Project Updates - Mid October 2021

Sorry for the lack of updates! Many of our manufacturers were on holiday for Golden Week and we wanted to wait for the most up to date information before posting.

ZENITH

STATUS: IN TRANSIT

Zenith has finally landed in port in Melbourne! We’re currently going through the customs clearance process to get the enclosures over to our warehouse.

This is expected to take up to 2 weeks. We’ll post another update shortly before shipping to customers commences.

Please make sure your shipping address is correct! You can check by logging in at https://ramaworks.store/account/login and navigating to your Zenith order. Note: Updating your default address will not update past orders.

If you need to update your shipping address, please contact us at support@rama.works or https://support.rama.care/

Remember to include your order number!

U80-A SEQ2

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION

Production of U80-A SEQ2 PCBs was temporarily halted due to an unexpected microchip shortage for this manufacturing run.

The additional inventory arrived yesterday and production has resumed.

THERMAL SEQ2/THERMAL+

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION

Thermal SEQ2 and Thermal+ is currently in anodising.

KATE KEYCAPS

STATUS: PRE-PRODUCTION

The preorder period for the KATE Keycaps has ended. Pre-production is currently underway.

RAMA’S BURGERS T-SHIRT / INVENTORY 2 / KEYCAP

STATUS: AWAITING TRANSIT

Unfortunately, the RAMA’S BURGERS collection products didn’t make the cutoff for shipping before Golden Week due to a few logistical reasons.

They are now expected to dispatch from our manufacturer within 1-2 weeks.

CHESS SET 01 

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION

No news for CHESS SET 01.

XO PEN 

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION

The PR4F ink refill for the XO PEN is currently being sourced.

TRAY

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION

No new information for TRAY.

KARA SEQ2

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION

No news for KARA SEQ2.

---

WE’RE HIRING!

We’re looking for a Motion Graphics Designer. If this sounds like you, find out more info here: https://rama.link/joinus   

---

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our support team by emailing support@rama.works and/or submitting a ticket at https://support.rama.care/

Project Updates - Mid September 2021

ZENITH

STATUS: IN TRANSIT

Zenith took longer than anticipated to depart port. We are expecting tracking details/ETA from our manufacturer within the next few days.

U80-A SEQ2

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION/IN TRANSIT

The U80-A SEQ2 PCBs are expected to complete production by early next week. The second and final batch of enclosures is also currently en route from our manufacturer to the RAMA WORKS warehouse.

THERMAL SEQ2/THERMAL+

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION

Tentatively, production of Thermal SEQ2 and Thermal+ is currently expected to be completed in mid-Q4.

KATE KEYCAPS

STATUS: PRE-ORDER

Only 2 weeks left to pre-order KATE Keycaps!

For more information, see here.

RAMA’S BURGERS T-SHIRT / INVENTORY 2 / KEYCAP

STATUS: IN TRANSIT

Packaging for the RAMA’S BURGERS collection is now complete and is currently en route from our manufacturer to the RAMA WORKS warehouse.

The Inventory 2 and keycap have completed manufacturing and are scheduled to ship off from our manufacturer this week.

CHESS SET 01 

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION

A number of issues were present with the initial CHESS SET 01 sample pieces. They have been addressed and we’re expecting a new set of samples within a week.

In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at the packaging artwork!

XO PEN 

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION

XO PEN production is in progress, expected to finish mid-late Q4.

TRAY

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION

Some delays due to material sourcing were encountered for the TRAY, production is currently in progress.

KARA SEQ2

STATUS: IN PRODUCTION

Pre-order, including additional allocations, closed on September 10th. Production is now in progress.

KARA SEQ1 Extras (POSTPONED)

KARA SEQ1 Extras will be released across three different drops.

Due to the finite nature of extras, please be aware that availability is very limited.

Drop 1: Testing

Date - 21st of September 7PM PDT TBA

• To minimise units purchased by bots, we have implemented various bot preventative measures.

• The primary purpose of this drop is to test our bot protection.

• This initial drop will include a small portion of the available KARA SEQ1 extra units.

• Limit of one per customer, multiple orders will be cancelled.

• Unfortunately, due to VAT laws, UK customers are ineligible.

• No extra accessories will be available with this drop.

Drop 2: Main Drop

Date - TBA

• This drop will include the remaining majority of the KARA SEQ1 extra units.

• No extra accessories will be available with this drop.

• Further details will be provided at a later date.

Drop 3: Extra Accessories

Date - TBA

• Once customers have received KARA SEQ1 extras and all customer support issues are resolved, extra accessories will be released.

• Further details will be provided at a later date.

---

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our support team by emailing support@rama.works and/or submitting a ticket at https://support.rama.care/

Project Updates - Late August 2021

M50-A

M50-A fulfilment is now complete.

