M60-A Cables / KOYU Announcement / BOX Royal / Wear

M60-A Cables

The new USB A > C cables have arrived, 1.5m long in black braided with metal ends, laser etched.

Three of the six colours have been all anodized as of last week and we anticipate all colours to be finished properly. We will be arriving to our manufacturer next week for a final QC of all the boards before they’re shipped to home base!  Please note that we’ll be away from the office until the 11th of September and slower to reply to all support inquiries, but will do our best to answer as promptly as we can.

KOYU Announcement

We are incredibly excited to announce our latest offering, the KOYU 65% Keyboard.   It’s an inspiration and evolution of our previous offerings, but entirely new in its own way - we’ve taken all the great aspects of the M60-A and integrated it into the KOYU. 

Integrated 4.5MM plate, In-Switch RGB, hotsockets, fixed layout, optional internal weight (same weight as M60-A / interchangeable). Launching mid-September.

BOX Royal Switches - Re-tooled

The replacement BOX Royal Re-tooled switches have arrived and we are promptly having them packed, along with the GMK Stabilisers. 

Wear

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.

M60-A SEQ 4 / M6-B / WAVE SEQ 2

Hey all! Apologies for the late update, been meaning to post one for a while but caught up in accounting, unfortunately, always the things you don't want to do. But back to what we love now!

M60-A PCB's

All the m60-A PCB's are in as of last week. Currently unboxing them all and sending them in batches to our in-house Hardware Engineer Wilba to program and test over the next few weeks.

They will then all be packaged and warehoused until the enclosures arrive.

M60-A Enclosures

All M60-A enclosures are all machined and currently undergoing Anodising by colour batch. A few colours have already been completed. All PVD coating and hand-mirror polishing have been complete on the brass components. We estimate all enclosures to finish around early September - and we will be visiting our suppliers to do a final QC before they are forwarded to our warehouse for final assembly and packaging. We will be away for a week and a half from the first week of September and reachable via our contact support email: support@rama.works. Sea-Freight should take roughly 2 weeks and we will promptly pack each order in batches of Country, Colour and Contents. 

All stainless steel fasteners and black hex screws are in and we are also creating a manual on how to assemble the M60-A. Here is an artwork we commissioned by the very talented Janne Iivonen which will be used as the front cover for the manual, it shows the diversity and playfulness we strive for within our products and customers.

We are looking forward to shipping these out and seeing them customised in their own unique ways by the new owners!

M6-B

M6-B with the TH 88 edition keycaps (currently in production)

Excited to launch the new variation of the M6-B, it includes all the great features of the previous revision but now with RGB lighting! The PCB is also backwards compatible with any existing M6 enclosure.

Check out the prototype PCB from Wilba here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmm5NV4DYpz/

It's available for pre-order now at:

WAVE SEQ 2

The new variation on the coveted wave keycap series. Available for preorder now alongside the M6-B.

In other news

The 'Project Updates' blog is now 'Proto(Type)'  It is what identifies us across our spectrum and excites,  mesmerizes and captivates our audiences. It's us on a page. More to come. 

M60-A SEQ 3

A big pallet arrived today at the Rama Works warehouse and it's the production packaging for the M60-A accessories - these are for the Interior Weight, Back Weight and PCB. Looking forward to packaging these all together and shipping them out in the following months!

M60-A PCB

Interior Weight

Back Weight

EXTRA

Always enjoyable to take apart and hold the parts which make up the M60-A keyboard, excited for those who participated in the preorder to experience unpacking and assembling this keyboard! Also go check the M60-A box here: https://rama.works/projectupdates/2018/6/11/m60-a-packaging

Other updates

Have also for the past two weeks been testing ZFrontiers new profile keyset, the KAT profile. It's a very ergonomic and a very comfortable set to type on and we're looking forward to potentially releasing a set with this profile. More information on this keyset can be found here: https://www.zfrontier.com/post/detail/7625

RAMA x Metaverse [LIVE]

The three aluminium novelty keys are now available through our vendors for this exciting new GMK set! They come in Red/Black anodised aluminium and polished raw aluminium variants.

Instrument Low-Profile / Stab SEQ 2

INSTRUMENT

A lot have asked on the status of the Instrument board. Over the past couple of months, we made developments on creating a low profile keyboard with our custom-moulded keycaps.

The initially designed keycap was for the Kailh Low-Profile switch - however after initial testing with 2U caps we found that it was not suitable and halted the project. We had an entire set of 1U and 2U keys prototyped for testing.

A lot of work was done in creating a complete package, below is the PCB designed by our Hardware Engineer, Wilba.

A new solution

After being in contact with Cherry we where able to procure one of the first samples of the Cherry MX Low Profile mechanical switch. The design of this switch has some major advantages over the Kailh switches we initially selected. It has a light-pipe which was designed specifically for SMD RGB LED's, the stem is much more stabilised which can handle 2U keys on its own and the switch supports normal MX keys (unlike the Kailh which is a proprietary stem)

What's next?

The low-profile switches haven't been released yet, but we're waiting on a prototype order of more units so that we can begin testing. The PCB will also be redesigned with the footprint for the Cherry MX Low Profile switch.

