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Knob / k•no•b•1 keyboard by Work Louder
p/knob-k-no-b-1-keyboard-by-work-louderThe low-profile mechanical keyboard of your dreams.
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Ben Fryc

Knob / k•no•b•1 by Work Louder - The low-profile mechanical keyboard of your dreams.

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The Knob / k•no•b•1 is a keyboard being designed by 3D Artist and Motion Designer Ben Fryc, and developed by Work Louder. Evoking the look of both classic and modern technology, designed to be a beautiful and functional part of your every day workflow.

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Ben Fryc
Maker
📌
Hey there Product Hunt! Me and the folks at Work Louder are so happy to launch the Knob / k•no•b•1 keyboard. We are opening pre-orders today April 4th at 1PM EST and plan to ship the keyboard in Q3 2024. I started working on this keyboard design as a concept in Figma in July 2023 and have been iterating on it based on feedback from a close group of people who are passionate members of the keyboard space. During that time the co-founder of Work Louder, Michael Di Genova reached out to see if we could partner on the development and the rest is history. I've been working closely with the Work Louder team to further refine the industrial design so that manufacturing can go more smoothly. But what is the k•no•b•1? At it's core it's a low-profile mechanical keyboard with uniquely designed keycaps that are designed look amazing and feel great to type on. Another novel feature is a small screen on the right hand side between the right arrow key and two rotary encoder knobs above. It's only 100x310 pixels so pixel art should look great on it. We plan to support custom wallpapers, a timer, and computer control features when we ship. Down the road, we want people to be able to create their own features. Stay tuned on that front. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about the keyboard. Thank you so much for giving us a look!
Rajiv Ayyangar
@benfryc Decibel rating? (louder = better :) ). joking. One thing I've wanted for a while is an integrated mute/unmute key with an LED. Using Karabiner-Elements I've remapped Caps Lock to mute/unmute, but I wasn't able to have the LED map to the mute state, which is unfortunate. The larger button makes it perfect when, say, you need to sneeze (yay Fitts' Law!). Do you have any thoughts around mute/unmute or any plans in that regard? Also another pet feature I wish were more prevalent: Single-modifier shortcuts. Quicksilver from @alcor implemented this quite well so typing merely "CMD" opens the launcher window. Maybe that's outside scope for a physical keyboard...just geeking out here because I think keyboards haven't reached their full potential! Very cool launch and killer video!
Yami Sun
@benfryc I'm intrigued to learn how seamless the integration of the keyboard is. 🎉Congrats! We're launching "Cascad3 - A decentralized inspiration-driven publishing platform" on Product Hunt soon. Let's collaborate! I would appreciate your support and feedback by clicking the "Notify Me" button to stay tuned and be the first to know when Cascad3 debuts on the stage.👇 producthunt.com/products/cascad3 Thank you! Best regards, Yami
Max Ambinder
Hey! Will it have a 2.4ghz dongle?
Ben Fryc
Maker
@ambinder Hey Max! We will have Bluetooth for up to three devices and wired support (USB-C) for the keyboard. No dongle required.
Cenan Ulker
Congratulations on your launch!! A physical product with careful and clean design really hits different. Thank you for making this ✨
Ben Fryc
Maker
@cenanulker Appreciate you noticing Cenan! Thanks for the support!
Calvin Vadivelu
Hey! Love the keyboard, beautifully designed. Any details about what the knobs can be programmed to do? Specifically for MacOS? Also any word on if the keys are remappable via QMK/VIAL?
Ben Fryc
Maker
@calvin_vadivelu Yep the configuration software will run on both PC/Mac. QMK/VIA would have been nice, but the chipset we are using isn't supported by QMK/VIA. Needed a processor powerful enough to do the stuff on the screen we want to do. It might be possible to hack together some kind of support down the road, but not planning to at the moment.
Calvin Vadivelu
@benfryc Thanks for the reply! Yea totally makes sense on the QMK/VIA point. Any chance you guys might have a preview/trailer of the software? Really want to jump in on this, but just want to confirm I'll be able to map all the functionality I currently have mapped on my mechanical keyboard.
Adam Whitcroft
Let’s go! Best looking mechanical keyboard out there. Congrats on making this a reality Ben!
Ben Fryc
Maker
@adamwhitcroft Adam you are too kind! Thank you for the support!
Charles Teague
