ROUND 2 INFORMATION

Ikki68 Aurora R2 group buy is scheduled to launch on November 12th, 2021.

Most of the information on this page are from Round 1 and are still largely accurate. All the changes and updates since R1 have been outlined in the infographic below

Please drop by our discord if you have any comments or questions

Group Buy Start: November 12, 2021
Group Buy Ends: November 26, 2021

ETA to vendors:
Aurora kits and add-ons: April, 2022
WS Stabs Clear / Fog (In-stock): November, 2021
WS Stabs / Switches (Pre-order): January, 2022 

IKKI68 AURORA BUILD GUIDE

🧰

 Assembly Instructions

Ikki68 Aurora is an affordable, injection molded, polycarbonate case, gasket-mount keyboard kit from Wuque Studio, the people behind Ikki68, OA Switches and more!

Every Aurora comes with a multi-layout, hot swap PCB powered by QMK and VIA. You can choose any or all of the following: split backspace, split right shift, split left shift, split spacebars and ISO enter...no soldering required!

The Aurora uses a variable gasket structure where you can choose how many mounting points to use in order to adjust the amount of bounce / firmness to your liking. You can also customize the keyboard with one of many extra badge designs in several different colors!

The very first GB round of this keyboard kit is scheduled to launch in February 24, 2021 and continue until March 10, 2021. This first round is launching at a discounted price. Future rounds in different colors are planned. 

CUSTOM BADGE GROUP BUY

Choose from 62 different designs, available in 4 different colors!

Customizability is one of the highlights of the Ikki68 Aurora! We have launched a separate group buy for custom badges, designed by our community members. You can see all of the available badges on shop.wuquestudio.com

The badges are magnetic and hot swap. You can change badges without taking apart the case. 

The badges ship separately from your Ikki68 Aurora and other accessories. The badges can be ordered only on shop.wuquestudio.com. They are very small and light, so shipping is relatively cheap worldwide. 

If you buy 5 badges of any type you get an acrylic display case for free!

The badge group buy runs from March 9 to March 23, 2021. ETA to customers is July, 2021. 

PRE-LAUNCH INFORMATION

Aurora x Mizu Limit

We were absolutely delighted with everyone's reaction to Aurora x Mizu. We are truly grateful for your excitement, but unfortunately the demand for this colorway appears be way higher than we had anticipated.

Aurora x Mizu takes longer to manufacture and assemble than the other variants because it has a two toned case and a silkscreened design at the back. That's why we have to put a limit on Aurora x Mizu in order to meet our target ETA of June, 2021 to vendors. We don't know if it'll come back in a future round, but we're not ruling anything out yet.

We'll be producing a maximum of 1000 Aurora x Mizu in total. Each vendor has a different limit which you can see in the table below.

Other Limits

Charcoal and Mint still have an unspecified soft limit that's set to relatively high.  We will update this site if/when we are close to reaching it. We recommend everyone who wants a Charcoal / Mint to order on day 1, but not necessarily on hour 1, to make sure they get it

Aurora x Devoted is still limited to 500 units across all its vendors.

We recommended a limit of 1x Mizu, 2x Charcoal and 2x Mint per household. However it's up to each vendor to see how they would prefer to handle it. 

Design Elements

We're happy to announce that we've settled on the default badge design, and we've finalized some of the Mizu design elements based on the community vote we took earlier this month.

Default badge for Charcoal & Mint
Waves, in gold, is the default badge for Charcoal and Mint. You may remember this design from the original Ikki68 group buy last year. You can order this design in other colors during the badge GB in March / April, 2021

Aurora x Mizu additional badges
Koi and Water on The Moon have won by a landslide in the community vote. These two badges will be available for purchase by anyone during the badge GB. They only come in light blue, same color as the default "Waves" badge on Aurora x Mizu.

Aurora x Mizu back design
It was a close race between Waves and Koi, but ultimately Koi got the most votes. This design will be silk screened at the back of every Aurora x Mizu. The Koi design is from the deskmat, and not the novelty spacebar in KAT Mizu.

ROUND 1 COLORWAYS

Group buy info

Latest updates:

March 09, 2021:  Added TaeKeyboard's video, badge GB info.

February 22, 2021: Big update. Whole bunch of new info in "Pre-launch information" including a limit on Aurora x Mizu, Poron gaskets added in add-ons, kit content updated, battery GB info in PCB section and badge multipack details added to the badge section. We've also changed the order of PCBs in the table in the PCB section.

GB Launch
February 24th, 2021

All four variants launch at the same time. Keep in mind Aurora x Devoted has a different list of vendors.

GB End
March 10th, 2021 - Charcoal, Mint & Aurora x Mizu.

March 12th, 2021 - Aurora x Devoted

The GB will continue on to those dates, or until we have reached the limit.

