws arrived today (again, not very exciting but it's something  ):

[Pikly]

The water jet order is ready for pickup! Unfortunately I won't be able to make it down there until Wednesday thanks to school. Hopefully everything looks good when I do! 

Also the stainless steel/silver screws arrived today (again, not very exciting but it's something  ):

Show Image

Nice! Updates are good, even if it isn't much :)

[koalapear]

Picked up the plates! 











I am very pleased with how these came out. Very clean edges and no big gouges in any of them or anything like that. They also line up perfectly with the PCBs. 

Unfortunately I also have so not so great news. My uncle won't be available this weekend for me to drop off the parts and go over the files with him. The CNC work will start next weekend rather than this weekend.
I'd like to sincerely appologize for this delay. I really wish we didn't have to push this back another week but I want to be there for at least the first few plates/center spacers to make sure we've got everything dialed in just right.

[KaminKevCrew]

Picked up the plates! 

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

I am very pleased with how these came out. Very clean edges and no big gouges in any of them or anything like that. They also line up perfectly with the PCBs.  :thumb:

Unfortunately I also have so not so great news. My uncle won't be available this weekend for me to drop off the parts and go over the files with him. The CNC work will start next weekend rather than this weekend.
I'd like to sincerely appologize for this delay. I really wish we didn't have to push this back another week but I want to be there for at least the first few plates/center spacers to make sure we've got everything dialed in just right.

No worries! Just glad that you're keeping us updated! That's awesome :)

[stoic-lemon]

I think we're all OK setting this done right. Great to hear the plates came out nicely.

[koalapear]

Yesterday I went up to my uncle's and dropped off all of the stuff. While I was there we cut up the polycarb into individual blanks so that it's ready to be milled, and finalized a few details on how we want to mill the recesses. The recesses will most likely end up being a bit different than the ones pictured on the prototype. Instead of milling the whole side of the switch cutout we are only going to mill small recesses where each fin on the switch needs to clip in which will decrease overall milling time and keep more of the plate at the 2.5mm thickness. My uncle is still finalizing the milling jig (he's making a really slick one out of aluminum). Once that's done he's going to get started on everything. He says he wants to get these done as soon as he can, maybe as early as the end of the week. I'm going to be heading back up either Wednesday or next weekend to help out so we can get these babies to Cerakote as soon as possible! 

[KaminKevCrew]

Yesterday I went up to my uncle's and dropped off all of the stuff. While I was there we cut up the polycarb into individual blanks so that it's ready to be milled, and finalized a few details on how we want to mill the recesses. The recesses will most likely end up being a bit different than the ones pictured on the prototype. Instead of milling the whole side of the switch cutout we are only going to mill small recesses where each fin on the switch needs to clip in which will decrease overall milling time and keep more of the plate at the 2.5mm thickness. My uncle is still finalizing the milling jig (he's making a really slick one out of aluminum). Once that's done he's going to get started on everything. He says he wants to get these done as soon as he can, maybe as early as the end of the week. I'm going to be heading back up either Wednesday or next weekend to help out so we can get these babies to Cerakote as soon as possible! 

Sweet!!!

[njbair]

Yesterday I went up to my uncle's and dropped off all of the stuff. While I was there we cut up the polycarb into individual blanks so that it's ready to be milled, and finalized a few details on how we want to mill the recesses. The recesses will most likely end up being a bit different than the ones pictured on the prototype. Instead of milling the whole side of the switch cutout we are only going to mill small recesses where each fin on the switch needs to clip in which will decrease overall milling time and keep more of the plate at the 2.5mm thickness. My uncle is still finalizing the milling jig (he's making a really slick one out of aluminum). Once that's done he's going to get started on everything. He says he wants to get these done as soon as he can, maybe as early as the end of the week. I'm going to be heading back up either Wednesday or next weekend to help out so we can get these babies to Cerakote as soon as possible! 

Sounds like a smart move. That should save a lot of cutting, especially for such a small end mill.

