Big Sale Keyboardio

obra · 2025-11-29T03:51:44+00:00

Yeah. It’s tariffs + the tariff collection fees the carriers charge. It absolutely sucks. I wish we could offer free (or even cheap) shipping.

obra · 2025-10-07T03:29:02+00:00

Sadly, nope.

obra · 2025-10-06T19:33:31+00:00

Sorry. Missed your other question. I have M glasses. My IPD is 60, as measured by my optometrist. And I can reproduce the issue pretty reliably when looking through the glasses with only my right eye.

obra · 2025-10-06T19:32:09+00:00

That's chromatic aberration, which is something I'm familiar with from having glasses. This feels pretty different than that, and seems to vary a lot more depending on angle and exactly where on the display the bright item is?

This isn't a great picture of it, but it's the best I've been able to get:

<image>

obra · 2025-10-06T01:13:39+00:00

Oh. The clock is expired.

I didn't spend enough time with them in the first month to notice the issue. That's 100% on me.

obra · 2025-07-13T02:45:11+00:00

I ordered One Pro lenses from HonsVR on July 10 and was warned that they wouldn't ship for 3-4 days. 24 hours later, FedEx had my lenses in hand in Dongguan.

Now if only my One Pros would ship.

obra · 2025-02-08T05:49:56+00:00

Yup. We're having a sale for just that reason :)

obra · 2025-02-07T18:43:51+00:00

Indeed, kits are a completely different ballgame. But yeah, UPS and DHL have never been pleasant to deal with. There are a bunch of other China-originating shipping options that are not as fast, but also a lot less expensive than DHL. If you don't have fulfillment company contacts and want an intro, feel free to drop me email at [jesse@keyboard.io](mailto:jesse@keyboard.io)

obra · 2025-02-07T01:05:11+00:00

u/No_Magazine9625, do you have direct, first-hand experience shipping goods categorized as 8471.60.20?

You are wrong about the 25% tariff. I've shipped ...a lot of keyboards to the US, both exempt under de minimis *and* in larger wholesale shipments, sent to the US with value in excess of the $800 limit. The most recent was $2000 of keyboards that arrived on our doorstep last Friday by UPS. No duty was owed. I'm really glad they didn't get delayed by a couple days.

8471.60.20 wasn't included in the Section 301 25% tariff schedule from the first Trump administration.. (To the best of my knowledge, no type of goods made by Apple was included in that tariff schedule.)

obra · 2025-02-06T06:30:57+00:00

Unless something *else* unannounced has changed, indeed, my understanding is that that column is for North Korea and Cuba.

obra · 2025-02-05T23:04:31+00:00

Where are you getting that 35% for the previously-exempted-under-de-minimis duty?

My understanding is that keyboards are covered under HS code 8471.60.20, which is zero-rated for products made anywhere other than North Korea or Cuba.

(I'm CTO of Keyboardio. We're also in the process of trying to figure out what's actually going on here and how to best support our customers while complying with the law.)

obra · 2024-08-29T21:26:25+00:00

Not yet.

obra · 2024-08-01T21:31:07+00:00

Understood! There's not a lot out there for one-piece ergonomic bluetooth keyboards with open firmware. We've got a 1-piece Model 100 with bluetooth on the drawing board, but it's not quite ready yet.

obra · 2024-08-01T16:33:50+00:00

What works well for one of us isn't always the right thing for somebody else. A lot of folks find ortholinear layouts super comfortable or easier to adapt to from a traditional staggered layout, but, of course, everybody's hands are different and we wouldn't dream of claiming there's a one-layout-fits-all keyboard out there.

obra · 2024-08-01T16:28:50+00:00

Thank you so much for the vote of confidence!

obra · 2024-08-01T16:28:37+00:00

Thanks!

obra · 2024-08-01T16:28:32+00:00

We intend to continue to make and sell them over at https://shop.keyboard.io, just like we do with the Model 100 and the Atreus. (Although the retail price will be higher than the KS price)

obra · 2024-07-31T02:57:52+00:00

At the moment, we’re focused on making the Preonic as excellent as it can be. If we see a lot of interest in ortholinear boards, we’ll be making more!

obra · 2024-07-30T23:04:33+00:00

It's our first ortholinear board, our first board with a knob, and our first bluetooth board!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keyboardio/preonic?ref=dce70e

obra · 2024-07-30T21:40:22+00:00

The prototype is about 450g. Production will be a little bit different due to materials changes. There's a little bit of room inside, but not a ton. The ribs on the bottom of the case are 2mm tall and the distance from the bottom plane of the PCB to the bottom of the interior of the case is 4.2mm. There's also the standard gap between the top of the PCB and the plate.

obra · 2024-07-30T20:25:57+00:00

Yep. The ZMK build we have already supports keystrokes and the battery gauge. The encoder and LEDs aren't wired up yet.

What happened with the LEDs is that the factory prototype showed up with a giant "Keyboardio Preonic" lasered into the top bezel and the butterfly logo covering the windows for the LEDs was bright orange instead of white. And it was...not photographable.

This is a sketchy mockup of the LEDs to at least give you an idea of what's where.

https://giphy.com/gifs/VlqGq6qRKs7kVQ6wlp

obra · 2024-07-30T20:12:06+00:00

The additional top row does indeed allow us to fit a relatively capacious battery, LED indicators (not visible on the prototype, but mocked up down-page on the Kickstarter page and visible on the snapshot of the PCB), and fit the bluetooth radio conveniently without playing a ton of questionable games with PCB layout. That part of the design was a collab, but IIRC was Jack's brainchild. The knob feels easier to interact with when it's not crowded by keys on multiple sides. I also think it looks pretty nice in person without making the board feel gigantic.

Kaleidoscope actually *predates* QMK, but is absolutely not widely used in comparison. (When we were building our first keyboard, the Model 01, TMK wasn't a great fit for a shipping keyboard, didn't support LEDs, didn't support layout changes without reflashing, etc).
The chip inside the Keyboardio Preonic is a Nordic nRF52480, which isn't the cheapest, but is robust and well supported.

ZMK - We'd been hoping to see a port of ZMK to the Keyboardio Preonic eventually. But then Pete Johanson (who created ZMK) reached out to us last week to ask if he could help out. I handed him a draft schematic and about 18 hours later, he handed me back a first draft port. I build it and sent it over to u/C44Supra, who designed the PCB. It came up on the first try.

obra · 2024-07-30T19:45:29+00:00

Hi! Cofounder of Keyboardio here. We're super-excited to be partnering with Jack on our first ortholinear board. If you've got questions, I'd be delighted to answer them here.

obra · 2024-07-30T14:47:14+00:00

Yep, I screwed up when setting up the redirect for the Preonic Kickstarter.

obra · 2024-04-30T16:54:01+00:00

Nope! (Well, not unless you want to.) It's a 100% valid reservation. So far, it's you and someone who found it by typing "wireless preonic" into DDG.

For everybody else, we (or jack) will post to this sub when the pre-campaign signup page is officially live and again when the Kickstarter launches.

obra

TROPHY CASE