deskthority

Icarium wrote: So I would need to build another Phantom or sell this one.

It's a case, just get both and swap when you get bored with one.

Icarium wrote:I got this today.

DSC01458-scaled.JPG

I tried to take a picture but it's so shiny it cannot be photographed. ;D

The sad thing is, I kind of want one of these: http://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2164 now. So I would need to build another Phantom or sell this one. Plus I don't even like using staggered keyboards anymore. I just want my Kinesis.

I ought to ask the Keyboard Oracle what to do....

Do you want me to buy that from you?

Icarium wrote:I got this today.

DSC01458-scaled.JPG

I tried to take a picture but it's so shiny it cannot be photographed. ;D

The sad thing is, I kind of want one of these: http://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2164 now. So I would need to build another Phantom or sell this one. Plus I don't even like using staggered keyboards anymore. I just want my Kinesis.

I ought to ask the Keyboard Oracle what to do....

Good to see that another one of my babies arrived at destination.

yes
plu does fit these shells and save hundred,
the following thing will be waiting for red on black and retro set

They arrived in AU!

Damn those look good...wish I'd got in on this...

I couldn't afford to jump in at the time, so I'm doing a DIY route.

Which I'm certain will cost more money and look worse! Ooooo raw materials only cost a few quid!
(few missing fingers, hundreds of pounds and 2 months invested time later)

oooh... I'm shit at this, should have bought one.

I do have access to a oxyocetaline burner so mine has the potential for shiney cut sides, however, more likely scorch marks on the case and 3rd degree burns on me

dirge wrote:I couldn't afford to jump in at the time, so I'm doing a DIY route.

Which I'm certain will cost more money and look worse! Ooooo raw materials only cost a few quid!
(few missing fingers, hundreds of pounds and 2 months invested time later)

oooh... I'm shit at this, should have bought one.

I do have access to a oxyocetaline burner so mine has the potential for shiney cut sides, however, more likely scorch marks on the case and 3rd degree burns on me

I'll take one of yours, too.

Icarium wrote:
I'll take one of yours, too.

Fingers that is.

Did a small review on it here: http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?2803 ... -Red-Black

Here are some recent pics I took

I did some weight measurements of a few Filco cases for ripster, and realized a few interesting things:
Acrylic case is heavier than Filco case
Filco innards is heavier than Phantom innards (steel plate vs. aluminum plate)

here is KBC clear keycaps for better outlook

I've been shenzhened!

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=16579040986&

Wow..lol.

litster wrote:I've been shenzhened!

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=16579040986&

aren't these being sold at GH for twice that much

I really don't like the look of them, they just look cheap to me.

If your going to the trouble and cost of building a phantom, litsters case and fingers crossed Swede's case are the only way to go.

I mean you wouldn't build a phantom and put lazered caps on would you?

On the other side, if you've got a PLU or CMStorm and like the look or want a cheap case to paint, ideal!

Just please don't let me see phantoms sitting in them in a few months time I'll die a little inside.. I'd rather see the cardboard case

I would love one of these for a 104 'board. Is there any chance of that happening, or am I just loser stuck in the retail business pounding away at a numpad?

if you mean the cases I made, the colored ones, I haven't made any more since the first batch. This shunzhen version has a 104 version. So you maybe able to get one for your numpadded keyboard.

The problem for using clear acrylic, especially when copying my design, is that the soldering points on the bottom of the PCB will scratch the inside of the bottom plate. And since it is transparent, you will see the scratches from the outside. That is one of the reasons why I switched to opaque and opaque acrylic.

Another potential problem is how the cable is locked into place. From looking at the pictures, it doesn't, because a few of the bottom plates are glued together. When using my design, gluing the bottom few plates together removes the ability to thread the cable through and lock into place. So in order to still make it work, this replica may have a larger than necessary cable outlet, and the cable is going to be loose. Since I don't have a solution for this, that is why I don't glue my cases together. If this replica case solved this problem, then more power to it. There is no clear picture of the back, so I can't tell.

feng, the guy who is selling these cases for twice the price on taobao, said laggy-gaga was one of the 3 people who have been involved with this case maker in China. Laggy-gaga did buy 3 cases from me. One of them was instructed to be sent to China. Not sure if this is related. I hope not.

