Group Build prototyping phase

scottc · 23 Nov 2015, 17:50

Pretty!

potatowire · 23 Nov 2015, 21:41

I am very in. Actually, I am buying every Matt3o project.

matt3o · 24 Nov 2015, 10:07

ok. this is still a prototype. the legends are hand-aligned we don't have a jig yet, but sublimation is sublime! I love the typeface and the legends are as sharp as they can be. The case is (almost) perfect. CNC job is A-grade. Anodization very good. Still some minuscule details to fix, but we are almost ready. The blue will be a pinch lighter.

I'm now waiting for the final version of the PCB, I do hope we can start this at the beginning of December.

Spoiler:

scottc · 24 Nov 2015, 11:04

Looks great.

I'm sure you've already mentioned this to the manufacturers, but those shift legends are aligned a bit wrong. In fact, ctrl/alt/alt gr seem to be too. I assume this will be fixed for the final run, right?

Muirium · 24 Nov 2015, 11:42

The W is well off centre as well. Tricky, with dyesub, I know. Granite was a bit flawed that way. But the larger legends could take it easier as they dominate the whitespace.

JotaCe · 24 Nov 2015, 11:55

Awesome looking matt3o!
Quick question, will the plates support the layouts discussed along this thread (split backspace for instance)?

matt3o · 24 Nov 2015, 12:16

sorry if I wasn't clear:

matt3o wrote: ↑the legends are hand-aligned we don't have a jig yet

this means that the legends are not machine aligned yet. We just tested the dye-sub process, the color, the shape and the material. If everything's right we build the jig and at that point the legends will be perfectly centered.

JotaCe wrote: ↑Quick question, will the plates support the layouts discussed along this thread (split backspace for instance)?

The PCB supports really a lot of combinations, we will produce "only" plates for 6 layouts though.

scottc · 24 Nov 2015, 12:44

Whoops! You're right. I didn't read closely enough.

Muirium · 24 Nov 2015, 12:57

You might want to update the OP, Matt. I just checked it and none of this is obvious. The project has evolved so much since early 2014. It's a great piece of work now, but so is the amount of reading required to discover it!

How about editing the thread title to use the project's name?

matt3o · 24 Nov 2015, 13:04

maybe it's time to open a new thread...

Muirium · 24 Nov 2015, 13:16

Yup. In the Marketplace!

QuickDelate · 24 Nov 2015, 13:54

matt3o wrote: ↑sorry if I wasn't clear:

matt3o wrote: ↑the legends are hand-aligned we don't have a jig yet
this means that the legends are not machine aligned yet. We just tested the dye-sub process, the color, the shape and the material. If everything's right we build the jig and at that point the legends will be perfectly centered.

JotaCe wrote: ↑Quick question, will the plates support the layouts discussed along this thread (split backspace for instance)?
The PCB supports really a lot of combinations, we will produce "only" plates for 6 layouts though.

Does this mean you are dye-subbing the legends yourself? I've been trying to follow this topic for the last 4-5 months, but all the information is so fractured and I don't have the patience to go through every post in this thread. (lazy, but honest

Will you support different languages with the keycaps or just the basic qwerty lay-out?

matt3o · 24 Nov 2015, 14:39

no, dyesub is done in China. the base set supports just ansi and basic iso. international languages are not supported but you can always grab a granite set

QuickDelate · 24 Nov 2015, 14:43

ok guess I'll have to stick to granite. Hoping the 2016 version includes a whitefox key then

matt3o · 27 Nov 2015, 11:32

I finally took the time to summarize the whole process. Read and see everything about the Whitefox here.

shrubbry · 10 Dec 2015, 02:47

Just got the Massdrop email. Congrats!!

chzel · 10 Dec 2015, 02:53

Same here! Congrats!
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/the-whitef ... guest_open

Any idea about pricing matt3o?
Also are there going to be options? Like no switches - no caps, to keep the price down?

scottc · 10 Dec 2015, 08:33

People are speculating on the MD comments that it's going to be over $300... no idea where that's coming from! I'm hoping it's a bit more reasonable, though. I suppose we'll see. I'm excited.

matt3o · 10 Dec 2015, 08:55

If there's something that I learned is that you just ignore MD comments

scottc · 10 Dec 2015, 08:57

Yeah, it definitely seems like a sane course of action...

tungol · 10 Dec 2015, 16:38

So looking through the thread, you referred to a 75% version with function keys as "the next step" as recently as last spring. Having come this far with the 65% version, are you still feeling like that you'll want to take on another round with a 75% variant after this?

matt3o · 10 Dec 2015, 16:44

I go where the wind brings me

E3E · 10 Dec 2015, 21:27

tungol wrote: ↑So looking through the thread, you referred to a 75% version with function keys as "the next step" as recently as last spring. Having come this far with the 65% version, are you still feeling like that you'll want to take on another round with a 75% variant after this?

75% would definitely be my cup of tea, as it is my favorite layout at the moment! 65% seems like a tease to me. I can manage a 60% without dedicated arrows, but if you're going to give me arrows, I want the function row too!

That said, your board is great, matt3o, and I can see why people would really want to use a 65%. a 75% is quite a bit bulkier than a 65%, which is just a small bit bigger than a 60%, so it'd be quite nice for its portability.

I'm just picky with my layouts.

matt3o · 10 Dec 2015, 23:24

E3Eves wrote: ↑I'm just picky with my layouts.

like everybody here

a 75% is definitely something I'd like to explore, but prototyping becomes more expensive with bigger layouts.

Phenix · 16 Feb 2016, 22:22

I missed to join

if someone is going to sell it in ISO or TrueFox Im interested

flabbergast · 25 Mar 2016, 17:28

Some LED support will probably be in TMK for the WhiteFox...

(... but I ran out of plate-mount switches for the prototype

matt3o · 25 Mar 2016, 18:13

ooooooh

tell me more!

flabbergast · 25 Mar 2016, 19:27

I mean the LED controller chip on the PCB is pretty nice (good job guys!) - it can individually control LEDs, do brightness control, even animations in the hardware (8 frames). It should be able to also to fade-in and fade-out, but I haven't be able to make it do that yet.
Anyways, there will be some basic support in the official TMK (e.g. caps lock), and I'll leave some examples out there (for those of you who are too lazy to read the datasheet

I'm sure some smart people around here will come up with some good stuff

matt3o · 26 Mar 2016, 07:13

looking forward to seeing your work! I totally need to try flashing TMK on one of the whitefox I have (and toy with backlight!)

Thumper · 26 Mar 2016, 09:44

flabbergast wrote:Some LED support will probably be in TMK for the WhiteFox...

(... but I ran out of plate-mount switches for the prototype

[SMILING FACE WITH HEART-SHAPED EYES]