TL;DR –
- Nomad E ANSI layouts will begin shipping late August
- Nomad E ISO will begin shipping in September
- KNOB1 keycap molds are in production (samples finished)
- KNOB1 PCBs going into prototyping
- KNOB1 fulfillment updated to Fall 2024
Hello everyone👋
I hope the summer has lasted longer for you guys than it did for us; I can’t believe we are already in the last month of summer! Let’s get into this month’s update! Btw as always if you would like to see more frequent smaller updates please follow our Instagram broadcast channel, as we post there almost daily.
Oh and if you’ve ever wondered how we do what we do, or just want to learn more about the back story of Work Louder, you should checkout my talk from ConFig 2024 called “Ready, Set, IDK”. It’s all about how to build something you have no idea how to build – I’ll put a link for you guys below:
Nomad [E] ⚙️📦
We finally assembled a production quality Nomad E, and boy am I excited for you ladies and gentlemen to get your hands on it. Below is a little video of of the assembled Atomic Purple colorway. FYI I will be amending this update with an official sound test later this week. Mattia is coming to Montreal to visit, and we’ll record a nice video for you all.
As for fulfillment, we plan to handle the production by doing all the ANSI boards/colorways first, and then all the ISO boards. Like I mentioned in the last update we will be fulfilling the orders from Shenzhen instead of Montreal this time. This logistic change will save us about 1.5 months since we won’t have to ship everything by boat to our fulfillment centre in Canada.
This is a very big step and honestly a little risky, since we won’t be able to personally oversea the production, or fulfillment anymore. This is why we hired Rob, our newest logistic/supply chain expert, who lives in Taiwan and speaks Mandarin, to oversee this part on our behalf.
But in the meantime:
Below are some shots from the manufacturing floor of the mass production of the bottom and top shells. Each unit is hand picked and inspected for imperfections before heading off to get their respective finishes:
Top Shells
We found, through our nauseating amount of sample runs, that the Atomic Purple shells didn’t pop as much as we liked when we made them fully transparent with the UV coat. So we updated the color, and made it more punchy – I think you’ll all agree that now it looks “Atomic”!
New color (Top) vs. Old color (Bottom)
Switches
Sound test will be link here later this week🫶
One of the main contributors to the acoustics are the layers of Poron foam we added both between the plate/PCB and the PCB/bottom shell. These layers feel like dense memory foam, and do an amazing job at absorbing any vibrations in the assembly, and fill up the board so it doesn’t sound hollow.
Another component that we fixed, which also contributes to the sound is the large rubber anti-slip pad on the bottom. Initially, as you can see in the photo (bottom) we weren’t able to get the pads to stop warping as they were being applied, which was causing the irregular edge along the sides. In the final version we managed to fix this and get it perfect each time (top). This pad will also absorb vibrations when typing on a desk without a desk mat.
Packaging
The molds for the Nomad E packaging have been completed. Below you can see the sample paper pulp molded trays. Keep in mind this isn’t quite production quality. In the packaging world you don’t do production quality samples small batch, it’s just too time consuming and expensive. The “stickers/labels” shown below are not the production versions, these are the quick samples to give us an idea of sizing and how the unboxing will happen.
Packaging is a huge part of the product experience, so we took some time to refine all of our packaging experience this past month. Below you can see the mockups of what we plan to do with our keycap and accessory packaging. While we were at it we also designed a custom shipping box, because why not!🤷♂️
Extra (Dial tips/Keysets/Etc.)
To make it easy to get all the extra parts you might want, we will be putting all the components of each colorway into their own SKU/baggy. Meaning if you want to get the an all black look for the accents (dial tips, dial stems, back switches, macro buttons) you will just need to buy one kit. If you want multiple colors you will need multiple kits, and we plan on selling them at $14.98 per kit. This system will allow for us to add more colors in the future without creating kitting issues down the road.
We will be adding them to the store later this month, and will be able to be added to existing orders before fulfillment.
Electronics/Firmware⚡
We discovered a last minute issue with the boards where the real time clock (RTC) needed to be set every time the board ran out of battery. While this is a small issue, it would be pretty annoying having to reset your clock every time your board died. To fix this we needed to add a small rechargeable coin battery to the PCB – you will never need to charge it individually, it will simply charge with the rest of the board.
We also needed to develop an on-board system to check all the switches, dials, and buttons to make sure no one gets a board with a defective component.
KNOB1 ⚙️
We’ve been hard at work applying all the learning from the Nomad E development to the Knob1. I’m happy to say we have started production of the keycap molds, and have already paid in advance for the production of all keycap to ensure priority at the factory.
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These copper blocks are for EDM (Electrical Discharge Machining) processing, which is a type of electrical erosion used to get details not achievable by classical CNC.
These copper blocks are machined into shapes that are the opposite of the mold, known as electrode coppers, and they are used to conduct electrical erosion of steel. The milling cutters used in CNC are round, so you can imagine that there are many corners that cannot be machined, which is when EDM is needed to process the remaining parts.
Moreover, by using uniform erosion, we can also achieve a matte surface! Look at these purple coppers turning black; this is a sign of carbonization after they have used for production.
Next we will be working on getting the PCBs prototyped and refining the machining issue we had with the design of the internals of the top shell.
That’s it for now!
– Mike
Co-Founder @ work louder inc.
