[GB] GMK ThinkCaps // Nov. 16 to Dec. 13, 2020

[voodoo6k]

Vendors

• US: Dixie Mech
• Europe: CandyKeys
• Canada: DeskHero
• Oceania: Daily Clack
• China: zFrontier (EN)
• China: zFrontier (CN)
• Southeast Asia: IlumKB

⬤ Welcome to the GMK ThinkCaps Group buy! ⬤

GMK ThinkCaps is a keycap set inspired by the classic ThinkPad and IBM/Lenovo Preferred Pro keyboards.
From Nov. 16 to Dec. 13, 2020. ETA 28 weeks after PO.

Technical Specs

• Cherry MX compatible
• Cherry profile (112344)
• Doubleshot ABS plastic
• Manufactured by GMK electronic design GmbH in Germany

Kits

• Covers TKL, 75%, 65% and 60% keyboards
• Tsangan, HHKB, 1.75u Shift, and nav column
• ISO-US support

• Complete numpad kit (rare for GMK sets!)

• Support for exotic 60% boards such as the Filco Minila, Alice, split spacebar, etc.
• Additional "G-H-B" keys for TEX boards (for DIY modification)
• Extra minibars for your ortho/40%

• Icon modifiers (compatible with GMK Dolch and other N9 GMK sets)
• Windows keys and 1.5u Meta (◇) keys

• RGB modifiers (compatible with many other GMK sets)
• Fits many layouts, including ortho and 40%; icon and icon+text

• Features Dots (a @Biip design) ~TrackPoint style~
• Media keys for your full-size board, 96-key or macro

• Spacebars for Cherry G80-1800, HHKB and small keyboards
• Perfect for adding colour to your set

• For British, Danish, Finnish, German, Norwegian and Swedish layouts

Renders

Filco Majestouch with TEX case


TKC1800


Filco Minila Air


HHKB and Ducky Pocket


TEX Yoda II (requires DIY mod)


Prime_E


OLKB Planck and OTD Koala


Colour codes

• Alphas: CR, CP legends
• Modifiers: N9, blue (custom), CP legends
• RGB modifiers: P3, N7, V4, CP legends
• Accent kit only: blue (custom), WS1 legends

Samples: imgur link

Links

• Interest check: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=106305.0

Please feel free to ask any questions about kits, compatibility, etc.

Cheers

[Muirium]

Oh man, those icon mods are calling out to me. Must resist! But how??

[photekq]

I love the design of the set. I'd absolutely buy multiple sets, but there's one thing niggling at me: I'd love to see A-profile (R5) winkeyless bottom row support.

[ddrfraser1]

Oh man, those icon mods are calling out to me. Must resist! But how??

[ddrfraser1]

This is a business key set for real business men and women who want to get real business done.

[ZedTheMan]

I must say, I would be quite interested in adding the icon mods kit and accent kit to my collection. I've got a G83 WoB set that needs some more standards mods, and I'm a sucker for this.

[depletedvespene]

This is a business key set for real business men and women who want to get real business done.

Then why is the vertical ("ISO") Enter whisked away off the base kit?

[Darkshado]

Does GMK have TrackPoint-compatible molds for G, H, and B ?

[ddrfraser1]

759B788E-699F-4A30-AA47-A1BEF100EA19.jpeg (48.33 KiB) Viewed 24266 times

[Muirium]

Any idea what the pricing is likely to be? I’m not into the esoteric kits with surveys. A base, icon mods and maybe spacebars would do for me.

Also: this is community run, outside of Massdrop? Where would it ship from? Europe hopefully, like GMK itself and most of us at DT!

Also also: how about discount pricing for volume orders? I could see a friend joining me in getting these, doubling up the base kit and then some.

This is a business key set for real business men and women who want to get real business done.

Then why is the vertical ("ISO") Enter whisked away off the base kit?

For sales department reasons. And, as we all know, what is business without sales! (Sales says get the accent kit, and itch for ISO text legend.)

I like to think if I designed one of these, I’d put all the real essentials in the base kit and be done with it. But I expect there are reasons, some of which may even be reasonable. Making people pay for stuff they don’t want is the big one to avoid. And in the end you really need to hit MOQ.

[Mr. J]

Awesome set! But I need a NORDE kit - is this planned, too? *fingerscrossed*

[voodoo6k]

Awesome set! But I need a NORDE kit - is this planned, too? *fingerscrossed*

CandyKeys will be stocking a WoB intentional kit in the future, I'm told. Although, I think the legends would be WS1 to accommodate the newer WoB sets out there... Massdrop, Hiragana, and others.

Let's see how this develops before making any promises.

[voodoo6k]

I love the design of the set. I'd absolutely buy multiple sets, but there's one thing niggling at me: I'd love to see A-profile (R5) winkeyless bottom row support.

Thank you!

I take it that it's a serious request?

[photekq]

Thank you!

I take it that it's a serious request?

Yeah, A-profile is a bit niche, but there are plenty of people out there who much prefer it to B-profile. Both in terms of aesthetics and haptics. Without A-profile support I'd consider buying one set for a HHKB layout board. With A-profile support I'd probably buy 3 or so sets

Hell, you could even put it in a separate kit if you're worried about it affecting the price.

