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Show HN: I spent 2 years designing a mechanical Magic Keyboard

https://electronicmaterialsoffice.com/
115•aemerson_•2h ago
Hi HN, today I’m revealing Altar II, an ultra-low profile (4.75mm) mechanical keyboard designed to replace your Magic Keyboard. It’s the keyboard I wish Apple made.

Altar II has fully mechanical switches, plus a magnetically detachable dial, haptic feedback, a red backlight, and a native macOS companion app.

I’m a heavy Mac user and I feel that Apple hasn’t given its keyboards the attention they deserve, in terms of hardware, software, and features, so I set out to try and change that.

It was a massive undertaking and it has taken almost 2 years to get to this stage. One of the main obstacles was fitting a reasonably sized battery into the chassis, and aggressive power profiling without messing with the user experience. Another issue was we couldn’t fit any components on the underside of the PCB because there was literally no space to do so (and there are a lot of components).

Around 4 years ago I posted my first keyboard to HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32507172). Its response blew me away and ultimately led to me quitting my job and making and selling keyboards full time. I’ve taken some of the feedback from that original post and incorporated it into Altar II (e.g. the detachable dial).

I’ll be around to answer any questions. Please let me know what you think, I’d love to get some feedback.

Comments

johng•1h ago
Wow, beautiful. Both the site and the keyboard. I put a deposit down.

Edit: in reply to the person above because I keep getting a "You're posting too fast. Please slow down. Thanks." error because I've made 2 posts in this thread apparently...

Anyway, it would be neat if in the future the M-Dial slot could be used for a fingerprint reader or something else. Swappable items in that slot.

aemerson_•1h ago
Thank you so much! Really appreciate it. Glad you like the website too, I put a lot of effort into it.

If you have any questions I'd be very happy to answer them.

johng•1h ago
Honestly the price seems quite low for what you get (at $249) and what looks like might be a small batch production. I hope you can make a profit after everything is said and done at that price!
aemerson_•7m ago
This price is only for people who reserve before we launch on Kickstarter. I agree it is good value but also I should point out the retail price will be $349 for anyone buying after we fulfil all the pre-orders.

Rest assured we are building a sustainable business that will be around for the long haul.

charrondev•1h ago
I’m assuming it’s not possible for it to include a fingerprint sensor?

As much as I’d like a mechanical keyboard for my Mac that’s always the part that gets me. I end up using the one my Magic Keyboard 20+ times per workday.

Otherwise it looks beautiful.

ls-a•1h ago
Well there is this https://github.com/zimengxiong/tinytouch
tpstevens•52m ago
And this as well, if you have a Magic Keyboard around: https://www.printables.com/model/320000-standalone-touch-id-...
cafebeen•57m ago
Yes, agreed. Beautiful keyboard, but when I heard "magic" I hoped to find a touch ID. That sensor so useful that even though I use a mechanical keyboard, I keep an apple magic keyboard off to the side of my desk just for the touch ID sensor.

What I'd love to have is a standalone touch ID sensor that I could attach anywhere -- mechanical keyboard, side of the monitor, under my desk, etc. I guess this is bottlenecked by Apple's IP on the device, so I've considered just hacking one together by deconstructing and extracting an Apple keyboard...

aemerson_•55m ago
Unfortunately not possible, at least not securely, and not in a way that users would expect. I really tried.

We could include _a_ fingerprint sensor, and even include a special secure/tamper-proof chip, but it would never be able to work with things like Apple Pay. It would probably be able to do some things like log you in to your Mac by spoofing itself as a card reader or secure key. But because we can’t communicate with Apple’s Secure Enclave it would never be a seamless experience.

Maybe someday Apple could open up Touch ID like they do with Find My. But for now it’s pretty much a non-starter.

GZGavinZhao•1h ago
Opened the site, thought it was teenage engineering... Which is a compliment to me, because I always love their designs! Unfortunately as a HHKB user I'm not a fan of low profile keyboards otherwise I would've bought this.
aemerson_•52m ago
I appreciate the TE comparison! I am very inspired by them. Maybe in the future we can make a thicker keyboard for you.
sssilver•1h ago
This looks wonderful.

I wish it had the option to be ordered with blank keys.

ls-a•1h ago
Looks nice. However, 2 years and you still squished the arrow keys into the rest of the keyboard. Unacceptable "design" mate. You need to talk with your customers.
pelagicAustral•1h ago
Looks amazing. Would've been crazy good to include a few OLED keys a la Optimus Maximus [0], which has forever been a dream, even with all the negative reviews.

