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The next Granite Special Set

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 08:38
by matt3o
As some of you may know Granite is indefinitely available on pimpmykeyboard. We already had a nice High Contrast variant, but with the next iteration I would like to add a new special limited edition set.

We had cyrillic, we had elven. what next? I was thinking about Japanese or Chinese or Korean since a long time, but I don't know how you feel about it. Also Klingon or Aurebesh would be an option. Then we have greek, runic, hindi. Ideas? Suggestions?

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 08:47
by Wodan
There'S already an epic Korean version of the EnjoyPBT Dyesubs ...

and Runic is currently super en vogue ... not your style right? Hop on hype trains ...

Hindi or Farsi would be fancy.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 09:40
by scottc
Klingon would be my favourite but I'm not sure how popular it would be!

How about Alps compatibility next? That's a big task and SP are bad at making Alps-mount stabilised keys, but maybe you can help ro get them up to scratch!

Re: The next Granite Special Set

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 11:23
by Phenix
Klingon or Aurebesh should both look fantastic

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 13:54
by Zombimuncha
Alps!

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 14:59
by derzemel
Armenian, APL, Aurebesh, Hindi, Farsi... so many choices

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 14:59
by matt3o
alps stem with cherry like stabs?

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 15:01
by derzemel
matt3o wrote: alps stem with cherry like stabs?
I am going to walk from Romania to Italy with the money in my teeth to buy a set like this from you personally!

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 15:03
by uncletobai
If you are going for Farsi I can help out with typesetting / layout.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 15:12
by chuckdee
Phenix wrote: Klingon or Aurebesh should both look fantastic
Or Vulcan. Depends on what you can get away with once you start thinking in those terms.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 15:55
by scottc
matt3o wrote: alps stem with cherry like stabs?
If we can get MX-mount inserts that work with old-style Alps boards this would be perfect. Otherwise it's a bit difficult...

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 16:01
by matt3o
what would be the purpose of an Alps set? replacing keycaps on old keyboards or support new (possibly custom) ones?

both markets seem incredibly small.

Re: The next Granite Special Set

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 16:14
by caligo
Chinese (bopomofo) would be cool, but it's kind of a small market – mostly used in Taiwan as far as I know, people on the mainland just write Pinyin using a western keyboard. But for people just interested in the aesthetics, it would sure look the part.

Personally I'd love a US international set, but maybe that's not exotic enough. Would sure be useful though.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 16:33
by scottc
matt3o wrote: what would be the purpose of an Alps set? replacing keycaps on old keyboards or support new (possibly custom) ones?

both markets seem incredibly small.
Probably more for new/custom ones.

As for a reason: why not? Even if it's more expensive than an MX version, what's the harm in trying? Weren't you planning Alps compatibility for your next big thing?

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 16:36
by matt3o
okay, let's see what SP think about it.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 18:09
by Norman_
APL legends would be really awesome...Also alps compatibility, but SP has trouble with alps stems apparently.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 18:16
by matt3o
Norman_ wrote: APL legends would be really awesome...Also alps compatibility, but SP has trouble with alps stems apparently.
what kind of troubles? they regularly sell alps keycaps on PMK

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 18:33
by infodroid
I believe the showstopper is they can't dye-sub onto Alps stems for some reason, although you should probably reconfirm this.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 19:03
by matt3o
Okay then, in a couple of months we might have Alps Granite. Stay tuned.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 19:18
by romevi
I would like Aurebesh as the special alphas. Seems like a few people tried doing them but never did, so I would be thrilled if that happened.
I'd also love an Alps set. I just received my first Alps board, but it's in a funky layout (Clueboard) which few keysets can cover completely.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 19:25
by photekq
I'm always in for any Runic set, because I love it so.

I probably wouldn't be interested in this next one, but I imagine that many people would be :

Image

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 19:34
by Findecanor
With Aurebesh or Klingon they would have to be licensed... with a high fee, and a high amount of control from the license holder. I don't think it is possible to do on PMK or Massdrop, with how anal the license holders are about these things.
It would be just high-profile enough to need to be licensed to be allowed, and low-volume enough that they wouldn't think it would be worth it.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 19:57
by zslane
And what, exactly, was the license fee like from the Tolkein estate for the Granite Sindarin kit?

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 20:20
by chuckdee
zslane wrote: And what, exactly, was the license fee like from the Tolkein estate for the Granite Sindarin kit?
That was exactly my thought...

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 20:21
by romevi
Yup. I thought about the licensing fee from the Tolkien estate as well. I know they still have rights over his stuff.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 21:22
by Norman_
matt3o wrote:
Norman_ wrote: APL legends would be really awesome...Also alps compatibility, but SP has trouble with alps stems apparently.
what kind of troubles? they regularly sell alps keycaps on PMK
They're apparently really tight. Alps stems are already pretty weak, making them even harder to remove (especially on doubleshot SP caps) is a recipe for disaster. Many Lightcycle caps were broken.

Also SP says they can't dye-sub alps caps for some reason

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 21:37
by zslane
SP's PBT keycaps are a single piece of plastic, which means the stem is part of the keycap mold. I wonder if the issue is that they simply don't have PBT molds with Alps stems.

When they make Alps-compatible keycaps, they use the double-shot process because the stem is part of the first shot mold.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 23:28
by matt3o
they can't dye sub probably because they miss the jig to hold the keycaps during the dyeing process. They told me they are working on it, hopefully in a couple of months we'll have alps granite

PS: 2 months in SP time is usually 6 months for us.

Posted: 23 Jan 2017, 23:33
by gogusrl
As long as it's not Valve Time

Posted: 24 Jan 2017, 00:13
by scottc
An update to my above request for Alps-mount DSA: after reading the drama and chaos in the Round 6/etc thread, I don't think I really want to buy from SP anymore (just too much drama for my liking), so feel free to ignore my requests...