Altair and Altair-XCurrent status: GB closed; preparing for ordering and manufacturing
Updates log:- Group buy from April 29 to June 3, estimated shipping on Q1 2025
After half a decade of development and over two years of use as a daily driver, Altair and Altair-X represent ai03's current benchmark in keyboard design for productivity and comfort.
Going beyond just internals or mounting methods, the Altair family blends a fully-split ergonomic key layout with high-end keyboard visuals and internals to take typing comfort to the next level.
This is the group buy thread - for the full context, wall of text, and mass of photos regarding the project that would be a bit too much to mirror here, please see the
IC thread.
Vendors/Product pages-
CannonKeys-
Mechboards-
KBDfans-
Acid & Co.-
Swagkeys-
Sandkeys-
Keebz N Cables-
Keygem-
YushakoboPricing and KittingBase kit contents:- The case halves
- Polycarbonate plates
- Brass weights per half
- PCB and daughterboard per half, along with their ribbon cables
- USB-C to USB-C cable for interconnect use
- Custom carrying case
- Rubber feet and gaskets
- Screws and hardware for assembly
Full pricing:Altair (5-row)- Case - 315 USD for dark grey and rose gold, 325USD for e-white
- Learning keyset - 30 USD
- Extra plates - 40 USD for a pair of PC, 55USD for a pair of alu, 25USD for a pair of FR4
- Extra hotswap PCB pair - 55 USD
- Foam layers kit (midfoams, bottomfoams) - 28 USD
Altair-X (4-row)- Case - 300 USD for dark grey and rose gold, 310USD for e-white
- Learning keyset - 27 USD
- Extra plates - 37 USD for a pair of PC, 52USD for a pair of alu, 21USD for a pair of FR4
- Extra hotswap PCB pair - 51 USD
- Foam layers kit (midfoams, bottomfoams) - 26 USD
Common Accessories- Extra gaskets kits - 7 USD
- Extra USB-C interconnect cable - 5 USD
- Extra USB daughterboards - 11 USD
- Wooden wristrests pair - 28 USD (
Note: Please check wood QC guidelines
here- Extra rubber feet (a whopping 24 per kit to account for 6 per each wristrest) - 5 USD
SpecificationsTyping angle: 7deg
Materials: Aluminum case, polycarbonate plate (by default), brass weight
Manufacturer: Hongtu
Weight (both halves combined): ~1.2kg (Altair 5-row) | ~900g (Altair-X 4-row)
Dimensions (per half): ~143.6 x 126.4 x 30.0mm (Altair 5-row) | ~143.6 x 107.4 x 27.9mm (Altair-X 4-row)
PCB: 1.2mm thick; hotswap
Colors:- E-white
- Dark Grey
- Rose Gold
Custom keyset designs: 
An Important NoteWhile I'll be mirroring project updates here, please don't forget to check on updates from whichever vendor you are purchasing from - there may be region-specific updates at some point, for example for logistical delays that only affect one vendor or another.
I also have a
Discord server if you want to come drop by to ask questions in real-time.
