Custom Manufactured Keyboards?

[SamirD]

So I was looking at an ebay auction posted in great finds about a NIB police keyboard with built-in trackpad.  The seller had a picture of the label which had a url on it that I didn't recognize--tg3electronics.com

Turns out tg3electronics.com is a completely custom keyboard company that can make almost anything.  I wonder if there's enough interest in a particular design to have something made?

http://www.tg3electronics.com/product/custom-keyboard-applications

[nubbinator]

Are you ready to pay $10k for a keyboard?

[SpAmRaY]

Does TG3 still make deck boards or was it the other way around?

[SamirD]

Are you ready to pay $10k for a keyboard?

Probably not for a single board, but for 30-50 of them that's not too unreasonable.  The question is if there would be enough people willing to get on board.  This would definitely be a massdrop type of thing.

[joey]

There are plenty people in this community that can make a custom board for much less!

[SamirD]

There are plenty people in this community that can make a custom board for much less!

Very true, but not being a manufacturer with tooling, how big of a run could be produced?  Hypothetically, if an 'endgame' keyboard was made that everyone wanted, an order of 100 or more might overwhelm a one-at-a-time manufacturer.  And then what if the board caught on and the number creeped up to 1000?  The bonus of a rampup like this with a large manufacturer is that the per keyboard cost should drop too since there would be enough units to warrant tooling investments that would further drop the price and speed production.

I'm just curious if anyone has even thought of this approach.

[CPTBadAss]

Just an FYI, TG3 is the parent company of Deck keyboards. They're also famous in this community for the Data 911 cop car keyboards which I think you alluded to in the OP.

And I would be shocked if their MOQ wasn't like 1000.

[joey]

The whitefox running on MassDrop right now has 1000 buyers, and I think around the same for the Infinity ErgoDox and Infinity 60%.

[CPTBadAss]

So we're going to use a middleman? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of trying to get our boards made through TG3? And those three boards had Input Club help, which has a relationship with Massdrop. I'm not sure this hypothetical TG3 buy would have the same success.

[swimmingbird]

So we're going to use a middleman? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of trying to get our boards made through TG3? And those three boards had Input Club help, which has a relationship with Massdrop. I'm not sure this hypothetical TG3 buy would have the same success.

Doesn't really seem like there is any reason to go with them as a manufacturer either

[mashby]

swimmingbird has a point. There are so many resources here and in the MST forum that you could design and build the keyboard of your dreams yourself. It would take time, of course, but there's plenty of people to help you learn and lend a hand.

Just depends what your goals are.

[sircheddar]

There are plenty people in this community that can make a custom board for much less!

I might one day hit up someone really talented to add a trackPOINT into a board when I find the "one" (white fox?)

[SamirD]

Some great posts as usual.  Great reading!

My original idea when I posted this was that if a popular enough design keyboard could be made at a somewhat reasonable price, would it fly?  It will take start up capital to get the ball rolling, but I think the harder problem is finding a design that would be satisfactory enough to sell well.

[VinnyCordeiro]

I wonder if they would accept an order of custom keycaps only, but I think it wouldn't be cheap anyway. And they don't have double-shot capability, only laser etching/engraving, silk-screen printing and sublimation printing.

[SamirD]

I wonder if they would accept an order of custom keycaps only, but I think it wouldn't be cheap anyway. And they don't have double-shot capability, only laser etching/engraving, silk-screen printing and sublimation printing.

Never hurts to try.  I'd ask them about double-shots as I'm sure some of their commercial jobs require it and they have a source.

[nubbinator]

I wonder if they would accept an order of custom keycaps only, but I think it wouldn't be cheap anyway. And they don't have double-shot capability, only laser etching/engraving, silk-screen printing and sublimation printing.

Never hurts to try.  I'd ask them about double-shots as I'm sure some of their commercial jobs require it and they have a source.

Deck and TG3 boards are all painted and laser etched.  I don't think they do doubleshots at all.  They do seem to do some small batch jobs on caps though.

[SamirD]

I wonder if they would accept an order of custom keycaps only, but I think it wouldn't be cheap anyway. And they don't have double-shot capability, only laser etching/engraving, silk-screen printing and sublimation printing.

Never hurts to try.  I'd ask them about double-shots as I'm sure some of their commercial jobs require it and they have a source.

Deck and TG3 boards are all painted and laser etched.  I don't think they do doubleshots at all.  They do seem to do some small batch jobs on caps though.

But those are their more 'retail offerings'.  From what I can tell, these guys have made keyboards of all sorts and I'm sure one of their jobs (if not several) called for doubleshots.