The "Galaxy Class" keyset I designed a year or so ago as part of the GeekHack.org keyboard enthusiast community is up for a Round-2 group buy at MassDrop, launching today, 1/23/15, and will be open for two weeks. (Note that you'll need to sign up for a free MassDrop account to be able to see the listing I linked to.)
I have never made any money off the sale of these sets; it is just a fun community-driven hobby project for me that I organized because I wanted one of them for myself.
I wanted to let my fellow Star Trek nerds here on the RPF know in case anyone is interested—and to make myself available answer any questions (I know from firsthand experience that all the options available in enthusiast "mechanical keyboards" can seem an intimidating subject for those unfamiliar with all the jargon).
A bit of background info: this is a set of custom-manufactured and printed set of key caps in ABS plastic that fit on Cherry MX-compatible mechanical keyboards, such as my personal favorite, the Japanese Filco Majestouch.
You can find a brief history of the set here. It took over a year to design and manufacture, and we had to employ new dye sublimation processes that had actually never been used before in the mechanical keyboard hobby to give maximum fidelity to the original SWISS 911 font that was used to make the TNG graphics. I also based my color matches off of a screen-used LCARS translite I have from the set of TNG. You can read the whole extended (somewhat log and technical) history of the set and its original group Round 1 buy on GeekHack.org (a sort of RPF equivalent for keyboard enthusiasts).
In the first group buy, these cost about $100 per "Core" set. I think it was roughly $130 if you wanted a set with keys to cover a keyboard with a numpad. MassDrop is hoping to greatly better that price in this round by drumming up more interest from its own large keyboard enthusiast member community. We shall see! This round also offers even more options than the last one, including a blank key set without any legends at all and just the LCARS colors.
Some more photos of the Round 1 set:
And the digital mockups for Round 2
And one other little point of personal pride about the set. The LCARS guru himself actually made a laudatory post about the first round buy on his Facebook.
I am basically just the self-appointed "fan community coordinator" and sort-of designer of this set; production is being handled by Signature Plastics in Washington State and order processing/fulfillment is being handled by MassDrop, a website that empowers groups of enthusiasts to band together to buy weird custom small runs of stuff. But I'm happy to help facilitate!
I have never made any money off the sale of these sets; it is just a fun community-driven hobby project for me that I organized because I wanted one of them for myself.
I wanted to let my fellow Star Trek nerds here on the RPF know in case anyone is interested—and to make myself available answer any questions (I know from firsthand experience that all the options available in enthusiast "mechanical keyboards" can seem an intimidating subject for those unfamiliar with all the jargon).A bit of background info: this is a set of custom-manufactured and printed set of key caps in ABS plastic that fit on Cherry MX-compatible mechanical keyboards, such as my personal favorite, the Japanese Filco Majestouch.
You can find a brief history of the set here. It took over a year to design and manufacture, and we had to employ new dye sublimation processes that had actually never been used before in the mechanical keyboard hobby to give maximum fidelity to the original SWISS 911 font that was used to make the TNG graphics. I also based my color matches off of a screen-used LCARS translite I have from the set of TNG. You can read the whole extended (somewhat log and technical) history of the set and its original group Round 1 buy on GeekHack.org (a sort of RPF equivalent for keyboard enthusiasts).
In the first group buy, these cost about $100 per "Core" set. I think it was roughly $130 if you wanted a set with keys to cover a keyboard with a numpad. MassDrop is hoping to greatly better that price in this round by drumming up more interest from its own large keyboard enthusiast member community. We shall see! This round also offers even more options than the last one, including a blank key set without any legends at all and just the LCARS colors.
Some more photos of the Round 1 set:
And the digital mockups for Round 2
And one other little point of personal pride about the set. The LCARS guru himself actually made a laudatory post about the first round buy on his Facebook.
I am basically just the self-appointed "fan community coordinator" and sort-of designer of this set; production is being handled by Signature Plastics in Washington State and order processing/fulfillment is being handled by MassDrop, a website that empowers groups of enthusiasts to band together to buy weird custom small runs of stuff. But I'm happy to help facilitate!
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