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. 💛

U80-A Arrival / MK Accessories / RW x RW M6 / NEMO

U80-A Arrival

The U80-A’s have arrived in our warehouse and will begin shipping on Monday! We’re super keen to get these packed and out of the warehouse as quickly as possible and have extra hands joining in to speed up the process. If you need to change the address of your order, please reply directly to your order email. Or DHL can be contacted to adjust the address when the item is shipped.

M6-C RW x RW Edition

The RWxRW edition has arrived and will be packed and shipped as soon as possible! The base for this edition came out fantastic.

MK Accessories

The remainder of the 135 canisters have finally arrived, we’ll be assembling them this week. The silver hot shoes also came within the same shipment!

NEMO Unboxing

Check out the unboxing our first edition NEMO! We’re excited to see what number edition each order receives 😍😍

ZENITH Typing Video / M6-C / U80-A Port Call

ZENITH Typing Video

r.works/zenith
Keyboard: ION Zenith KURO
Plate: 1.5mm Aluminium, isolation mount
Keycaps: GMK White on Black
Switches: Gateron Black Inks lubed with GHv4
Stabilizers: Durock

U80-A

Ship records show the next port call is set to arrive in Melbourne on the 26th of June with our container of U80’s onboard!

M6-C

All M6-C editions are enroute also to our warehouse for immediate packing and shipping once they arrive. This includes the RWxRW edition!

NEMO / LNY + GMK Caps/ U80-A

NEMO

NEMO’s are all mostly packed! We’re super keen to see what special edition numbers everyone receives - look out for your tracking numbers soon.

The W01 cars still to arrive due to the huge weight required for air-freight it needs to be split up.

LNY + GMK Caps

All these caps are now in our warehouse and are going to be packed and shipped to our distributors over the following week! LNY Caps will be shipping out also.

GMK Camping
GMK First Love
GMK Fuyu
GMK B Emoji
GMK Phosphorous
GMK Metaverse R2
GMK Peach Blossom
GMK Terra
GMK Dracula
GMK Darling
GMK Finer Things
KAT Jade
KAT Oasis
GMK Nautilus Nightmares
GMK Ursa
Shrimp on the Barbie

U80-A

The U80-A first shipment of 9 pallets is loaded into a container and is awaiting to leave port on the 13th of this month. We appreciate everyone’s patience and will provide another update when it leaves port and an ETA of arrival! Everything is ready on our end for when the U80-A's arrive so we can pack and ship them out as quickly as we can ☺️

U80-A Freight / MK / WEAR

For the U80-A we will be receiving all colours in the first batch of shipment, this means we can ship most orders out in the first 2 weeks of receiving and should expect the remaining ~200 units to arrive once we pack the first batch. After the second batch, all will be delivered.

This week, we are continuing to pack the remainder of the film accessories and are starting to ship the WEAR jewellery.

U80 / THERMAL / CANVAS 2 XL

All U80/THERMAL units have completed manufacturing since late last month - and, unfortunately, been delayed with its packaging with expanding our manufacturing facilities and moving office. In the interest of processing these orders quickly, we will be shipping sea-freight in batches of colour. We want to get these out to everyone as soon as we can.

The CANVAS 2 XL is now in our warehouse and ready for shipping!

We will post updates as each batch ships and what to expect for each. If orders have more than one colour, we will partially ship the colour that we have in the warehouse, and the other when it arrives. We do appreciate everyone’s patience as we organise, pack and ship these orders as quickly as we can. We will be expanding the packing team and help alongside to get each batch packed and shipped in a few days as each shipment arrives.

This upcoming week we’re expecting more products of our other runs to arrive into the warehouse to assemble and ship. Updates will be posted as they land.

