F104+SSK+122+62+77+50+Ergo orders now open! New Kishsaver+Industrial Model F Keyboards

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y11971alex

04 Aug 2017, 17:48

JP! wrote: I've had positive experience dealing with Ellipse. I don't mind waiting longer for a quality product. I would like to have seen more of the parts made in the U.S. though, just like the old IBM iron of yore.
IBM has many plants located across the globe, through. Beam spring keyboards, for one, were also made in Canada at scale.

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JP!

04 Aug 2017, 18:02

y11971alex wrote:
JP! wrote: I've had positive experience dealing with Ellipse. I don't mind waiting longer for a quality product. I would like to have seen more of the parts made in the U.S. though, just like the old IBM iron of yore.
IBM has many plants located across the globe, through. Beam spring keyboards, for one, were also made in Canada at scale.
True, I see a lot of Beam spring keyboards were made in Canada. Also the M's and F's in the UK. My F107 was made in the US. Not sure about the F77 and F62 though.

PancakeMSTR

04 Aug 2017, 18:18

wobbled wrote:
PancakeMSTR wrote: I've never dealt with Ellipse before. Maybe most of us haven't. Now I'm not saying I don't trust Ellipse, though wary I have faith, but I have dealt with Elrick, and I can say with complete confidence that he is the very last person with whom I'd put my trust. His endorsement means exactly zero to me.
Any reason why?

He's an ignorant, racist, obnoxious, intolerant mean-spirited asshole.

User avatar
y11971alex

04 Aug 2017, 18:46

JP! wrote:
y11971alex wrote:
JP! wrote: I've had positive experience dealing with Ellipse. I don't mind waiting longer for a quality product. I would like to have seen more of the parts made in the U.S. though, just like the old IBM iron of yore.
IBM has many plants located across the globe, through. Beam spring keyboards, for one, were also made in Canada at scale.
True, I see a lot of Beam spring keyboards were made in Canada. Also the M's and F's in the UK. My F107 was made in the US. Not sure about the F77 and F62 though.
While I'm confident that none of us need such a reminder, Canada is not a state of the USA.

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JP!

04 Aug 2017, 19:00

canada-americas-hat2.jpg
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Elrick

05 Aug 2017, 02:38

PancakeMSTR wrote: He's an ignorant, racist, obnoxious, intolerant mean-spirited asshole.
On the internet it's an ocean of strangers whose personal comments mean noting at all hence any feedback is either ignored or enjoyed and I really enjoy your comment with glee, brings back the days of high school :lol: .

The only good thing about my character is that I have NEVER ripped anyone off. In business it matters about your honesty and decency when dealing with contracts and money. Hence this loser has nothing to add in that area but only in being 'offended' about what I type elsewhere.....diddums :roll: .

I have something similar tattooed on my arse here sunshine, just for you to read and enjoy. Funny thing is when you get old you just don't care about any personal attacks because it's like water off a duck's back :D .

User avatar
XMIT
[ XMIT ]

05 Aug 2017, 13:25

Yeah that Elrick guy is the worst! :roll:

I mean, he does post some controversial stuff, and somehow makes anything keyboard related into an awkward sexual reference, but he hasn't really done any harm. It's true - I haven't seen any evidence of him actually scamming anyone.

Wow, Greenmount is pretty far out there. Basically next to Perth, which is like a million miles away from the next big city!

Ellipse

06 Aug 2017, 01:04

Nice meeting everyone who attended the NYC keyboard meetup today! Over 150 people were there. I brought 3 of the new Model F keyboards. There were a DVORAK user who reached over 120 WPM on the new Model F today!

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depletedvespene

06 Aug 2017, 04:26

Ellipse wrote: Nice meeting everyone who attended the NYC keyboard meetup today! Over 150 people were there. I brought 3 of the new Model F keyboards. There were a DVORAK user who reached over 120 WPM on the new Model F today!

Uuuuh... can we have some pictures? And a quick video of one such Dvorakist?

