GMMK PRO Post-Launch Report

Glorious HQ

August 25, 2021

July 6th, 2021 marked the official in-stock launch of GMMK PRO. We truly appreciate the entire Glorious community's support (and patience) throughout the GMMK PRO reservation process. We’re thrilled with the huge amount of positive response we’ve already seen from this release.

Throughout the PRO's rollout, we've received invaluable feedback from our community which we’ve used to implement some optimizations and changes to the board and software. Here’s a brief recap about the launch and changes that have already been made or are still in the process of being implemented.

Reservation Fulfillment Recap

As with just about every company in the world, 2020 & 2021 presented Glorious with a seemingly endless stream of ever-shifting hurdles to overcome. Producing a board like the PRO at a large scale was already an extremely complicated endeavor, and, between major port shutdowns, freight backups, raw materials shortages, and local shipping delays, being able to release GMMK PRO (with a full suite of accessories) this year was a huge feat for our team to pull off.

Our primary goal with the PRO was to offer an enthusiast-worthy, highly customizable board, which would be widely available for anybody to buy and sold at an affordable price. We wanted it to meet the standards of existing hobbyists and hoped that it would unlock the world of custom mechanical keyboards for a huge number of people in need of an accessible “next step” into the hobby.

In the early planning stages of this launch, our initial fulfillment target was to get the keyboard into the hands of every customer who wanted one as fast as possible. However, with great uncertainty in the global supply chain, the relatively high production time to make each board, and the extraordinary level of demand for this release, we knew it would be nearly impossible to fully stock the PRO before mid-late 2021.

Enabling a batched reservation system allowed us to ramp up production on-demand and begin shipping GMMK PRO boards as soon as we received them in stock. This system had the additional benefit of not indefinitely locking up the full purchase price for customers like some traditional group buys do.

We began taking reservations for the GMMK PRO in November 2020. Batch 1 quickly sold out within a few hours and we switched to the “Flex Batch” system, which ran until full launch.

We initially set a target for Batch 1 order emails to be sent by the end of Q1 (March) 2021 and all “Flex Batch” orders to be sent out by the end of Q2 (June), followed by the full global release. We’re very fortunate that we were able to achieve those goals under the circumstances.

We understand the batch reservation process wasn’t the most straightforward way to launch a product, so we really appreciate you all bearing with us! Rest assured that at this time we don’t plan to follow this same procedure for future launches (excluding extreme circumstances).

With tens of thousands of GMMK PROs already shipped, both to existing enthusiasts and newcomers to the community, we’re overall very happy with this launch and are excited to continue releasing accessories for the PRO.

Hardware Updates

Quality Control

Over 2021, we’ve been making some major improvements to our manufacturing and QC processes across all product lines, and as a result, GMMK PRO has been one of our best launches yet from a QC standpoint. The number of support tickets submitted regarding the GMMK PRO is well below expectations and so far there have been no major defects found.

As for tickets we have received, some of the most commonly reported issues to customer support team thus far have been:

• Tight or Stripped Screws - In the majority of cases we’ve found this was caused by user error (typically the use of incorrectly sized tool heads or lack of torque). However, some production issues were found. Our team has identified a solution to help prevent this problem and will be implementing it in future production batches.

• Excess Stabilizer Lube - Some boards from one production run had an issue with excess lube pre-applied to the outer housing of the stabs, causing a “mushy” feeling key press. This issue is fairly easily remedied by wiping off the excess lube. If you’ve experienced this issue, we released an optimization guide here.

We've since fixed the primary issue causing this in later production units which are already in inventory. However, with any factory lubricating process, it is still possible some units will have excess lubricant due to production variances. We're continuing to work with our manufacturer to further fine-tune this process to reduce the chances of it happening. If you have any problems with over-lubed stabs (and you've tried the optimization guide), please reach out for support.