ZENITH

We’re currently still waiting for a clear ETA for when Zenith is due to arrive in port.

U80-A SEQ2

The components for U80-A SEQ2 PCBs have been secured and production is currently underway.

THERMAL SEQ2/THERMAL+

No news for Thermal SEQ2/Thermal+.

KATE KEYCAPS

KATE Keycaps are now live and available for pre-order on the store!

For more information, see here.

RAMA’S BURGERS T-SHIRT / INVENTORY 2 / KEYCAP

No news for RAMA’s BURGERS products.

CHESS SET 01/ XO PEN / TRAY

No news for CHESS SET 01/ XO PEN / TRAY.

KARA SEQ2

KARA SEQ2 is now approaching the pre-order close at the end of the month. There’s just over a week left to grab one, don’t miss out!

---

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our support team by emailing support@rama.works and/or submitting a ticket at https://support.rama.care/

Project Updates - Early August 2021

JULES

Jules fulfilment is now complete.

M50-A

The majority of M50-A orders have been fulfilled.

ZENITH

The shipping allocation for Zenith has finally been secured. They are expected to depart from port early this month. Once they arrive and clear customs, we’ll post another update.

U80-A SEQ2

The shipping allocation for the partial batch of U80-A SEQ2 housings has also been secured, and will be on a similar timeline to Zenith.

However, we have received news from our PCB manufacturer that the PCBs will be delayed due to chip/component shortages. We’re currently waiting for additional information before we can ascertain an updated ETA.

THERMAL SEQ2/THERMAL+

No news for Thermal SEQ2/Thermal+.

KATE KEYCAPS

Preparation for the launch of the KATE keycaps is ongoing, and we’re excited to announce that they’ll be ready for launch this month. More info to come soon!

RAMA’S BURGERS T-SHIRT / INVENTORY 2 / KEYCAP

T-SHIRT: Manufacturing completed, pending packaging

INVENTORY 2: In production

KEYCAP: In production

The current estimated shipping date is Q4 2021.

CHESS SET 01/ XO PEN / TRAY

Pre-order closed late last month. Pre-production is currently underway.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our support team by emailing support@rama.works and/or submitting a ticket at https://support.rama.care/

Project Updates - Mid July 2021

JULES

Most of the remade VARIABLE plates have arrived at our warehouse with the remainder to be completed in 3-4 days.

We’re aiming to complete fulfilment of solderable/VARIABLE Jules orders by late July.

KARA

The W01-A Internal Weights mentioned in the last update ended up arriving earlier than expected.

As a result, we have completed shipping all KARA orders as of the 16th of July!

M50-A

The majority of M50-A orders have also been sent out. The remainder will be fulfilled next week.

U80-A SEQ2

Due to a small miscommunication from our manufacturer, we were under the impression that the first batch of U80-A SEQ2 was on the same shipment/container as the W01-A Internal Weights, as noted in the last update.

Our manufacturer has since let us know that the U80-A units were picked up at the same time as the weights. However, due to the sheer volume of the shipment, the freight company had to arrange for them to be shipped in a separate container and consequently, on a different ship.

We’re expecting to receive more details and an updated ETA soon!

THERMAL SEQ2/THERMAL+

Pre-production (material sourcing, tooling, etc.) for Thermal SEQ2 and Thermal+ is underway. Tentatively, we’re currently expecting production to complete in late Q4.

NEMO DECOMMISSION 2 + RW01 NIGHT EDITION

Fulfilment of NEMO DECOMMISSION 2 and the RW01 NIGHT EDITION completed a couple of weeks ago.

KATE KEYCAPS

The first tool releases/samples for the KATE keycaps had some injection marks that we weren’t happy with. We’re currently reworking the tooling to move/reduce them.

We want the standard of quality to be as high as possible, so we’re really taking our time to get it right.

SNAP LOCKDOWN

Beginning on the 16th of July, Victoria, where our warehouse is located, entered a snap lockdown in order to contain a new outbreak of COVID-19.

The lockdown is currently planned to last for 5 days.

For the health and safety of our team, we are operating at a reduced capacity.

Everyone’s support and patience is, as always, greatly appreciated as we do our best to continue to ship orders while adhering to restrictions.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our support team by emailing support@rama.works and/or submitting a ticket at https://support.rama.care/

Project Updates - Late May 2021

ZENITH

Our manufacturer is currently finalising details for the Zenith shipment to our warehouse. Limited port availability is causing delays.

U80-A SEQ2

A partial batch of U80-A SEQ2 is currently being prepared for shipment from our manufacturer to our warehouse.

KARA

The W01-A Internal Weights for the KARA production run have been completed and are currently enroute to our warehouse.

MELBOURNE LOCKDOWN

Beginning on the 28th of May, Melbourne, where our warehouse is located, had entered an emergency lockdown due to a new outbreak of COVID-19.

