Ergodox massdrop groupbuy discussion

[mikelanding]

Massdrop has a keycap buy up for blank black PBT. Price breaks are $41/$37/$35.

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/ergodox-keycap

Gonna purchase 2 sets when shipping to my country is confirm.

[Dreadwyrm]

I've made a poll on Massdrop about which profile keycap the community wants.

https://www.massdrop.com/vote/78/cast/#nav

[deepfri3]

Nice project. I'm going to be following this one...Depending on the price I could be persuaded. Right now I'm just going to follow the progress though. Really cool!

[amidwinter]

Nice project. I'm going to be following this one...Depending on the price I could be persuaded. Right now I'm just going to follow the progress though. Really cool!

The price will be $199 if we get 5 more buyers here: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/ergodox

[unixguru]

Newbie here trying to decide which case type to get. Raw alu looks, well, rough. Is it advisable to have it anodized? Is that going to do anything to make it smoother? I was also thinking that one could cut some colored poster board and sandwich between the acrylic.

In short... looking for ideas to make it look more like a "finished" product.

[BugBuster]

Nice project. I'm going to be following this one...Depending on the price I could be persuaded. Right now I'm just going to follow the progress though. Really cool!

The price will be $199 if we get 5 more buyers here: https://www.massdrop.com/buy/ergodox

Just 2 left and I'm going to order at least 2 in a couple of days, so congratulations guys, we reached our target!!!

[bisl]

Ergodox complete! Just put in the 100th order myself

[hdss]

Hope there is animo left for a new groupbuy. Still planning to buy one but not now. My offer for a groupbuy within massdrop's one is off. Sorry for 'all' who hoped on that one going. Can't make it happen because I have more urgent matters at the moment. I am hoping for a future oppurtunity on this keyboard. Good luck to all who ordered the kit wiht assembling.

[L!athus]

MD has put up PCB only, case only and switches only GB. For those still looking to get just the PCB or case only might be a good news.

$22/PCB
$80/pair (acrylic left & right side)
$5.90/pack of 10 (blue/red/black plate mount only)

*edit* Ergodox requires 2 PCBs (1 for the left hand + 1 for the right hand = $44).

[Icarium]

On third thought I decided that I wanted an ErgoDox more than I was annoyed by MD. So I went to the website, signed up, tried to buy an ED case, couldn't order to Germany.

Picture_2_c.jpg (20.25 KiB) Viewed 5770 times

[wasabah]

Yes, you can. Just write them and ask for shipping to your country and they will add it.

[asura]

MD has put up PCB only, case only and switches only GB. For those still looking to get just the PCB or case only might be a good news.

$22/PCB
$80/pair (acrylic left & right side)
$5.90/pack of 10 (blue/red/black plate mount only)

Just remember that you need two PCBs, one for each hand.

[L!athus]

On third thought I decided that I wanted an ErgoDox more than I was annoyed by MD. So I went to the website, signed up, tried to buy an ED case, couldn't order to Germany.

Picture_2_c.jpg

They have the habit of just including US and CA for shipping options @ the start of each GB. More will be included along the way or on request.

[L!athus]

MD has put up PCB only, case only and switches only GB. For those still looking to get just the PCB or case only might be a good news.

$22/PCB
$80/pair (acrylic left & right side)
$5.90/pack of 10 (blue/red/black plate mount only)

Just remember that you need two PCBs, one for each hand.

Forgot to include that info. Edited post.

[sordna]

I can see Germany now. Hmm, adding countries on demand has a benefit: You can see all the places the ErgoDox is going... I even see Netherlands, maybe Webwit ordered after all
So far it's:

Brazil
Canada
USA

Australia
New Zealand
South Africa

Hong Kong
Indonesia
Japan
Korea
Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand

Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Hungary
Netherlands
Norway
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
UK

(edit: added Korea)

[SmallFry]

I'm surprised Korea isn't added to the list with all the influx of Korean members on DT (maybe? sorry, I don't come here often) and GH (for sure)

[sordna]

Brazil, Finland, South Africa and Indonesia added!
Yeah, strange thing that Korea and China aren't in the list. Googling for ErgoDox on kbdmania.net does show some discussion about it however, and there's still time.

[aragon]

Representing South African... Can't wait to get this!

[Aleksander]

Who is the crazy Norwegian?

[mikelanding]

Representing Thailand...