• Plate Flex - We received a handful of tickets regarding flexing of the polycarbonate plate. After investigating these reports, we found that the majority of these cases were caused by over-tightening during the installation process or natural flex in the material. We posted an installation guide here, which addresses the issue for most users. That said, both the polycarbonate plate and the board's PCB are made from flexible materials, so a nominal amount of plate flex is normal and will not affect the board's function.

• Dead Keys - A handful of boards had a few dead keys caused by a bad diode on the PCB. Those boards were RMA’d by our customer support team.

In total, these issues amounted to only a handful of tickets out of tens of thousands of boards shipped. We’ll continue to monitor any potentially recurring issues and implement further improvements as necessary.

If you are experiencing any sort of QC issue on your keyboard, don't hesitate to get in touch with our customer support team here so they can help you out!

GOAT Stabilizers

IT'S THE GOAT! Okay, maybe not quite yet. After receiving feedback from the community, our product team has been working on improving our stabilizers to ensure they live up to their "GOAT" name. As is, the V1 GOAT stabs function perfectly well for most users, however, our goal is for them to be among the best stabilizers on the market. We've already implemented a couple of short-term changes to improve them within the PRO while our product development and QC teams continue researching and testing long-term optimizations.

3rd Party Stabilizer Compatibility

Early production runs of the GMMK PRO's aluminum and brass plates were not fully compatible with some 3rd party stabilizers (such as Durock). After receiving customer feedback about this, we reworked the metal switch plates to better accommodate these 3rd party stabs and these new plates have already begun rolling out. The polycarbonate plate is more flexible and was already compatible with most 3rd party stabs, so our team made no adjustments to that plate material.

As with all Glorious products, we'll continuously improve the PRO's hardware as we continue to gather feedback.

Software/Firmware Updates

Glorious CORE

Glorious CORE released with admittedly a few early hiccups, but is now fully functional with the GMMK PRO. Our development team is continuously working on improvements on this tool to better optimize UI/UX and include new features. If you haven't done so already, we recommend downloading the latest version of CORE here, and make sure you update your board to the latest firmware version.

View the most recent CORE updates on the Development Changelog.

Latency

We have noted concerns from the community regarding the GMMK PRO's high latency. In CORE v1.0.22, we included the option for users to adjust the latency via a firmware update and by utilizing hotkeys found in the GMMK PRO product guide (found here). Users can now lower the default 16ms latency to 8ms or 2ms. We are planning to include the ability to adjust the latency directly in CORE in the next update.

QMK Support

Prior to the GMMK PRO’s release, we collaborated with members of the QMK team to ensure that the board was compatible with QMK firmware. When GMMK PRO began shipping, QMK did function on the board, but it was not fully compatible with the board’s LED lighting.

The QMK development community was able to implement a fix for this, while our own development team also worked on a solution. We believed there were still some improvements that could be made to the community solution which may better support further optimization and scalability. Our dev team submitted a pull request and listed further details about the differences to the community version here.

QMK is an open-sourced project and the community firmware was chosen as the version to be used in the main branch. As a result, we decided to close our pull request as our devs confirmed this version works as intended.

To reiterate, the GMMK PRO currently has full QMK functionality, including LED lighting.

Going forward, the QMK development community will make all further contributions to the GMMK PRO QMK functionality. Glorious will continue to provide support so far as ensuring QMK remains compatible with the current board and any future QMK-compatible products we may release.

Thank you to Drashna and Jack Humbert from QMK, as well as the rest of the QMK community for your help!

VIA Support

The GMMK PRO also has full VIA functionality. We are listed as a compatible board and the firmware files for the PRO are officially live on their Firmware Downloads page, here. The download is titled “gmmk_pro_via.bin.”

Thank you to the VIA team and all the community members who helped get this firmware developed!

New Chip Rollout

Several months ago, we announced that there was the possibility we would have to switch our ARM microcontroller to a new chip. The reason for this potential switch was primarily because the ST32 microcontrollers in our boards are very difficult to source at scale right now given the current state of the supply chain. In the event we had to switch over the chip, this would have potentially resulted in a temporary loss of compatibility with QMK/VIA until we were able to complete the firmware development.