Stab

The design for our new stabiliser is complete and will begin the second round of prototying. We have added in the threaded-insert and adjusted some of the model dimensions. The base of the stabiliser is 'pre-clipped' and has a small landing pad to reduce 'bottoming out' noise. The current proposal is to produce the stabiliser out of POM due to its low coefficient of friction.

Olivia XO / Inventory 2 / Tray SEQ 2

Olivia XO

The Aluminium Olivia XO caps are packed and shipping to our distributors via DHL Express, they should arrive to our distributors soon! We will have extras available in 2-3 weeks, stay tuned.

Inventory 2

A majority of the XO cards have arrived and we have packed all colours except for LNY Gold and Sage (we are awaiting replacement Sage units).  We will be shipping out a bulk of orders over the week. We anticipate the replacement Sage and Gold XO cards to arrive this Friday.

Tray

The Aluminium and PVD Brass Tray's are all packed and ready for shipping - expect order fulfilment emails to come through soon!

Stab SEQ 1

Major CAD design work and initial testing has been complete for the Rama Works Stabiliser, our goals are to enhance aesthetics, reduce rattle/sound and increase smoothness. More to come.

Early CAD EXPERIMENTS

Prototype Testing

What's next?

Final prototype > injection moulding > material exploration/testing > packaging > distribution

Olivia XO + Inventory Ti XO + Oasis XO + Stab 01

First thing, the XO caps for the GMK Olivia GroupBuy are in! We will be packing them this week and shipping them to the 4 distributors next week. Can't wait to see these out to everyone who ordered one!

---

The Titanium XO cards have arrived, this leaves just one final component to arrive before we can begin to ship the Inventory 2's - The Aluminium XO cards. 

---

Oasis XO (Along with the beautiful GMK set) is now live and available from our friends at: 

---

Last thing... just in, an early prototype.

M6-A 88

Happy to announce that we will be launching and selling the 88 edition of the M6-A this week, it is in stock and ready for shipping - we are just awaiting some new accounts to finalise before launching the sale, we hope this will be complete and ready this week!

This edition is limited to just 88 units.

Here are some behind-the-scenes photos:

RAMA x Metaverse

Here's another great GMK set we're thrilled to collaborate on, GMK Metaverse, we'll be releasing a line of both raw polished and anodized collectible aluminium caps! 

RAMA x GMK Oasis

Excited to be further continuing our collaborations for this year with GMK Oasis. We will be producing our limited-edition collectible XO caps for this exciting set! 

We can't wait to get one of these sets on our M60 board!

---

Tray SEQ 1

The Tray's are all in stock and we are just awaiting new packaging. We are extremely happy with how the Liquid Series trays came out, we want to do something a little more special with the packaging. Each one is hand mirror polished for over 2 hours and then PVD coated! Packaging will be finished this week and shipped to us to arrive in the following weeks. Excited to finally get them out!

Inventory 2 SEQ 1

The Inventory 2 production has hit a series of delay's - we have had them remachined and reanodized from scratch as we where not happy with the initial batch which was manufactured in full. We are reaching a stage where we can start shipping in the following weeks. Most of the parts are in and we are just awaiting the Anodized XO cards and Titanium XO cards to arrive.

Here are some pictures of where we are at:

Packaging

Band

The band was completely reengineered and now features a coating which prevents dust from sticking, this makes a huge difference in comparison to the Inventory 2. We have them all in stock and ready to go.

Packaged

We have started to pack the Inventory 2's, all that needs to be added to the package is the XO card.

LNY Edition

Extras

Inventory 2 will be available from stock a few weeks after the original orders fulfill and arrive safely to our customers!

M60-A SEQ 2 + EPBT HEAVY INDUSTRY

Apologies all for the lack of updates/social media for the past week or so - we have been away from the office. We are now back and cannot wait to get straight back into it! 

Productive mail day here at the Rama Works Workshop. We've received a number of items which come with the M60-A. 

We are working hard here to not only deliver a product, but an experience. This delves deep into our company tagline "Experience Design". We cannot wait to show our customers what we work on in the background and some of the inclusions that come with our products.

Here's a few of them:

Custom feet

We had the mould for the feet completely remade to provide more grip. These come packaged in a pack of two and are in Kuro black.

U1 Connector cable

This is the cable which connects the U1-C daughterboard and the M60-A PCB together, we added extra sleeving to keep it together - we have the entire quantity in stock now.

PCB Anti-Static Bag

Our M60-A Anti-Static bags have arrived, these will keep the PCB's safe during handling and transport. This also comes packaged in another box (which has yet to arrive, stay tuned)

Not shown: 
GMK Stabilisers
NovelKeys Box Royals

---

EPBT Heavy Industry preview!

We’re proud to announce the newest collaboration in our partnership line. We have been working with enjoyPBT and are proud to create EPBT Heavy Industry, a cherry profile keycap, tailored with our signature typeface and the resilient, printed caps and stems enjoyPBT are known for. PBT creates a much softer typing acoustic when compared to ABS and is a perfect match for our M60-A keyboard. It will also come at a discount to our M60-A owners. More news to come! (Also, what’s that keyboard resting on?)

EDIT: Here's a more color accurate photo:

M60-A SEQ 1

M60-A base unit sample packaging has arrived, this will be accompanied by other packaging which will house the PCB, Internal Weight & Back Weight extras.

Video:

Will post pictures of the other packaging when it arrives!