CU65 Round 2

Weekly Update #13 (05-01-2021)

Hi Everyone!

In this update we will inform you about the current status of the CU65 Round 2 group buy.
 
CU80 R2
 
The PCBs are finally here! 
 
We are testing the PCBs before packing orders, but so far everything is looking great! We expect the first kits to start shipping early next week and tracking numbers will be going out over the weekend.
 
CU80 R2 Shipping Groups (First to Last): 
 
  • Group 1) Base Kits - Without Extras
  • Group 2) Base Kits - With Extra PCB Only
  • Group 3) Base Kits - With Stabilisers Only
  • Group 4) Base Kits - With Extra PCB and Stabiliers
 
CU65 R2
 
The PCBs and cases are finally here!

We are testing the PCBs before packing orders, but so far everything is looking great! We expect the first kits to start shipping early next week and tracking numbers will be going out over the weekend. The cases are also being inspected but they look good!
 
CU65 R2 Shipping Groups (First to Last):
 
  • Group 1) Base Kits - Without Extras
  • Group 2) Base Kits - With Extra PCB Only
  • Group 3) Base Kits - With Switches Only
  • Group 4) Base Kits - With Extra PCB and Switches
  • Group 5) Base Kits - With Stabilisers Only
  • Group 6) Base Kits - With Extra PCB and Stabilisers
  • Group 7) Base Kits - With Stabilisers and Switches
  • Group 8) Base Kits - With Stabilisers, Switches and Extra PCBs
 
Shipping Groups Explained
 
The first orders to ship will be: 
 
CU80 - Groups 1 & 2
CU65 - Groups 1, 2, 3 & 4
 
These groups will be shipping first as we are still waiting for the stabilisers to arrive (more info below). Once they have shipped we will be proceeding to ship out the remaining groups. 
 
Stabilisers Status
 
We are considering forgoing ordering the GMK stabilisers and ship all orders without stabilisers. We know that this is an inconvenience but we are unsure whether GMK will be able to dispatch the stabilisers in a reasonable timeframe and would like to dispatch as many orders in January as possible. We are still working on this with GMK but if we do not have a solution by Wednesday 6th Jan we will proceed with shipping all of the orders without stabilisers. Stabiliser refunds will be processed in February. 
 
If we remove the stabilisers from all of the orders then the shipping group order will still remain as they have already been segemented internally. 
 
We recently released a form that allows customers to remove stabilisers from their order, you can find this linked below. If we remove all of the stabilisers from the orders then this form will not be necessary. 
 
Stabiliser Removal Form: https://forms.gle/reKV6G5LCPzXJcrYA
 
Address Change
 
if you need to change your address please do so as soon as possible. We will be closing the form on Wednesday 6th January to process all of the changes, but it will go live again later this week. 
 
Address Change Form (v2): https://forms.gle/JQCYmXCiT4YnvsMJ8 

VAT and Brexit

We have been speaking with our accountant and DHL about how VAT will be processed when the United Kingdom leaves the European Union on 1st Jan 2021. They have informed us that if VAT was paid (by customers in the EU) before the UK left the EU then the packages can be marked as VAT paid. We are continuing to investigate this and if there are any changes we will communicate this immediately. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email or join our Discord Server! :)

Email Support: https://caps-unlocked.com/contact-us/

Discord Server Invite: https://discord.gg/M6XfE5f

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Weekly Update #12 (21-12-2020)

Hi Everyone!

In this update we will inform you about the current status of the CU65 Round 2 group buy.
 
The PCBs have been assembled and tested. The factory have informed us that they are now being prepared for shipping!

The cases have left China and we are expecting to receive them this week. Once they arrive, we will let you know and start prepping orders for shipping.
 
We hope that the PCBs will arrive this month after Christmas; if they do then we will start getting orders out before the New Year. 

We are also waiting to receive another batch of stabilisers from GMK but besides that we have everything necessary to start sending out orders!

VAT and Brexit

We have been speaking with our accountant and DHL about how VAT will be processed when the United Kingdom leaves the European Union on 1st Jan 2021. They have informed us that if VAT was paid (by customers in the EU) before the UK left the EU then the packages can be marked as VAT paid. We are continuing to investigate this and if there are any changes we will communicate this immediately. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email or join our Discord Server! :)

Email Support: https://caps-unlocked.com/contact-us/

Discord Server Invite: https://discord.gg/M6XfE5f

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Weekly Update #11 (04-12-2020)

Hi Everyone!