To provide more insight of the process and time it’s taking - after anodizing/PVD; the boards go through inspection to ensure there are no defects - if there are any defects this batch then goes back into finishing again - we will then remove anodizing and redo the boards until the batch is good to go. This process has been slower than usual because of production times of our entire supply chain, with our factory moving to a larger facility and other factors. Regarding the update, this means that some colors have completed the QC/re-finishing process to meet our standards and are being packed to ship to us next week. The other colors will ship to us as soon as they complete. At our warehouse, we will send them in batches of colors out to customers (as we typically do), so it is more efficient to have everything come in stages - rather than wait a few more weeks for the entire lot to be finished before sea shipment to us. To us, quality is most important as we want the best product possible to arrive to our customers, as expected. 

In more enlightening news, as our factories have expanded its machining capacity - this means that we can produce products quicker and assign machines to specific tasks. Also, introducing new keyboards that use different, more efficient processes - like KARA. We can aim to deliver products in a much tighter timeline - which are looking forward to providing to our customers. Again, we thank everyone for their patience as at the end of the day - we all, together, want the same thing - which is to have these keyboards put to good use on your desk, being productive. We will continue to keep everyone updated as milestones happen in the following weeks with what's arriving and what will be going out.

Free wallpapers can be downloaded here: files.rama.supply/T5HPCfe

U80-A MUTE Dampeners

The U80-A MUTE units have arrived! Just waiting to be paired with the U80-A units when they are freighted to us (along with the THERMAL!). We expect the units to be shipped out at the end of the month, and typically takes 2-3 weeks to land at our warehouse.

Below are the three sizes of Fabric dust bags shown in the previous update post, again, this is for the NEMO, RW01, Hotshoe & Film Canister. They’re incredibly handy to hold and keep those items safe, or be used for any other belongings you carry with you in your bag etc.

U80-A / THERMAL PCB's inbound! + GRID keycaps

U80-A / THERMAL

The THERMAL and U80-A PCB’s are inbound from our manufacturer, and we will have it in our warehouse within the month. Orders which have the U80-A or THERMAL PCB by itself will be shipped out once they’ve arrived!

We’ll post a further update when they land in our warehouse.

JULES

In other news, we’ll be launching our latest offering through the RAMA WORKS® Foundry, Jules. A board designed by Zambumon.

GRID Keycaps

We also expect our GRID keycaps from our January re-run to support the bushfires to arrive by the end of month and ship within April as they are packed. Thanks to all that supported through this pre-order and to those that donated directly 💛

We also expect to ship Heavy Industry SEQ3 sets next month!

Extra stock of the GRID caps are available to purchase through our store.

Film Accessories

We will be shipping the Film accessories in 2/3 weeks - we'll be including extra goodies with each order!

We're also increasing our CNC machining capabilities this month to speed up our machining times across all our product lines 🏭

M50-A GRID / U80-A + THERMAL Updates / CANVAS XL

RAMA WORKS® M50-A GRID

In the following weeks, we’ll be releasing our latest keyboard, the M50-A GRID. It will be available as a complete kit with switches, stabilisers and our GRID keycaps in a new retro cream colourway. It will be available in a powder-coated finish along with a few other variants we’re excited to show!

U80-A + THERMAL Updates

As the anodizing factories return back to work after the extended LNY we can complete the final stages of production and anticipate the boards to be finished in March, both for the U80-A and THERMAL. They will then be packed and sea-freighted to our main warehouse for shipment. At this stage we expect to be shipping in April / May!

Ready-To-Ship Items

Our wear items are in stock and ready to ship, this includes the TEAM SHIRT / SWEATER & TEAM CAP. You can see all our ready-to-ship items at: rama.link/stock

CANVAS XL

Due to popular demand, we've brought the Canvas XL back! Production begins at the end of the month for the Canvas XL pre-order - limited stock when production starts.
Preorder at: ramaworks.store/products/canvas-2-deskmat

M65-B LEDs / Project Updates [M60/U80/THERMAL/NEMO/MK Accessories]

M65-B LED Video

Here’s a video of the M65-B ICED with our Heavy Industry keyset + LEDs on.
youtu.be/SkIlTayKC5k

EXTRA UNITS

We have extra units of the M65-B available on our website as part of the pre-order allocations in our manufacturing. These are in limited numbers and will no longer be available once exhausted.
ramaworks.store

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PROJECT UPDATES

M60-A SEQ2

The contents of our container of M60-A units are arriving at our warehouse this Thursday or Friday - we’ll post an update when it does!