Since then, we have been able to source enough ST32 chips to continue production with them for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, this has given us plenty of time to finalize the development of QMK/VIA compatibility for the new chip if we have to switch over sometime next year, so there should not be any loss of compatibility on production units.


In summary, we no longer expect any outages of QMK/VIA compatibility in new boards.

Feature Suggestions

During this release, we recognized that we were not always able to provide the level of transparency we typically like to put out - especially when it comes to the development process. Users can now submit software and firmware feature requests on our Feature Upvote board.

Our development team will regularly review and tag these suggestions, allowing you to see what upcoming features we're considering and working on.

ISO and 3rd Party Availability

The GMMK PRO ISO version is currently available via our distributors and partners around the world and we will continue to fulfill B2B orders as we get enough stock. We will soon be releasing ISO compatible brass & polycarbonate switch plates and ISO GPBT keycap sets. Initial languages supported in these sets will include Nordic, German (DE), Spanish (ES), and UK English.

In Conclusion

From design phase to release, the community has played a huge role in the GMMK PRO’s creation. Our product and software teams will continue working to ensure your expectations are not only matched but exceeded. We are proud of what we have accomplished and are excited to continue improving and expanding upon the PRO platform. Once again, we value your feedback immensely and appreciate your patience.

If you haven't seen it already, we've recently updated our User Guide for the GMMK PRO, which includes full instructions for your board, hot keys, warranty support, and several video tutorials. Anything else, as always feel free to reach out to support!

 

- Stay Glorious

Comments

Steve R.:

GMMK Pro is my first custom keyboard and I couldn’t be happier!

March 16, 2022

Richard b:

Love the Gmmk pro. Please develop and release shine through keycaps compatible with the south facing led’s.

Thanks!

January 21, 2022

Nil:

Please release ISO-FR ;)

December 29, 2021

Jose:

The Gmmk Pro is a fantastic Keyboard, with most of the features i really wanted in a custom, however I also work with this keyboard and am currently using an amazon numpad for spreadsheets that cheapens my setup. PLEASE release a Numpad in Both GMMK Pro colors with Hotswap PCB (Wireless would also be a plus). The crowds would rally towards it!

November 11, 2021

D:

Overall, it’s pretty great. Please allow us to reprogram the knob. Your CEO specifically talked about how great programming the knob will be, but it still can only adjust volume. Please allow us to reprogram it to keystrokes. A rotary encoder is perfect for scrolling through animation frames, adjusting brush sizes, or even just changing font size on websites.

The programmable knob was the entire reason I bought the board over others. Please live up to your CEO’s words.

October 25, 2021

Robert Lestina:

Work on the plates ( all of them ) and the stabilizers. I still had to file some of the Poly plate down to fit durock v2 stabs. Because of the tight fit it was pushing on the stabilizers which was making the spacebar stick. Also the PCB seems to flex with because of the plate too. causing extra stress throughout the board. Keep up the work though. Great board and great way to get started in the hobby.

September 10, 2021

Rich:

Please come out with a numpad to match!!!

September 07, 2021

Mirko:

Can you please consider releasing also ISO-IT GPBT ?

Thank you

September 07, 2021

Randy:

I bought the Pro for my son as he has become very enthusiastic about becoming a keyboard enthusiast. I was extremely impressed with the build quality and how solid and stable the keyboard is with the Panda switches. For my work I do quite a bit of work with spreadsheets and large data files and having a number pad is pretty much required. I would happily purchase a full sized or even 1800 layout GMMK Pro if it were available and feel confident I am not alone in that sentiment.

Is there any plan to produce such a keyboard?

