It's happening! Initial units are now available! Please visit www.gestaltinput.com and take a look around.The Santoku is a 40% column staggered keyboard with prioritized support for Trackpoint (pointer stick) type devices.
Quick pics:My Daily Driver
perce's beta Santoku
Tamagotono's beta Santoku
shaymdev's beta Santoku
Highlights:- Trackpoint prioritized design - Not an afterthought. Dedicated mouse click buttons, easily usable with your thumbs, are located on both sides of the board. Keep your typing and your mousing mentally separated without leaving the home row!
- Split or compact - The two halves separate as needed. At home or your office with a big desk? Spread out and use it in split mode. On a flight or at the coffeehouse? Push the halves together and use in compact mode.
- Mouse Scroll Wheel - Use the mouse scroll wheel for whatever you want. I use it just like on a mouse to scroll through long documents.
- OLED - A minor but helpful feature to help you know what your board is thinking.
- Lightweight and low-profile - This is a "go anywhere" board. No brass weights in your carry-on bag.
The Trackpoint takes front and center and the Santoku was quite literally built around it. It was designed to be my single board that is used at home, office, and on the road. Except for very special use cases like CAD work, I never even pull out my mouse anymore.
I've been iterating the design for the last 2 years. The current version is in the hands of three beta testers who have mercilessly helped me find flaws in the design. Massive (huge) thank you to all of them!
I think I am finally close to the point where the Santoku can be made available for purchase. I'm hesitant to run a "group buy", holding peoples' money. If something goes wrong I'd prefer to hurt myself and not my reputation. So, while I am exploring all of my options, the current thinking is to see how much interest there is in the Santoku. I will self-fund and pre-build some quantity, then use the sales from those to fund the next round for more buyers. All that said, if you have input on this, I welcome it.
Interest Check:This is my first attempt at making the Santoku available to the public, so I'm taking the slow and steady approach. If you're interested in the Santoku please help me with the next steps by filling out the Interest Check form:
Interest Check.
The Kit:The plan is to offer the Santoku as an almost complete kit for you to build. The kit will include every part needed for a complete keyboard (
except keyswitches and, likely, keycaps). It is designed around Kailh Chocs and MBK keycaps. It is possible that other keycaps might work but they are not supported.
For tools, you will need a soldering iron and a small Phillips-head screwdriver for M2 screws. Additionally, you may need a way to carve out four keycaps for the Trackpoint nub. A Dremel or rotary cutting tool is the easiest tool to use for this. Feedback on this is welcome here. There is also a section on the Interest Check for you to provide input.
Other Stuff:A lot of people have asked about Discord. I don't use Discord often but MrZealot from the Absolem Club server was kind enough to allow me a channel on his server. You can use this invite link until the spam bots become troublesome:
https://discord.gg/upRHEHVNWr .
Price:TBD. It will be more expensive than a "budget" 40% because of all the custom parts. My initial goal is to 3D print the case and parts. However, if there is enough interest, there is a future possibility to have real injection molded parts and/or an aluminum case made.
