SA Dasher & SA Dancer keycap sets (Completed)

[niomosy]

Ugh, and I almost certainly read it and had forgotten about it.

[mr_a500]

I have an R5000 (does not really work), the camera (which I alweays used to close so nobody can watch me with my finger in my nose), the keyboard, and the mouse.

Bah! I've got the original R4000 8bit and the camera can easily show me with my finger in my nose. (though dithered)

Edit: Oh, I see you're talking about the camera open/close slider. I only closed that when I was at the computer naked.

[niomosy]

We used to have fun with the Indycams. We, the sysadmins, would typically set display on our workstations to someone else and launch the camera app. Suddenly, the designated artist would get a full screen window pop up of whatever was on the screen. Good times.

The other fun one was command-line screen captures and then displaying the image full screen, without borders. Watching them click on something for a while with nothing happening was also entertaining.

[SL89]

So can i get a tl;dr version of what i've missed in the last month or so?

[romevi]

So can i get a tl;dr version of what i've missed in the last month or so?

S-Same...

[zslane]

Just the first version images of the proposed TKLBASE, NUMPAD, ISO, ARROWS, and SPECIALTY kits.

I am going to put all of them into a single image called COMPLETE as well.

[SL89]

Just the first version images of the proposed TKLBASE, NUMPAD, ISO, ARROWS, and SPECIALTY kits.

I am going to put all of them into a single image called COMPLETE as well.

bravo zslane, thanks for the update

[My_Thoughts]

So here are some questions I have:

1. Should the ISO kit provide an "ALT GR" key?

I would vote yes to this.

[Elrick]

Just the first version images of the proposed TKLBASE, NUMPAD, ISO, ARROWS, and SPECIALTY kits.

About time buddy .

It's the BEST all blue shaded key-set yet to be released and when it comes, shall be getting TWO of everything.

[niomosy]

Just the first version images of the proposed TKLBASE, NUMPAD, ISO, ARROWS, and SPECIALTY kits.

About time buddy .

It's the BEST all blue shaded key-set yet to be released and when it comes, shall be getting TWO of everything.

Definitely an awesome blue set and the best use of blue I've seen on any set. My wallet is more or less ready for Dasher and Dancer. The plans for a 2016 GB mean I've got even more time to solidify that situation. Helpful since I'm considering picking up an Axios as well.

[Oobly]

About the colours, Krogenar's scans hosted by mashby on his Flickr account and the DT wiki ABS colours (which are actually photospectrometer samples of the colour chips, converted to sRGB so they display correctly, done by Ian Prest) are the most accurate source for comparisons out there. Nothing quite compares to having the actual colour chips, though, so I recommend ordering all the ones you're considering for the set, so you can see what they look like IRL.

But for mockups and renders, the scans and samples are excellent. The photos from PMK are... basically rubbish.

A number of the scanned and sampled colours are no longer active, though, and SP has added a few more since those were done. It's yet another of my side projects to try and update these, but I'll need help since I don't have a photospectrometer OR a flatbed scanner.

[Muirium]

If you want reliable data, re-sample all of the test chips again with the same equipment. Otherwise it's apples and oranges all the way down.

[zslane]

Ah, the DT wiki FTW. Again. Thank you for point that out, Oobly.

My Keycap OTL uses the RGB values from Ian Prest's keyboard layout editor, so my colors should already match the values listed in the wiki.

[niomosy]

I was hoping the TechShop sites had some equipment to get accurate scans but it looks like they've just got 3D scanners listed on their site. As it stands, the nearest one for me is in NoCal. We'll likely be heading up there in the next couple months but it doesn't sound like they can handle this work.

By chance, anyone know of any labs that offer use of their equipment for such a thing in the Los Angeles area (or maybe NoCal if we've got someone that can do it... or waiting for me to get up there) ??

[zslane]

Here is a render of the COMPLETE set, as it stands right now, in one image.

SA Dasher COMPLETE set

dasher_complete_set_wood_bkgd.jpg (797.7 KiB) Viewed 4162 times

[Nuum]

No support for international layouts?

[niomosy]

The renders look great. A solid kit selection. TKL for the base kit seems a good option.

[Elrick]

Here is a render of the COMPLETE set, as it stands right now, in one image.

dasher_complete_set_wood_bkgd.jpg

It looks so real I'm almost tempted to touch them on the LCD screen.......

You are extremely talented and have gone a long way to show everyone what your design shall look like, hoping this will go through to SP some time soon but as they are currently filled up till next year, we'll all have to be patient.