[0] https://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/

n-barraclough•58m ago
I love this. I type with one hand, & I find mechanical keyboards with lots of travel very difficult because of the speed I type at and the depth that you need to make the key activate. It's a shame about the lack of fingerprint sensor - I wonder if there's any projects out there where you could rescue one from a donor keyboard & just put that in a small profile case nearby?
wilsonnb3•56m ago
What does it feel like to type on?
aemerson_•48m ago
It's kind of like a M-series Mac keyboard but with substantially more travel on the key (we have about 0.5mm more travel), and more of a more definitive sense of when the key is actuated. It's a much more tactile experience than the MacBook keyboards, but that is still the closest comparison.
K0nserv•55m ago
Looks beautiful, congrats on the launch! I've been looking for a replacement for my Apple Magic keyboard. I would love to buy one, but ISO layout is a must for me, also would like blank or swappable keycaps.
aus10d•55m ago
dang, this seems really amazing
Scarbutt•53m ago
This looks great. Never liked the idea of having to add wrist rests to all these tall bulky mechanical keyboards.

Does it support the globe key without having to use karabiner?

aemerson_•44m ago
It does! We do some firmware trickery to make the globe key behave just like the Magic Keyboard. Can you tell me what exactly you use it for? I just want to make sure we have your use case covered.
realo•52m ago
Nice!

The devil is in the details.

Do you have a french version? ...

sam_lowry_•22m ago
Just turn it upside down /s
bicepjai•52m ago
Looks beautiful and great presentation of your efforts. Hope it lives up to its expectations. All the best
aaroninsf•52m ago
Lovely engineering; if you bring it to market(?) I suggest offering if not full customization a range of aesthetics.

Black/red is a hard no for me. Something fitting with the existing aesthetic (let's call it "Scandanavian milled", subtle frosting, white text) or warmer ("natural", off-white, orange LEDs) etc etc.

One other question: waterproof? I assume that's not possible. Would be a decision maker for me personally probably.

nicksergeant•52m ago
My dream keyboard, if only it could split down the middle for ergonomics :(
ChaseRensberger•51m ago
yea split + ortholinear would be peak
bix6•50m ago
Love it! Can you offer full color lighting instead of just red?
wronex•49m ago
Really cool! I’d love to try those switches. Can’t imagine using a non-split keyboard though. Great work regardless. Stunning.
j_aime•49m ago
Wow I not expecting to see that! I love it!!! Good work!
handfuloflight•49m ago
Beautiful! Looking forward to the Kickstarter. But also, why is it completely flat?
richwater•48m ago
These switches remind me of the butterfly switches on previous generations of Macbooks....not a great memory
rckclmbr•47m ago
Love the keyboard, looks solid. Out of curiosity, why did you make the numbers so big? It looks like an intentional design choice and I don’t know if I like it, but I’m wondering if there’s reasoning behind it that could change my mind
anentropic•47m ago
Any plans for a model with numeric keypad too?
aemerson_•39m ago
Not at the moment.

If we did a numpad I would probably do it as a separate device. Personally I don't like how the numpad sits between the edge of my keyboard and mouse. I'd prefer it to the left of my keyboard or to the right side of my mouse.

splittydev•46m ago
Looks great, but sadly no fingerprint sensor is a deal breaker for me. I know it's not actually possible, so not your fault, but it's not for me. I rely on that thing way too much.
toomuchtodo•40m ago
If on Mac, consider TinyTouch as a potential biometric hardware supplement when a keyboard does not support: https://github.com/zimengxiong/tinytouch

(no affiliation, saw a thread on it here)

nerdjon•39m ago
When I saw the announcement I was kinda hoping that they were taking a magic keyboard, tearing it apart and adding the extra hardware to make having this possible.

But seems like that is not the case.

hack1312•44m ago
The autoplaying videos make your website unusable on mobile.
Locketgoma•42m ago
It. It is real thing? cool.
dimitrieh•40m ago
Great concept! I need eu layout with the extra button next to the left shift. Why I would buy is essentially. Thin, premium typing experience, accessibility features. Don't need the fancy dials, stick out buttons, or a speaker. Dim it down, and it would be perfect
AshamedBadger56•40m ago
Absolutely love the design, features, website, attention to detail, and just...taste. It's been quite a while since I mashed that reserve button so quickly haha. Hope it lives up to the design and looks!
mistersquid•40m ago
The promo website is something to behold and by itself is sufficient reason to chuck a buck at the possibility of Altar II coming into existence.

Thank you, good luck, and looking forward!

ethersteeds•39m ago
This looks beautiful. While obviously a Mac keyboard, to what extent is it compatible with Linux?

Will there be documentation of its features beyond a standard Bluetooth HID, such that users could potentially develop software that utilizes the speaker and haptic feedback mechanisms?

yassa9•39m ago
I like the website more than the keyboard itself
hparadiz•37m ago
Add a finger print sensor at some point. Lovely design.
pierrefermat1•37m ago
For those in the comment section looking for a split alternative to this, there is this Kickstarter(be warned of the usual problems with Kickstarters):

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-s...

or this that is in stock but doesn't exactly follow Apple's layout

https://www.ozokeyboards.com/products/jiffy75-wireless-split...

edumucelli•37m ago
Beautiful, would it work on Linux? Btw, the website is really heavy for my connection.
ary•36m ago
To everyone who is about to pile on regarding the lack of a fingerprint sensor: you know it's not possible, we all know it's not possible, the creator of this project knows it's not possible.

