Discuss the IC over at KeebTalk!
The Alix is a 40% 1u Alice style plateless acrylic keyboard. It’s hand-crafted in Tokyo by local craftsmen and designed to be a pretty niche. The mounting style is plateless with the pcb isolated and mounted on silicon shock absorbers for a super bouncy type feel.
This version will be limited to 100 units.
If you’re interested please fill out the IC here and I can reach out when we launch the GB later in the month!
Design Philosophy
The concept of this design was to make a beautiful keyboard that can only be made in Tokyo. With that we decided to tap into Tokyo’s local city factory network and collaborate with several small family-owned factories to showcase their craft such as plastic polishing, sand/bead-blasting, and hand-dying. We’re sourcing as much as we can locally in Tokyo, then Japan. For the PCB we’re looking to fabricate either in Taiwan or Malaysia.
Features
- Craft Made Case Made in Tokyo
- 2 Colorways
- Hot Swap BT PCB
- Flat 0 Angle
- 1u or 2u Spacebar
- Silicon Shock mounted PCB
Technical Details
Case
– Milled Japanese extruded acrylic
– Hand Polished, Sand-blasted, and Hand dyed with Japanese dyes.
– Made in Tokyo
– 0 deg incline
PCB
– Hot Swap
– RGB Underglow
– USB-C
– Bluetooth compatitle w/ Charging circuitry
– Made in Malaysia
– Designed by Quadcube
Packaging
– Made in Tokyo
– Custom box with premium locally made paper
– Custom Cut Foam
Current Process
I’ve been working with factories so far to create the production prototypes and finally at a stage where we’re ready to go. It’s the first time these factories have worked together and also the first time they’ve done some of these processes like the hand dying. We’ve run through 10 prototypes so far to get it all nailed and we feel pretty confident that the design is ready to go into production.
Pricing and Timeline
I’m still waiting on final pricing, but will be on the higher end around the $550+ USD range.
GB is hoping to start near the end of August with production taking around 60days.
I probably missed a bunch of things so let me know what questions you have!
