The Model 01: an heirloom-grade keyboard for serious typists
Created by Keyboardio
With a hardwood body, mechanical switches & custom-sculpted keycaps, it's a dream to type on. It comes with source code & a screwdriver
Latest Updates from Our Project:
The Model 100 is now live on Kickstarter
almost 3 years ago
– Wed, Jun 30, 2021 at 01:26:32 AM
Hello from Oakland!
We're thrilled to announce that the Kickstarter campaign for the Keyboardio Model 100 is now live. The Model 100 is an updated and refined version of the Model 01 you know and love. It features a new walnut enclosure option, hot-swappable MX-style keyswitches and along with dozens of other improvements, both visible and invisible throughout the product. The Kickstarter price is just $289.
Backer updates about the Model 01 are pretty much at an end, but updates about the Model 100 are just getting started. If you’d like to follow along as we build and ship our next project, the best way to do that is to back the Model 100 campaign. Even a $1 pledge gets our updates delivered to your inbox (and helps convince Kickstarter’s algorithms to pay attention to the Model 100.) We plan to continue to share our experiences in the world of small-scale consumer electronics design, hopefully with much, much less drama this time around.
<3 Jesse + Kaia
Model 100 launches this month
almost 3 years ago
– Mon, Jun 14, 2021 at 07:04:59 PM
Hello from Oakland,
Six years after we launched the Model 01, we're about to launch its successor on Kickstarter.
The Model 100 is launching on June 29
We’re putting the finishing touches on the Kickstarter campaign for our latest keyboard, the Keyboardio Model 100.
We don’t plan to offer early-bird discounts, but will likely offer 100 or so “early-delivery” Model 100 keyboards from the pilot run. If the Atreus campaign was any indication, we expect that they will sell out very, very quickly.
Meanwhile, as we’re gearing up for the campaign: if you have an in with a podcast, blog, newsletter, or other opportunity to get the word out about the Model 100 during the Kickstarter, let us know!
And if you are interested in letting the world know about what you liked about your Model 01, fill out this survey and we might feature your quote on the campaign page.
A tiny sneak peek:
What's different about the Model 100?
The Model 100 is, as the marketing folks describe it, a new and improved version of our first keyboard, the Model 01. We’ve kept everything that made the Model 01 an amazing and magical keyboard and we’ve changed everything else.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Model 100 is the new walnut option for the enclosure—we love the clean, light aesthetic of the Model 01, but absolutely fell in love with the rich, dark grain of the solid walnut palmrests we made for the Atreus. The Model 100 will be available in both walnut and maple.
The key layout, including the palm buttons and thumb arcs hasn’t changed. All the keys are right where your fingers expect them—space and backspace live under your thumbs. Everything else is still within easy reach. We’ve made a few tiny tweaks to the keycap shapes: Tab and Enter are 1mm higher, to help your fingers find them when you’re typing. The “homing dots” in the middle of A, F, J, Semicolon, Space, and Backspace are now “homing bars” that feel more like most other modern keyboards and should be more comfortable for extended typing sessions, even for the most sensitive fingers.
Underneath those keycaps, you’ll find one of the most exciting changes in the Model 100—hot-swappable MX-style keyswitches. Gone are the soldered-in Matias ALPS-style switches. In their place, you’ll find industry-standard switches from Kailh, which press-fit into hot-swap sockets. You’ll be able to choose clicky, tactile, or linear switches when you order from us and you’ll be able to change them out for your favorite switches whenever you want.
While we haven’t yet been able to cat-test the Model 100, we’ve been careful not to change anything that might inconvenience our feline overlords.
We’ve completely redone the electronics inside the Model 100 to move everything to the “backs” of the circuit boards, so everything is easier to explore and debug. We’ve got a couple very neat things up our sleeves on the electronics front, but we’ll save those for the Kickstarter campaign.
We’re not quite ready to announce the Kickstarter price for the Model 100 because we’re still working with the factory to make sure we have our ducks in a row about costs. Since we launched the Model 01 in the summer of 2015, costs have definitely gone up, but we’ve also dramatically improved our supplier network and our ability to deliver great products on a shoestring.
We expect that the Model 100 will be priced comparably to the Model 01, but also be a much nicer keyboard.
What else we've been up to
We shipped the Atreus, a 40% ergonomic keyboard designed for minimalist portability, in fall of 2020. It's available on our website now.
We also have started stocking switches, sockets, keycap sets, and pullers in order to help hobbyists build their own custom keyboards. Our prices on these are quite competitive, so if you're in the market, check them out!
<3 j+k
The Keyboardio Atreus is live on Kickstarter for just $99!
about 4 years ago
– Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 09:58:47 PM
In January, our new factory delivered our full keycap order to our Hong Kong warehouse. After that, we emailed everybody who’d ordered keycaps in order to confirm their current shipping addresses. In February, we started shipping out keycap orders. This weekend, our warehouse packed up the last outstanding orders from folks who had confirmed their shipping addresses.
There are still about 120 of you who haven’t responded to repeated email messages asking you to confirm your shipping addresses through shop.keyboard.io, but other than that, we believe we’ve fulfilled all campaign pledges, BackerKit pre-orders, and website orders.
If you believe we haven’t sent you something you pledged for (or preordered on BackerKit), please email us at [email protected] so we can get things sorted out.
