Grumpy Sloth
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07/12/2023
OP2 done and ready for anodising... This is basically the same photo as the last one since most of the work between the two is face down 😅
05/12/2023
Keycaps, so many keycaps. OP1 complete.
13/11/2023
The first customer Slim Sloth is about to be handed over to it's new owner at
08/11/2023
The first batch of customer keyboards are under way... Actually I'm slow at getting this posted, it was taken a week ago. They were completed 3 days ago and are out for plating.
15/09/2023
Thankfully I'm a much better machinists than I am a web developer. But we got there in the end and the website is now live at grumpysloth.co (link is in profile as well). We are doing a limited pre-order with 11 units left in the first product run which is estimated to ship early December. Hopefully those who have followed the journey appreciate the amount of work that goes into producing one of these keyboards and the 108 CNC machined aluminium keycaps for it. The price tag that comes as a result of all that work, which is complete in New Zealand is $3,600 NZD (~$2,170 USD) for our international customers and that + GST to appease the government for our friends in New Zealand.
04/09/2023
After google reminded me it's over 3 years since we started this project. I thought I better share the photos of the production prototype which is currently in Leipzig, Germany, enroute to Hannover. Machinists following might have an idea where it's heading based on that 😁
Currently working to get a website up to allow pre-orders of the first 12 that we have PCBs on hand to build. More info will follow in the coming days for those who are interested... and have lots of money 🤣 Turns out, machining 108 keycaps from aluminium is a rather time consuming process. Who would have guessed 🤷♂️
25/08/2023
That keyboard just isn't up to s***f and completely out of place next to that weapon of a machine.
17/07/2023
My army of Mini Sloths. So many gloriously grumpy faces in one photo.
Needed some samples to test finishes. Wanted them to include the key features of the keyboard. After a while thinking, my du***ss finally realised the obvious solution of mini keyboard cases. These are off to be vapour blasted at various levels and then down to
Grumpy Sloth emerges
Jumping back into after intially modeling this keyboard in Fusion 360 has been a real eye opener. It's a damn good tool... And we should always try to use the right tools for the job. has been used for the designs, associatively driven from base geometry in Inventor... Then the final 3D PCB assemblies have been brought back into Inventor using . All machined components will also be associatively pushed to Fusion 360 to be programmed and machined by
Starting to fill out the board with keycaps including legends. 😍.....
Autodesk Fusion 360
We're making progress again! You've got to love parametric design when figuring out how everything goes together for assembly and manufacturability! ....
Yay!!! She lives!! Now to figure out how to do layers and macros. And sort out the dodgy solder joint on one of the pins on the . ... I'm going to buy a proper soldering setup so I don't have to try and use my fingers as hands. I'm not showing you guys any more of my shoddy soldering until it's up to the standards of the PCB guy on our team.
Great success. firmware compilation. Our prototype handwired numpad is alive.
20/09/2020
Firmware time.. This isn't exactly straight forward 😂. Getting there though.
09/09/2020
Those toolpaths 😍😍. These machined feel sooooo sweet. We can't wait to get the full keyboard designed and made so we can bless our finger tips on an hourly basis.
There's a bit more work to be done on this geometry. But here's the anatomy of a .
03/09/2020
It's crazy how white the headlights are on my new car.... But no 😭.
02/09/2020
The first aluminum machined keycap we've made. We're pretty excited by the result. #⌨️
31/08/2020
All she needs now is 2 mounting screws... I don't have any on hand with small enough heads. And some firmware. Then we have ourselves a prototype 10 key and or .
31/08/2020
They say practice makes perfect, right? I see progress.
30/08/2020
Thankfully I won't be soldering the final thing. But I've got it all wired up... I'll put a check multimeter across it shortly, because it's possible there are some dry joints there.
The plastic on the desk makes it sound horrible. But hey. It's a prototype for learning purposes 😁.
29/08/2020
Test bed is coming along nicely... Aside from the usual 'fun' with . switches loaded. Key caps currently printing. Then it's onto mounting and wiring up the switches to the board. Followed by getting jiggy with VS Code to bring this thing to life with some firmware.
Got the Choc low profile stabs figured out. Clearance sorted for the wire. Just about ready to 3D print a test plate before committing to printing the case and all the keycaps. Then onto wiring it up.
Figuring out clearances for our first prototype low profile keyboard. Hoping to 3D print everything we need for the very first one. Then will hook into machining a version, before moving onto a full board.
06/08/2020
The badassery starts!! over the top ludicrousness. We like the Browns... The blue and whites are so sweeeet but we like who we work with and they like us, so we want to keep it that way. Time to get machining. So... Ali or Ti?
06/08/2020
These stabilizers are tiny!!
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