System76 Launches Open Source Mechanical Keyboard

[whm1974]

20 minutes ago, James Evens said:

@whm1974 This can't be done for nearly $100:

1. this design isn't cost effective

2. tariffs. Everything comes from china and with that 20% additional cost (which the US customer pay and not China).

3. low quantities = higher price (not only production but also labor. Assuming they spend overall 1'000 hours on this thing you can do the math what this equals to per keyboard if they make 10'000 of those).

One of the major inefficiencies is there USB 3.0 hub. Look at the BOM and cost of 4 layer vs. 1 or 2 layer PCBs. Seeing 2 oz. copper inside the Roccat Ryos mk fx is unusual but 4 layer is mostly unheard of for keyboards. Also them using TI parts doesn't do them a favor. Open Source is hardly a value add as there is no shortage on opensource keyboards and they didn't excel by offering outstanding documentation (if they gone way over the top on this point I would say expensive, not worth it to me but $280 is fine).

 

Honestly $199 would be what I consider upper limit for a keyboard with this feature set so $280 is a bit of a stretch.

I would use MX Style Key switches and Keycaps since they are most common. I quickly notice that the 60% are the common Kits. I personally will want a TKL instead. However I'm well used to Full Size, so...

 

Over ~$200? Well $200 is sort of pushing it for me.

[Nowak]

For those of you asking "Why make a keyboard open source?", if you own a keyboard that uses QMK or KLL like the Drop Ctrl or Input Club Kira, then you have an open source keyboard already. Nothing about this keyboard or the whole "keyboard with open source firmware" concept is all that new.

 

It's like that time Logitech tried claiming they launched the first hot-swappable mechanical keyboard when hotswap keyboards already existed for years before theirs did. Nothing new but it's presented as a "huge innovation" because average people don't know any better.