What are you adding to the conversation when you complain about it? So it's a dealbreaker for you, don't buy it.

To @aemerson_: Congratulations on taking a risk. On first look this is great work. The attention to detail on both the keyboard and the website is really impressive.

gtsteve•20m ago
A fingerprint sensor isn't possible, appreciated, but what about a U2F activation button? It could even just be a wireless pass-through for USB to allow your yubikey to work for example (I'm certain this can be done on Linux but unsure about other oses)
satvikpendem•12m ago
https://github.com/zimengxiong/tinytouch spoofs as a card reader but won't work with Apple Pay and the like.
Andrew6rant•5m ago
Fingerprint sensor is technically possible: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=120964.0

CC @gtsteve

recensorium•35m ago
This looks awesome! The thing I'd want to know is how much of the configuration lives on firmware vs. in the macOS app? If the app is a thin config editor and the mappings remain on-device, that's very different than if the dial and haptics stop working when a future macOS release breaks the app. Also, is there any commitment on firmware being flashable/open if the company someday isn't around?
aemerson_•21m ago
Everything lives on the keyboard itself. The app just configures files on the device, basically. The keyboard also works without the app of course. This approach has the added benefit of making your configuration portable. For example if you remap your dial, and move to a different computer, your remapped dial will persist.

There are a couple of small quality-of-life features that do require the app: for example if you want haptic feedback when you receive a notification. This is because the keyboard has no idea what is happening on your OS, and requires some middleware. But all the core functionality requires no app at all.

To answer your second question, the firmware for Altar II will be open-sourced, as the firmware for our Altar I keyboard is. You can see the Altar I firmware source code here: https://github.com/electronicmaterialsoffice/firmware-altar-...

Both Altar I and Altar II firmware are based on the open-source ZMK (https://zmk.dev). We try to contribute back to ZMK whenever we can because we have benefitted so much from it. Two members of our team are also long-standing ZMK contributors.

gilthelander•33m ago
I don't understand the overwhelming praise. This product is just bizarre. Who is this for?

What's with the giant numbers and tiny symbols? I know where the numbers are from muscle memory. I don't have the symbols memorized.

Haptic feedback when you use the command key? Why?

No number pad or page up/page dn, which would be something useful.

This is like The Homer of keyboards. Does it play La Cucaracha out of the speaker if you push the knob four times?

You clearly have the technical capabilities but the product requirements are bonkers.

buf•31m ago
It's made for keyboard enthusiasts. Give it a shot. Maybe you'll be one of them.
Tsiklon•30m ago
I am a big fan of the original Altar. I like that you’ve been trying new things with that design like the novel keycap profile.

The switches look like cherry ultra low profile switches. I’ve not tried these out, how do they feel compared to the linear kailh choc v1’s you used before.

aemerson_•12m ago
Glad you like Altar I!

They feel quite different to the Chocs, unsurprisingly. Although the required actuation force is close to the Choc Reds (40gf on our switch vs 50gf on the Choc Reds), because it's spread over such a small vertical travel it feels much "snappier". There is also very little pre-travel. It's kind of like a much sharper/tactile feeling chiclet switch with more vertical travel, if that makes sense.

Hugsbox•29m ago
Unfortunately, no numpad is definitely a dealbreaker. Looks like a really cool product, but the numpad is a _must_ for any keyboard you want to do real work on, at least in my opinion.
whycombinetor•28m ago
Out of curiosity, what exactly is a "fully mechanical scissor switch"? And is this the first such switch on the market? If I search for other such products I can only find "metal scissor switch over rubber dome" style.
xingped•27m ago
Love the design and have also wanted a super low profile mechanical keyboard like this! I have one question though - what is the travel or activation distance of the keys?

The one thing I actually like about the magic keyboard or Microsoft's designer keyboard is that the "click" is immediate and the entirety travel distance of the key is the activation bump. I dislike any amount of the "extra" travel distance (I'm not sure if I'm using the right words/description, but I hope you get what I mean) of regular mechanical switches and is the main thing that turns me off from them.

Oh also, is it possible to get a Windows version or switch the keys around to accommodate Windows as well?

xiconfjs•25m ago
What is the weight?
tempodox•19m ago
OK, I want it, but for Linux.
rc5150•16m ago
there is nothing more satisfying than the thickness of the device being the same thickness of the charge cable terminal.

This looks dope, looking forward to ordering in the future.

arikrahman•10m ago
With this was more in line with corne style split keyboards and really made for programmers like enthium.
wuliwong•7m ago
In my setup my laptop is close enough that I can reach out and use the fingerprint reader on it. It is stupid but I got used to it pretty quickly.

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