Congrats, this looks really cool! Two quick questions: 1) What switches will it come with / be available? 2) Can you share the dimensions, especially thickness? Thank you and good luck with this!
Ben Fryc
Maker
@dragonstyle Hey Charles! We will be using gateron-style low-profile switches / stems. Some details there too: tactile / 55g / two-stage spring / factory lubed Dimensions from top of the keycaps to the base of the rubber feet without the tilt risers is 2.006cm. Other dimensions: 31.485cm wide and 12.435cm deep. Good questions!
Micah Carroll
I've seen Ben work on this for some years now, grateful to see it come to life.
Antoine Beaudoire
Hi Ben, I saw many of your ideas on Instagram, and that so cool to see to see a concept come to life. Congratulations for that ✨ I have some questions : 1. why you choose two magnetic pieces for the tilt risers? 2. What is its autonomy? Is the screen brightness adjustable for consumption? 3. I think I've seen this question before, but I didn't quite understand the answer. Are some keys customizable? For Figma for example? 4. In the end, isn't the screen like the touchbar? It's not tactical right? 5. The color of the "delete" key is not black like your render? 🥲 6. This is the preorder, the price will increase? if yes, how much? Be transparent please 🙌🏻 Have a great day, Thanks 🙏🏻
Ben Fryc
Maker
@antoine_beaudoire 1. Mechanical simplicity and uniqueness 2. The screen will have setting as you mention to reduce brightness and such. More to come. 3. With the Work Louder software you should be able to remap keys and the top knob however you like. 4. Screen is not touch sensitive. The screens available in this size don’t offer it and the engineering cost of creating one too high. 5. Was one of the early details to go. Drew the eye too much. Orange is life. 6. Nothing to share on that front at this time.
Antoine Beaudoire
@benfryc thanks a lot, you don't mention the autonomy? Haha yaaas, orange 🧡 "creativity" Well, not exactly then, but I imagine the price will increase after the pre-order? Thanks.
Ben Fryc
Maker
@antoine_beaudoire not sure what you mean by autonomy? It’s wireless with Bluetooth connectivity, but it doesn’t have any AI or automatic functions.
Antoine Beaudoire
@benfryc I'm talking about battery life. I saw the capacity at 2100mah. Does the keyboard get very hot around the screen? I ask this because the touchbar takes up quite a few resources. And please answer me the question about the price increase after pre-orders. It's an investment 🙏🏻 Thanks.
Ben Fryc
Maker
@antoine_beaudoire When we have production models to test on we will make notes on if the screen gets warm or not. Usually this has to do with battery placement, which will be more towards the middle of the board. As for the price increase, once we have the keyboard in stock, the pre-order price point will go away and it will sell for $479 USD. Thanks for you patience!
Johan Steneros
Graphic designers are going to go crazy for this.
Juri Noga
Is the display programmable - is possible to write custom “app” for it, i.e to show status or whatever. Is there a backlight?
Ben Fryc
Maker
@njuri Once we ship in Q3 then we plan to release an update for custom screen widgets sometime after. In the meantime, I created a figma file that shows how the UX works on the screen. https://www.figma.com/community/...
levene
Congrats on launching Knob / k•no•b•1 keyboard by Work Louder
Nolan Wang
Love this Ben! @benfryc Amazing to see the final product in less than a year since ideation! Love the clean color theme, any additional colors you thinking about trying in the future?
Ben Fryc
Maker
@nolan_wang definitely want to try some colorways on keycap sets down the road!
Phil Meyer
My wife astonished me one day in a department store when she went over to the mechanical keyboards and started talking about them - I had no idea! Anyway the sound of the keys is what she liked. I did not hear any key clicking in your slick promo? Perhaps there is another ad? 🤔
Ben Fryc
Maker
@phil_meyer We will have typing test videos as we approach our shipping target of Q3 2024. Stay tuned!
Patrick G
Just looking at the keyboard layout more closely, and I'm a bit concerned at the distance my right pinky finger will have to travel to press return compared to all of the keyboards I use today. I don't suppose you could whip up a to-scale PDF of the key layout so we can print it out and get a sense of what that would be like, could you?
Patrick G
I just noticed that the images show a UK layout, but on the pre-order page, if I choose US layout, the enter/return key is what I'm used to.
Ben Fryc
Maker
@pgib Awesome. Yep we will be shipping both ANSI (US) and ISO (Multi-language keysets).
Avkash Kakdiya
Wow, the low-profile mechanical keyboard game just got a serious upgrade with Knob by Work Louder!