Phoenix - a TKL by Cable Car Designs

Update 4: 13/02. Apologies for the long delay since the last update here. Currently everything is ready except the PCBs. I placed an order for these with a vendor who has an in-house design studio last May and unfortunately there was no order placed with a manufacturer until last week. I am currently arranging an alternative and we should have PCBs with vendors within a month meaning everything is ready to ship. Thank you everyone for your patience


Update 3: 19/10. All the cases have finished production ahead of schedule - still waiting on all the other parts to be finished so that they can be shipped out to all the vendors, we are looking very good on shipping this quarter. Thanks for all the support

Update 2: 22/07. Everything is in production now - I am still working on getting more concrete timelines so I can provide a better update. Thanks all

Update 1: 04/04. First off, thanks to all of you who joined the group buy :-) Apologies for the silence so far - we are working behind the scenes to collate numbers etc and prepare the manufacturing phase. Unfortunately not as many boards were sold as expected so we are working out how we can make sure the boards still get manufactured and into your hands.

Hello geekhack keyboard enthusiasts,

This is the official group buy thread for Phoenix - an F13 tenkeyless keyboard.


Photo credit PeppyToad, Julian, @thinkkwer,

Key Features

• F13 Tenkeyless layout with ANSI and ISO support
• Sandwich gasket mount designed for consistency and type feel (poron as default)
• USB Type-C w/ universal daughterboard support
• PCB with south facing stabiliser support
• Semi-seamless design with thin bezels
• 6.5° typing angle
• 20.268mm front height (with feet inc 7.8mm high profile) Effective Keyboard Height is 23.173. Details in Additional links
• Weights: 4kg built with brass base, brass base alone is 3.2kg, alu base is just over 1kg so built with alu base will be approx 2kg
• That curve

Note about the weights: they are approx due to limited access to precision scales, some private owners measure it at 4.1, some at 3.9 so consider it ~4kg rather than dead on

Group Buy Details

• Pricing: $499 (Aluminium base) $599 (Brass base), additional parts pricing will be confirmed ASAP
• Regional pricing will be added as soon as the vendors provide it to me
• Date: 2022 March 4th through to 2022 March 25th
• Format: Unlimited

Album of photos from the private round buyers

Link to the interest check on geekhack

Options

• Colors: Dark Red, Silver, or Black - in your chosen configuration (brass not available in any plated form)
• WK or WKL top (the plates will only support a 7u bottom row)
• Full brass or aluminium base (brass base is clear coated)
• Plates: Polycarbonate or aluminium, ANSI or ISO
• The PCB will be a customised version of mechstudio’s mk88 complete with daughterboard and JST cable, solderable only
• The board will ship with a hard case
• Additional plates (inc gaskets), PCBs

The PCB will be a solderable version only - you can use any a.88 PCB with daughterboard support.

Vendors
Here is a list of the retailers with their respective prices and regions. There are no regional restrictions outside of where a store can normally ship to, please buy from whichever vendor is best for you! Once I have product specific pages I will update the links below

RegionRetailer & LinkRegional priceNotesEuropemykeyboard.eu€549 / €659 USAMekibo$499 / $599CanadaApexKeyboards$629 CAD / $754 CADOCEDaily Clack$750.00 AUD / $891.00 AUD SingaporeHex KeyboardsS$678.00 / S$814.00East Asiakibou.storeHK$3,899.00 / HK$4,679.00 IndonesiapluskbIDR 7.200.000 / IDR 8.700.000Discord only - Order FormUKKeebCats£399 / £499
Due to the ongoing complications of the pandemic an exact timeline is hard to nail down, I would be hopeful everything can be manufactured and shipped in around 6-9 months. Though once we have a better idea of the volume of boards it will be easier to get a better timeline to share. This would put delivery around November-December, I will update this post as the buy progresses.


Plate files will be made available in my github plate repository once production files are confirmed.

Here is an exploded view


If you have any questions or comments about the case/pcb/buy etc. please ask here or by any of these contact methods: Reddit, Geekhack, email, discord.
I am most available on discord but will try to get back to you in a reasonable timeframe any way you reach out.

Thank you for your time

– Max

Additional links:
Soundtests pastelink
Github on Effective Keyboard Height

Thanks to:
Private Round buyers for their invaluable feedback
Morgana for an exceptional logo design
Everyone who was so enthusiastic to see the board come to life
you for reading the thanks section