U80-A

The machining for the U80 will finish this month! It will then move onto finish treatment; this includes: polishing, bead-blasting + surface treatment (Anodising / PVD). As each piece needs to be polished before it’s either bead-blasted or coated, it will take some time. We estimate it to finish production by the middle of February. Packaging & Logistics will also take a considerable amount of time given the number of units.

THERMAL

We estimate the THERMAL units to finish production at the end of February. Again, it will have to go considerable packaging and logistics before they ship. For both the U80 & THERMAL we estimate it will ship in Q1 of 2020.

NEMO

NEMO will be completed machining this month, it will then move to the final processing. Note that this does not include the RW01 which will finish in Q1 of 2020. We will be shipping both NEMO and RW01 in Q1 - we’re working on some special packaging to include with each unit!

Camera Accessories

These should be shipping in February! They have finished manufacturing and will be assembled & packed when they arrive in our warehouse.

M6-C, M60-A SEQ2, GRID CAPS, U80-A, Inventory 2 SEQ2, Tray

M6-C

The M6-C enclosures have arrived, we have everything in stock except for the GRID caps & the M6-C Silicone bases. We expect these to all arrive this month though! Then all units will be shipped out if everything in the order is in stock.

We have approved the latest batch of M6-C bases for production; several improvements were made since the initial design. On the left is the first production sample, but given the density of the material, it would cave in too much, so we made some adjustments so that it sits more flush around the PCB.

GRID Keycaps

We’ve received the production polycarbonate colour samples of the GRID keycaps and have begun production on them! We’re looking forward to seeing these on keyboards and shipping them with our M6-C units.

PRODUCTION IS DUE TO COMPLETE BY 1st OF NOVEMBER

We have limited extra stock allocations from manufacturing available through our webstore.

Inventory 2

Inventory 2 Aluminium & Titanium have arrived and will be packed early next week for immediate shipping - the brass units will be sent to us early next week to receive before next weekend.

Tray

As with the Inventory, we’ve received the Aluminium trays in our warehouse and expect the brass ones to arrive early next week. They will be assembled with the silicone feet then packaged for shipping!

U80-A Production

The U80 production is well underway! All the plates have been completed and have been mirror-polished and are now in PVD coating. A majority of the brass underweights have been machined and are off to mirror-polishing. The bases have mostly been completed - machining will soon begin for the top housings. We will also soon start production on the PCB’s.

M60-A SEQ2

The M60-A SEQ2’s are all complete! We are waiting for the ZEIT editions to complete before they’re all sea-freighted to our warehouse for final packing and shipping! That is expected to be this upcoming week.

Merch / M60-A SEQ2 Updates / Misc

RAMA WORKS® CAPS

We have our caps in stock and will be available through our web-store in the next week.

Each cap comes with it’s own dust bag for storage (or for use with anything else)

M60-A SEQ2 Production

All M60-A SEQ2 units have been machined. They are now off to be enamel filled on the back-weight and then packaged - this will take around 2 weeks. They will then be freighted to our warehouse for final packaging, packing and shipment!

Inventory 2 / Trays / Heavy Industry SEQ2

These items will be shipping out in October.

GRID KEYCAPS

We’re adjusting the mould for the GRID keycaps to use a knockout plate for ejection. This will remove the area on the underside of the cap where the ejector pins are located to now be a clean surface. These changes will take some time, but will allow us to deliver a higher quality product! Once we green-light the latest sample, production will move through quickly.

