Alpine Winter - 60% Alps DCS Keycaps

njbair · 25 Sep 2015, 15:34

Hey DT. I want to let you all know about my group buy for Alps keycaps over on Geekhack. It's called Alpine Winter, and if successful it will be the first complete 60% set of Alps keycaps produced by the community.

The really great thing about this set is the huge number of 60% layouts it supports, including ISO and AEK II and Infinity Hacker spacebars! It's actually more compatible than most MX keycap sets.

GB thread: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=75515.0

Anyone can join, not just Geekhack members. So take a look if you're a fan of Alps!

I will be monitoring this thread as well as the main Geekhack thread, so feel free to reply with any questions. Thanks!

Spikebolt · 25 Sep 2015, 16:11

Looks a lot like the TA set, which is a huge plus. Not a big fan on the "Alpine" keycap but other than that looks very solid.

Price is a bit steep for non-GMK ABS keycaps but considering this is the first custom alps set you're producing it's a good achievement.

Good luck!

njbair · 25 Sep 2015, 20:35

The blue is similar to the teal in Triumph Adler, just without the green. I just received the color chips from SP today. It's exactly what I pictured--a pure, deep blue.

I actually did not choose the colors myself. I started an IC with a hideous purple/yellow mockup (it was very late) just because I wanted to see some custom Alps caps get made. Fortunately, some others in the thread had some good suggestions and we ended up with the colorway you see here.

Cherry1990 · 25 Sep 2015, 22:17

Nice colour set, would be nice to have it also for MX switches...

njbair · 25 Sep 2015, 22:47

Cherry1990 wrote: Nice colour set, would be nice to have it also for MX switches...

You poor Cherry MX folks with your limited keycap options...

That's one of the things I'm most excited about with this set--that we Alps enthusiasts have a shot at something unique, not just a Cherry MX colorway clone.

pyrelink · 26 Sep 2015, 00:17

Awesome, thanks for running this. Will look great in combo with Badwrenches infinity mods, on my Hasu 60%. Just to clarify on the order form, the add on space bars are only extras right? We are still getting all 3 in the picture?

njbair · 26 Sep 2015, 03:20

pyrelink wrote: Awesome, thanks for running this. Will look great in combo with Badwrenches infinity mods, on my Hasu 60%. Just to clarify on the order form, the add on space bars are only extras right? We are still getting all 3 in the picture?

Thanks! One of my stated goals from the start of the interest check was to choose colors which would complement Badwrench's modifiers.

You're correct about the spacebars. The base kit includes 4 spacebars: 6U, 6.2U, 6.5U, and 7U. The add-on kits are just in case, because those 6 and 6.5 sizes are hard to come by.

I'm actually really impressed by the response to the spacebars so far. All three kits are already two-thirds to MOQ of 25 each.

Redmaus · 26 Sep 2015, 05:12

Wow nice! Color scheme isn't my forte but I really hope its successful!

t8c · 26 Sep 2015, 11:45

Redmaus wrote: Wow nice! Color scheme isn't my forte but I really hope its successful!

My thoughts exactly. It's a great step for Alps fans, and very promising for what is to come in the future

shreebles · 26 Sep 2015, 12:03

While I use MX and Buckling spring keyboards, I'm happy to see that options for Alps users are popping up, which encourages the possibility for me to use Alps in the future.
After being quite disappointed with old SKCM black Alps I am looking forward to trying a Matias switch soon.

njbair · 26 Sep 2015, 17:20

shreebles wrote: While I use MX and Buckling spring keyboards, I'm happy to see that options for Alps users are popping up, which encourages the possibility for me to use Alps in the future.
After being quite disappointed with old SKCM black Alps I am looking forward to trying a Matias switch soon.

I've got some Matias Quiet Click switches in an Infinity keyboard, and I like them a lot. I actually prefer them to tactile MX switches. Genuine Alps have their own charm, but I think Matias switches hold their own. And the company is committed to the enthusiast community. In fact, Edgar Matias is in China right now and one of his agenda items is to inspect their new tooling for replacement keycaps (PBT dyesub and blanks, AFAIK) which will be rolling out as soon as production details are finalized.

hammelgammler · 26 Sep 2015, 17:26

Hopefully they come up with some nice PBT blanks in this year, that would be awesome!
I really need some blanks, but with my hands, ABS begins so shine kind of quickly...

njbair · 28 Sep 2015, 02:36

A friend of mine produced some really great 3D renders of this set:

njbair · 08 Oct 2015, 17:32

Hey DT, it's been a while so I just wanted to share some updates on the Alpine Winter GB.

We clinched the 50 pcs. MOQ over the weekend, and since then we've gotten several more orders, so that we are now 86% of the way to 100 pcs.!!!

All of this while Massdrop is re-running their Tai Hao Alps doubleshots in WoB, Dolch, and Olivetti colorways for $20. That buy is currently at 85 sets out of 100 with 3 days left. I wrote a review of the Tai Hao doubleshots if you're interested. Now I know that you're thinking: this guy who's running an Alps keycap group buy writes a review of some other Alps keycaps. But my conclusion is that those caps are really impressive for under $30 shipped, and I'm glad I bought them.

Alpine Winter was never about being the cheapest, but about providing an original colorway and offering the broadest compatibility for Alps 60% keyboards. In that sense I don't necessarily view Massdrop's keycaps as direct competition, since they only offer support for standard ANSI 104-key layouts. Besides, as an Alps enthusiast, I love the fact that there are more Alps cap options available.

So anyway, if you haven't joined the buy yet, we'd love to have you on board! And there are still two weeks left to join, so I'm confident that we'll tip the 100 mark.

Finally, here's another cool 3D-rendered glamour shot:

njbair · 18 Oct 2015, 05:36

Hey, all. Big news! Alpine Winter has passed the 100 mark and tipped the $70 MOQ! This is happy news for Alps fans because it will be the most successful community-run Alps group buy to date.

Also, I'm going to put in a plug for the Monarch LHTK Alps keyboard, a really classy, extremely well-made custom keyboard based on the AEKII. The Monarch GB runs through this month and into early November. The cost is $250 USD.

I've been working closely with koalapear, the Monarch's creator, and a third party to secure Monarch compatibility for Alpine Winter. The add-on pack includes all the blank keycaps necessary to fill out the numpad cluster, and costs just $16 USD.

I'm super excited to be a part of this and just wanted to share the news with you all. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!