Overview

We’re about mid-way through the June-July estimate for our ship window, so here’s a look at some of what we’ve been working on recently.

Firmware

We’ve just released a new firmware build and TextBlade app for TREG users that adds some much-requested new capabilities.

Macros are now fully installable in the flash memory built-in to the TextBlade hardware, so they can be used on any device, regardless of whether the TextBlade app is present.

There’s also a new SmartHelp engine that provides graphical access to the TextBlade knowledge database, which is important foundation for the user documentation for general release.

Hardware

Here’s a few examples that give a feel for the hardware adjustments we’ve been making for general release (many others aren’t detailed here). Some of these surfaced this past week based on recent input from our TREG users.

MagLam

TextBlade uses our patented MagLever magnetic lamination technology to provide the thrust for keys, which creates its unique, high quality tactile feel. This architecture also allows very detailed parametric control over the force, travel, and the over-center action.

By adjusting the thickness of an insulating lamination layer, (which covers the thrust magnets), we can vary the force to suit consumer preference. For TREG, we set the force to about 40-45 grams.

We got a report where a TREG user got some conductive metal particles inside his KeyBlade. He was able to shake it out to clear the sensor, but we studied the data from the incident and worked to find a way to make TextBlade more resistant to this sort of contamination.

By adjusting the size and location of the MagLam insulator layer, we were able to completely seal the magnet from any risk of conductive debris.

With this revised insulator, we also adjusted the magnetic thrust to be about 8 grams greater. This extra 8 grams may sound like a negligible difference, but in concert with other parameters, it’s actually quite meaningful to how it feels.

We installed these updated MagLam’s on several hundred units of inventory to get an idea of statistical effects. The result was great. The extra 8 grams increases tolerance bands to produce optimal feel, even when subjected to abuse tests.

This adjusted arrangement also allows us to integrate the MagLam’s directly into the main flex

PCB for later batches. This eliminates 8 parts, 8 installation labor actions, and is impossible to install wrong. All of which improves yield, cost, and quality. From an Engineering and Manufacturing perspective, it’s a total slam dunk.

Many thanks to the TREG user who accidentally got “crud” into his unit. His inadvertent discovery inspired us to dig into what caused it, and the product is now made better for it.

Sort of a breadmold-begets-penicillin epiphany.

KeyCaps

We reported earlier that we had revised the KeyCaps to snap more easily into the stiffer LCP butterflies.

We modified the KeyCap multi-cavity family molds to implement this change, and in the interim, we also processed our current inventory with a precision milling operation to meet the revised spec.

The revised mold is built and fully debugged, and is producing good quality KeyCaps, that don’t require any milling. They stay securely snapped-in, and are very durable through snap-in events. Their performance is the best we’ve ever seen from any of our prior builds.

In the past couple weeks, we got reports from two TREG users who saw a fracture on one of their small middle keys. In each case, a split developed across the centerline of a key. In percentage terms, this failure rate was less than 1%, and none of our corporate TREG customers, or any internal testers have ever seen it. However, when it manifests, it disables the key, so it’s not something a user can work around.

We got the fractured KeyCaps back for analysis, and we also set up some tests to see if we could reproduce it through stress conditions.

In one sample, we found a small cut in the keycap which seemed to explain it. In the other, we could find no visible cause of the weakening.

Our stress test used a motorized hammer-blow mechanism that pounded the keycap with higher than human finger force, about 70,000 times an hour. We deliberately cut out the table below the sample so it had no support plane, and the KeyBlade could bend down in an arc into the hole. With this exaggerated stress, we were able to provoke the failure after some hours.

After analysis we concluded that the users’ keys were somehow getting overstressed, and the sidewall trusses were getting flexed repeatedly until they cracked. After talking with the users, we believe that although they were using it quite a lot, they weren’t doing anything unusual, and this had happened in the ordinary course of usage. This meant that it could conceivably happen to anyone.