[Dreadwyrm]

Hungary here.

[Merijn]

So I ordered one today, but I am facing a small problem. Most likely it's very silly, but I just don't get it.

First of all, I want all my components to fit as much together as possible, it's a blue pcb and I got blue switches so I will replace the resistors with (blue) metal film resistors but I also want to use blue leds. Now I know there is a different resistor needed for different leds, so I tried to calculate how much I would need. To be sure I did it right I wanted to start with the leds already listed.

On the dox hardware page, http://ergodox.org/Hardware.aspx, you can see it lists a LED which has a product code with details. (It's a red led.) Underneath it states the resistor needed with an asterisk to say it must match the led. Because I don't thrust myself enough to make good calculations about it I went to http://ledcalc.com/ and filled in some data. The supply from the Teensy would be 5v, voltage drop from led is 1.8 and the miliamps 20, both from the specifics. When I calculate that the exact value of resistance needed would be 160ohms, 180 being the nearest 10%. Now I'm unsure as whether I do the calculation wrong right now.

If I am doing it right, I would need 80 ohms instead of the 220 ohms for blue leds, right? Thanks in advance.

[ic07]

(I'm kind of new to this too, so hopefully I have everything right): So you have a circuit going from +5V to 0V, with an LED and a resistor in the middle. The LED drops the voltage by 1.8V, so the rest of the drop is happening across the resistor; so the voltage drops 5V-1.8V = 3.2V across the resistor. The LED wants a current of 20mA, but it has negligible resistance, so we only have to worry about what's happening across the resistor when we calculate V = I*R => R = V/I (with R in Ohms, V in Volts, and I in Amps). So R_Ohms = V/I = 3.2V/0.020A = 160Ω. In my (very) limited experience with LEDs, lower resistance (higher current) will make the LED burn out quicker (without making it appreciably brighter), and higher resistance will make it slightly dimmer - so 180Ω should be just fine.

The firmware has the LEDs at 50% brightness by default (as a makefile option) (though... "brightness" with PWM doesn't seem linear to me), so it's possible (with recompilation) to make them brighter or dimmer in the firmware, to suit your tastes.

[TDub]

I'm still not sure if I want to order 2 whole ergodox at once, or get one + 2 pcbs and gather all the other stuff myself and hope for a cheap or better case to be designed by the community....

Anyone thinking along those lines?

[Ian S]

I've not registered yet to see the pricing but from what people have posted, and given that the nice looking metal cased MX switched Corsair full sized keyboard retails for about £80, this Ergo seems expensive at what would probably end up at about £280 or more once keycaps with text on are added together with UK import taxes.

I was thinking about just buying the boards but even there, the price seems like it should be about half.

[fossala]

I've not registered yet to see the pricing but from what people have posted, and given that the nice looking metal cased MX switched Corsair keyboard retails for about £80, this Ergo seems expensive at what would probably end up at about £280 or more once keycaps with text on are added together with UK import taxes.

I was thinking about just buying the boards but even there, the price seems like it should be about half.

I think kinesis will be the best bet for price at the moment. They are good boards.

[Ian S]

Thanks for the suggestion, it makes economical sense.

I think the Corsair is an iOne board isn't it? Fully made in Taiwan? Then shipped direct to, eg, Europe top level distribution. Maybe the Ergodox should have been made in a similar way?

[richie]

I'm still not sure if I want to order 2 whole ergodox at once, or get one + 2 pcbs and gather all the other stuff myself and hope for a cheap or better case to be designed by the community....

Anyone thinking along those lines?

Yeh I'm doing the same, hoping that a milled alu case becomes available from oneProduct

[sordna]

Korea added!

[AloisiusFauxly]

@TDub - if you DIY your case then it could definitely be cheaper, but I doubt we're ever going to see a cheaper case with a mounting plate than $80 until we get to hundreds of units produced. If you use PCB-mounted switches, then the costs could be brought down and your case options expand.

@Ian S - The problems with that comparison with the Corsair is that it's a commercial product that a company has put a lot of money up front to produce their x units in the hope of selling them over time, so that manufacturing chain makes sense for them. There's no one like that on the Ergodox project.

As far as the price goes, the full board kit with acrylic is $199 (+$65 for the alu case). As to the PCBs, the expected cost from members here was ~$30 for the pair (IIRC), so the $44 from MD is definitely steeper. Not quite doubled, but definitely more expensive.