Hi all! I have a new IC for you, this time based on the 1951 KSR-28 teletype terminal. SA Teletype is my first 40’s/ortho-specific set, geared towards smaller boards, as the KSR-28 itself had no numrow.
It’s a uniform SA R3 set, with vintage legends drawn from the KSR-28 and its successor, the KSR-33. We’ve already checked with Signature Plastics, and most of these legends already exist, and it’s feasible price-wise to create the missing ones (which of course will then be available for future use by anyone).
Material is ABS. Colors are BGD dark greenish blue, RAS dark red, and WFK white; all stock SP resins.
Kitting subject to change; I’ve already added unscooped F and J based on feedback so far, and I need help ensuring there are enough Shifts in various sizes to accommodate most small boards.
If this is something that might appeal to you, please fill out the Feedback Form! Saber Keebs will be the vendor. The GeekHack IC post is coming soon as well; it’s currently awaiting mod approval.
With a couple more red keys and/or a num row, it would fit my own spare matrix-only PCBs lying around rather well, LOL. Well, when trimmed to a 65ish, it would. Numpad is not the intent here, so I get that is likely a nonstarter, but shutting out the Preonic and other 5-row boards might hurt interest beyond what the extra plastic would cost. Honestly, it’s very close to supporting some 60% layouts already with a red alert design, and could get standard ANSI 60% with minor tweaks.
I’ve heard from a couple other folks, and I’d like to add some more red keys, or at least recolor some green ones to make it easier to fill out a full top row in red. It is possible right now for 12-column/5-row ortho boards, but that should make it easier.
Honestly, three would get you to the full 15 someone would need to fill out a 60% top row. I’ve definitely seen people do Orthos designed for Poker cases, to say nothing of a simple split-Bksp layout in normie row-staggered 60%. I think a 2.25u Enter (or stand-in) would be the final addition.
Three is probably doable! I don’t want to make the key count too wild, but 1u keys don’t cost a ton, and I can draw upon some extant old-timey terminal legends I made an index of for future use, back when I designed History of Violets.
Yeah, I already use the numrow to visually signal an unlegended F-row sometimes, so even being the weirdo that I am, having the 40s legends you’ve already done as the visual indicator for a red row above that actually types the numbers would be very doable. From your perspective, I know 40s are the main demo here, but MoQ might be easier if you sneak just enough caps into the kitting to hide a mostly-cohesive 60% in the set.
Here’s how it looks with some other changes I made this morning based on feedback I received overnight. This adds three red 1u keys with extant legends.
Final(?) kitting, after receiving advice from SP on what legends already exist in their archive, and making some cuts. With the changes, this now requires absolutely no new legends (down from 13). Combined with dropping a bunch of NorDe keys no one said they needed, this should significantly reduce the cost. Waiting on a new quote now.
Thanks! Made one last additional change, which came out of getting permission from the owner of the 40% Discord to use their logo. So a new novelty in both teal and red will be part of the set, and the legend will be available going forward. It previously only existed in DSS and DSA profile.
Thanks! Glad I can help make this happen! And it feels old-school, including community keys like back when a lot of sets had GeekHack and Deskthority ones.