September 03, 2021

Ryan:

My experience with the GMMK Pro has been mostly good. I am very happy with my board after making some changes, but I encountered a few problems along the way. The first was screws. The screws are crap, even if Glorious claims it was “user error” that people were stripping screws, the screws feel extremely cheap for a board at this price and they were also way overtightened on at least some units. (including mine) I had to buy a little set of screwdriver heads to actually get into the board because even my smallest screwdriver was seemingly slightly too big and having issues not stripping the tiny screws. Luckily I didn’t do too much damage with the first head. After a couple days waiting on an Amazon order, with a ton of force and a smaller head I was able to get all the case screws off. The other screws all came out easily, just slightly tedious how many there are. This is honestly ridiculous considering this board is literally designed to be opened up, so I really hope whatever changes they made actually address this. The screws don’t need to be anywhere near as tight as they were.

The second issue I had is with keys not registering. I did not have any dead keys, but with many keys I found they just didn’t register sometimes when I pressed them down. That or I would hold them and it would randomly stop registering my press or flicker the input enough to seriously mess with me in games. The solution at the time was to take out the switch and bend the top pin a bit upwards before clicking it back in. I easily found threads about this issue so it was clearly not a one off with my board. Funnily enough, I only seemed to have this issue while using Glorious Panda switches which Glorious specifically says will have the best compatibility with the board. I no longer had issues with this after changing the switches to Amethyst Tactiles. I did however replaced the plate and stabs at the same time as the switches, so it’s possible something could have been seated wrong on arrival or somehow the polycarb plate lets the switches contact where they need to better.

One last note is the polycarb plate could also really use some changes from my experience. The stabs I put in were Durock V2s and the plate was a tight fit. It basically snaps over the stabs which does not really feel ideal. You can see the plate expanding a bit to actually fit, but luckily the switches still fit fine. I did file it a bit around the rotary knob because that didn’t seem to fit perfectly once the plate “clicked” over all the switches. (The cutout for the rotary knob was big enough, it just wouldn’t work with everything else presumably because the board is being expanded weirdly by the stabs) Might have been unnecessary, but it seemed like I should do it.

I know I had a lot of negative things to say about the board, but overall I still love it. The actual machining and material of the board is so nice. It feels nothing less than premium and it’s got a lot of weight to it. 5-pin compatibility and south-facing switches are WAY too rare in anything below enthusiast keyboards, so it’s a godsend to see it on the GMMK Pro. The sound profile might not be above criticism from people who’ve dumped 5x the price of this board for a custom build, but IMO it sounds really good. The stock stabs are kinda meh, but really you can’t expect good stabs from a factory. They definitely weren’t overlubed on mine, the lube seemed fine there was just a bit of rattle. This is the first time I’ve gotten to try plate mount stabs and the Durock V2s make this board sound amazing. I cannot wait to get some new keycaps as I’ve been in a once groupbuy for some and recently got into another one. This seems likely to be my end-game keyboard and assuming they actually fixed some of my issues, I would highly recommend it!

August 31, 2021

Nico:

As Neozetare said, can you please consider releasing ISO-FR GPBT ?

August 31, 2021

David:

I hope that through Glorius Core you get 1ms of latency with 1000hz polling rate by default

August 30, 2021

John:

After wiping off excessive lube on my stabilizers, they now feels like they have “sand” in them. Can I have them replaced with update v2 version?

August 30, 2021

BlueSourBoy:

I bought an aftermarket FR4 plate because I love how the material sounds. As somewhat of a keyboard snob (more than $1K into the hobby) I have to say, FR4 elevates the board by over 10 fold. It’s not a Keycult but its far and away a much better configuration.

This really should be the default option and you would be extremely surprised by just how much better this makes the board.

August 30, 2021

Joe S.:

Any plans to release a south LED compatible keycap set thats not the Aura/Pudding? These look horrible on the GMMK Pro and is the main reason I am using my GMMK TKL over the Pro is the lack of keycap set that looks good on a south facing LED light.

August 30, 2021

Robbie:

My GMMK Pro was one of the “handful” of boards that had a dead key. It also had heavily lubed stabilizers. Once the dead key problem was troubleshooted, I contacted support, sent in the info requested, and sent back the board. In about 1.5 weeks, I got the new board and everything is working great! The stabilizers don’t have as much lube (as stated in the improvements above), but now I feel like there isn’t enough. The space bar is rattling some, but it’ll be an easy fix. Overall, I LOVE the GMMK Pro!! Amazing job guys!