One thing for sure I could not do is to make it this cheap. So if this helps the community to get some acrylic cases for our projects, that is not so bad. I do feel miffed that this was done behind my back.

Although I am not making more acrylic cases that I made the first time, I am working on a couple new things. But I am not going to say anything for now, and you might guess why

We three people didn't expect this happening when we sent the sample to MKC. We were about to just ask him to make three clear cases only for us. Just to be fair, actually MKC have been working on his own clear case for months before laggy-gaga sent the sample to China. But after bringing the product to the market, as we can see, MKC must have got some ideas from your original design. I'll post some pics of MKC's old sample of the clear case later.

Good luck with your new works.

fwiw i think this is the most innocuous case of design copying i've ever seen. it seems to me like MKC has brought a number of his own ideas into the design, eg the magnets and simplified construction, as well as borrowing some of yours. in the diy audio community, there are a number of small chinese manufacturers that straight up duplicate pcb designs.

So it was indeed you feng, laggy-gaga, and one other person who sent my case to China so it can be copied. All the while without telling me, and made *ME* sent the case to China myself.

Very nicely done.

If you just wanted him to make 3 for you, why are you selling them now in a group buy for profit, and that you are planning more rounds of group buys?

Send litster a free case as a peace offering would be a nice gesture

As I have said, not just on DT, but also on GH, we wanted to make 3 clear cases for ourselves. Not for anyone else, or for making profit at first.
As you might notice, I'm selling many of MKC's products on eBay and GH. This clear case is just one of those. Why shouldn't I start selling these when MKC bring it to the market? Besides, it's not completely copied from yours. If it's exactly the same thing as yours, I would say I wouldn't have started the group buy on GH. In fact, MKC did improve the idea of your effort, and also not to mention that he has been working on the clear case for months before he actually saw yours.
Anyway, what I meant is that if MKC just made 3 exactly the same copies of your work, we three would just keep it for our own collections. But, MKC also has his own sample of the clear case long before yours, and then got some ideas from yours later, so it's not like a fake copy anymore. And since he brought it to the market, I just started selling them in US.

Why did it take like 10 years for Chinese to start making these? I mean very similar acrylic cases have been around the Korean OTD and KBDMania community for a decade now.

dirge wrote:Send litster a free case as a peace offering would be a nice gesture

No, please don't. I have plenty of acrylic cases at home already.

feng wrote:But, MKC also has his own sample of the clear case long before yours, and then got some ideas from yours later, so it's not like a fake copy anymore. And since he brought it to the market, I just started selling them in US.

For years huh?

webwit wrote:

feng wrote:But, MKC also has his own sample of the clear case long before yours, and then got some ideas from yours later, so it's not like a fake copy anymore. And since he brought it to the market, I just started selling them in US.

For years huh?

I did say for months right? And as I said, even though MKC didn't admit it, but as far as I could tell, he did got some ideas from litster's work. You don't have to point it out in the pics, I think it's not difficult to see.

litster wrote:I've been shenzhened!

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=16579040986&

At least yours look better than the normal Filco cases.

feng: i think the issue here is just that you guys were not up front in either your intentions or in the result. in future, when you order sample for someone who is working on a similar product, please let the seller know, and work something out beforehand.

the bottom line is that tsangan deserves credit for his design elements just as much as MKC deserves credit for his, and designers should not be afraid to share their designs for fear of copying/what have you. we don't want what happened to the korean community (super insular, afraid of foreigners) to happen to the western community as well.

mkawa wrote:feng: i think the issue here is just that you guys were not up front in either your intentions or in the result. in future, when you order sample for someone who is working on a similar product, please let the seller know, and work something out beforehand.

the bottom line is that tsangan deserves credit for his design elements just as much as MKC deserves credit for his, and designers should not be afraid to share their designs for fear of copying/what have you. we don't want what happened to the korean community (super insular, afraid of foreigners) to happen to the western community as well.

who da tsangan?