The Keyboardio Atreus is a minimalist ergonomic keyboard designed in partnership with Phil Hagelberg of Technomancy. It features 44 hot-swappable Kailh MX-style keyswitches, rearrangeable black keycaps, a USB C connector, all in an ultra-compact form-factor that’s very nearly pocketable. The Atreus is powered by Kaleidoscope, Keyboardio’s open-source keyboard firmware and is fully supported by Chrysalis, our cross-platform graphical configuration tool.
On Kickstarter, the Atreus will be just $99. After the campaign, we expect that the retail price will be $150.
When we launch, we expect to have a limited number of early-delivery keyboards with Box White and Speed Copper switches from our pilot run available. They’ll come with the same one-year warranty as regular Keyboardio Atreus keyboards, and they’ll still cost just $99, but we expect them to ship within days of the end of the campaign. These early-delivery keyboards may sell out quickly.
Earlier this year, we sold out of the Quiet-Click Model 01. We’re almost sold out of the Loud-Click Model 01.
Later this year, we expect to launch the Model 100, an updated version of the Model 01.
Due to the factory move, we were going to end up having to remake some of our tooling. As you know, this can be expensive and time consuming, so we’re taking the opportunity to improve the mechanical and electrical design of the keyboard. We’ll talk more about that in a future update.
<3 j+ k
Ending 2019 on a bright note
over 4 years ago
– Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 01:04:08 AM
Hello from Shenzhen (after a brief stopover in Taiwan),
It's been a busy couple of weeks for us and we've got some news to report.
The lawsuit
In our last update, we told you a bit about the ongoing lawsuit against our old factory. At the time, our lawyer had requested court-supervised pre-trial mediation. The mediation process went slowly and up until the very last moment, we weren't sure exactly how things were going to shake out. Because the mediation process took so long, the court automatically scheduled a trial date and notified both parties.
Deadlines, it turns out, are a fantastic motivator.
We're pleased to report that the we have signed a settlement agreement with the old factory and that they have now met all of their obligations under that settlement agreement.
While it is an experience we hope never, ever to repeat, we're very pleased with our interaction with the Chinese legal system and were pleasantly surprised by the support the court provided for a small Western company in a lawsuit against a Chinese factory. We consider the matter closed.
Model 01 Keycaps
Now that everything's been settled with the old factory, we're really, really excited to get back to, you know, making stuff for you. We're pleased to report that we're about to receive a very large shipment of keycaps from the new factory. Last week, Jesse was at the new factory and did quality control checks on the Dvorak, Colemak, QWERTY, and the first 100 sets of Linear A keycaps.
Dvorak keycaps
Dvorak passed.
Colemak passed.
QWERTY passed.
Linear A almost passed. The symbols on a pair of thumb keys were at the wrong angle. After discussing it with the factory, everybody agreed that those two keycaps would be replaced on the first 100 sets and the laser would be adjusted for the rest of them.
Who knew a stack of boxes could make us so happy?
The remaining Linear A sets are expected to be done within the next two weeks. They're taking a bit of extra time because the factory ended up having to injection mold an extra 600 sets of keycaps.
Why did the factory have to make 600 more sets of keycaps than planned, you ask?
That is an excellent question. When we placed this order with the new factory, we did all our numbers based on the old factory's promise to hand over 600 sets of blank keycaps ready for painting and laser engraving. As the new factory started the painting process, they discovered that the keycaps had already had UV-protectant painted on top. This helps make sure that sunlight won't damage the keycaps over time. It also makes sure that nothing will stick to the keycaps. Like, dirt. Or say, paint. That makes it very, very hard to paint and laser-engrave the keycaps.
The factory asked if we wanted to toss the "useless" keycap sets. We said no. Instead, we asked them to buy 600 more sets of packaging. Very shortly, we expect to have enough keycaps in stock to fulfill all preorders and to make keycaps available for sale. It probably won't be by Christmas. But there's a very realistic chance it will happen before the end of 2019.
Sometime in the next week or two, we will begin the process of contacting everybody who preordered keycaps to reconfirm your shipping addresses. Some of you placed these orders quite a while ago and we how that many of you may want to adjust your shipping addresses.
Atreus
The other big project that has Jesse in China is our next keyboard project. The Atreus is a collaboration with Phil Hagelberg (Technomancy). It's an minimalist, portable keyboard that will look something like this:
Prototype Keyboardio Atreus with unlabeled keycaps (final version will have labels)
While here, we signed off on every aspect of the design and packaging, with the exception of the keycaps, though that's a story for another day.
It takes a number of tries to get the molding machine calibrated perfectly... these are reject injections from the process
We also met with our wood supplier to talk about the prototype walnut palm rest we designed for the Atreus.
And then we met with a bag supplier to start the design process for a custom travel case for this very, very portable keyboard.
The current plan is to launch the Keyboardio Atreus on Kickstarter in early 2020. We're working really hard to make sure that the backer updates for that campaign are just as interesting and informative, but a bit less gut-wrenching. To keep up to date on the Atreus, you can sign up here.
Box of Crap
From time to time, we ask folks on the internet if they want to give us fifty bucks to send them a box of junk from the world's most famous consumer technology market.
Jesse's got one more day in China. He's going to spend it scouring the markets of Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei for all sorts of pointless, useless stuff that might make a good Box of crap. In the past, this has meant that Jesse's spent the day loaded down with shopping bags and then spent the day working with helpers to shove stuff in boxes.
We're going to try doing things a little differently (and a little bit more scalably) this time. Jesse's going to be buying samples and getting quotations for volume purchases. Then, if all goes well, we'll place orders to be shipped to our logistics partner out by Shenzhen airport. They'll box and ship stuff professionally.
