Kumo: psyched or nah?

I ran across http://typedifferent.org/ on TheVan’s Instagram, and this keyboard looks pretty dope. I hadn’t seen a lot of chatter about it on reddit, so I thought I’d ask to see what people’s impressions of it are. It seems like a pretty sweet deal to me, and since I’ve recently been converted to the 40% life, I’d definitely be interested in checking it out. What do y’all think? :speaking_head::speaking_head::speaking_head:

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I guess I wasn’t aware this was happening. I’ll probably get one.

I like the idea of hotswap on 40% boards. This is a good way to actually have usable board to test switches before committing to buy 100 of them and solder them into a TKL, only to find out that you don’t like the switches as much as you thought.

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I’ve been pretty psyched for it! People ask me about cheap minivan alternatives fairly often, so it will be really nice to have something to point them to. @evangs doesn’t seem to be talking about it much, which is probably related to the lack of a timeline for the project. Maybe once they get that nailed down there will be more news?

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I’m not willing to consider any 40% unless they have bluetooth. That’s my take on 40%s.

Kumo is coming very soon. We’ve been posting on insta and have an info site https://typedifferent.org

We will also be sending out an email when it launches to our subscribers :slight_smile:

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@lac29 thanks for the feedback. We would like to add Bluetooth soon but don’t have a timeline on that yet.

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I’m really excited for it! Hopefully my budget will let me get it when it comes out :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Iirc, the minivan exposes the right pins to allow you to mod it in if you really wanted. You’d probably have to make.your own case though, as there is no way the normal one has room for a battery.

If rumors are to be believed, I think most budgets would have a little wiggle room for a Kumo :wink:

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It’s likely not for me at this point (but I’ll likely get one for the collection) however it is a great piece. The market has been missing a beginners 40% that’s simple, programmable and cheap. This fits the bill while being hotswap and coming with caps included.

A great project.

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@evangs Will there be a kit that does not include switches if we want to use different ones?

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no, the switches are contributing very little cost so logistically it doesn’t make sense to add that as an option. we are trying to keep the options very limited and as simple as possible. I would just set the included switches aside or r/mm them.

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just pushed an update to typedifferent.org with photos of the prototypes

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This looks pretty cool. I like it, and will be great for newcomers

As someone who has yet to try a 40%, I’m excited about the Kumo, both for the low cost of entry and the XDA keycaps (which I also have yet to try). The value seems hard to beat if it ends up coming in close to the estimated price.

@evangs what profile are the caps on this bad boy? The old typedifferent page looked like HUB, but the prototype pics look like XDA. I’m assuming XDA, but I’m not gonna say no to a first round mini batch of HUB!

JK, just saw

Kumo Keyset (52 PBT Keycaps - XDA profile)

Guess that answers my question lol

easier to use hub models for renders than to model up the xda caps XD

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Will the plastic be opaque, or do you hope to include led underglow?

Scale SA R3 to 44% original height for an extremely convincing XDA model. Here’s what I’ve done using that method:

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You can already mod underglow on if you don’t mind poking around :eyes:

I agree that the frosted look would be really nice with underglow though! Afaik from having talked to Evan about it before it doesn’t seem super likely, but I’ll likely mod it onto mine. Even without it, I kinda like the OG Nintendo-style colored frosted plastic look.