The lockdown is expected to last 7-10 days and will temporarily interrupt our fulfilment team from shipping orders out.

The safety and health of our team is of utmost importance and we will return to shipping as soon as possible.

Project Updates - April 2021

M65-B

M65-B fulfilment is now complete. If you haven’t yet received a shipping confirmation or have any issues with your order, please contact us via email at support@rama.works or submit a ticket at https://support.rama.care/

M60-A OLIVIA/LNY20

The majority of the M60-A OLIVIA MOON units have now been sent out. The TANK units have also begun shipping.

Both the KURO and RACE LNY20 units will begin shipping after OLIVIA TANK.

JULES/M50-A

Our PCB supplier has informed us that they are still aiming to complete the PCBs for Jules and M50-A by the end of this month.

KARA

Again, if the fulfilment of M60-A OLIVIA/LNY20 is completed before receiving the aforementioned PCBs, then we’ll be able to get started on the fulfilment of KARA. We will begin to ship some units this week.

ZENITH

Zenith is now in assembly and QC/packaging. We’ll have another update for Zenith once we have an ETA for when our manufacturer can ship them over to our warehouse. 

NEMO DECOMMISSION 2 + RW01 NIGHT EDITION

NEMO DECOMMISSION 2 has begun shipping. The RW01 NIGHT EDITION cars have also since arrived at our warehouse and are currently being prepared for shipping.

WAVE SEQ2 Br KEYCAPS

We kindly request that anyone that has already received any WAVE SEQ2 Br keycap(s) with the incorrect finish (as mentioned in this update) ensure that their shipping address is up to date.

You can login to your account at https://rama.link/account to check your default address.

Our team will be creating new orders in place of the affected orders to ensure there are no conflicts with other already fulfilled items that may have been in them.

Please note that updating your default address on your account does not retroactively update your address on existing/unfulfilled orders. If you need to change your address for an existing/unfulfilled order, please contact our support team at support@rama.works or submit a ticket at https://support.rama.care/ 

The correct finish keycaps are currently in production and we will list a deadline for address updates in a later update post.

Project Updates - Late March 2021

M65-B

M65-B fulfilment, including the ICED units, is now 99% complete. 

A handful of orders are yet to be shipped as we prematurely ran out of some fasteners required to assemble the keyboard. 

Additional fasteners are currently en route to our warehouse and the remaining orders will be shipped as soon as they’re received.

M60-A OLIVIA/LNY20

M60-A OLIVIA/LNY20 orders will begin shipping out starting next week, 29th of March.

JULES + M50-A

The Jules and M50-A units have arrived at our warehouse. However, due to component shortages, our PCB supplier has informed us that there will be a delay with the respective PCBs. The estimated lead time provided to us is 3-4 weeks.

KARA

As some of you may have seen on our Instagram stories, the KARA units have arrived at our warehouse. Due to the backlog of our other keyboards, we won’t be able to begin fulfilment in Q1 as originally targeted.

We generally prioritise fulfilment based on chronological order of when the product was offered for purchase/pre-order. However, given the PCB delay on Jules and M50-A, we will likely be able to begin fulfilment while we have downtime between M60-A and Jules/M50-A.

ZENITH

The majority of Zenith units are currently in the anodising stage, with some progressing to surface treatment.

RW X KNOB SEQ2 

The silver KNOBs have completed manufacturing and will be sent to our warehouse soon. The black KNOBs are currently being PVD coated.

NEMO DECOMMISSION 2 + RW01 NIGHT EDITION 

NEMO has arrived at our warehouse and is being prepared for shipping. The RW01 Night Edition cars are also on their way to our warehouse.

KATE KEYCAPS

After many iterations, the tooling for the KATE keycaps is finalised and we’ll be receiving the first off-tool T0 sample next week. 

There’s still a lot of work to be done to refine this initial sample to be ready for production but we’re super excited to see the result!

U80-A SEQ2

Colour samples for the SOYA, SAGE, and YOLK U80-A have come in!

THERMAL SEQ2 + THERMAL+ 

The preorder for THERMAL SEQ2 and THERMAL+ closes in less than two weeks! See more details at https://r.works/thermal-seq2 and check out the latest typing videos below!

11/11 11:11PM PST - KARA LAUNCH

KARA

Once again, we really appreciate everyone's patience with the timelines of our products and offerings. COVID-19 has changed how we operate and has pushed back our releases but at the end of the day, we want to release a product we're proud of. Every few months, (or with significant releases/shipments) we usually travel to our manufacturers to discuss and go over our current products and to personally QC a number of units. This is important as it reduces the amount of time required to push products out since everything can be done in person and in real-time. Currently, with our inability to travel, everything has significantly slowed down.

