Updates ・1/22 - GB closed. MOQ successfully reached. ・2/25 - Manufacturing process started. ・3/10 - Build guide first draft uploaded. ・4/13 - Everything has arrived. Simple QA and packing have started. ・4/26 - Getting ready to ship out. An important announcement has been made about the shipping upgrade option and the PCB color. Scroll to the bottom for more details.
My Story pochi is an accessible 40%. I wanted to make a 40% that can be a gateway to the beautiful world of 40s, such a keyboard that lowers the bar for non-40ers, so more people can experience the great things about 40s. So I made a 40% that’s affordable, yet has a good typing feel. I made it base-kit compatible with a wide variety of color options so that everyone can try it out more easily.
Minimal ≠ Boring One of the things I love about 40% boards is their minimal looks. pochi has a bezel-Less minimal aesthetic, but minimal doesn’t have to be all black and white. I believe minimal is the simplest, yet the most effective way of expressing yourself. I wanted to make pochi something exciting to look at, and something that brightens up your desk.
Pick your own minimal
14 Color Combinations You will have to pick two colors. One for the body, one for the stack that comes underneath the body. We have two options for the body, black and white, and seven for the stack. Visit product page to see more colors!
Affordable, yet feels Good I wanted something affordable for everyone, but I didn’t want to sacrifice the quality, nice typing feeling, or the sound. By stacking layers of PORON foam sandwiched between FR4 plates (the PCB material), we accomplished a bouncy soft typing feeling and a nicely dampened sound while maintaining the affordability.
pochi's structure (left) / pochi's bottom foam has the honeycomb structure (right)
pochi’s bottom foam, one of the three sheets of PORON foam, has the honeycomb structure. I was looking for the best material for the foam, something that is soft enough that cushions our fingers comfortably when typing, and at the same time, hard enough that bounces back nicely. I tried many different materials in different hardnesses, and I found that picking the right material wasn’t enough. The combination of PORON LE-20 and the honeycomb structure achieves just the right feeling I was searching for.
13U. Base-kit compatible. I made pochi base-kit compatible to lower the bar for everyone that wants to try a 40%. Finding 1.25U tabs, 1.5U shifts, and some other weird keycaps is something we all struggled with when we first started our 40s journey. And of course, there are both solder and hotswap options. PCB supports a bit more options like stepped caps lock, short left shift, and ISO enter.
pochi's supported layout
GB Time & Target Schedule ◆ Dec. 3rd, 2022 - Jan. 22nd, 2023 23:59 EST ◆ Target shipping date is Mid March – end of April, 2023. *I will do my best to stick to the target, however, the actual dates could be shifted depending on different variables. Please follow this thread, and for more detailed reports join the discord channel on 40% server.
Photos
For 40+ photos & 20+ renders, Videos visit Product Page
Recap: pochi at a glance ◆ GB live until Jan. 22(Sun) 23:59EST ◆ Bezel-Less Minimal Aesthetic ◆ 14 Color Combinations ◆ Body: Black / White ◆ Stack: Black / White / Red / Green / Blue / Yellow / Purple ◆ 13U Base-kit Compatible ◆ 3 Layers of PORON make the typing comfortable ◆ (Optional) Split Spacebar / ISO Enter ◆ (Optional) Rotary Encoder ◆ ~6° Typing Angle ◆ $76.42 USD
More photos, renders, videos, and other small details Please visit the Product Page for more information. There is a gallery at the bottom of the page.
Important Note Please note that pochi is a budget board, and its concept is an accessible 40%. There is always a trade-off between cost and quality. Although I wanted to make it the best quality possible, I had to give up some details for a more reasonable price for everyone. One example is the PCB and the stack. The price difference was so significant that I had to choose a more reasonable vendor for less thorough QA. If you set the bar for those mid to premium boards, pochi might feel “B-stock quality” for you, but I believe I made the right choice. I hope we can all love pochi the way it is, love its small scratches and defects as well as its qualities.
Announcement 4/26 >>>> 1. Change on shipping <<<< We will have to replan the shipping for the following reasons: 1. All major Japanese shipping companies raised their prices, and/or changed their service menus in the last couple of months due to the economy. 2. Japan hasn't recovered fully from Covid yet, and the shipping options are still limited. The ones that I normally use that are cheap and fast are suspended and not available at this moment. 3. I didn't put any buffer on the shipping charge (Maybe I should have for a situation like this, but I wanted pochi's price to be as low as possible.)
After talking to the pochi channel members on Discord, I have decided the following: - I will ship pochi to you by sea. - I will cover the additional cost (i.e. For the US, that's $11.8 - $9.7 = $2.1) - But, the delivery time can be very long (Usually 1-2 months. Sometimes more. And unfortunately, no tracking will be available). So If anyone wants it to be shipped by air, you can pay the difference here and I'll do that.
It breaks my heart and I am sorry that I have to bring this up to everyone. No one wants to hear they have to wait for another few months after waiting for a long time for the production already.
If you're interested in the air option, please refer to the email sent to you regarding this announcement on Apr. 26th.
Here is the new shipment schedule: Until 5/2 You can pay the difference and upgrade the shipping plan. I created a product page on the website, so you can 'purchase' the upgrade. Please make sure you use the same email address and name that you used when you ordered pochi. Any changes/upgrades on orders must be made by May 2nd, 11:59 PM EST. 5/3 - 5/7 I will ship out everything. (We have a week-long holiday here, so this will be a perfect time for me to work on the shipment.)
>>>> 2. Hotswap socket color (For Hotswap White body) <<<< It was found that some white PCBs have different color hotswap sockets on the board. I didn't notice at first (I'm color blind and I can't distinguish some colors), and my buddies that helped me with packing pointed it out.
About half of the PCBs have two different color sockets (white and cream) on them. Please see the photo attached to the email. (And the rest of the PCBs have only black sockets.)
I have been discussing this with the manu, but I'm not sure if they can do anything about this as they have been supporting us a lot to keep the price low, and all PCBs 'work' as expected.
After talking to the pochi members on Discord, I have decided to ship the products as is (you will get either a PCB with white & cream sockets, or a PCB with black sockets) and avoid any more delay in shipping, but please do not hesitate to contact me in case you want to change the body color to black, which has all sockets in black.
Thank you to all of you so much for supporting this project and for being so nice, warm, and kind to me.
Once again, any changes/upgrades on orders must be made by May 2nd, 11:59 PM EST. For the shipping upgrade, please visit the product page, and for anything else. you can reply to the email, or you can reach me on Discord either on the 40% Discord server, or DM me here: murasaki#4793. Sometimes emails go to the spam folders, so if you don't get my reply within a couple of days, please send me a ping on Discord.
