lulu, Boardsource's newest case and PCB offering, is a 58 key split keyboard based on the incredibly popular Lily58 layout. Shortly after opening and stocking our store the popularity of the Lily58 was apparent, and the layout's ability to convert people who only observed the hobby from afar into passionate and enthusiastic participants was remarkable. Our goal since opening has been and always will be to offer the community exactly what it wants, and in this case, the lulu is a great example of ‘don’t fix what’s not broken,’ we just felt it deserved a bit of extra love.

We are so excited to share with you today some finer details about the product, and how learnings gathered since opening have been incorporated into this product to ensure the best possible user experience and the smoothest Group Buy process all while offering the product at an incredible value to the customer.

Please consider following the project by expanding the drop down under this description called :Community Input," enter any comments you have and hit the green button. You will receive a few updates about the lulu as well a notification of when the sale goes live. Following projects helps us to determine potential sales numbers and plan accordingly.

An Introduction to lulu :

lulu is an extensively engineered split keyboard blending two materials, aluminum and polycarbonate to produce an elegant and alluring end product worthy of any desk. Each half of the lulu is constructed from two main sections, the top half (with integrated plate) is made from machined aluminum offered in three distinct anodized colors: silver, charcoal, and a very fun plum. Sitting below the aluminum on each half is injection molded frosted polycarbonate bottom pieces, offering a beautiful material change and diffusing the lulu’s under glow when turned on. Investing in tooling and engineering to offer all of the lulu’s polycarbonate components as injected molded pieces allows us to viably produce these pieces at scale, and also offers unmatched quality and consistency for the entirety of the product’s lifecycle. Polycarbonate components are offered in three frosted colors: clear, transparent black (smoke) and ultem.

While designing the lulu we always had the current popularity of the layout on our mind, it was important for us to acknowledge so many of our customers (and other store’s customers) were already invested into the Lily58 ecosystem. As a result, the lulu case and PCB is offered separately during Group Buy, and the lulu case is 100% backwards compatible with the current Lily58 solderable PCB. The lulu’s new SMT PCB we designed has a number of great features we feel customers will value, but understand that a lot of people see value in re-using their current PCB if they already have one. Our lulu PCB is SMT assembled, with MX hotswap sockets, programmable per-key RGB lighting and underglow, USB C connectors, TRRS jacks, and female sockets already in place and soldered for an OLED. All of this is attainable without needing to touch a soldering iron, and ready out of the box. For those who want to install a rotary encoder on the board, the option is there but must be user-soldered (the renders show the location of this rotary encoder).

Options are important in keyboards since they are personal tools, and we believe in allowing customers to tailor their typing experience both from a functional and aesthetic standpoint.

Options:

Tenting:

Many split keyboard users prefer a tented (angled) typing experience, and we have designed a tenting kit for the lulu allowing for three degrees of tenting options, 10°, 15°, and 20°. The tenting kit is offered in matching materials and colors to the lulu’s bottom piece, so you are able to color match your setup, or purchase a contrasting color if that’s your thing. Offering the three most popular tenting options to all customers ensures that you’re able to get the exact right angle for your body, posture, and desk.

Rotary Encoder:

Rotary encoders look great on almost any board and also offer some nice additional functionality. Many Lily58 PCB iterations include an encoder as an option in place of a key switch, and we felt it was necessary to design and engineer an encoder kit that was purpose-built for the lulu since we know customers love to add them onto their builds. Encoders and knobs come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing is for certain, if not intentionally designed they always look like an afterthought. The lulu’s encoder kit comes with everything you need to add a seamless encoder to both halves of your case, a plug to fill in the empty key switch void and a knob in color-matched frosted PC, as well as the encoder component itself to be soldered onto the board in place of a key switch.

During the Group Buy period the lulu case, SMT PCB, tenting kit, and encoder kit will be offered separately allowing customers to pick and choose what they want/need and value. Additionally, offering items separately allows us to streamline our packing process helping us fulfill orders quicker by pre-packing components into their own separate retail packaging. This is a big learning we were able to pick up from past products and should immensely help with fulfillment.

Other Options To Be Offered:

In addition to the options listed above, we will also be offering:

• Die cut and printed eva foam wrist rests contouring to the outer shape of the lulu. We don’t have a prototype in hand, but they are designed and ordered.
• Laser-cut sound dampening foam to be installed between the plate and PCB (included with purchase of case)
• Deskmat with some lulu art and designs matching the wrist rest and branding.