Since the last project log ended with "This is it for this first log, the next one will be, I think, about describing more in details the advancement of the project and giving the roadmap", one was not wrong to expect more logs or build instructions to be posted soon after.

But since then nothing...how in the hell did this happen ?

Was this all a lie ?

Of course not, and this log is dedicated to give updates and explanation about what happened these last months, because - in fact - many things happened.

Let's start from the beginning, Keymu was originally a side project to learn electronics/embedded systems. As it is explained in the project introduction, I fell in love with Sprite_TM's micro Gameboy and realized I could learn a lot by making one myself. And learn I did: making my first PCB, modifying and recompiling the linux kernel, building a dedicated debian distribution, 3D modelisation and 3D printing... all this was new to me. A few months later and with the support one genius of a colleague, Keymu was born and I started this entry on Hackaday. 

I figured participating in the Hackaday Prize 2017 would give Keymu some visibility and - oh my god - it did, way beyond what I had expected. 

When things get out of hand - in the good way

Just after Hackaday's article on the Intel Edison being discontinuited, a Danish journalist contacted me about Keymu basically to write about how Intel's announcement affects people and existing projects. He asked me if I had a small video showing Keymu in action so this is when I shot the very unpolished youtube video you can see in the introduction. 

This article was not really about Keymu though, in fact, it was entitled "One of the victims of Intel's IoT retreat" - not very glorious... However, a few weeks later, Hackaday wrote its own article about the project, like it does for many projects in the Hackaday challenge 2017. This article led to another in BoingBoing, which led to another on Gizmodo, which led to many others. 

We (my genius colleague - now partner - and I) even were invited on an live show by a Youtube channel in France called Geekinc where they interviewed us about Keymu (interview in French): 

All these articles were a very nice unexpected surprise, and led to many views on this page, as well as many views on the youtube video (which is now monetized, allowing me to recover a little bit of the various costs of making the prototype). 

But most importantly, all these views and comments led me to realize that many people were interested in Keymu and wanted one (some unanswered comments on Youtube even proposed that I simply named my price to buy some). 

So, where do we go from there? Well, let's product some Keymus !

Production baby

Yes that's right, Keymu is now on the road to becoming a real product but the road is still very long. One does not simply jump the huge gap between homemade prototype and production-ready device, but even before that many issues need to be solved with the current prototype:

• Keeping the Edison is not an option now, this means rethinking the whole harware,
• Developing a new linux distribution, very lightweight and optimized this time,
• Rethinking the whole mechanical design, most specifically the hinge...
• Adding working audio,
• and many other things...

This is without counting all the new difficulties added by entering production, certifications, legal issues, starting the crowdfunding campain... So I officially parnered up with my genius colleage and we have both been working hard on the new product for the last months or so, and continuing to do so... hence the lack of activity on this page for a long time.

Excuses, always excuses

Juggling between daily work, Keymu new objectives, and - well - life, meant little time to post long and detailled tutorials to build Keymu like I initially planned but a promise is a promise and I will be releasing (with less details) the Edison Image, Eagle files, BOM, and Solidworks files very soon. For the tutorials on how to build the Edison image, it will also come but a bit later. So stay tuned, and again thanks for all the Keymu love!