U#028 – “Naughty, or nice – ur nomad’s comin!”

TL;DR –
  • ANSI (all colorways) orders shipping as of this week
  • QC dial/magnet issues resolved
  • ISO orders will ship mid December
  • FIGMA CM stock transfer in progress (shipping this week)
  • KNOB1 ETA updated to Q1 2025

 

Hello everyone👋

We just got back from a super productive trip to China and have some exciting news! 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.

 

Nomad [E] ⚙️📦

Good news! The Nomads have been reworked and arrived at the fulfillment centre. We have a few compliance hurdles to figure with our new fulfillment partner, but we should be able to resolve those this week and get shipping!

Now that we’ve worked out the issues on the line we have begun making the ISO units. Just to be on the safe side, we flew out Rob to oversee the fulfillment and production to make sure there were no new issues with the ISO batch.

For those of you that are curious, after discovering the QC issues from the first batch of Nomads that was sent out in October, we immediately booked a flight to China to resolve the issues personally. As I’ve mentioned in the past, we are not some huge company, we are a very small team of self-taught product designers who are still very much learning along the way. This time around it was my mistake in entrusting the wrong manufacturer to assemble our products.

In my defense, they assembled the Creator Micros and it went very smooth! Where I went wrong was thinking they would be able to assemble a much more complicated product with as much ease. We’ve simply outgrown both their production capacity when it comes to keyboards and that’s good news! This gave us a lot of confidence when speaking with another keyboard manufacturer; one we previously didn’t have the volume to work with for assembly.

 

Here are the biggest issues we solved while there:

1. Scratchy/stiff dials

Solution: Open and rework 1000s of units

What was interesting about this issue is we thought it was just one main thing causing it – surplus flashing that wasn’t clipped off properly, but it turns out there was another factor. Since we are only using one mold for all the colorways, we found that the colorways didn’t cool/set in the same way. The graphite and chalk colorways had the tiniest bit of warping, while the atomic colorways didn’t have any issues. It isn’t noticeable to the eye, but when you screw the whole board together it creates enough of a tolerance difference that some of the exterior dials to become stiff.

 

 

 

 

2. Adhesive not holding the magnets tight enough

Solution: Rework the mold to have an extra lip to hold the magnets in

 

 

Input ↘️↖️

Input has now had about 2 months of open market testing from the early users. We’re proud to say that Input has had multiple new features and tweaks added due to your feedback! Here is the latest release notes for Input 0.4.0!

📢 Input 0.4.0 Update Highlights 🎉

⬆️ Application Update Enhancements

•⁠  ⁠Improved the app update process for greater stability and reliability.

•⁠  ⁠Automatic Updates – From now on, the app will update automatically, so you’ll always receive the latest features and improvements without needing to re-download it!

🎨 Actions Improvements

•⁠ Record Actions Directly – Simply press the keys you want, and they’ll be recorded into your macro. No more manual key entry!

•⁠  ⁠ ⁠Actions Sequence Rearrangement – Now, you can rearrange the sequence in an Action for easier customization.

•⁠  ⁠Added colors, labels, and a dropdown menu that closes when tapping outside for a smoother experience.

•⁠  ⁠Faster Action Flow Creation – Experience a smoother and more efficient process for building complex actions.

💻 Keyboard Layout Sync

•⁠  ⁠Input now reads back the current keyboard layout, allowing seamless configuration of your nomad across different computers without losing your settings.

🔧 Advanced Flash & Firmware Update Improvements

•⁠  ⁠Added checks before entering bootloader mode to ensure a safer and more reliable update process.

🐛 Fixes & UI Tweaks

•⁠  ⁠Fixed version display issue on some devices.

•⁠  ⁠Updated dropdown to close on key input tap.

•⁠  ⁠Renamed some key groups for better clarity.

•⁠  ⁠Changed selected menu color for improved visibility.

New Loading Animation

•⁠  ⁠Enjoy a fresh loading animation as the app starts up!

Next on our list for Input is to finish testing the wallpaper widget (and make it support .gif files too), and then work on the Spotify widget!

 

 

 

Figma Creator Micro 📦

We are almost sold out of the last batch of Figma Micros! The rest of the units are being transferred to the fulfillment centre to complete the current orders and we will have a little bit of extras left over (<160 units). We will have that stock come in later this week.

 

 

KNOB1 🧪

We have the sample PCB, and display on-hand now! We have started firmware testing, and are currently improving the battery management and battery capacity of the board. We have also made changes to the housing that improves its assembly. The k•no•b•1 is now estimated to arrive in Q1 2025.

 

 

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A post shared by Benjamin Fryc (@benfryc_art)

 

As development and prototyping has progressed we’ve identified a number of revisions and changes that were needed.


Assembly

We had to revise the assembly mechanism of the top and bottom shell because it was flexing with the internals too much. It’s much more solid now and we are awaiting the revised prototype parts to confirm.

Battery

The feedback on the Nomad-E was that it took too long to charge, so for the k•no•b•1 we’ve changed some components related to battery charging to achieve fast charging. We are also doubling the battery capacity from 2000mah to 4000mah.

Screen

Along with the battery components, the PCB is getting a revision to move the screen connector so that assembly doesn’t put as much stress on the screen ribbon connector.

Software

The software development is underway. But it was delayed to better integrate the feedback received from the Nomad-E.

Keyset

We’ve received the first revision to the keyset and the size of the legends is correct. The color is now too dark tho. So we’ve identified a Pantone color that is closer to the renders for the next revision.

Orange Nubs

The orange rubberized nubs on the first version were too small so we’ve tweaked the design so they protrude more so that the aluminum won’t touch the desk surface.

Our standards are as lofty as your expectations. We are committed to shipping the highest quality keyboard we can with the k•no•b•1 and we can’t wait for you to get your hands on them early next year.

 

Accessories! 💅

On top of launching the KNOB SANS keyset, and the black and white wrk. MX Alpha Night / Day. We also have the Nomad E topshells and dial tips available separately!

We made multiple tweaks to the molds of the keysets to make sure they sit well in all kinds of MX switches. Due to these changes we will only be able to begin production mid this month, will a ship January 2025.

The top shells are still in production and will ship January 2025.

Nomad color kits are being packaged and will be ready later next week.

 

 

That’s it for now!

– Mike
Co-Founder @ work louder inc.

Black Friday

Best of Both Worlds Deal!

Buy any Nomad E and get any customization accessory for FREE. Just add an alternative top shell or color kit to your cart before checkout!

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