Tell your uncle we all love machining pics and videos!!!

[sean]

Your uncle is seriously really awesome. Thanks for the update koalapear!

[koalapear]

Alright, sorry it's been so long since the last update, been super busy with school and whatnot. Anyway, I got the plates back from my uncle today (sorry no videos of the process, even if he had taken some it would be hard to see what's going on since his phone camera isn't the best)

Anyway, to make up for it, here's a bunch of (rushed) pictures of the milled plates!



























Overall I am quite pleased with how these turned out. There is some variation on the exact placement of the recesses from plate to plate but they all should work just the same. Each plate is its own unique little butterfly if you will 

This is mostly because getting things to line up just right with the existing cutouts was pretty damn difficult, especially since it turns out the waterjet tolerances aren't the tightest. Because of this the mounting holes around the outside of the plates are about 0.5mm off over the entire length of the plate (so really not much at all in the grand scheme of things). This shouldn't be an issues for you guys since half a millimeter is pretty small, but it meant that the jig my uncle made exactly to spec had to be modified. He's going to make the necessary changes to the mounting hole locations on the lexan, so again, it should all work out just fine. 

I did a partial ghetto assembly with some spare switches I had laying around and a Matias stab kit to make sure everything snapped in okay and lined up with the pcb. All looks good on that front. Only thing I noticed is that the right shift stab wire for the AEKII is actually a couple millimeters longer than the standard one included with the Matias stab kit. Gave myself a bit of a heart attack when the Matias wire didn't fit but then I tried the AEKII wire and it fit perfectly. 

In the pictures some of the cutouts and recesses look a bit rough around the edges but that's just some burrs left over from the machining process that should get cleaned up easily when the plates are bead blasted before Cerakote.

He still has yet to do the Lexan parts since he wanted to get the plates out of the way first so we could get them to Cerakote ASAP. Hopefully the Lexan doesn't give him too much grief.

I am planning on taking these to Cerakote either tomorrow or Monday so IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE WHAT COLOR YOU ORDERED PLEASE LET ME KNOW NOW!!! 


Also, I got my shipment of Alpine Winter in! It looks fantastic and njbair did a fantastic job with this buy but unfortunately it looks like SP didn't rotate the numpad enter key stem like they should have so it doesn't fit. njbair said he is going to talk to SP and try to get things worked out, so all should be good there!

[romevi]

Dang. That looks absolutely wonderful.

[koalapear]

Dang. That looks absolutely wonderful.

Thanks! There are a couple extras available if you still want to get in on this 

[koalapear]

I dropped the plates off at the Cerakote place today. They seemed a little overwhelmed 

Only hitch is they don't stock all of the different greens people ordered unfortunately. Those effected have already recieved PMs from me to see if they'd be willing to change to a different shade. There's a possibility of special ordering the colors but it would make things a good bit more expensive since they buy the colors in bulk. 

Also, if you want to change your color let me know NOW!!! This is your absolute last chance to change. If you forgot which color you got here's the list of what everyone is getting:

[sean]

I can't wait to see all the different colors on finished builds!

[theginginator]

TEAM SAFETY ORANGE!!! 

[njbair]

Blue Titanium FTW. Can't wait!!!

[Jersern]

A bit boring with Cobalt but I love the colour in the few photos of it on its own.

[koalapear]

Okay, I've gotten things worked out with the Cerakote place. They said it is most likely going to take a few weeks for them to finish things up.

My uncle has finished up the lexan parts. I should have my hands on those by Friday.

I also got the PCBs in from skullydazed!

It's all coming together 

[KaminKevCrew]

Okay, I've gotten things worked out with the Cerakote place. They said it is most likely going to take a few weeks for them to finish things up.

My uncle has finished up the lexan parts. I should have my hands on those by Friday.

I also got the PCBs in from skullydazed!

It's all coming together 

Sweet! Can't wait for this to be in my hands!!!

[Saimeidae]

Thanks for being transparent with our timelines and what to expect, many people are rather lacking in that department, which sucks.

