The Portico from TKC - An entry level with FR4 Plate and gasket mounting

Just in case some people haven’t heard of it, it’s TKC’s take on the entry level kit shipping March 2021. Portico75 Keyboards – TheKey.Company

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So many good entry boards happening right now, between this and Rama’s KARA and the NK65. I’m thinking about picking up a Portico to build as a gift for my brother, the price is definitely right for what you get out of it.

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Upcoming Bauer Lite as well…

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I really like this trend, keep 'em coming!
Especially what NK is doing with in-stock NK65.
Now we just need for vendors to have in-stock basic GMK sets like WoB/BoW adn this hobby will be 100% more newcomers friendly :slight_smile:

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Has Dixie Omnitype given a timeline for this? The way I’ve seen people talk about it make it seem like it’s fairly soon, but I haven’t seen anything from Dixie Omnitype.

Honestly I’m not sure, heard much the same as you.

poly case, fr4 plate and gasket sounds pretty nice.
but why would they not make it proper high profile?
that 1mm gap under the keycaps just looks ugly. :frowning:

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They’re still working on the design I think.

We are nearing the end of the development stage and hope to have some preliminary prototypes before the tooling is made. We hope to have more teases throughout the process soon!

https://dixiemech.com/news/12-18-2020

injection molding tooling alone usually takes like two months and LNY is coming up so it’s probably a few months out then.

Wait what?

So I’ve been seeing people post their porticos. How is it? Are y’all enjoying your boards?

Praises?
Criticisms?
Points of intrigue?

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@Deadeye had a really great write-up in another thread. What's on your workbench today? - #362 by Deadeye

It kind of put the Portico back on my radar… not going to lie. I need to try one of these budget boards everyone raves about.

Current contenders are:
Ikki68 > Portico > KBD67Lite

:beers:

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Figured I’d post this update here rather than the workbench thread;

After having consistently inconsistent behavior out of the lighting on my computer at home, I took the keeb to work and have had the lighting on all day - not even the tiniest glitch.

On my own computer, the behavior was worst when using an unpowered hub, and better when using a USB3 port directly - but even then it still seemed pretty picky about the cable. Here at work, I have a third party cable but it’s very short and USB3 rated - so I’m back to my previous conclusion:

The Portico has mild power-delivery or power-management issues when it comes to lighting on the PCB; this means how reliable and consistent the keeb behaves (when the lighting is on) will depend both on the port its plugged into and the cable its plugged in with, in terms of how able they are to deliver the needed power to the keeb. (My old Massdrop CTRL behaves similarly, if not exactly the same - definitely not unheard-of, if uncommon for keebs to be power hungry.)

Quick recap; the three “modes” I’ve seen this thing in:

  • Plugged into unpowered hub: when lighting is on, very inconsistent / erratic lighting behavior and erratic output behavior from the keeb (missed or repeated letters)

  • Plugged into USB 3.0 port but with cable that may not deliver full 3.0 power: when lighting is on, somewhat inconsistent lighting behavior (a row of red stops displaying, sometimes a few keys in the middle don’t light at all), output functions normally with lights on or off

  • Plugged into USB 3.0 port with properly rated cable: normal, intended functioning regardless of lighting use

Worst-case scenario and all you have are low-power USB2 ports or extension cables, you can still use the Portico just fine - I’d just recommend keeping the lights off. Connected directly to a modern machine with a good 3.0 rated cable, though - seems all gravy.