[niomosy]

SA cap production is over capacity and SP has people working overtime on it from what they've said. They've mentioned increasing SA tooling so hopefully that helps out. Troubled Minds was looking at a March shipping date per MassDrop so it will be a bit. I'm just glad that it's being worked on.

[zslane]

Thanks, Elrick. I'm still trying to make them look as good as thesiscamper's renders, but further improvements are going to have to wait until I get a new computer.

BTW, I've been putting off rendering the equivalent image for SA Dancer until after the kit compositions are more finalized.

There are still a few open issues to resolve:

1. What should be added to the kits shown?
2. Should the set be sold by separate kits, or as just the COMPLETE set ala Hack'd By Geeks.
3. What should the GB vehicle be?

I think it would be a good idea to have these things nailed down before taking the set on the campaign trail.

[Muirium]

Those are all good, complex questions.

1. Your coverage looks pretty excellent. Nuum's point about missing ISO language support is the only real hole. But you're well aware of the vast increase in key count required to support German, French, Nordic etc. There's just not that many of us over here to make it worthwhile. Presuming you're aiming at an American audience beyond DT's!
2. Complete is risky. Downright ballsy in fact. Kits are the way to go, I'd say. And the kits you've laid out already are very smart. You've correctly identified the alternate colour crowd with the arrow kits. In fact, you're serving us very nicely with the main TKL kit. Typically, GB's force mod coloured tilde and backslash guys like me into buying a load of junk we don't want just to nab them. Very nice!
3. Now you're asking. I honestly don't know the system at MassDrop, but I presume they have Interest Checks and voting all integrated into their site; as does SP at PMK. Blech! Makes sense from their perspective, though. The alternative is to hook up with someone else outside of the big guys to run logistics. Ctrl.Alt ran SA Retro if I remember right (and got hammered with the scale of the task!?) while a certain 7bit does have track record at handling SA group buys a hell of a lot more arcane than this.

Organising production runs is beyond my experience, honestly. Perhaps DanielT and Alin might have some knowledge to share from their Vim run, and Facetsesame of course. You've definitely got options now (via PMK and I suppose Massdrop too) if you'd like to be hands off of the merch, and simply run design and publicity instead. Which I know you do. I'm unconvinced they're good options, but they are well within reach!

[scottc]

You might considering putting another 2.25 shift key in the specialty set. That'll cover owners of Leopold FC660Cs.

[Muirium]

FC660Ms, you mean. If these caps worked on Topre…

Spoiler:

[scottc]

Yes! Basically the same thing...

[niomosy]

1. As mentioned, the international kits are tricky. You might offer them up but it seems like the only way they could reasonably make MoQ is to bundle a few (several) languages together. International users would end up with some leftovers on that. I think the one item I've seen noted in a few others is the possibility of additional space bars for color changes as well as backup purposes for those a bit brutal on their space bars.

2. Complete ends up tricky. On one hand, it does mean that ISO and numpad users are likely in the clear. It also means a full set may come in at a reasonable price as everyone is covering things for some of those extras. I like the kit splits right now. A TKL base is a good starting point.

3. That's entirely up to you. MD gets you a larger audience via the casual users that know MD but are not particularly familiar with the keyboard community nor Signature Plastics / PMK. PMK may likely get you faster time to production and delivery given their system is a bit faster than that of MassDrop and it eliminates a couple of steps; no pre-order phase and the caps would ship direct to you from SP.

[thesiscamper]

The latest render looks awesome, here's hoping for a very successful group buy!

[andrewjoy]

That looks quite cool. I must say its tempting, it all depends how they turn out. I guess you are going to get samples first ?

[zslane]

The latest render looks awesome, here's hoping for a very successful group buy!

Thanks, thesiscamper. I'm still trying to work out a better lighting setup. My images look like very nice CG renders. Yours look like photographs. #StillGotWorkToDo

[zslane]

That looks quite cool. I must say its tempting, it all depends how they turn out. I guess you are going to get samples first ?

Samples? I wasn't planning on it. There are no new legends and I am quite comfortable with the color choices.

[Muirium]

How simple things would be if SP let us order up samples and be done at that!

I forever hear their MOQ is 25 of everything. Have you tried talking to Melissa at SP to see if you could run a little GB directly? We should be able to get 25 orders for the whole thing, just here at DT. But I don't know if SP is still letting little guys take turns at their production line, with all this PMK etc. stuff nowadays.