So.
****ing.
Excited.

Monarch bby, come to me. It'll definitely become my main board when it arrives. **** this K70, and plancks just aren't viable for most purposes besides standard typing (on the go).

[stoic-lemon]

At this point, I don't think I am worthy of this board lol. Really looking forward to the pics coming up in the next few weeks.

[koalapear]

Lexan parts are done!









Sorry for the sub standard pictures, just snapped a few quick ones.

Still need to clean all of the machine oil/coolant off of them but I'm very pleased with how these turned out! 

Hopefully everything fits when we get the plates back from Cerakote! 

[romevi]

Lexan parts are done!

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Sorry for the sub standard pictures, just snapped a few quick ones.

Still need to clean all of the machine oil/coolant off of them but I'm very pleased with how these turned out! 

Hopefully everything fits when we get the plates back from Cerakote! 

Those are beautiful!   

[njbair]

So...how is everyone planning to program their board?

I'm thinking about using the LHTK cluster as a gaming keypad (WASD & other keys). This would save me from having to switch off of Dvorak every time I want to play a game. I don't game much, but having a dedicated gaming cluster on the left would be pretty cool.

[Pikly]

So...how is everyone planning to program their board?

I'm thinking about using the LHTK cluster as a gaming keypad (WASD & other keys). This would save me from having to switch off of Dvorak every time I want to play a game. I don't game much, but having a dedicated gaming cluster on the left would be pretty cool.

I think I'll use the top row of buttons in the LHTK cluster to toggle between some layers, and the right most column as momentary layer switches. This way I can access the keys on the right side of the keyboard with one hand without letting go of the mouse.

The other keys in the LHTK cluster can be the arrow keys, function keys, and whatever else I can think up that I'll need (in different layers probably).

[KaminKevCrew]

Any news on this bad boy?

I've ordered four keyboards over the course of about 8 months, and it looks like three of them will be coming at about the same time XD  (This, the Weaven, and the LZ-RV) Anyway, do we have an ETA for the Cerakote shop to finish?

(sorry, I'm just too excited for my first ALPS board!!! Only other alps board I've used was an AEKII with the caps rearranged for DVORAK, so it didn't feel too good, because of the mixed profiles...)

[koalapear]

Any news on this bad boy?

I've ordered four keyboards over the course of about 8 months, and it looks like three of them will be coming at about the same time XD  (This, the Weaven, and the LZ-RV) Anyway, do we have an ETA for the Cerakote shop to finish?

(sorry, I'm just too excited for my first ALPS board!!! Only other alps board I've used was an AEKII with the caps rearranged for DVORAK, so it didn't feel too good, because of the mixed profiles...)

Sorry for the radio silence! I haven't heard anything from the Cerakote place yet. Last I talked to them they said it would be about three weeks as of February 29th. They're closed today so i'll give them a call tomorrow and see how things are going. Once they get it done and it's all good then things are ready to ship.

[KaminKevCrew]

Any news on this bad boy?

I've ordered four keyboards over the course of about 8 months, and it looks like three of them will be coming at about the same time XD  (This, the Weaven, and the LZ-RV) Anyway, do we have an ETA for the Cerakote shop to finish?

(sorry, I'm just too excited for my first ALPS board!!! Only other alps board I've used was an AEKII with the caps rearranged for DVORAK, so it didn't feel too good, because of the mixed profiles...)

Sorry for the radio silence! I haven't heard anything from the Cerakote place yet. Last I talked to them they said it would be about three weeks as of February 29th. They're closed today so i'll give them a call tomorrow and see how things are going. Once they get it done and it's all good then things are ready to ship.

Awesome! (as I said, I'm getting antsy about all these boards I have coming)

Also, I noticed that today/tomorrow would be just about three weeks, so I thought I'd ask. Koalapear, you have been totally awesome throughout this whole process! I would happily join a group buy run by you at any time!

[koalapear]

Big day today! 