User avatar
Mattr567

07 Aug 2017, 00:30

The closest thing ill have to a Indy F77 until December :P Finished product ;)
Image

Ellipse

07 Aug 2017, 23:19

Any interest in custom anodized blue as an ultra compact case premium color option? A few people could split the $500 tooling charge. A major YouTube reviewer was asking about getting a loaner in that case color.

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Wingklip

08 Aug 2017, 02:41

Mattr567 wrote: The closest thing ill have to a Indy F77 until December :P Finished product ;)
Image
Nice G502 lol

Take all the weights out for optimal acceleration :D

Ellipse

10 Aug 2017, 01:20

The US factory spring wire samples arrived today and they look great! Almost identical in appearance to the original spring samples.

Almost none of the US based spring factories had the equipment to manufacture springs to IBM's 1980s tolerances and automatically discard all springs that do not meet the tolerances (this one does!). Some US factories could only meet 4x IBM's original tolerances!

The factory said that these springs' tolerances are as tight as those of their aerospace customers.

I will be ordering sample springs this week for evaluation and then if they are good I will order all the springs from this factory - everyone will get the US-made springs.

User avatar
Elrick

10 Aug 2017, 07:03

Ellipse wrote: The US factory spring wire samples arrived today and they look great! Almost identical in appearance to the original spring samples.

I will be ordering sample springs this week for evaluation and then if they are good I will order all the springs from this factory - everyone will get the US-made springs.
NOW this is what I was talking about from the get go :ugeek: .

ALWAYS stick with what these companies do well and that is too produce something on home soil. If they have done it before then they can do it again, thanks Ellipse for being super tenacious on this. Most wouldn't care simply because they want it all done cheaply as possible and once it leaves their premises, it's out of their minds and don't care about it at all.

Since you personally made sure in finding someone that delivers YOUR specifications, we are all grateful for you in sticking to higher standards here, meaning we will ALL get a far superior Model-F keyboard.

pbw

10 Aug 2017, 22:11

Ellipse wrote: The factory said that these springs' tolerances are as tight as those of their aerospace customers.
The most important part of a buckling spring keyboard is the spring (it's in the name). Tolerances need to be tight on this, so I'm glad at least one factory is able to do it.

HitMan009

11 Aug 2017, 05:13

This begs the question, does Unicomp manufacture their own springs? If yes, why not just order from them? If no, why not try to find out who they out-source to. Or perhaps the tolerances that Unicomp set are substandard to IBM's specs?

NathanA

11 Aug 2017, 06:36

HitMan009 wrote: This begs the question, does Unicomp manufacture their own springs? If yes, why not just order from them?
Aren't F springs a slightly different spec than M springs?

-- Nathan

Ellipse

13 Aug 2017, 16:25

Yes these springs will be to the original Model F spec not to that of the Model M.

Ellipse

15 Aug 2017, 02:52

Here is the latest web site update post - I ordered the sample springs today from the US factory.

The main theme continues – it was tougher than the factories and I expected to meet IBM’s exacting standards and tolerances from 35 years ago.

Instead of delivering functional keyboards and meeting the original factory timeline (I’ve been typing on the fully working prototypes without issue this year), I want to make sure these keyboards live up to the quality standards of the originals for the clickiest, most musical typing experience possible, even at the cost of time (rejecting parts) until these standards are met. Eventually they have been met for the other critical parts, many of which finished production and are waiting in boxes at the factory for assembly (tens of thousands of barrels/flippers, the die cast zinc cases, capacitive PCBs, controllers, custom IDE/floppy style ribbon cables have finished production). Check out a few blog posts back for a detailed production update by part.

Dimensions on the keys that are off by just 0.5mm do not function well (I received the latest key samples this week). Spring free length variances are too large for a more consistent feel.

I cancelled the spring contract last month due to poor part tolerances and I expect to cancel the key mold contract as well and move it to another manufacturer this month. While this is going on I will have assembly start on the rest of the components to avoid any bottlenecking so we keep on schedule.

