Your Happy Hacking Keyboard deserves some fresh caps

Listen, I don’t want to beryllium nan feline who ever posts astir weird keyboard stuff. I person different interests. But I request to show nan dozens of Verge readers pinch Topre keyboards astir these keycaps. Ursa is a caller spherical doubleshot keycap floor plan for Topre that is disposable for group bargain until May 15th.

Reactions to nan erstwhile condemnation will apt autumn into 3 camps:

I americium usually a group three, but today, I americium successful group two. If you’re successful group one, present is what immoderate of those words mean. Topre keyboards, for illustration nan Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional, usage different switches than modular mechanical keyboards. They usage small rubber domes pinch a snappy, top-heavy tactile consciousness that you can’t really get anyplace other (I’ve tried).

But Topre is simply a mini portion of nan monolithic mechanical keyboard market. Unlike modular MX-style mechanical keyboards — wherever keyboard, switch, and keycap options each number successful nan thousands — location are only a fistful of Topre boards retired location and a very mini number of ways to customize them.

In summation to nan HHKB, Topre switches are besides recovered successful Realforce keyboards and a fewer Leopold boards, for illustration my beloved FC660C. With a fewer exceptions, they don’t activity pinch regular MX-style keycaps, and pickings are slim.

There are nan banal keycaps, which are very bully dye-sub PBT but only travel successful a fewer colour options. There are a few highly costly high-profile keycaps from discontinued keyboards and immoderate janky aftermarket sets. Most group who want to alteration retired nan keycaps connected their Topre boards extremity up putting successful MX-compatible sliders.

(If you are wondering why group would walk hundreds of dollars connected a keyboard that is cleanable correct retired of nan container and past walk a bunch much money changing everything astir it, we each person encephalon worms.)

So, backmost to Ursa. The Ursa floor plan was developed by designer Andreas Chlupka and manufactured by FKCaps. I’ve been pursuing its improvement for a mates of years now, because I americium a animal who likes beautiful keycaps. And these are pretty, pinch bully sculpted spherical tops and centered legends. They’re nan first doubleshot PBT keycaps disposable for Topre boards that I’m alert of.

The Ursa keycaps are available successful classical grey and off-white, achromatic pinch achromatic legends (with optional reddish aliases bluish modifier keys), and a Minitel 1-inspired retro brown, green, and cream. $80 will get you a group that tin screen an HHKB aliases an FC660C; it’ll costs $120 to screen a full-sized Realforce. If you don’t request legends (the portion that tells you what cardinal it is), a afloat group of blanks successful either achromatic aliases classical will costs $60.

They’re estimated to vessel successful Q1 2025, which seems for illustration a agelong measurement distant but is comparatively short successful keycap group bargain land.

What could spell wrong?

Plenty of things could spell wrong! The FKCaps squad seems pretty clear-eyed astir nan challenges. The astir contiguous is that if they don’t get capable orders to salary for nan double-shot tooling, they can’t make nan keycaps and nan group bargain will beryllium canceled. Personally, I do not for illustration this outcome.

Then location is nan group bargain exemplary itself, which is communal successful enthusiast communities but does require paying for a merchandise good earlier it’s really made and trusting nan vendor to salary nan manufacturer, nan shaper to make nan point and get it to nan vendor, and nan vendor to nonstop it to you. Many a group bargain has foundered astatine 1 of those stages!

Simon Tarchichi, co-founder of FKCaps, told maine via email, “We understand nan conditions are not bully for a group buy, and we surely would person done it otherwise if we could. That being said, we person acquisition successful producing caller keycap profiles, this is our 5th task (after MBK, HEX, MNT Pocket and SLK) and contempt nan truth that this 1 is much analyzable because they are doubleshot, we wouldn’t beryllium collecting customer’s money if we weren’t 100% assured successful nan outcome.”

The adjacent challenge, of course, is really making nan keycaps. Right now, speech from 3D-printed prototypes, FKCaps only has single-shot keycap samples from their manufacturer, and immoderate of nan stems are crooked. This is simply a communal problem pinch aftermarket Topre caps for illustration nan KBDfans group I’m utilizing correct now. PBT is simply a tricky worldly to activity with, pinch tons of shrinkage, truthful it whitethorn return a fewer tries to get nan stems consecutive and nan legends right, which is why FKCaps built successful 5 months to create and refine nan tooling. Tarchichi told maine that nan shaper is nan aforesaid 1 that makes their different keycaps and that it has acquisition making doubleshot PBT caps, which is reassuring.

I americium not going to show you to bargain these keycaps. Group buys are risky, and manufacturing is difficult — FKCaps only resorted to a group bargain aft it couldn’t find an investor to beforehand nan money for what is, aft all, an incredibly niche product. And cipher needs to walk this benignant of money connected keycaps for an already costly keyboard.

I did, though.