MISC

The Gateron Silent Inks have arrived for the U80-A orders! These will be packed once our new packaging arrives for them.

RW XO Switch Puller / Production Begins

RW XO Switch Puller

We have completed the final round of prototyping for our RAMA WORKS® XO Switch Puller. We’ve designed this product to easily remove switches as quickly and accurately as possible without damaging the switch or scratching your case. It’s made out of SS304 and powder coated in our signature YOLK colour then laser etched with the RAMA mark and product code.

These will be included with the M60-A SEQ2 and the U80-A.

Distributor? Want to stock the XO Switch Puller? Please contact kate@rama.works (cc mail@rama.works)

Production Begins!

Inventory 2: Sourcing material for production
M6-C: Sourcing material for production
U80-A: Sourcing material for production
Tray: Sourcing material for production
Grid Caps: T2 sample arriving next week
Film Canister: Design for Manufacture by end of July
Hat/Dust Bag: First manufacturing run in stock by August
Apparel: Awaiting latest sample - due in 2 weeks

U80-A Typing & LEDs Overview Video / Collaboration Keycaps July 01

U80-A Overview Video 02

We’ve created another video to show the lighting modes on the U80-A and typing with tactile switches.

We film our videos using a stereo microphone configuration and a D65 lighting setup.

Collaboration Keycaps

Here are the latest collaboration keycaps available. We’ll also be making an archive/library of all current, previous and upcoming collaboration keycaps available.

GMK Dots

PVD Brass

GMK Peaches n Cream

Anodised Aluminium with enamel infill

GMK Vaporwave Collaboration Cap

Multicolour PVD Stainless Steel

KOYU Shipping Timeline / M60-A Production / U80-A Buying Guide / RW LP A GRID SET

KOYU Shipping Timeline

The KOYU’s are en-route to our warehouse and we anticipate them to land at our warehouse in early July, we’ll then be packing and shipping the KOYU’s in batches and anticipate them to be shipped through mid-to-late July.

If you are holding out for an extra unit, please sign-up to the waiting list here:
https://rama.link/koyulist

M60-A SEQ 2 Production

The Aluminium enclosures for the M60-A SEQ2 have all finished machining and are onto polishing and surface treatment now. The Brass & Aluminium backweights are still in machining and we expect them to be completed soon. We anticipate that the M60-A SEQ2 units will be completed by August.

Did you know each M60-A takes 10 hours to machine? This is just the top and bottom enclosure, not including the back piece. It’s then further polished, cleaned and anodised (or PVD coated)!

U80-A Buying Guide

Confused about what to order or what you will need to build a complete RW U80-A keyboard? We’ve created a guide to try and help out and show where you can purchase some of the components to make the keyboard your own! We also have a few other guides on how to adjust and make the typing experience for your keyboard unique.

RW LP A - GRID SET - PRODUCTION

Our first tool samples are set to arrive in the next few days for the GRID keycaps we have created, suited for ortholinear boards. We have also extended the pre-order for the M6-C / Inventory 2 & GRID caps to finish alongside the U80-A pre-order on July 10th, 2019.

KOYU Production / M60-A SEQ2 Production / RW LP Keycaps / U80-A

KOYU Production Updates

All Aluminium variants of the KOYU have been completed and are now going through final inspection and packaging.

KOYU TANK EDITIONS

Raw brass is very susceptible to scratches and resulted in a high-scratch rate during the PVD plating. It’s a challenging process when dealing with a mirror-finish as it’s unforgiving, making the surface untouchable while mounting the fixtures. All units which do not pass are then re-finished and then sent for re-plating, we’re doing this at a rate of several a day and should be complete this week. See below the beautiful mirror-polished, raw brass KOYU.

Here is how the KOYU TANK looks after being PVD plated. It is inconceivably heavy, I hope all that were lucky enough to secure one make some stability upgrades to their desks!

TANK upgrades!

