Beyond the stars, into the uncharted.
Introducing Event Horizon, an experimental keyboard inspired by humanity's longing to explore the unexplored.
Design Philosophy
Event Horizon is about contrast: Dark versus light, textured versus smooth, raw materials versus lucious coatings.
Its mark is a stylized representation of a black hole, and the bottom features and illustration of the voyage ahead. As for the name: an event horizon is defined as "a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an observer", which felt pretty fitting.
Event Horizon's intense production process makes it an artisanal board. Yes, machines are involved, but skilled humans are key.
How To Purchase
The raffle is now closed. Thank you all for participating, the response was overwhelming :)
Supermassive is limited to 50 units, Event Horizon will be limited to 250 units. All units will carry their own unique number.
These boards will only run once, and there will be no extras.
The boards will ship from Protozoa in the United Kingdom and United States (South Carolina), and Salvun in Europe (Belgium). International shipping is available too.
Pricing
- Event Horizon
- $490*
- Supermassive
- $890*
* Prices exclude taxes, shipping, and potential import taxes. See what's included
Who's Involved
This board is proudly designed and produced in Belgium, with some help from friends in the UK and US.
The Production Process
There's a total of 5 steps each board goes through during production. Event Horizon has a unique look and requires an orchestration of treatments never been done before, but thanks to the vast know-how of everyone involved we figured out a way to pull it off.
Prototype video placeholder
- Salvun clamps down a piece of stock aluminum (or brass) in the CNC machine to machine out the top part.
- After the top side is finished, the board is now flipped around (and held down with the help of a vacuum mechanism) to machine out the bottom part of the board.
- The raw board gets transported to Becoating, who powder coats the entire board, and bakes it to activate the wrinkle.
- After the coating has settled, the board is gently placed back into the CNC and the delicate process of clearing off the top ridge starts, revealing the signature 2-tone look and dotted "chin". Event Horizon gets a light brushing on the top, and Supermassive a nice pearl pattern. At the same time a 0.5mm chamfer is applied to avoid sharp edges.**
- As a final step, we take the board back to Becoating to apply a clear protective layer so no raw materials are exposed to corrosion.
That concludes the production process, after which it gets QC'd (quality controlled), packaged, and sent off.
** The first prototype had edges so sharp I cut my thumb open while cleaning it with a piece of microfiber.
Event Horizon
- Width
- 348.8 mm (13.73 in.)
- Depth
- 129.6 mm (5.1 in.)
- Height
- 35.7 mm (1.41 in.)
- Weight
- 2.6 kg (5.7 lb.) built
- Typing Angle
- 8.0 degrees
- Front Height
- 17.5 mm (sans feet)
- Materials
- Aluminum top, stainless steel bottom
- Finish
- Black wrinkle coat, brushed top, bead blasted bottom, clear coat
Supermassive
- Width
- 348.8 mm (13.73 in.)
- Depth
- 129.6 mm (5.1 in.)
- Height
- 35.7 mm (1.41 in.)
- Weight
- 5.4 kg (11.9 lb.) built***
- Typing Angle
- 8.0 degrees
- Front Height
- 17.5 mm (sans feet)
- Materials
- Brass top, brass bottom
- Finish
- Dark gold wrinkle coat, perlage top, bead blasted bottom, clear coat
*** Due to the weight, Supermassive might be more expensive to ship. It is legit heavy.
Layout Options
Event Horizon features a 65% layout with a 4-key macro (XT) column on the left. There are 3 PCBs in total: The main PCB, the XT PCB and the daughter board, all designed by Yiancar.
The main PCB comes in 2 options:
Hot Swap PCB
- Regular backspace
- ANSI enter
- Non-stepped caps lock
- Regular left shift
- 7u spacebar
Solder PCB
- Regular and split backspace
- ANSI or ISO enter
- Non-stepped or stepped caps lock
- Regular and split left shift
- 7u spacebar
Customize
Event Horizon is supported by VIA and QMK. This means you can easily remap any key and add layers to fully customize the layout to your needs.
Plate Files
We offer 2 materials for the plates, but if you want to make your own ones you can use the files below:
Mounting Styles
Event Horizon has a soft but firm typing feel. It is not flexible or bouncy by design.
2 mounting styles are supported and included with the board:
Dampened O-ring Mount
The o-ring mount is a classic mounting style where a large rubber band sits sandwiched between the plate and PCB, held in place by the switches. We re-evaluated this mounting style, and placed the plate standoffs so that the rubber band is evenly positioned all around (o-ring mounted boards so far only relied on the switches to position the rubber band resulting in less pressure in some of the corners).
Clip-in stabilizers are included with every board since screw-in stabilizers are not compatible with o-ring style mounting.
Dampened Bumper Mount
We've also included a silicone mat (which I'm naming the "bumper"). It's placed (sandwiched) between the plate and PCB, and pushes outwards to create friction and keep the sandwich in place.
Dampened?
Both mounting styles rely on friction to keep the sandwich in place. While this is by no means a new mounting style, there's a small twist that makes it unique: There are relief gaps in the plate, which allow the sandwich to fully dampen vibrations (instead of having the o-ring or bumper bottom out against the plate).
In The Box
- Board top
- Board bottom
- Aluminum plate
-
PCBs
- Main PCB (hot swap or solder)
- XT PCB (hot swap only)
- Daughter board
- JST cables
- Clip-in stabilizers
- O-rings (40A, black)
- Silicone mats
- Plate stand-offs and screws
- Screws
- Tools
- Feet
- Microfiber cloth
- Traveling case
Optional
- Extra plates (aluminum or FR4)
-
Extra PCBs
- Main PCB (hot swap or solder)
- XT PCB (hot swap only)
- Daughter board
- Extra o-rings
- Extra silicone mats
Event Horizon will only run once. If you think you might need an extra plate or PCB in the future, it's best to add those to your order.
What You Still Need
While a lot is included when you purchase this keyboard, there are some components you still need to fully build and use it:
- USB type C cable
- Switches (70 for hot swap, more for solder depending on which layout you use)
- Keycaps