In this update we will inform you about the current status of the CU65 Round 2 and CU80 Round 2.
 
CU65 Round 2: Cases have been machined and will be anodised next week. PCBs are moving into the assembly phase. 
 
CU80 Round 2: ANSI PCBs have been assembled and ISO PCBs will be assembled next week. 
 
We are still aiming to ship the CU80 R2 and CU65 R2 orders in December and will keep all participants updated.

VAT and Brexit

We have been speaking with our accountant and DHL about how VAT will be processed when the United Kingdom leaves the European Union on 1st Jan 2021. They have informed us that if VAT was paid (by customers in the EU) before the UK left the EU then the packages can be marked as VAT paid. We are continuing to investigate this and if there are any changes we will communicate this immediately. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email or join our Discord Server! :)

Email Support: https://caps-unlocked.com/contact-us/

Discord Server Invite: https://discord.gg/M6XfE5f

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Weekly Update #10 (21-11-2020)

Hi Everyone!

In this update we will inform you about the current status of the CU65 Round 2 and CU80 Round 2.

CU65 Round 2: Cases are being machined; we will post videos from the factory shortly. There are two stages to PCB manufacturing; fabrication (where the boards are made) and then assembly (where the components are soldered onto the boards). The CU65 and CU80 PCBs have been fabricated and the factory is waiting to receive the final components before assembly begins.

CU80 Round 2: The cases are with us in the UK. There are two stages to PCB manufacturing; fabrication (where the boards are made) and then assembly (where the components are soldered onto the boards). The CU65 and CU80 PCBs have been fabricated and the factory is waiting to receive the final components before assembly begins.

We are still aiming to ship the CU80 R2 and CU65 R2 orders in December and will keep all participants updated.

VAT and Brexit

We have been speaking with our accountant and DHL about how VAT will be processed when the United Kingdom leaves the European Union on 1st Jan 2021. They have informed us that if VAT was paid (by customers in the EU) before the UK left the EU then the packages can be marked as VAT paid. We are continuing to investigate this and if there are any changes we will communicate this immediately. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email or join our Discord Server! :)

Email Support: https://caps-unlocked.com/contact-us/

Discord Server Invite: https://discord.gg/M6XfE5f

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Weekly Update #9 (29-10-2020)

Hi Everyone!

In this update we will inform you about the current status of the CU65 (Rounds 1 and 2) and CU80 Round 2.

We are excited to announce that the CU65, CU80 ANSI and CU80 ISO have been tested and officially comply with the following electronic safety directives: FCC SDoC, CE-LVD, CE-EMC and RoHS. 

Now that testing is complete we will be separating the updates for the products as they are now at different stages but this is the current summary of each group buy: 

CU65 Round 1: Orders will now be prepared for shipping and customers will start to receive their orders from next week. 

CU65 Round 2: We are now preparing to confirm the final order total with our manufacturers. We will be submitting this early next week but have taken the decision to accept new orders between today and Sunday for those that missed out on R2 in July. 

CU80 Round 2: The cases are with us in the UK and we will be submitting the final PCB count to our manufacturer next week. 

We are still aiming to ship the CU80 R2 and CU65 R2 orders in December and will keep all participants updated.

We are extremely grateful for the support and patience expressed by all participants over the past few months. We apologise for the numerous delays and any inconvenience caused especially to those that joined the CU65 Round 1 group buy. 

We are looking at compensating those that have joined the CU65 R1 group buy but have not made any formal decision on what this may be. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email or join our Discord Server! :)

Email Support: https://caps-unlocked.com/contact-us/

Discord Server Invite: https://discord.gg/M6XfE5f

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Weekly Update #8 (16-10-2020)

Hi Everyone!

In this update we will inform you about the current status of the CU65 (Rounds 1 and 2) and CU80 Round 2.

We are excited to inform you that the CU80 ISO and ANSI have passed the CE-EMC tests and the testing house will now proceed with RoHS testing. Once RoHS testing is complete, we will start shipping out the CU65s. The CU80s will undergo CE-LVD and FCC SDoC testing after RoHS. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email or join our Discord Server! :)

Email Support: https://caps-unlocked.com/contact-us/

Discord Server Invite: https://discord.gg/M6XfE5f

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Weekly Update #7 (06-10-2020)

Hi Everyone!

In this update we will inform you about the current status of the CU65 (Rounds 1 and 2) and CU80 Round 2.

We are currently working on assembling the CU65 orders. We can't complete the process and provide you with tracking numbers just yet as we still need confirmation on the RoHS testing; as soon as that is complete we will attach stickers to the CU65 and send them out to all of you!

