Mechanical keyboards from RastPort

[steenl]

I contacted @Krashan after I heard rumors about his keyboard. August last year he sent me this



Works perfectly and no problems with the BiFrost Leds. Highly recommended.

[acidbottle]

This is amazing! I assume you will be able customize this for UK keyboard types?

Seen this project a year or 2 back but thought it had quietly disappeared.

Hope I can get on the list, do I just register some interest on your main site? I sadly (happily) do not use social media, bar this forum of course.

[wiz12]

Originally Posted by steenl

I contacted @Krashan after I heard rumors about his keyboard. August last year he sent me this



Works perfectly and no problems with the BiFrost Leds. Highly recommended.

How does this keyboard feel to type on and what function do the "RP" keys in the corners have?

[steenl]

Originally Posted by wiz12

How does this keyboard feel to type on and what function do the "RP" keys in the corners have?

I opted for Brown keys which I really like to type on. The "RP" does not do anything in my setup.

[slaapliedje]

I'll ask my obligatory; where is one for my 4000s? :P

[Warty]

Honestly.. this makes me want a 1200 just so I can use that beautiful piece of custom keyboard kit. WOW. (A1200s are cool for many reasons of course, but I never had one back in the day, and have remaining an OCS/ECS cave man this whole time).

[aeberbach]

Originally Posted by slaapliedje

I'll ask my obligatory; where is one for my 4000s? :P

This would happen, only I don't have an A4000 to base it on... You can't really do a thing like this and hope to get it right first time with no hardware to test it on. My A1200 design is on its fourth iteration.

[Krashan]

Originally Posted by acidbottle

This is amazing! I assume you will be able customize this for UK keyboard types?

Sure. Keycaps are printed on demand and I support all the layouts sold by Commodore: US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, DK, SE/FI, NO, CH and IC. :-)

Originally Posted by acidbottle

Hope I can get on the list, do I just register some interest on your main site?

Please write to office@rastport.com.

Originally Posted by wiz12

How does this keyboard feel to type on and what function do the "RP" keys in the corners have?

"RP" keys are there because the spacebar is shorter (7U, compared to 9U of original, where U is a width of a regular, square key). They are not connected to the keyboard matrix, however they - together with "Extra" key between "Help" and "Del" - are connected to a 6-pin header and may be used for Gotek, kickstart switcher or any other DIY project. Why 7U space? This is the longest one, which can be bought off-the-shelf.

Originally Posted by aeberbach

My A1200 design is on its fourth iteration.

My current keyboards are at revision I (9th iteration), revision J is on the way. ;-). 7th iteration was the first usable one.

[Captain_ Kal]

Price and availability for a standard US Keyboard?

[aeberbach]

You've done a really nice job on this, especially solving the keycap problem. If I was starting to build keyboards today, well I wouldn't - just buy yours

[Krashan]

Originally Posted by Captain_ Kal

Price and availability for a standard US Keyboard?

160 EUR + 23% VAT (where applicable) + shipping (destination dependent). Current queue: 46 keyboards, estimated waiting time at end of queue is 8 months.

[Captain_ Kal]

Thank you very much Krashan!!

[Kin Hell]

Just sent an Email to RastPort.....

What is the current Status Quo of your KA59 Mechanical Keyboard manufacture please?

British Layout required. - Cash waiting.....

[klx300r]

looking to trade my brand new in box Checkmate 1500 plus (beige) for one of these keyboards for my 1200 if anyone is interested PM me.

& Happy New Year 2023 all

[Krashan]

Originally Posted by Kin Hell

What is the current Status Quo of your KA59 Mechanical Keyboard manufacture please?

Current status is "in production" of course. In Q3 of 2022 I've finally moved from prototyping stage to production. So far 39 keyboards have been completed with 5 more being partially assembled at the moment.

Some boring statistics: 31 of these keyboards have black keycaps, 9 are white and gray. Switches: blue (14), brown (14), red (11). Language layouts: American (13), German (11), Swedish/Finnish (11), British (3), Danish (1).

I hope for more keyboards manufactured in 2023. My estimation is about 100 pieces. Why hope, but not sure? Because of components deliveries. As one may guess, many of these components come from China. They again have problems with Covid-19. For example I wait for large batch of switches since Dec 5, and they are still not shipped, because half of the factory crew is on quarantine. That's what they say at least. It has not stopped my work yet, but if delivery takes one month more, it will be a problem.

Anyway I will manufacture KA59 as long as I can buy components and there is demand. While RastPort is an one-man business, I'm very serious about it and have experience with manufacturing hundreds and - for some products - even thousands of pieces. I learn small automation and kaizen approach for five years alerady, and it works.

A few words of distribution and sales. I prefer to sell to distributors in general, that's why I have no webshop. I've made a partial exception for KA59, as it has many customization options. The exception is partial, I distribute to resellers and at the same time fulfill orders of individual customers. That is why order queue does not move as fast as everyone wants. On the other hand I've decided to not take paid preorders and/or use crowdfunding. My resources are sufficient to finance the project on my own.

By the way, I started design of KA56 - mech keyboard for Amiga 600. The design stage should take less time than KA59. I expect to have first prototypes around half of 2023.

Happy New Year 2023 to everyone.

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by Krashan

Current status is "in production" of course. In Q3 of 2022 I've finally moved from prototyping stage to production. So far 39 keyboards have been completed with 5 more being partially assembled at the moment.

Some boring statistics: 31 of these keyboards have black keycaps, 9 are white and gray. Switches: blue (14), brown (14), red (11). Language layouts: American (13), German (11), Swedish/Finnish (11), British (3), Danish (1).

I hope for more keyboards manufactured in 2023. My estimation is about 100 pieces. Why hope, but not sure? Because of components deliveries. As one may guess, many of these components come from China. They again have problems with Covid-19. For example I wait for large batch of switches since Dec 5, and they are still not shipped, because half of the factory crew is on quarantine. That's what they say at least. It has not stopped my work yet, but if delivery takes one month more, it will be a problem.

Anyway I will manufacture KA59 as long as I can buy components and there is demand. While RastPort is an one-man business, I'm very serious about it and have experience with manufacturing hundreds and - for some products - even thousands of pieces. I learn small automation and kaizen approach for five years alerady, and it works.

A few words of distribution and sales. I prefer to sell to distributors in general, that's why I have no webshop. I've made a partial exception for KA59, as it has many customization options. The exception is partial, I distribute to resellers and at the same time fulfill orders of individual customers. That is why order queue does not move as fast as everyone wants. On the other hand I've decided to not take paid preorders and/or use crowdfunding. My resources are sufficient to finance the project on my own.

By the way, I started design of KA56 - mech keyboard for Amiga 600. The design stage should take less time than KA59. I expect to have first prototypes around half of 2023.

Happy New Year 2023 to everyone.

See PM please.

[Predseda]

Is there any update about the availability of those keyboards via resellers?

[Krashan]

Originally Posted by Predseda

Is there any update about the availability of those keyboards via resellers?

64 keyboards manufactured so far, two orders for distributors are pending. I work for some technology improvements to make building KA59 faster. Some details of this work are are published on Mastodon (rastport@mastodon.social).

[Calabazam]

I have noticed there is no french layout in your statistics yet. Let me be the first one, i can't live without a localized keyboard.

[jdb78]

I have a KA59 and it is freaking awesome. Worth every penny. I bought mine at Alinea. I sent them an email and asked for my desired model. They informed me as soon as it was back on stock and I bought it right away. It was never listed on their webshop as stock. So you might consider mailing the dealer you trust most.