With KARA, we've had to:

make changes > send to manufacturer > discuss and annotate engineering documents > produce sample > ship to home office > inspect/document > apply changes to CAD model

This process is repeated many times until we reach the quality, fit and finish our customers expect from us - we are currently at T6 pre-production samples. Typically, we could iron this process out in a few days by being present with our manufacturers and collaborating directly with our tooling engineers. As mentioned in previous updates, the product has been ready to launch months ago from a design standpoint but we want to get everything right from the get-go. We're now at a stage where we are happy and can lock in the launch date.

That date is:
11/11 11:11PM PST (NOVEMBER 11)

We are incredibly excited to show everything our team has been working on, especially from our Motion team! But for now, everyone can safely lock in the launch date as we are NOT moving it and this IS final!

KATE

DFMA/FMEA has completed for our upcoming doubleshot KATE keycaps - significant work has been put in to complete these and we're incredibly proud with the result. Tooling will now commence! We cannot wait for people to try these and use them daily with their setups and are excited to offer some of our signature colourways when they launch!

KARA First Off-Tool Sample / Keycap Profile / Support

KARA T-0 Tool Sample

Over the past few weeks we have been testing our first off-tool samples of the KARA, and can safely say it’s our best creation to date in terms of feel and sound. We’ve created every component from scratch and integrated our novel MUTE mounting system to create a completely unique product. The amount of customisation this provides, with the addition of the backplate, will create some truly personalised configurations!

We would like to show some of the prototype, please note that this off-tool sample does NOT YET have any surface finishing and DOES NOT represent the final product and how it will look. When the surface finish is added, it will better diffuse the light on the surface of the enclosure and hide most of the internal mould markings. This T0 sample is moulded in our ICED colourway (clear). We’re also adjusting our custom-made threaded inserts to be silver in colour so that it matches all colourways that the KARA will be available in, both at launch, and with future editions.

The MUTE and Plate in our ICED colourway provides a completely even spread of diffused light between the keys. The colour, brightness and animation can all be adjusted with VIA, our GUI configurator (which runs on Windows, Mac OS & Linux).

KARA consists of four separate mouldings; the main enclosure, the switch-plate, the backplate and the base.

We are hard at work to get everything ready for launch in August, as it stands, the product is ready to launch now. But we’re excited to show what our team has been working on behind the scenes when the launch is ready. The KARA will be offered as a pre-order so that we can supply the demand required for it. With the nature of how this product is manufactured, we can anticipate a much quicker turnaround time in production and are excited to see how this keyboard will be customised and made their own.

We also look forward to sharing more of these behind-the-scenes look into our products and how they’re made in the future. We’re incredibly excited to bring KARA out to market, our most accessible, and our favourite board to date. Launching at our entry price of $160 USD.

OUR NEW Profile Keycaps

We have also been prototyping and testing our new profile keycap; it features a cylindrical sculpt to fit the finger comfortably. Each row is angled to aid in accurate typing. We are also yet to name it.

Below is the first 3D printed set of the profile for testing. At this stage, the keycaps are ready for moulding, but we are working on adding double-shot legends to finalise the product. As you can understand, this will take some time to perfect and get right; we are working quickly to bring these out as soon as we can. As we need to start the tooling and test multiple iterations until it meets our strong requirements for quality. Unfortunately, it will be after KARA is ready for launch, but will be available sometime shortly after.

Support Channel

As we’re nearing the end of the U80-A fulfilment, the support tickets are starting to pile up. We appreciate everyone's patience through this, as going through the number of tickets can take a matter of days. We have added additional support staff to also help with this. And another gentle reminder to please do not be rude with any of our team members or customer service agents - we are all human and need to be treated with respect. At the end of the day we want to resolve the issue as best we can, being rude or entitled with your interactions does not help with this - please be friendly and calm, and together we can work to resolve the issue. We ask that anyone with a problem, calmly explain what the issue is to support@rama.works (or by lodging a ticket at: https://support.rama.care) and we will do everything we can when we can. Again, apologies for any delays and wait time for a response. Also, there is a known issue with one of the batches for the PORT units where the raw, mirror polished brass was cleaned using the incorrect solvent before PVD coating was applied. Unfortunately, this was not caught during QC as the issue didn’t arise until after it was shipped and received at our warehouse. We are currently taking a log of which units are affected as they are received and will produce replacement units once we find out how many need replacing. Replacement units will be shipped out via DHL Express as soon as we have them in hand. Past this, we’re thrilled to see a lot of the incredible setups being posted online and finally getting put to good use. 💛

Moving!

The KARA will have many possible combinations, we're excited to see what choices are made!!

In other news, we're moving offices this week and have been spending most of our time packing, we apologise for the delayed responses and hope to return to normal starting next week. Warehouse shipping as usual.