We will be using this week to check address and order details, if you are not contacted then everything is fine! We know that some address changes submitted via the address change form haven't been updated yet but we will do that this week.

CU80 testing should begin on Monday / Tuesday next week and we will keep you updated with the results as soon as they come through!

A short update this week but everything is going as expected - if there are any changes we will let you all know immediately!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email or join our Discord Server! :)

Email Support: https://caps-unlocked.com/contact-us/

Discord Server Invite: https://discord.gg/M6XfE5f

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Weekly Update #6 (30-09-2020)

Hi Everyone!
 
In this update we will inform you about the current status of the CU65 (Rounds 1 and 2) and CU80 Round 2.
 
We are excited to announce that the CU65 has been tested and been found to conform to the following safety standards: 
 
  • CE-LVD
  • CE-EMC
  • FCC SDoC
 
This is a massive relief and it means that the CU65s are one step closer to being delivered to you! 
 
What happens now? 
 
There is still one standard that we need to comply with, RoHS, and testing will commence from 10th October. RoHS testing will be carried out on the CU80 ISO and the results will be applied to the CU65 and CU80 ANSI. The reason testing will re-commence on the 10th October is because employees in China are enjoying a National Holiday starting from today. this is also partially why the CU80 testing wont be complete until late October. 
 
Our factories, and components, are RoHS compliant and so we are all confident that we should pass that testing as well. 
 
Whilst you still need to wait a little longer to receive your CU65s be under no illusion about the scale of the hurdle we have just overcome - tremendous progress has been made and we appreciate your patience. 
 
We expect to start shipping the first CU65s in 2-3 weeks time. 
 
Once testing for the CU80 is complete then we will begin CU80 PCB production and CU65 production will begin as well. We expect to start shipping CU80 R2 and CU65 R2 orders in December; our factories understand the delays to production and will give us new lead times once they return to work next week. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to email or join our Discord Server! :)

Email Support: https://caps-unlocked.com/contact-us/

Discord Server Invite: https://discord.gg/M6XfE5f

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Weekly Update #5 (25-09-2020)

Hi Everyone!

In this update we will inform you about the current status of the CU65 (Rounds 1 and 2) and CU80 Round 2.

The CU65s were shipped last week and have been undergoing testing this week; we have been informed that the tests are going well but are still eagerly waiting for the final test results to be published before we make any announcements.

The CU80s will be shipping this week. Why the delay? We sent several units to reviewers and had to recall them and then re-build them. 

As soon as we have more information on the status of either the CU80 or CU65 we will let you know immediately. Thank you for your patience!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email or join our Discord Server! :)

Email Support: https://caps-unlocked.com/contact-us/

Discord Server Invite: https://discord.gg/M6XfE5f

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Weekly Update #4 (11-09-2020)

Hi Everyone!

In this update we will inform you about the current status of the CU65 (Rounds 1 and 2) and CU80 Round 2.

We have finalised the paperwork; completing the paperwork, and understanding which parts were relevant to us, took longer than expected but we will be sending it over to the PCB manufacturer today. The application implied that we needed to create items such as manuals, but we were recently informed that they won’t be necessary and will most likely not be providing one in the box.

We are now preparing samples of the CU65 and CU80 to send for testing.

We will be applying for the following tests:

  • CE-EMC
  • CE-LVD
  • RoHS
  • FCC SDOC

Testing is expected to take the following amount of time:

  • CU65: 2 weeks.
  • CU80 (ANSI and ISO): About 1 month.

The reason testing is expected to take so long is that we have a limited number of samples to send and so tests, particularly on the CU80 can not be carried out simultaneously. Had we known about this we would have produced more prototypes but going forward we will be producing a greater quantity of CU7 prototypes.

The PCB manufacturer is confident that we will pass the tests and we look forward to start shipping your products to you. Thank you for your patience and support, we really appreciate it.

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Weekly Update #3.1 (29-08-2020)

This is the second update issued the week ending (30-08-2020).
 
This week we have been working to complete the paperwork required by the testing house for the CU65, CU80 (ANSI) and CU80 (ISO).

We have made tremendous progress and aim to have the paperwork complete by next week. The paperwork (which will most likely take longer to complete than the actual test) is being completed as thoroughly as possible to give the keyboards the best possible chance of passing the testing phase. In addition to this we need to complete tasks such as creating manuals for users meaning that you will be getting one in the box when the keyboards ship.

