News
May 2017 update
TL;DR: Initial FCC/CE pretesting results; Component sourcing craziness; We’re guessing that we’re about two weeks out from starting PVT Hello from Oakland, When we last wrote, we were pretty sure that April would see Jesse in Shenzhen overseeing manufacture of the first 100 Model 01 keyboards. That didn’t happen and we’re pretty bummed out about it. As of this writing, we believe Jesse will be getting on a plane to Shenzhen in two or three weeks. Below, we’re going to lay out what’s happened in the past month and what still needs to happen before we start manufacturing. RJ45 connectors...
March 2017 update part two: Plastics, Pollution, and Programming
TL;DR: Plastic parts are looking good; Wooden parts are looking good; Raw material costs in China are skyrocketing; Open source is amazing. Hello from Oakland! This is part two of our March 2017 update. If you missed part one last week, you can read it on Kickstarter. Baseplates One of the ongoing problems we’ve had with our manufacturer is the quality of the plastic baseplates being produced for us. First, here’s a recap of the saga of the baseplates up to now. When we started this process, we’d specified metal baseplates. We’d also specified press-fit nuts and standoffs for anchoring the...
March 2017 update, part 1: Packaging, PVT Prep, and Piracy
TL;DR: PVT is planned for early April; Somebody tried to steal our name; A preview of your unboxing experience; Expect part two of this update next week. Hello from Oakland! We’re sorry this update is late We’re really sorry for the delay in this update. Since China was closed for business for about 3 weeks after our January update, we figured we were going to devote the February update to writing about the Model 01’s software. We also thought that we were going to send that update just before Jesse went back to Shenzhen at the end of February.Time just...
Box of Crap, Take Two
We know we’re behind on a real progress update. Jesse’s in Shenzhen right now working with the factory to try to resolve a bunch of the remaining issues blocking production. He’s posting pictures of some of our progress to @keyboardio on Twitter. This Sunday, the factory is closed, so he’s going to “relax” by putting together another box of crap from the legendary Hua Qiang Bei electronics market. You can read a bit more about our last run of boxes at https://shift.newco.co/what-50-buys-you-at-huaqiangbei-the-worlds-most-fascinating-electronics-market-f0384d9fca32 A couple of important caveats: - This is a box of useless crap. It’s useless. - It might be...
Model 01 Day 590: Two steps forward, one step back
TL;DR: The PVT run didn’t happen before Chinese New Year; Our factory fired an underperforming supplier; We’ve approved the final versions of some parts. Hello from Oakland, We’ve made a bunch of progress over the past month, but we’re behind where we hoped to be. The major issues right now are the keyboard baseplates, availability of the APA 102C LEDs we’re using, and Chinese New Year. Like we did last month, we’ve structured this update as a “part by part” update, roughly paralleling Jesse’s nightly calls with the factory in China. Wooden enclosures The factory sent “golden sample” wooden enclosures...