9/14 Update:
Thank you everyone who joined making this a huge success! We sold out in just about 16 hours with both colorways selling at the exact same pace. crazy!
I will be starting a new post for the GB, and wondering whats the best way to connect with everyone. Should I start a discord server? Either way, a big thank you to everyone for their interest and support!
9/10 Update:
Big update guys! I’ve been able to lock down the final details and come to agreements on costs with all the factories involved. Due to MOQs on dyeing, we’ll be doing 50units only of each color for total of 100 for this first edition. I’ve been able to get ~$50USD shipping rates vs the $100-$200 I’ve been quoted all week. Production time is now looking like 90days from when we place the order, hopefully will be less than that. GB price is now officially $560, with all quotes & costs locked in.
tl;dr - that means we’re good to go for GB! Will be launching 8am tomorrow Tokyo time. Thats 9.10 4pm PST / 7pm EST / 11pm UTC!
GB will be on my new Shopify store at shop.tokyokeyboard.com - I’ve only run test orders through it so far so hopefully it will run without an issue.
That’s it for now!
Alvin
8/31 Update:
Hey everyone! Slowly but surely moving on to GB, doing some final negotiations on pricing with the dye factory that I’m hoping to lock down by this week so I can get the GB price set to go!
Also thank you everyone for responding to the survey on Hotswap vs Soldered. Working with our PCB designer QuadCube now to figure out if it’s feasible to offer both with factory MOQs and pricing.
Behind the scenes video from NHK World around 8min mark.
Hey everyone!
I want to introduce everyone finally to the Alix, my keyboard love letter to Tokyo.
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m the guy behind Tokyo Keyboard and the Tokyo60.
The Alix is a 40% 1u Alice style plateless acrylic keyboard. Like the mix between a Prime_E and a Planck. It’s hand-crafted in Tokyo by local craftsmen and designed to be a pretty niche. The mounting style is plateless with the pcb isolated and mounted on silicon shock absorbers for a super bouncy type feel.
This version will be limited to 100 units.
Design Philosophy
The concept of this design was to make a beautiful keyboard that can only be made in Tokyo. With that we decided to tap into Tokyo’s local city factory network and collaborate with several small family-owned factories to showcase their craft such as plastic polishing, sand/bead-blasting, and hand-dying. We’re sourcing as much as we can locally in Tokyo, then Japan. For the PCB we’re looking to fabricate either in Taiwan or Malaysia.
Features
- Craft Made Case Made in Tokyo
- 2 Colorways
- Hot Swap BT PCB
- Flat 0 Angle
- 1u or 2u Spacebar
- Silicon Shock mounted PCB
Technical Details
Case
- Milled Japanese extruded acrylic
- Hand Polished, Sand-blasted, and Hand dyed with Japanese dyes.
- Gradient Direction will be Bottom to Top.
- Silicon Shock Absorbers will be Black
- Made in Tokyo
- 0 deg incline
PCB
- Hot Swap
- RGB Underglow
- USB-C
- Bluetooth compatitle w/ Charging circuitry
- Designed by Quadcube
Packaging
- Made in Tokyo
- Custom box with premium locally made paper
- Custom Cut Foam
Current Process
I’ve been working with factories so far to create the production prototypes and finally at a stage where we’re ready to go. It’s the first time these factories have worked together and also the first time they’ve done some of these processes like the hand dying. We’ve run through 10 prototypes so far to get it all nailed and we feel pretty confident that the design is ready to go into production.
Pricing and Timeline
I’m still waiting on final pricing, but will be on the higher end around the $550+ USD range.
GB is hoping to start near the end of August with production taking around 60days.
I probably missed a bunch of things so let me know what questions you have!
I’ll be putting up more photos here on how it assembles together as well.
Layout
Exploded View
Shock Absorber PCB Mount
Photos (more to come)
Silicon Shock Absorbers.
Tokyo Factories
