Wondering if some one knows more about the supply chain, that could fill us in.
Questions, that come to mind:
I’ve received a notice recently from DROP about my Serika keycap order.
They said that the Chinese New Year holidays was extended until further notice, and people do not work in factories as of now.
I also have Chinese colleages that are still forced to stay home at that time.
So yes, this will defitively effect the keyboard community but we still don’t know how much.
From what I have been reading, the nCoV2019 (a.k.a. Wuhan Coronavirus) doesn’t survive more than 24 hours outside the human body.
That’s the first time that I thank the time delays associated with shipping from China.
I’ve got a bunch of PCBs on order from JLCPCB in Shenzhen and they’ve got a notice on their site that says production is postponed until at least February 10th and that DHL has now suspended shipping operations until the 6th.
The longer this goes on and the further the virus spreads, I can only assume these types of delays will get worse. Vendors in the keyboard hobby are already losing money, but of course the primary concern is for the health and safety of the Chinese people. Hopefully they can get this outbreak contained.
From what I have been reading, the nCoV2019 (a.k.a. Wuhan Coronavirus) doesn’t survive more than 24 hours outside the human body.
That is good to know.
Mostly I think the main factors that will effect the keeyboard community will be…
Delays! Since Lunar New year has been expanded, that’s already one delay, but many are projecting even past this week many factories will remain closed and not starting up their production facilities for the health of their workers. For a lot of factories, we’re the small fish too, so they would most likely prioritize catching up on larger orders before keyboard cnc & etc.
Meetup concerns in certain parts of the world. A lot of people are worried about getting sick. Any meetups taking place this month, next month, and possibly the month after that may see lower than normally expected attendance numbers.
let’s just hope and pray it never makes it’s way to Germany. I NEED MY KEYCAPS. 
It’ll affect things for sure, but we won’t need to disinfect anything. I sincerely doubt that the Coronavirus can survive outside of a human body for long, much less in a package that’s going through heat and cold all over. Pasteurized keyboards, mmm.
everything I’ve read suggests it’s transmitted in droplets from humans and usually can only live outside of a host for 24 hrs.
Sure, but it looks likes some packets from China are blocked at the customs due to the virus.
I think, as previous people have said, delays and meetups are the biggest thing. I know TKC said on Discord a couple days ago that their MiniVans (which have some involvement with China) are still on track for an end-of-Q1 release, but it all “depends if China keeps calling in sick to work.” I personally hope that it won’t impact anything too harshly. I want to get my hands on a MiniVan ASAP. So help me if it spreads to Germany. /s
My contacts tell me that the Chinese government has extended the New Year shutdown for another week. Production is dead in the water. It’s tough for people and things to cross between China and Hong Kong at the moment.
Makes me wonder what people are doing for pay / food… there’s gotta be a lot of people that rely on getting back to work, to provide for themselves and their families.
The recent Novelkeys newsletter also noted that some stock will be low for a bit due to the coronavirus and CNY.
I think everything across the board will be delayed for weeks, if we are lucky.
If we are not, I think we are talking months. And some GBs may never complete if the manufacturer goes under from the financial strain.
Finally a legit reason for the delivery of my fabled Xeno to be delayed…
In all seriousness, the thought of it’s current manufacturer going under has crossed my mind a few times, Murphy’s law in practice.
So far only 4 people. And all in isolated care. So no need to worry. Nice people.
⇑ This IMO also. The Chinese media is heavily controlled by their govt. & they have not been know to be very forthcoming with the truth in situations like this in the past. So considering they are admitting to quarantining a city more populous than NYC or LA things are probably much worse on the ground than we really know. I mean with people having no means of gaining income to afford food, housing, utilities, etc. this could turn into a full blown humanitarian crisis IMHO!
Hopefully the Chinese govt. is providing for those quarantined & it doesn’t come to that, but given their past track record it’s hard to have faith that is what’s happening. At this point as much as it sucks to have our MKB products delayed I really feel that is a very petty concern given people’s lives are literally on the line (no shade towards anyone here as this is just a discussion about it, I just felt it needed to be said).
In a situation like this I will not be getting upset about any delays due to this, or even non delivered products because a company went under with the extended work stoppage. Sure it won’t feel great to have either happen if they do to any of us. Although given the reasoning if they do, you’d have to be pretty heartless to be more concerned about MKBs & parts for them vs people’s well being. Sorry for the wall of text, I just think some projects are gonna go sour because of the Coronavirus outbreak & really hope the community as whole responds to anything like that in the right way given the extreme circumstances of what’s happening.
I can only hope that they all make it through but based on how this is going so far I would not be surprised if it goes that way for a few of them.
This to me is worse than the virus. Wuhan has nearly 12M people, Hubei total is 48M. 20K confirmed cases out of that number is very small. Locked down means citizens are told to stay in their houses and come out only once a week to get supplies using paper permits the city government handed out. Transportation system is locked down and gas shortage is severe so they’ll only be able to get what they can carry and live on that for another week.
Imagine the logistics of feeding and supplying 12M people. I wouldn’t be surprised if more people died from hunger and untreated illnesses than the virus if the Chinese government mismanages the lockdown.