Hi @norbauer, have just joined KT after picking scent of those cases. It’s great to finally see some aesthetic justice done to HHKB, it’s been a charity shop-quality of keycaps and accessories till now, hope the tide is turning.
I have skimmed through most of the thread but was wandering if you would be kind enough to clarify a few things for me.
1. Are those cases still available for a GB? Another run coming? EU delivery?
2. What’s the cases’ weight? Any photos of the back of it as well as the bottom plate?
3. While I curse the ugly bump and love the look of your cases, I praise the functionality that Hybrid brings and probably can’t imagine sacrificing the utter usefulness of both battery-powered operation and 4-device bluetooth pairing at this point - those are really extremely convenient features. Is there anyway at all to make your case work with Hybrid’s unique traits, be it by modification made to your case to accomodate the original back-bump, or otherwise (and preferably) by using some sort of reliable and tested mods to retain the battery-powered/multi-device bluetooth switching features that you or others could perhaps point to?
Haha. Yeah, if fingerprints trouble you (or unless you love using a microfiber obsessively), steer clear of Veracity. I’ve used Veracity housings in other designs for extended periods and just got cozy the it having finger oils on it (it becomes more uniform and less noticeable with time—the first fingerprint is always the most obtrusive), and my understanding is that most people who use Veracity take a similar approach. It’s a material and finish for people who like being super extra with their keyboards. For whatever it’s worth, all the feedback I’ve gotten from people who got a Veracity Norbaforce has been quite positive so far.
They actually aren’t available yet but will be hopefully this week. You can just watch this thread, or sign up on my email list. I absolutely ship to the EU and I even offer the ability to pre-pay cutoms and duties so you don’t have to deal with them on your side.
More details will be in the GB page.
My feeling is if that ultra-portability is a priority, then a metal case probably isn’t the right choice anyway, so I didn’t engineer too hard around this problem. The Heavy Grail is designed to live on your desk and be plugged in like a normal permanent peripheral. It may be possible to figure out how to stuff some batteries in the Heavy Grail and still use the Hybrid (people report successfully having done this with the Heavy-6 previously), but YMMV and it’s not something I’m officially supporting, as it were. Sorry that probably isn’t the answer you were looking for, but I just figured I should be honest.
I do see your point, and the rare commodity that it is, honesty should always be commended.
It’s not even the matter of portability for me, since the keyboard sits on my desk 95% of the time. Rather, it’s the fact that I can switch between Mac Pro / MacBook Air / iPad and PC in under two seconds while at it without as much as moving my arm and ever worrying about clutter of cables.
I entirely understand the design challenges you’re facing here though, especially with Hybrid being freshly released, so all fair and square.
I have an idea, perhaps something of a proposition for you. Would you consider tailor-personalising the case on your end to accommodate for the Hybrid’s bump for me as a way of prototyping? Perhaps this could serve as a great pretext for a proof of concept for any future runs you may do. I’m interested in Aperture, possibly VHS. Have a think, let me know.
Oh, well, I believe you can do that without the battery. I haven’t tested this, but someone (earlier in this thread, I think) said that you might be able to use USB to supply power and then still just use the bluetooth for switching. I’ll try to test in the next day or so.
Current plan is to launch this week and leave it open to 11 December, so roughly three weeks.
YDKB controller and a pro 2 gets you all the functionality of a hybrid without the god awful AAs. Plus it could fit in a Heavy Grail provided there’s room for a small lithium cell
Of course. I shot one earlier, but I actually want to re-shoot a new one with the latest iteration of the plate, which is on my (growing) list of things to do before launch.
Ah it seems I missed the part where the Hybrid supports up to 4 devices. The YDKB controller allows for pairing of up to two Bluetooth devices with switching in between them, a third device could be used via USB if so inclined however that still doesn’t reach your requirement of four.
In regards to battery life, that is dependent on the size of the cell you use, many users report battery life of a month or more but it’s worth noting that this is a rechargeable battery and as such the need to recharge once a month in my mind is better than replacing the batteries entirely every few.
YDKB provides mapping software to allow for customisation of the layout, this is also where you can add hotkeys to switch between devices: http://ydkb.io/
The use of a shipping agent such as Superbuy will allow for the purchasing of this item from overseas. Dependent on the cutout on the Heavy Grail you may even be able to opt for the USB-C modded version.
Judging by yours and some other people’s answers here, it seems, as far as I can grasp it, that I may actually be able to stick to the stock everything from my Hybrid, and would only need a usb-c battery as a replacement for the AAs. The once a month changing you mentioned @nostyle is entirely sufficient of course.
Do you know if it’s possible to keep the stock bluetooth chip / stock fujitsu mapping functionality from Hybrid and only swop the battery for usb-c port chargeable lithium when putting into the new case?
Again, your help will be much appreciated, I’m strongly out of my element here.
Just wondering, will we be able to know how the plate design affects the typing experience, ie. how the keypresses feel, bottom out, etc? I would expect that it wouldn’t feel exactly the same, so I would like to know what changes to the typing experience come with your design.
is your heavy 6 controller usb-c? if so, does the norbauer case easily allow for usb-c insertion? Asking because i have yang controller for hhkb pro2 and really can’t use the hhkb without the remapping it enables.
I asked this super early on.
Basically no you cannot use usb c cause its too wide with the pro 2 version of the case. And, you cant use the pro classic case with a pro 2 controller because the mounts are different.
This was early on, so unless Ryan has changed something, this should be the case.
Unfortunately, there’s no adequate way for me to convey that you verbally. I’ve designed the Grail to be as close as possible in feel to the original HHKB, but fitting a plate into a metal housing is always going to necessarily lead to some perceptual differences in sound and tactility. You can check out my typing test video when I post it and it should give you a decent sense. For whatever it’s worth, I honestly never thought I’d get as close as I have to the original HHKB feel while still having a CNC housing. In short: check out the video when it’s ready.
I’ve used Veracity housings in other designs for extended periods and just got cozy the it having finger oils on it (it becomes more uniform and less noticeable with time—the first fingerprint is always the most obtrusive), and my understanding is that most people who use Veracity take a similar approach. It’s a material and finish for people who like being super extra with their keyboards. For whatever it’s worth, all the feedback I’ve gotten from people who got a Veracity Norbaforce has been quite positive so far.