Yes, the first production Monarch is alive and well! This is being typed on it in fact! Everything went together very nicely. The switches and stab clips are a snug fit but they do fit. The only other little issue is that the USB port and the reset button don't line up perfectly with their respective holes however both are still very much accessible with a lot of room to fit most types of USB cables. I'll get pictures of this part up at a later time. I still need some help from skullydazed on how to get the underlighting to turn on but it's all (sloppily) soldered up. I need to work on my SMD skills. 

I went to the Cerakote plate today and picked up 35 out of the 54 plates. They all look fabulous so far. They have yet to do the wilder colors like the oranges, pinks, and purple. Sorry, I don't have any good pictures of the other plate colors at the moment, ran out of daylight. So far I am extremely happy with how these finishes look. The nonmetallic ones are smooth while the metallic ones have an anodized feel. 

[KaminKevCrew]

Big day today! 

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Yes, the first production Monarch is alive and well! This is being typed on it in fact! Everything went together very nicely. The switches and stab clips are a snug fit but they do fit. The only other little issue is that the USB port and the reset button don't line up perfectly with their respective holes however both are still very much accessible with a lot of room to fit most types of USB cables. I'll get pictures of this part up at a later time. I still need some help from skullydazed on how to get the underlighting to turn on but it's all (sloppily) soldered up. I need to work on my SMD skills.
I went to the Cerakote plate today and picked up 35 out of the 54 plates. They all look fabulous so far. They have yet to do the wilder colors like the oranges, pinks, and purple. Sorry, I don't have any good pictures of the other plate colors at the moment, ran out of daylight. So far I am extremely happy with how these finishes look. The nonmetallic ones are smooth while the metallic ones have an anodized feel. 

Dang! I was hoping they'd all be done with this post! XD doesn't sound like it'll be too terribly long before my ridgeway blue and sig pink plates are done. The board looks absolutely fantastic! (I'll grab some sweet photos once it's done, since one of my roommates has a bunch of pro photo equipment!)

I'm so excited for this to finally be at my door!

[koalapear]

Big day today! 

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Yes, the first production Monarch is alive and well! This is being typed on it in fact! Everything went together very nicely. The switches and stab clips are a snug fit but they do fit. The only other little issue is that the USB port and the reset button don't line up perfectly with their respective holes however both are still very much accessible with a lot of room to fit most types of USB cables. I'll get pictures of this part up at a later time. I still need some help from skullydazed on how to get the underlighting to turn on but it's all (sloppily) soldered up. I need to work on my SMD skills.
I went to the Cerakote plate today and picked up 35 out of the 54 plates. They all look fabulous so far. They have yet to do the wilder colors like the oranges, pinks, and purple. Sorry, I don't have any good pictures of the other plate colors at the moment, ran out of daylight. So far I am extremely happy with how these finishes look. The nonmetallic ones are smooth while the metallic ones have an anodized feel. 

Dang! I was hoping they'd all be done with this post! XD doesn't sound like it'll be too terribly long before my ridgeway blue and sig pink plates are done. The board looks absolutely fantastic! (I'll grab some sweet photos once it's done, since one of my roommates has a bunch of pro photo equipment!)

I'm so excited for this to finally be at my door!

Yeah, I'm hoping they pick up the pace for what's left since they're already over the quoted time. I guess I can't give them too much grief though since this is not the sort of work they normally do.



Anyway on a more positive note I was actually able to get some pictures of the different colors:

Satin Aluminum:





Cobalt:





OD Green:





Sniper Gray:





Blue Titanium:





Burnt Bronze:





Mil Spec OD Green:







Also, I talked to skullydazed and got the underlighting working! 





Dusty table 

[KaminKevCrew]

That underlighting looks awesome!

[sean]

Oh. My. God.








It looks amazing

[njbair]

This is gonna be so awesome.

So what's left, for those of us with the more "normal" colors that are already finished?

[koalapear]

This is gonna be so awesome.

So what's left, for those of us with the more "normal" colors that are already finished?

I'm going to start shipping out what I have in probably the next week or so