Hey we’re back with another update for the Bahrnob! Firstly, we want to start off by thanking you all for your continued support with this project. The discord server in the last couple of weeks has been very active and we couldn’t be happier with the enthusiasm and anticipation surrounding this board. As you may or may not know, we are a fairly small group of seniors in college (some of us are post-grad) and we want to be as transparent as possible with you all about what we have been working on.
To start, we wanted to give you all some information about how we will be handling QC (once we finish the GB and start shipping out Bahrnobs).
Our QC process and what to expect:
As you know quality control is something that all GBs have to face and being the small team that we are, we want to share with you our process.
Even though the limit of the number of boards being sold is 300, we will be ordering more than 300 boards. This ensures that if there are boards that do not pass our checks, there will be a replacement. Also, the manufacturer will only send us units that are within the tolerance of our dimensions. Boards that do not pass our inspection will go on to be sold as B-stock boards and is FCFS.
Pass QC:
- Confirm that the unit can be put together with no issue and all parts fit.
- No scratches or scuffs can be visible when the board is assembled. Marks on the areas that are not visible is an acceptable QC
B-Stock:
- Confirm that the unit can be put together with no issue and all parts fit.
- Some scratches and scuffs can be seen when fully assembled. The amount of scratches can vary between units and can be anywhere from lightly visible to noticeable. They will be distributed randomly among the purchases.
- B-stock boards are functionally identical to the regular boards, but have cosmetic imperfections.
F-Stock:
- These boards will not be for sale as they are either too deeply damaged or does not assemble properly with other parts.
We also noticed a couple of other topics of interest that we wanted to address.
Payment Options
- We will be accepting Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and ShopPay. We made the decision not to include Paypal because it is not very friendly to group buys (on our end) and would just prolong the process of us being able to ship out a Bahrnob to you.
- We wanted to clarify that when we said the board was 1kg for the aluminum and 3kg for the brass, those were the weights of just the bottom weights. This was a miscommunication on our part and we apologize for that. Once fully built, the keyboards will be heavier than those. The prototype that we currently have is an aluminum weight version and weighs approximately 2kg/4.4 pounds. Once the prototypes come in, we will weigh them and report back to you with an official weight. This does not take away from the fact that these boards will be HEFTY.
What the 300 unit limit means
- The number of units being sold is based on what each customer wants and not specific numbers. Essentially it will be 300 different configurations of the Bahrnob and not something like: 100 Black, 100 E-white, and 100 space grey. If all 300 units ordered are all E-white, than all existing Bahrnobs will be E-white. So feel free to customize as much as you would like.
- However, since there will be multiple colors of bars/knobs, they will be unlimited along with PCBs and other keyboard accessories.
- Hol’ upaminute. This may seem confusing at first, however, we would like to enforce that the Bahrnob is sold at a maximum of 2 per household. Then what’s the 1 per customer? If two people were to purchase from that household then they would need two separate transactions in order to ship to the same address. We know that some of you guys have significant others, housemates, or siblings who you may share a house with, and we don’t want that to affect whether both of you can buy a Bahrnob or not. However, we do not want little Timmy over here to buy 2 Bahrnobs for himself so he can flip one on r/mechmarket later down the road. This is our way of circumventing that. So, if you have 2 people in the same household that want a Bahrnob, you will each need your own credit card and both need to purchase a Bahrnob separately. We will be checking for addresses after the group buy and if we see that a singular individual purchases 2 boards to be sent to the same address, we will be cancelling both of your orders.
- We know that it is disappointing to many of you that we are lower the number of units from 500 to 300, but we are not doing it without reason. As mentioned plenty of times, we are a small team and processing over 500 units would simply be too overwhelming and would drop the quality as unqualified units might slip through the cracks. We want to prioritize the quality of the board over just selling as many units as we can. Lowering to 300 allows us, as a team to spend more time checking the units before they are shipped to ensure the quality is up to our standards.
Finally, we wanted to let you guys know that the prototypes are still on the way, but will be here very soon! We will let you guys know as soon as we receive them. (We’re waiting in extreme anticipation too). Once we receive them, we will be hosting a little build stream/hangout in our discord (date TBA) where we will be answering any questions that you guys may have, building the actual board, and just chilling with whoever wants to come.
DISCLAIMER: While these prototypes are very similar to the final product, they do not represent EXACTLY what you are getting. What does this mean? Naturally, the prototypes we order are used for testing and photos. This means that the boards are being moved around and handled for a long amount of time which can lead to the boards getting scuffed. This does not mean that you will be receiving a product that has scuffs. The only product you are getting is the boards that pass our QC, which is mentioned above.