German company GMK does MX 2shots

Noxwood · 03 Dec 2012, 05:53

Who was that guy that was trying to sell one earlier this month/last month?

Hope they dumped it quick, now it's old and used and not even worth $5.

IvanIvanovich · 03 Dec 2012, 06:22

Right, I better auction off all my rare keys before they are made again. Then I will have lots of money for shiny new sets.

guilleguillaume · 03 Dec 2012, 06:58

Next one could be the one and only CHERRY key

There are more to come.

kbdfr · 03 Dec 2012, 07:58

guilleguillaume wrote:Next one could be the one and only CHERRY key

[…]

Same thing I just posted on Geekhack:

It seems to be quite common to not bother about property rights.
1. The logo belongs to Cherry and is protected by copyright law. Reproducing it on a keycap is of course prohibited.
2. The above pic itself, taken and published by sixty, is also protected by copyright law. It is not public domaine unless the author says so.

TDub · 03 Dec 2012, 09:58

*Edited accidental doublepost*

TDub · 03 Dec 2012, 10:00

guilleguillaume wrote:Next one could be the one and only CHERRY key

If anyone wants to pay 250$ for one of those, I got one I would sell you

Grond · 03 Dec 2012, 10:23

This is sure great news!

I would suggest to make a replacement alpha kit. I noticed that language specific keys and numbers are much less used than the standard letters, and lust much longer. So I could use a replacement kit for only the main letters and keep the language specific ones from my original Cherry set. Also, a kit like the one I mean could easily be universal (main letters + Q + Z + Y + A extras for AZERTY and QWERTZ users) thus making the prices lower for everyone.

I would also be curious if they have the tooling for the center-stemmed caps lock, that would be nice.

kbdfr · 03 Dec 2012, 10:31

TDub wrote:
guilleguillaume wrote:Next one could be the one and only CHERRY key

If anyone wants to pay 250$ for one of those, I got one I would sell you

Mind you, there are two different kinds.

(my own picture, by the way)

laffindude · 03 Dec 2012, 11:09

TDub wrote:If anyone wants to pay 250$ for one of those, I got one I would sell you

DEAL, in Zimbabwe dollar.

TDub · 03 Dec 2012, 13:45

kbdfr wrote:
TDub wrote:
guilleguillaume wrote:Next one could be the one and only CHERRY key

If anyone wants to pay 250$ for one of those, I got one I would sell you
Mind you, there are two different kinds.

(my own picture, by the way)

Ah I didn't know that, I think mine is the right one. From the G80 2100.

Grond · 03 Dec 2012, 13:58

kbdfr wrote:
guilleguillaume wrote:Next one could be the one and only CHERRY key

[…]
Same thing I just posted on Geekhack:

It seems to be quite common to not bother about property rights.
1. The logo belongs to Cherry and is protected by copyright law. Reproducing it on a keycap is of course prohibited.

I guess the guys from Signature Plastics are all in jail then!

bhtooefr · 03 Dec 2012, 14:00

The Cherry logo would fall under trademark law, I think.

kbdfr · 03 Dec 2012, 14:13

TDub wrote:
kbdfr wrote:
TDub wrote:If anyone wants to pay 250$ for one of those, I got one I would sell you
Mind you, there are two different kinds.

(my own picture, by the way)
Ah I didn't know that, I think mine is the right one. From the G80 2100.

Then it's the right one, yes.

kbdfr · 03 Dec 2012, 14:23

Grond wrote:
kbdfr wrote:It seems to be quite common to not bother about property rights.
1. The logo belongs to Cherry and is protected by copyright law. Reproducing it on a keycap is of course prohibited.
I guess the guys from Signature Plastics are all in jail then!
[pic with SP keycaps, some of them with Cherry-like logo]

You do not always get a ticket when parking in a no-parking zone.
Do you then say "well, obviously it's allowed"?

prava · 03 Dec 2012, 15:59

I wouldn't make things super complicated, If I were you. And by saying that, I know that if you were to do what I'm saying I'd get no spanish layout keycaps... but that is ok.

What I'd do is:

-Offer ANSI layout.
-Offer EU layout (consider the most common keys).
-Offer a pack of EU variations: this could be a single pack, or 2 different onces, so that the packs don't get to bee too big.

All in all, if you offer variations by country we'd have to pay like A LOT for a simple Ñ because nobody else uses such letter

dirge · 03 Dec 2012, 16:41

prava I think we're all still letting SigPlastics and their working habits set out expectations. Layout changes may not incur any additional costs. The tooling for Ñ should be there, so it's maybe not a custom job.

fossala · 03 Dec 2012, 16:44

dirge wrote:prava I think we're all still letting SigPlastics and their working habits set out expectations. Layout changes may not incur any additional costs. The tooling for Ñ should be there, so it's maybe not a custom job.