The springs are going to be made in the US. Almost none of the US-based spring factories had the equipment to manufacture springs to IBM’s 1980s tolerances and automatically discard all springs that do not meet the tolerances (at least one does – the one I am working with). Some US factories could only meet 4x IBM’s original tolerances!

The factory said that these springs’ tolerances are as tight as those of their aerospace customers.

User avatar
Elrick

17 Aug 2017, 02:13

Ellipse wrote: The factory said that these springs’ tolerances are as tight as those of their aerospace customers.
Just let them know that these springs are strictly used with your latest Model-F keyboard and NOT for any Missile hardware.

I know your country will now solely concentrate upon manufacturing nuclear weapons here but this is one piece of hardware that won't be launched off Guam or Poland any time soon :-D .

Ellipse

19 Aug 2017, 04:44

The project was featured on IBM's official Tumblr page today!

http://ibmblr.tumblr.com/post/164338069 ... start-with

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wobbled

19 Aug 2017, 05:03

Ellipse wrote: The project was featured on IBM's official Tumblr page today!

http://ibmblr.tumblr.com/post/164338069 ... start-with
Congrats man!

User avatar
depletedvespene

19 Aug 2017, 13:06

Ellipse wrote: The project was featured on IBM's official Tumblr page today!

http://ibmblr.tumblr.com/post/164338069 ... start-with
Woa, that's impressive! Congratulations!

User avatar
XMIT
[ XMIT ]

19 Aug 2017, 14:58

Ellipse wrote: The project was featured on IBM's official Tumblr page today!

http://ibmblr.tumblr.com/post/164338069 ... start-with
Oh, neat, that's the closest thing to an endorsement you'll get from Big Blue.

gianni

19 Aug 2017, 15:30

They could share some of their secrets? For example the plastic used on the barrels and on the other components?
depletedvespene wrote:
Ellipse wrote: The project was featured on IBM's official Tumblr page today!

http://ibmblr.tumblr.com/post/164338069 ... start-with
Woa, that's impressive! Congratulations!

Ellipse

23 Aug 2017, 01:36

gianni the R&D on measurements and materials was finished in 2015-2016 after speaking with a number of engineers, and everything is 100% working and correct. Now we are in production.

Ellipse

24 Aug 2017, 03:47

Great news - the first top and bottom inner assembly parts from the new tooling arrived today and they meet my specifications! The radii are perfect to my drawings for all samples. I expect to do some further evaluation this week and then approve them for production to start!

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Elrick

24 Aug 2017, 04:06

Ellipse wrote: Great news - the first top and bottom inner assembly parts from the new tooling arrived today and they meet my specifications! The radii are perfect to my drawings for all samples. I expect to do some further evaluation this week and then approve them for production to start!
OOOhhhhh......Finally it's coming together :shock: :shock: :-o :-o :-D :-D .

Of course we want to see some really hard-core pics of these new assemblies because we are starving here, when it comes to receiving more up to date images of your keyboard, especially the great F77.

User avatar
wobbled

24 Aug 2017, 04:32

Elrick wrote:
Ellipse wrote: Great news - the first top and bottom inner assembly parts from the new tooling arrived today and they meet my specifications! The radii are perfect to my drawings for all samples. I expect to do some further evaluation this week and then approve them for production to start!
OOOhhhhh......Finally it's coming together :shock: :shock: :-o :-o :-D :-D .

Of course we want to see some really hard-core pics of these new assemblies because we are starving here, when it comes to receiving more up to date images of your keyboard, especially the great F77.
idk about the f77 mate but I'm pretty moist over the f62 tbqh ;)

Craweth

24 Aug 2017, 16:51

Ellipse wrote: Great news - the first top and bottom inner assembly parts from the new tooling arrived today and they meet my specifications! The radii are perfect to my drawings for all samples. I expect to do some further evaluation this week and then approve them for production to start!
That's great news!
Now let's just hope the spring samples turn out good to. Any news on that by the way?

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