Fulfilment ETA
Charcoal, Mint & Aurora x Mizu should be OTW to vendors June 2021.

Aurora x Devoted will be shipped to customers alongside GMK Devoted.

Badge Group Buy
We will run a separate group buy for custom badges in March / April, 2021.

The GB will be hosted only on WuqueStudio.com. They will ship separately from your Aurora order. More info below.

Details

Weight:

1120g - fully assembled with switches, stabilizers, GMK keycaps and internal weight.

800g - without internal weight.

Case Finish:
Frosted

Typing Angle:
6.5 degrees

Variable Gasket Mount System
There are 10 chips with gaskets on top that snap on to the bottom case. Chips B, D, G and J are optional. Install more chips for a firmer type feel, and install fewer for a bouncier feedback. 

Layout support for default hot-swap PCB (Fairbanks) and Lapland PCB. More details below in the PCB section.

Plate files will be released after GB so anyone can produce their own plates.

* Only available at vendors carrying GMK Devoted and Aurora x Devoted. More details in the vendors section below

on every PCB

Ikki68 Aurora GB will offer 4 different PCBs that each offer something different.
Fairbanks is the default PCB. QMK, wired, hot-swap and offers multi-layout support. Underglow but no per-key lighting.
Yellowknife is the same PCB, but it's soldered instead of hot-swap.
Lapland is similar to Yellowknife, but it offers per-key lighting at the expense of some layout support.
Finally, Tromso is an updated version of the Bluetooth PCB offered during the original Ikki68 Aluminum group buy. Upgrades this time include hot-swap, underglow and an updated user interface.

A standard sized, widely available LiPo battery is required for Tromso, but is not included in this group buy due to shipping logistics. We have provided the specs and links to purchase ($8-15) in our Discord.

Additionally, @notjeff is running a battery group buy for US residents only. IC form here, more info in our discord.

Badges will be sold in a separate group buy

Due to the sheer logistical problems involved with offering 100+ SKUs of badges (20+  designs all together in 4+ colors), we will be separating the extra badges from the Ikki68 Aurora R1 group buy.

The extra badges will be offered through a separate group buy scheduled for March, 2021. The group buy will be run on Wuque Studio website only, and the badges will ship separately from your Ikki68 Aurora. Since they are small and light, most people shouldn't have to pay more than a few dollars for shipping. You should receive them at the same time, if not earlier than your Ikki68 Aurora.

This will result in faster fulfillment times and fewer errors. This will also give people additional time to design badges and consider which ones they want to buy. 

Other bits of info on badges

• A Community badge is a badge designed by someone and available for anyone to buy. A Bespoke badge is an exclusive personal badge that's only available to one person or a very small group of people to buy.
• The badges for Ikki68 Aurora will be hot-swappable, meaning they can be changed without taking apart the case.
• The badges will be compatible with Ikki68 Aluminum with the use of an adapter.
• Aurora x Mizu and Aurora x Devoted badges only come in light blue and light purple, respectively. Those designs are not available in other colors, and other community / bespoke badges won't be offered in those colors.
• We will offer a multi-pack of badges, design/color of your choice, that would come with a metal / acrylic display case. More details to follow.

For more info on Community and Bespoke badges, and to see a list of the submitted designs for consideration, please visit the "Custom Badge" channel group in our Discord server.

Charcoal, Mint, Aurora x Mizu

Aurora x Devoted

TaeKeyboards

Review & Soundtest

3 different setups
Switches: JWK Lilac 62g, lubed with 204g0, springs lubed  with Krytox 105, filmed with TX v2 Purple
Plate: Polycarbonate
Keycaps: $5 AliExpress DIY keycaps

Poejus

Sound Test

3 different setups
Switches: Koala, Black Inks & Gateron Cap (Milky)
Plate: Aluminum & Polycarbonate
Keycaps: GMK & No name.

Apiary Keyboards

Streamed on February 24, 2021

Wabi Sabi

REVIEW & DEMO

Setup: All 10 gasket chips installed.
Plate: Aluminum
Switches: OA Switch lubed with 205g0 & filmed with TX Films

Alexotos

SOUND TEST & IMPRESSIONS

Keycaps: EPBT Kuro Shiro + ABS Spacebar
Switches: Gateron Inks w/ Carbon GS2 Grease)
Stabilizers: Lubed Durock Stabs - GS2 + XHT-BDZ.

Andy V Nguyen

SOUND TEST

Board insulation: Two case rubber sheets removed, removed middle and side gaskets. I also used the rubber layer in between plate and pcb.
Plate: PC plate
Keycaps: EPBT 9009
Switches: Lubed and filmed OA Switches (205g0, TX filmed, TX 65g 14mm springs)
Stabilizers: OA Switches lubed with 205g0 and XHT lube.

Alexotos

Streamed on February 15, 2021

Andy V Nguyen

Streamed on February 13, 2021