Interest CheckKeyboards

Vanguard65 (VG65) | GB closed - In production

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Description

Vanguard65 (VG65)

MUST READ: We can’t thank you enough for all the love and support you’ve given us with our Vanguard65 keyboard midi 🙏The amount of pre-orders have exceeded our MOQ expectations and beyond.🚀Much ❤️ to all of the keyboard content creators/hobbyists who helped us with photos, reels, and in-depth product reviews. Extras will be available after GB.

Thanks to all who joined me on this journey.
Everything has moved over to GH's Group Buy & Pre-Order board.
CLICK HERE FOR SOUND TESTS, PRODUCT PHOTOS, AND MORE

Gallery

Proto Shots
Note: I'm by no means a professional photographer so excuse the bad shots. Pro photos will come soon.

Expand for more photos

What is VG65 about?
It’s been a long dream of mine to design a custom board that provides something truly personalized to add to the keyboard collection. The Vanguard65 (VG65), is a keyboard kit that serves both aesthetic beauty and function while incorporating a slider and knob. The case design is inspired by the Porsche Cayman, which is a perfect representation of a timeless masterpiece.

This interest check is intended for you to help out with the following:

Base kit “default” PCB options – soldered, hotswap, iso...
Include foam dampening kit?
ISO support for my Euro friends?
Poll to boil color options to 4 instead of 7.
Add-on plate material options
Bluetooth support?
Weight color and material.

<<<<CLICK HERE TO INTEREST CHECK FORM>>>>

Why the name Vanguard?
Noun. “A group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas”.

IMO - The word, Vanguard, is representative of what I have been able to design, build, and achieve in 2022. Starting with the creation of DOOM switches, which is the 1st of its kind to introduce a new PE material called HDPE into the hobby. Following that, I designed and mass-produced BIGWIG switches which is the 1st switch to introduce and use PBT material as a housing in the Western market. BIGWIG is also the first and only switch to use HDPE/PBT for top and bottom housing combination. Additionally, I introduced a new small switch manufacturer named Meirun. Lastly, the word Vanguard is just f**king cool.

Specifications

Plate Materials
Plateless or Full Aluminum, FR4, PC, POM, Carbon Fiber, Brass

Typing Angle
6.5 degrees

Front Height
19.2mm

Weight
Brass, sandblasted CC

Mount
Gasket Sock PCB Mount

Case Materials
Top - Aluminum 6063 (top)
Bottom - Polycarbonate White Frosted or Black Aluminum 6063

PCB

Custom designed hotswap with underglow
ANSI/ISO hotswap support
QMK/VIA compatible
Split backspace support
Kailh hotswap sockets
Universal USB-C daughterboard

What does that slider do?

Prioritizing User experience first, we built an extension within VIA for a seamless user experience to switch the slider on-the-fly with ease.

Layers Shift: Switch between keyboard layers by allowing slider to to easily transition between your different key bindings set within VIA.
MIDI encoding: Let the slider act as a MIDI CC, meaning you can program it to pass values to supported software in order to make adjustments on the fly beyond music and photo/video production. We will provide more details of a recommended list of DAW software and open-source apps that you can download free in the builders guide.
RGB Brightness Control: Set the brightness levels of the case underglow.
Volume Control: Command your system volume with MIDI companion programs

Colorways
At the moment, I got carried away with different color options for the case. However, I need to be realistic and would really like your help to boil this down to just 4 options instead of 7.

Colors are confirmed thanks to IC submissions.