August 30, 2021

Zack:

Is there lighting support in VIA for the GMMK Pro yet?

August 30, 2021

Samgao:

Since this isn’t my first hotswap keyboard, and isn’t my first time lubing the stabilizers, I’ve come to learn quite a bit, and ca. Definitely make the GOAT stabilizers work for me. However, I’ve only used the outer housing of the GOAT stabilizers and relubed/tuned them myself to achieve a sound a feel that I liked. I honestly feel there are. Lot of negative talk about the GOAT stabilizers, but really, I don’t see the issue except the over lubing (when I received mine). Just a little Teflon in the housing, and some dielectric grease on the wire (after completely cleaning them off) made them pretty awesome. Sure, these remind me of Durock V1’s the way the wire clips in but i never had an issue of the wire come loose. I can’t imagine Durock putty in a smoother stem and housing than the GOAT, so my biggest complaint would be the lack of steel screws to pick up with my magnetic driver, and the over lubing. But for a mass produced item, how do you tune the space bar for enthusiast level on a mass production scale??

August 30, 2021

Alex:

GMMKpro is an amazing board, best purchase I’ve made in the keyboard department.

August 30, 2021

Reza Djangi:

iknowthisandiloveyou.jpg

August 30, 2021

Bob:

Love the QMK support keep up the good work.

August 30, 2021

Alex:

“We will soon be releasing ISO compatible brass & polycarbonate switch plates and ISO GPBT keycap sets”

FINALLY! Thank you. I don’t plan on purchasing until these are available, so I’m happy to hear this.

August 30, 2021

Evan:

Would love to see acrylic dust covers and correctly sized wrist rests for the 75% layout. Currently very, very few on the market for this layout size that don’t require modification.

August 27, 2021

Knobhead:

I hope to see more color variations of the rotary knobs. Perhaps even some with images on top.

August 27, 2021

Richard:

What are the odds of Glorious Core making its way to macOS? Linux? I don’t see either on the roadmap.

August 27, 2021

Martin:

It’s nearly impossible to buy GMMK Pro, especially the Silver version from any third-party distributors within Europe. Be it ANSI or ISO. I have a pre-order since May and it keeps getting postponed 😔

August 27, 2021

Liam Hudson:

Hi,

had horribly lubed stabs, removed the excess and now have rattle, bit of a pain. Have ordered Durock v2 stabs and my own lube but did not really want to be doing this. Also, you do not mention that although you have MAC OS version of Core software it does not work. Also your Core software does not work with Parallels (cannot find any keyboard) this is prety inconvenient for Mac Users (also not super easy to work out how to remap the ALT / WIN keys to CMD / OPTION while it is a trivial matter on most ‘normal’ keyboards).

Wonderful feel to the keeb but still making in ‘correct’ 2 weeks after ordering as it’s not exactly a speedy process removing and adding switches / caps etc..

August 27, 2021

Neozetare:

Would love to buy ISO-FR GPBT

August 27, 2021

Dan:

Amazing work Glorious. The Gmmk pro is my first custom keyboard and I must say I chose well. It has been a pleasure working this board to the point where I’m very happy with the feel and sound that it produces. I’m still experimenting with combinations and aesthetic and will be for a very long time. Thank you Glorious for introducing me in this hobby, you’ll always have a special place in my heart.

August 27, 2021

blue2x:

GMMK PRO – My first custom mechanical keyboard. Saw some mechanical keyboard videos before but I never knew about the different types of keycaps, stabilizers, acoustic typing sounds, plate material, and so on. When I saw the site, the youtube videos of the GMMK pro I knew I had to get it. When I finally opened the product, I was so surprised it was heavy and sturdy.

I’m still in the learning process of lubing the stabilizers and switches, and I wish someday Glorious would give more PBT solid color keycaps or accent keycaps to match the GMMK Pro keyboard.

August 26, 2021

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