Here is our progress report about the making of the Das Keyboard 5Q for the Kickstarter backers.
In this update:
- bring-up (initial power up and debug) of the hardware
- impressive LED lighting demonstrated with just “Normal USB 2.0 power”
- mechanical structural design in process
- first look at hard tooled double shot keycaps
- Q software progressing towards alpha
September has been a busy month on both the hardware design and bring-up (power on and debug) of the 5Q electronics. The electrical design is fully up and running with some pretty impressive LED light output using standard USB 2.0 available power (500mA max). We’re excited to get this HW integrated into the complete product Mockup and see our keycaps come to life. And then test out the RGB+ high brightness capability of the design.
On the mechanical front, lots of effort getting the structural support into the design without disrupting the fairly dense printed circuit board layout. Our first hard tooled double shot keycaps have been sampled and were busy working to cleanup the minor tooling issues so that we can get ready for the keycap texturing process which is the last step prior to production parts off the tool.
On the software side which includes Q cloud and Q desktop, we are wrapping up the proof of concept phase and will soon start on an alpha release. The SDK won’t be ready for a while, but the sooner the better of course.
Until next time,
The Das Keyboard Team