We’ve added an oil coating to the base of the TANK editions. Bead-blasted PVD is incredibly absorbent to any oils, making it a fingerprint magnet. We’ve added an oil finish to the brass base to make it less-porous and not attract fingerprints which results in a much cleaner finish. It also made the colour darker than normal which matches more nicely with the top enclosure.

Extras

We will have extras of the KOYU available around JULY. This will include TANK editions. Time/Date for the extras will be posted to our social media and mailing list: https://rama.link/mail

M60-A Production updates

The M60-A SEQ2’s are well into the machining process, there are a significant number of units to go through with many machining operations. This is the longest process in the production chain.

RW LP Keycaps

We’ve begun production on the mould for our new Low-Profile keycaps. We’ve made these available in 9 different colour options and in a set of 60x1U + 2x2U so that they can be used on various ortholinear boards. They will be moulded from Polycarbonate for its exceptional optical clarity when creating our ICED variation of the cap (PC allows up to 90% of light transmission). The keycap has a polished finish on the outer surfaces for a retro look/feel, and the inside of the cap has a frosted finish to help disperse light when used with LEDs and the ICED cap. The first tool samples should be ready by Mid-June. You can pre-order them now at: https://rama.link/rwlp

U80-A

The U80-A will be launching before the end of May. We have already started prototyping and commenced production on parts of the assembly. Our custom fasteners & spacers for the countersunk screws in the plate and MUTE mount have been produced in mass and received in our warehouse. The custom feet have also been produced in mass. The MUTE mount and U80-A enclosure prototype are in production and should be received in JUNE. The prototype PCB’s have also arrived and are being evaluated.

The U80-A will launch on the 31st of May at 8.00 PM (EST) at $420 USD

KOYU PCBs / Internal Dampeners / RW FT Fasteners / U80-A Redesigns

Koyu PCB’s + Enclosures

The KOYU PCB’s have arrived and are fully programmed and ready to go. We will be visiting our manufacturer in early May to QC and check over the enclosures before they are shipped to our warehouse in Melbourne for final packaging and shipment.

Internal Dampener & RW FT Fasteners

Both the Internal Dampener’s and Fasteners will arrive in our warehouse this week.

The tools that come with the fastener should be complete by early next week and will ship out with the Fastener kits around this time.

U80-A Redesign

With the U80-A we’re introducing our new plate mounting & dampening solution. The Rama Works MUTE.

The MUTE isolates the plate inside the enclosure providing a unique typing experience.

Please note that this is under-development. See more at http://rama.link/u80

UNIT-80 ANNOUNCEMENT

We are excited to announce that the UNIT-80 will be available for pre-order via the Rama Works store in Q2 2019. We have refined the design since the initial prototype and look forward to presenting this closer to release.

U80 SEQ 1 PCB / M6-B Proto / Lumen Proto

U80 Prototype PCB

A lot of people have been waiting for an update on this project, along with us! Finally received in the prototype PCB's today. Will be doing fit testing this week so then we can move quickly with the vendor to getting the product to a production-ready state. Here are some pics of the prototype PCB & Enclosure.

M6-B Proto

LEDs in action! Rainbow mode. Completely programmable via QMK and can be used to indicate a miriad of things.

The M6-B is on it's final week for pre-order, get one now before it's too late:

Lumen (Utility) Light Prototype

A few weeks ago, we teased a concept image of a product we are working on without revealing what it is. The Lumen is an RGBW utility light controllable via HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value/Brightness), the interface consists of two dials which can be clicked in to control different parameters, Hue / Saturation, Hue / Brightness, Pulse Rate / Speed etc. 

Today Wilba (our Hardware Engineer) brought over the prototype test-board to play with and we are now confident we can miniaturize it and create a neat product from it.

A lot of people have noticed the deskmat we have in the background of a lot of these images, we have stock arriving at our warehouses in the following weeks, expect something soon!

It's named the Canvas and it's perfectly ratio'd to compliment 60% sized keyboards.