We studied the geometry, and found space to thicken the KeyCap sidewalls over a 10mm zone near the centerline of the key. The extra 0.5mm thick reinforcement will increase the strength about 2 to 3X. It’s a minor change to the tool, and we’ve now scheduled the revision with the tooling shop, which should take about 10 days.

We’ve decided to replace all these keys in our current inventory with the newly reinforced style. This preemptive measure should prevent any of this breakage for General Release users.

Although it’s expensive to scrap a large quantity of keys already in stock, the principle is very clear. We shouldn’t ship stuff while we know that something needs fixing. If we’re aware of anything material, we’ll fix it first. It’s quite important to us that we act on those details we know about to prevent hassle, and make it work well for users.

NanoStand

Modifications to the NanoStand mold tooling are in progress now to increase the side wall thickness by about 0.5mm. This makes it about 4X tougher, to prevent incidents of stress cracks we found with TREG users. We plan to inspect the adjusted mold about the end of next week.

Q-Bots

Here’s a brief look at some background stuff that might be of interest -

To achieve high precision and consistent quality, the TextBlade production line requires significant levels of automation. TextBlade is a high-sensitivity, mechanically dynamic, multitouch human interface device. This is quite different from the older, metal-contact switches in legacy keyboards. The higher performance drives the need for more comprehensive quality testing, which requires automation well beyond past keyboard practice. This includes extensive test software, and some specialized robots for quality control (we call them Q-Bots).

Software does much of the testing automatically, without having to physically move anything. In fact, every time your TextBlade starts up, it conducts a fully automated test of every sensor, connection, processor core, voltages, and many other parameters to confirm proper operation. If there’s any anomaly, TextBlade will automatically report it on its built-in LED screen. At factory test time, this software also sends up the test data to our cloud servers.

When fielding any all-new technology, it’s wise to be more aggressive about Quality Assurance than is typically practiced with legacy devices. To tightly manage our production process, we keep very detailed closed-loop measurements that confirm consistently good performance as we expand the line.

So we do 100% test of every single sensor, in every critical dynamic state, on every key, for every TextBlade manufactured. And these tests are done with very fine granularity analog signal measurements, across the whole TextBlade key array, at every physical point of interest, and along the full key travel path. This work is where the Q-Bots are particularly useful.

To achieve very high throughput, while also doing this much higher standard of testing, it’s necessary to deploy extensive automation. The test fixtures, software, and these Q-Bots can collect QA data about 100 times faster than human operators.

Feel is fundamental to TextBlade, so these Q-Bots have highly instrumented “digital fingers” (strain gauges) that can detect minute differences in force and travel. They can discern a fraction of a gram or a tenth of a millimeter. These probe fingers are mounted on XYZ axis drives that can be rapidly positioned anywhere over the keys, under software control. This data produces a clear signature that can reveal even minimal differences in feel, that would otherwise take much longer for a human operator to identify.

While we validate the adjustments to our build procedures, we’re concurrently building additional test stations, and a swarm of these Q-Bots. Once the adjusted assembly processes are completed, this large scale test bandwidth will speed certification of our inventory for general release.

TREG / Timing

TREG has been super effective to validate the product, and really exceeded our expectations. This is largely because of the skill and passion of the community of users. Thanks to all for the amazing input.

Users have surfaced many important details, and we’ve been able find and address them because of their participation. They’ve also affirmed how effective TextBlade’s new paradigm is, in actual real world, daily use.

We’ll update the server tomorrow to reflect these recent findings and our current status. The issues we touched on above should be resolved roughly over the next month. We’ll continue to project a broad, 2 month estimate window to manage expectations, until we’ve started general release.

We also think it’s very productive to add a few more TREG users. As we’ve now closed off the major known issues, more diverse use cases can help us find any buried issues faster, and clear them up so general release users have a very smooth experience.

Thanks to all who help so much to make this the best product for our users.