My BYOK finally arrived

I initially backed (on prelaunch.com) the Kickstarter BYOK project on August 7, 2024. Yesterday, January 7, 2026, one year and five months later, it arrived (about a year after the initial projected .

I've now had a chance to unpack it and play around with it a little bit.

Getting it working with a keyboard was ... interesting. The USB-C cable I carry with me everywhere didn't work on a Tokyo 60 board, or with a RK71 in cable mode. The RK71 in Bluetooth mode was seen by the BYOK and paired successfully via Bluetooth, but the BYOK did not recognize any input.

I finally used the cable that came with the device to connect the Tokyo60 and that worked, and it's what I'm using to type this.

The device works well enough, so far. There's a tiny bit of lag as I type, and getting the contrast dialed in takes some practice (the device really seems to want to be viewed at an angle, vs. straight on). 

I splurged on a case for the device, which fits it perfectly - maybe a little too snugly, as the magnetic kickstand gets pushed off the back when you go to take the BYOK out. (And I’m not wild about carrying that piece separately in the little mesh pocket on the other side of the clamshell case, as loose metal like that could damage the BYOK.)

I also opted for the taller of the two optional stands, which arrived not assembled or with instructions or tools. I figured it out and was able to get everything loosened, put together, and tightened, with just my fingers, but it wasn't a seamless experience. Also, the stand advertised is described as a 22-35 cm height adjustable stand (pictured to the right). What I got was a gooseneck stand where the rigid pole part is about 16.5 cm tall and with the goose neck fully extended, would put the center of the screen at about 29 cm. There’s a bolt head that protrudes below the metal base, and there’s no padding material under the base, so not only does it not quite lay flat and stable, but it’s likely to mark surfaces:

I’m kinda generally not happy with it. (I may just end up getting something like this stand, which will hold the device right where I want it. (And in retrospect, I probably should have gone for the “Medium Height Premium Stand,” which is a bit more like this.) (Edit: Apparently, they did announce a change to the stand, but didn’t mention the change in specifications.)
 
In the box was the device (I got it in black), a USB-C to USB-C cable (white), and a magnetic kickstand to prop it up when using it on the go. There’s also a QR code to the Quick Start Guide. Once I got the keyboard situation figured out, I connected it to my phone’s personal WiFi hotspot and checked for updated firmware (I’m apparently on the latest). Then I tapped out the first draft of this post, and hooked it up to my computer via USB, after turning on Disk Mode in settings. Sure enough, it auto-mounted immediately as a 128 MB FAT16 volume (note: the device uses an easily accessible MicroSD card, and mine came with a generic (“Mclassical”) class 4 128MB card).

Before you can start typing, you have to create a Project, and then in that Project create a new File, into which your text goes. That hierarchy is present on the device, too, as you’d expect.

One observation: I didn’t see anywhere in the menus to set the date and time, and it apparently does not do so over WiFi (e.g., over NTP). (Edit: Verified, there’s no clock in the device.) So every file looks like it was created / last modified at the same time on January 1st, 1980. That’s ... not amazing. There also appears to be no versioning capability, which I didn’t expect. That said, it mounts as a standard disk, so you can use a shell script or something to create versions and tag with timestamps once the device is hooked up to a computer. A kludge, but, y’know.

Let’s see, what other observations do I have? Fonts. There’s Arial Small (which seems larger than Arial Medium), Arial Mediun, and Arial Large, Times small/medium/large (where the small version seems to actually lack serifs on most characters, oddly), and Mono small/medium/large. Mono Large gives you a screen area of about 26 characters by 5 lines. Mono Medium is 40x6, while Mono Small gives you 48x11, all pretty comparable to the old Tandy Model 100 (40x8) or the Freewrite Alpha (60x4), while not as expansive as the eInk display on the Freewrite Traveler (etc) (from 32x7 to 100x19), though eInk is likely to have other significant drawbacks (haven’t used them side by side to compare). The Times font is ugly. The mono is nice. But I think my favorite is Arial.

There is no copy-and-paste functionality. There is zero formatting. (Not even italics, underline, or bold.) Just plain text.  

Do I think I'll use this? Yeah, especially if I can get the keyboard thing figured out. A Bluetooth keyboard that actually connects and works, and has a stand that will hold this thing at a good angle, could be a killer combination. (I tried my K620T, and the “dock slot” isn’t wide enough for the BYOK’s thickness. At least one report says the Epomaker Dynatab 75 fits well. I need to dig out the MakerMade3D case for my Keychron K2 and see if that fits. Worst case I could always use my Air60 v2 or NT68 and use their case/tablet stand things, but those have a large footprint (i.e., can’t use ’em on my steering wheel desk while charging the car).

If I ever actually start to write seriously, that is. Never say never?

18 months after backing the kickstarter, though, NaNoWriMo is gone[1], and I’m busier than ever.

Final thought: There’s an app, and some sort of sync setup, that I need to look into more thoroughly, but I doubt I’ll use. I’m loathe to rely on third party providers for any kind of functionality, and prefer to build my workflow around what’s built into a device without any sort of “cloud” connection, subscription, or ability to be remotely bricked / abandoned down the road. There’s a 6-digit code on the device (looks like a hex value) that you punch into app.byok.io to enable syncing. There are as of this writing three tiers, including a free tier that the backers have pledged “can be used by anyone as long as they wish”[2] ... Other tiers get additional functionality (it looks like maybe they’re trying to unseat Scrivener?). I need to play with it ...

 

[1] Insult to injury, the BYOK folks sent out an email on September 27, 2024, announcing “NaNoWriMo is around the corner,” promising “[c]ompleting 50,000 words is easier with BYOK,” while noting: “While we won’t be able to deliver in time for this year’s NaNoWriMo, this is your opportunity to be exceptionally prepared for next year's event!” Alas.

[2] January 10, 2025 email, subject: “BYOK: Exclusive Backer Rewards and New Pricing Model”