Coarse60

2020-2023

The COARSE60 is a premium ergonomic mechanical keyboard designed with a soft typing experience and efficient manufacturing in mind. It sold several hundred units for a total of $75,000 on the keyboard vendor Keebsforall.com.

Photos

Timeline

Winter 2020. The very first draft of the Coarse60, made during my Zoom CAD class (it might have also been american democracy, algebra, or hebrew scriptures). It looks little like the final product. However, two visual motifs, the "partial racing-stripe" along the side and the rectangular form, stayed throughout each iteration. Inscribing the jauntily angled alice layout in a rectangular form was a compelling idea to me, as it sort of glossed over the inherent asymmetry in alice keyboards, provided an easier experience finding wrist rests, and showcased the aluminum finish. The racing stripe added some direction to the visually static rectangular prism. The other guiding principle of this keyboard was the (at the time) scarcity of affordable ergonomic custom keyboards. If you'd like to read more about the business end of the keyboard, I've gathered some thoughts in this article.

April 2021. The first public version of the Coarse60. The rough and bloated forms were rightfully and harshly criticized by the Geekhack community, and I soon got to work redesigning. I even resorted to design-by-committee, issuing a google form to test if keyboard netizens preferred a more streamlined or more blocky aesthetic.

September 2021. Shortly after Andy V. Nguyen's review, I made the final refinement on my custom switchplate mounting system. This was the simple "innovation" which allowed me to achieve a flexible, soft typing experience with low machining time, low part count, and easy assembly. Instead of using separate pieces of foam or a lattice system of thin metal strips sandwiched between the halves of the case (seen in boards like Wilba.tech's excellent Thermal, I used thin strips which are screwed into the top of the case. This avoids the necessity for two CNC-machined parts in both of the aforementioned mounting methods, and the case seals up with an acrylic panel on the bottom, which also morphs into the racing-stripe element on the side of the keyboard. The racing stripe also gets illuminated by LEDs on the bottom of the PCB.

November 2021. The pre-order goes live on Keebsforall.com and a network of international vendors. A few hundred units are sold plus extra components, totalling ~$75,000. Although demand may exist for more units, I decided to focus on new designs instead. Units are received in fall 2022.

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