The Input Club is taking a whack at making a Hall Effect keyboard. With their own switches. That does analog sensing. For under $100. It’s called the Keystone.
https://www.keychatter.com/2019/03/14/hall-effect-and-analog-in-one-keyboard-input-club-dares/
So it’s going to do everything APT does but better and with Kailh hall effect switches? What a time to be alive, huh?
oh my god 
hoping it’s DIY-friendly 
If only it came in a smaller form factor. interested in the Hall effect features as that could make for a very smooth switch. Just hope the analog feature allows us to set actuation points.
Input Club! Hear my plea!
I’m fearful that by going with the “under $100” benchmark the stabilizers will once again be something the customer has to fix.
Can you please put as much love into the stabilizers as this new switch?
Electromagnetic stabilizers when
I agree the $100 stipulation worries me too. We already seen what a $100 gets you with the XMIT/APT boards & it isn’t too good at all. I got a rd.1 XMIT bamboo 60% that is borderline unusable because of the terrible stabilizers & super loud switches. I tried to swap some genuine Cherry plate mount stabs into it, but they end up just binding like crazy since the stock stabs are of a smaller spec all around it seems. Not to mention the myriad of ways I’ve tried to silence the switches, all of which were busts.
I do see the potential in a modernized HE switch, but I honestly think it something that can’t be done too cheaply. Also adding in analog functionality seems kinda stupid at this point in time. It’s not like any games have native support for analog KB. You gotta use proprietary apps & wrappers to get them to play nice with most games from what I understand. So why even worry about that now, just get a good high quality modernized HE switch made & go from there. At least that would be the way I’d go about it.
I’m far more interested in the switches than I am the board. Outside of picking up the Whitefox, IC hasn’t exactly had a stellar record with actual full boards (and i say that as a happy owner of a K-Type) but their switches have been otherwise interesting if nothing else. The main thing that worries me is that being a switch with the IP rights owned by IC, it’s not gonna get use in prebuilts well, anywhere except for whatever shows up on Kono. If they make it so that custom PCBs and whatnot can be easily built for them, then they could have a lot of potential, being ultra-smooth and very interesting switches nonetheless. I just hope they don’t fare like the Gateron opticals and stick with the regular MX modes of tactility by slider notches against a fake contact leaf. Just give us a big steel tactile leaf like Alps, Kailh!
For $100, I can live with full size. My guess is costs were saved with the hope of high MOQ by plastic injection molding every case which would make each case extremely inexpensive and allow them to spend the rest of the funds on the components.
Hall effect… In the modern day all we have are the Ace Pad Tech boards that were improved on with Xmit’s help, but those still fell extremely flat to most audiences. Hall effect, in concept, is extremely kickass and awesome as there are less physical contacts.
And of course Analog. Imo all of the analog keyboards out there currently suck for one reason or another. A lot of people think this is the next frontier in keyboards, but we’ll have to wait and see how the industries adapts analog keyboards since it needs to be adapted by consumers, manufacturers, and software developers to really have its full range of use utilized.
So two very ambitious plans into a keyboard under $100… We will be watching 
I hope the switches and PCB end up being pretty solid; if that ends up being the case I think we could end up with a situation where the base product is fine but aftermarket cases and plates elevate it to another level.
Always here for more full-sized enthusiast stuff!
Yea, can’t wait to see how the community mods the case!
So, HaaTa and I collaborated on this design. I haven’t seen an updated set of drawings in a while. The earlier QC concerns with the APT boards are why I stopped shipping them.
It’s possible to build a Hall board in a way that is compatible with all the Costar cases out there. I wanted to do this for a future design of my own.
Topre sliders are perfect for Hall Effect if you stick a little magnet on the bottom.
I still have some more tricks up my sleeve, but it may be a while until any new product sees the light of day. Go buy HaaTa’s board.
fullsize bums me out b/c the only thing I would want to use this board for is gaming. I don’t understand why anyone would game with a fullsize board. Hopefully the tech will be awesome enough that they can justify another version in a smaller form factor
This design is easy enough to chop down, give it time and it will probably happen.
I didn’t draw the PCB for this one, but if I did, it would be modular.
I call this the “fleXMIT” layout. Came up with it a while ago.
That was a shame the way things went with the APT made boards. Although I am now a good bit more interested in this project knowing that you helped with this board. As I know how passionate you are about making a good modern HE board happen. I still got to stress though the $100 price point goal & addition of analog sensing worries me a bit. I would happily pay $150 or $200 to ensure the switches are of the highest quality possible & I think it would be a better move to focus on making just a high quality modernized HE switch then worry about analog in future iterations. The project is in good hands with HaaTa so I guess we’ll just have to wait & see what can be done with goal of this project.
I wouldn’t stress on the price point too much. I:C is realistic with pricing and obsessive with quality. I don’t know (or really care) where pricing lands but I don’t think this will be a $500 keyboard.
I’ve thought of re-introducing APT boards but it would involve writing a new firmware, tweaking molds heavily, and a trip to China.
Topre sliders are perfect for Hall Effect if you stick a little magnet on the bottom.
do i smell a possible way to make hall effects using almost entirely off-the-shelf parts
sounds like a new hot Frankenswitch. Any switch modders attempted this feat?