Applying for certification has taught us a lot about the approach that we have taken to designing products up until this point and we are actively taking steps to avoid this from happening again. We have several unannounced products that we were hoping would be announced at this time but we understand now that certain processes need to be completed before announcements can be made.

In addition to this we are re-organising our stock and will send you more images of the CU80 and CU65 next week. The CU80 typing tests will be uploaded by next Sunday – you can see the CU65 typing tests here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKQjTnUpeng29o4ityUu5ug/playlists

The Cherry MX Switches for the CU65 R1 have finally arrived and we will start to assemble the pre-built orders next week.

Moving to our new office has been extremely worthwhile; we have a dedicated workspace but also a dedicated space for content creation. Our content creation area coupled with our new media editing PC will allow us to bring you build guides and How-To videos over the coming weeks.

Finally, we are considering organising a mini-meetup for those local to the Guildford / Surrey area to come and see the CU80 and CU65 in September. The meetup will be limited to a small group as current circumstances prevent us from inviting a large amount of people. We are working out the logistics of this and will have more details shortly – we will not organise the meetup without assessing safety of those that attend.

Whilst this update does not contain any new information, we wanted to keep you in the loop with where we and the keyboards are in this process. We hope you all remain safe – and for those of you in the UK, have a good Bank Holiday!

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Weekly Update #3

This is the latest weekly update for the CU80 R2, CU65 R1 and CU65 R2.

Although we have prepared representative models to send to the testing house in China, we were unable to send them last week as we had to confirm the details of the testing applications and legal documents with our manufacturer.

The legal documents have been completed but we are still filling out the testing applications as we are enlisting the help of third-party CE consultants here in the UK and are unfortunately subject to their schedule.

We will be having a meeting with our CE consultants later today and aim to have everything completed as soon as possible. Once that is done the keyboards will be sent to the testing house!

...Further Comments

We have also been learning more about several features within BigCommerce platform that will improve your experience with the store and the service we provide.

We will be updating all of the orders that have requested address changes over the coming days. We will also be sending out emails before we start shipping orders in case anyone doesn't complete the form before shipping.

 

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Weekly Update #2

Whilst all of the keyboards are in the process of receiving certification, we are combining the updates for the CU80 R2, CU65 R1 and CU65 R2.

This weekly update will outline the latest developments with the CU80 R1, CU65 R1 and CU65 R2.

Since our last update we have continued to work with our PCB manufacturer to make sure that the keyboards are ready for testing. We are finalising the technical documents before sending the representative physical samples later this week. We are confident that we will acquire the certification that we apply for and will continue to keep you all updated throughout this process!

We are making great progress on the supporting content around the CU65 and CU80 and we expect to start releasing typing tests and guides this week. In addition to this we will also be releasing images of the boards with different keycap sets and will be showing more of the CU80 RGB! The videos will be released on our YouTube channel and we will release the images on our Instagram – follow both to make sure you see them as soon as they are released!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKQjTnUpeng29o4ityUu5ug/featured

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caps_unlocked/?hl=en

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Weekly Update #1

The CU65 R2 was the most successful group buy we have ever organised and we are grateful to everyone that is supporting the CU65!

Since announcing that we are pursuing various certification showing that our products conform to safety standards we have made significant progress in obtaining this certification.

Over the past few weeks we have been speaking to various industry professionals, product designers and our manufacturers as to the best route to obtaining certification. We have decided to work with a testing house in China that our PCB manufacturer regularly works with to obtain this certification.

“What’s next?”

We are currently assembling representative samples of the CU65 and CU80 that will be sent to the testing house. They will test these units and, assuming nothing is wrong, issue us the certification that we apply for.

“What if there is an issue with the design?”

Whilst the products are not overly complex, there is always the possibility that the current design, or aspects of it are rejected. Unsurprisingly we can not comment on the exact steps we would take to remedy such issues without knowing the issue itself. The worst-case scenario for everyone would be that we would need to change the CAD and create a new prototype.
 
We have not started production on any of the CU65 R2 components and are waiting until the current design has been approved in case any changes need to be made.
 
“How long will this take?”
 
We are aiming to send out the keyboards early next week. We are estimating that shipping will take a week and we have been told that testing can take up to two weeks. Assuming there are no issues, we can expect to start producing the CU65 orders within 4 weeks.

To summarise:
 
  • We estimate that, assuming there are no issues, the certification will be received within 3-4 weeks.
  • We aim to start CU65 R2 production in 4 weeks. Our manufacturers have the current designs and are waiting for us to give them the green light on production.