SP aren't that good. Poor keycaps, bad quality control, wanting you to front all thier tooling costs. Do we get to keep the tooling we are paying for?

IvanIvanovich · 03 Dec 2012, 17:13

Heard back again from GMK. We need to decide what exactly we want to have made up, and they will give us a quote for that particular order. They have no fixed price, minimum depend on what key sizes and possibly color. Larger key than 1*1 have a higher order do to machine limitations since they can't make as many key at once.

GMK have anything you have ever seen on a Cherry key, all 5000 of unique legends that Cherry had. They also said they can do custom job with new legend, but it is costly, more so than SP. I think SP will still remain the choice for small order of novelty cap for the foreseeable future.

prava · 03 Dec 2012, 17:26

I'd start with a single colour combination that would make for a lot of people interested, in order to make everything easier.

So, IMO you should do...
-ISO layout (any standard one will do, you could even include some language-variations, but the basic ones)
-ANSI layout
-Some modifiers kit.

BimboBB · 03 Dec 2012, 17:41

so its time for a huge interestcheck!?

Acanthophis · 03 Dec 2012, 17:59

Dolch with normal (white) legends or legends in some fancy colour. Purple for example. Or toxic green.

IvanIvanovich · 03 Dec 2012, 18:06

Things will start happening, but it may take some time. I am in some talks with what will be offered through retail, so we can focus on things they won't be offering.

kbdfr · 03 Dec 2012, 18:10

Everybody seems to be fascinated by weird colours - and at the end of such a group buy nearly everybody's going to have the same exotic keyboard. Why not then stick to the classics?

It's a pity French layout (AZERTY) is obviously not going to be considered at first

Anyway, one thing that would be really interesting is a sort of catalogue of all those 5000 or so keycaps. I'm sure there are tons of them we are not even aware of, like some of the legends of the G80-2000 (pic by sixty):

or those on the G80-2551 that flooded eBay a few months ago (pic by Tarkoon):

rodtang · 03 Dec 2012, 18:16

The first round should be every layout they can do (that we are interested in) in black on white with gray mods.

dirge · 03 Dec 2012, 18:17

lysol wrote:Things will start happening, but it may take some time. I am in some talks with what will be offered through retail, so we can focus on things they won't be offering.

Am I reading that right? They'll be offering their own retail sets at a set cost that anyone can buy?

RC-1140 · 03 Dec 2012, 19:58

kbdfr wrote:Everybody seems to be fascinated by weird colours - and at the end of such a group buy nearly everybody's going to have the same exotic keyboard. Why not then stick to the classics?

It's a pity French layout (AZERTY) is obviously not going to be considered at first

Anyway, one thing that would be really interesting is a sort of catalogue of all those 5000 or so keycaps. I'm sure there are tons of them we are not even aware of, like some of the legends of the G80-2000 (pic by sixty):

<quoted pic removed>

or those on the G80-2551 that flooded eBay a few months ago (pic by Tarkoon):

<quoted pic removed>

The only problem with some of the cool legends on the G80-2551 is, that Cherry never created them as Doubleshots. All of the blue legends, and some of the black ones (like my beloved "Datenfreigabe") are pad printed.

7bit · 03 Dec 2012, 20:04

rodtang wrote:The first round should be every layout they can do (that we are interested in) in black on white with gray mods.

No it should be

- necessary add-on stuff for existing keys (formerly known as Moogle kits)
- something really cool which never existed before (like clear legends)

7bit · 03 Dec 2012, 20:07

Grond wrote:

Great to see 9 keys from Round 3 with my "WASD with arrows" in the middle!

IvanIvanovich · 03 Dec 2012, 20:14

GMK won't be doing retail themselves, but some US based... so as you can guess ANSI will be the focus. Likely commonly needed things like modifier packs will be addressed first to supplement existing vintage sets. That leaves groupbuy as the option for other nationalized sets unless EU retailer willing to stock such sets can be found.
I requested a complete inventory of the legends like a font or svg or whatever they have it in. They informed me they only have original 1980's Cherry paper book of them which is quite enormous and they have not gotten them into a manageable digital format yet. It may take some effort to get some paper copies of this but I am working on it. I guess I would have to scan them in myself to a pdf or something ugh.

7bit · 03 Dec 2012, 20:28

Sure they don't retail, but becuase we do group buys it does not matter!

The questions we need to be answered is how many key caps of one kind in one color is the MOQ and how much do they cost.

About the legends: They should be able to write any text in the good old Cherry font and also should be able to do the known arrow legends right away.

If they do allow scanning their old catalogues I could drive there up next year.