[daedalus]

Would love if this set had an OS/2 modifier, e.g.:

[depletedvespene]

Would love if this set had an OS/2 modifier, e.g.:

Not an OS/2 fan myself, but it must be said that ANY icon is better than the Windows logo.

[Muirium]

@photekq

Is A profile higher at the front edge? If so, I won’t likely like it, but options are always good. You won’t be alone in your preference (whatever it is!)

[photekq]

@photekq

Is A profile higher at the front edge? If so, I won’t likely like it, but options are always good. You won’t be alone in your preference (whatever it is!)

Yeah, A-profile/R5 is the steeper bottom row profile that was used on most winkeyless vintage Cherry boards, like that G81-3100SDU you got from me.

Plenty of GMK sets have supported it in the past but most don't. I'd really, really love to see it on this set.

FWIW, GMK has the molds to offer 1.25u keys in that profile too, not just 1.5u. But most people that like the profile would only use it on winkeyless boards.

[ddrfraser1]

Anyone got side pics of this profile?

[photekq]

Anyone got side pics of this profile?

R4/B-profile on the left, R5/A-profile on the right. It's worth noting that R4/B-profile is also used for the shift row. It's also worth noting that the spacebar has its own profile, and remains identical regardless of whether R4 or R5 is being used for the bottom row.

[voodoo6k]

Do you need the R5 keys for full-size, TKL or 60%?

[zrrion]

personally I would like a R3 or R2 bottom row because it is less steep, no idea how anyone could use a steeper R5

[voodoo6k]

I've been using Topre Hi-Pro for a while now and really enjoy the flat and low bottom row. Thumb is happy.

[photekq]

Do you need the R5 keys for full-size, TKL or 60%?

I would only be using it for TKL personally, but full-size would be great.

It was only a small thing, I didn't mean to derail the thread so much when I suggested it

I don't think the steep profile of R5 is for everyone, but I think there's a fair few people out there who really love it. Including myself.

personally I would like a R3 or R2 bottom row because it is less steep, no idea how anyone could use a steeper R5

I don't think R3 or R2 has ever been tried. It's always R1,1,2,3,4,4 or R1,1,2,3,4,5 from esc row to bottom row. It'd be pretty cool if GMK could offer it though.

[zrrion]

If GMK already had a uniprofile set of R3 or R2 I could see it since you would have molds for a R2/3 bottom row but I don't think that is something they have but if they make molds for it I would be interested in a set of that sort.

[kbdfr]

I won't join such a GB because I absolutely hate WoB
(be it on my screen or on my keyboard, luckily books still are BoW by standard),
but I'm absolutely joining photekq in his praise of A-profile
(aka R5 - which by the way is a silly way of counting rows).

[voodoo6k]

This is a business key set for real business men and women who want to get real business done.

Then why is the vertical ("ISO") Enter whisked away off the base kit?

Do ISO users in general prefer ISO-US or ISO-UK?

I'm trying to find info on ISO-US and cannot find a photo of a keyboard with this layout... (R3 R4 \|)

[voodoo6k]

Okay, I found this one:

[depletedvespene]

This is a business key set for real business men and women who want to get real business done.

Then why is the vertical ("ISO") Enter whisked away off the base kit?

Do ISO users in general prefer ISO-US or ISO-UK?

That is actually... a wrong question. "ISO" is the physical layout variant (vertical Enter and short left Shift), while "-US" and "-UK" refer to the national layout on top of it... and there are plenty more than just "English (US)" and "English (UK)" (German, Spanish (two — okay, three), Portuguese (two), French, Belgian, Dutch (old), Italian (old, new and newer), Swiss, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish/Finnish (plus several regional variations), and a long etcetera).

When it comes to custom keycap sets, almost all start off with support for English (US) over ANSI, to which partial or complete support for English (US) over ISO and over split Backspace, and/or partial or complete English (UK) over ISO as well is added.





(*) There COULD be support for English (UK) over ISO and over split Backspace, but I don't think anyone has ever done it. Germans, OTOH, did have the HADapter kit made.

I'm trying to find info on ISO-US and cannot find a photo of a keyboard with this layout... (R3 R4 \|)

SSK

wri63nwovqk21.jpg (905.88 KiB) Viewed 23802 times

[depletedvespene]

…
I like to think if I designed one of these, I’d put all the real essentials in the base kit and be done with it. But I expect there are reasons, some of which may even be reasonable. Making people pay for stuff they don’t want is the big one to avoid. And in the end you really need to hit MOQ.

There's been wars on GH over this issue. What, fortunately, is starting to disappear, is the rather asinine (to put it mildly) idea that the "ISO Enter" key should not be present in a base kit (or anywhere) because "too few people use it", while at the same time, the same people readily accept other keys in base kits that have objectively much more limited usage (the extra B key and the 2.0U Shift key are particular examples of this) or because they have become cool (F13).

One of the (wrong) arguments that was made to brush "ISO support" aside was that it implied adding "a lot of keys" (false: the minimum is four keys), with a "considerable extra cost" for a set (something that designers with actual knowledge of the issue pointed out to be BS).

To hit MOQ you need a set that is attractive enough, and the undue exclusion of important keys can only hurt sales (see GMK Dark for a particularly glaring example).