r/zerowriter

TL/DR: Grab a beverage and a snack, settle in. This is going to be a long one. I wrote this post with the aim of helping other Smart Typewriter owners get the most out of their Freewrite devices. You can, in fact, replace the battery and customise/upgrade the typing experience on your Smart Typewriters, especially with some expert help along the way. Look out for my future post that will feature a video from the tech expert who performed the surgery, plus a bonus typing test on my modified Gen 3 Ink! This post has not been sponsored by anyone, nor have I been gifted any product. These are my own thoughts & experiences, for better or for worse.

This post also makes feature suggestions for the next generation of the Smart Typewriter, speculates about the future of Astrohaus as a company and discusses new, competing products that are popping up in the distraction-free writing space like the BYOK and ZeroWriter Fold. The detail in this post is fairly exhaustive, and is deliberately so. It is not for the weak. Consider yourself warned.

TL/DR Part 2:  Okay! Fine! You convinced me! Here is a picture of the stock battery that came with my Gen 3 Smart Typewriter, along with the packaging of the battery that replaced it. If the media is lost by the time you read this post, the print on the front of the stock battery reads 'HPL 755590 5200 mAh 3.7V 20230427'. It has three connection points on the left hand side of the battery with red, yellow and black wires and measures approx 85 mm x 53 mm x 4 mm. The printed text on the front of the replacement battery packaging reads TS-B061/ 906090.7V 6000 mAH Lithium ion polymer battery connector type: PH2.0. May god have mercy on your soul.

A word of warning before we begin – the procedure I am about to describe may void your extended warranty with Astrohaus. My Gen 3 Smart Typewriter ‘Ink’ is out of warranty, so I can throw caution to the wind and mess about as much as I like. Proceed with any custom modifications (except for something non-invasive like keycaps) with caution.

Hello my fellow Freewrite(rs) … I must kick this post off with a confession. I do not use my Smart Typewriter (Gen 3, Ink special edition) nearly as much as I should. I paid a king’s ransom to get it to Australia, only to embark on a screenwriting project which saw me working exclusively on my laptop with Final Draft. During this time, I would just leave my Ink in sleep mode unless I was using it to take research notes for my screenplay. I did not power it down completely. Every couple of months, it would display the low battery screen. I would dutifully plug it in to charge and then not unplug it for god knows how long. Basically, I was playing Russian Roulette with the battery’s lifespan when I probably should have just powered it off & stored it away in its felt sleeve. Instead, in my infinite wisdom, I left it on my little laptop table lap cushion thing in the corner of the lounge room to taunt myself into using it.

It was also during this time that I began to wonder if I had just wasted a significant amount of money. I was deep in second draft revisions for my debut screenplay, a hugely consuming process which did not involve my Ink at all. I first discovered Astrohaus & the Freewrite devices thanks to indie author Lidiya Foxglove over on her YouTube channel, The Cozy Creative. Lidiya (not her real name) was discussing her writing process and happened to mention her Freewrite Traveler.

Subsequent YouTube searches led me to discover Michael Jecks and his YouTube channel Writerly Witterings. Michael is a historical and crime fiction author based in the UK. He is also a staunch advocate for the Freewrite Smart Typewriter as a full-time author who drafted twenty novels on his Gen 2 before it finally died of battery issues after many years of regular use. Astrohaus then provided him with a Gen 3 Smart Typewriter free of charge – probably after all the promotion he’s given them over the years. It is also worth noting that he has an affiliate code with Astrohaus from which he receives a small commission. Michael’s content is unpretentious in its production values and rather wonderful as a result – if you found this post and are considering purchasing a Smart Typewriter, I would highly recommend checking out Michael’s channel. You can find Michael’s thoughts on the Gen 3 here and his thoughts on the latest firmware update ‘Sailfish’ here.

In the proud tradition of every creative who is avoiding actually doing their creative work, I found every reason under the sun not to use my Ink. My biggest fixation was on the keycaps. I couldn’t see the lettering on the stock black-on-black keycaps on the Ink easily, as cool as they looked. I set out on a mission to find my perfect keycaps, eventually landing on this 'Mocha' set from Osume which lent a vintage, distinguished and somewhat gothic air to my Ink. Osume ‘marshmallow’ profile keycaps are fantastic companions for the Smart Typewriter and I highly recommend them.

Almost as soon as I was done putting the Osume Mocha Marshmallow keycaps on my Ink, I found myself unsatisfied with the sound and feel of the stock Kaihl Box Brown switches. For those who did not fall down the mechanical keyboard rabbit hole as I did, Kaihl Box Brown switches are mechanical, lightly tactile switches. Brown switches are a common, low-cost stock switch included in many pre-assembled mechanical keyboards by a plethora of keyboard manufacturers. Tactile switches contain a bump as the key is pressed, which can be felt by the user – hence the name. They tend to be more popular with typists as the tactile bump provides feedback, letting the typist know the key has been pressed. This is supposed to help with speed and accuracy. My Ink was my gateway drug into mechanical keyboards, and I know a lot more about my preferences after two years into ‘the worst hobby on the internet’ than I did at the beginning of my mechanical keyboard adventures. I decided I didn’t want to buy new switches just for my Ink – I had so many sets of switches that weren’t in use that I made a deal with myself. I would only have my Ink modified if I didn’t spend any more money on parts. I selected some switches from my existing collection – in this case my Gateron Baby Kangaroo V2’s, the first ever switches I had hand lubed and filmed. I still loved my BK’s but couldn’t see myself putting them in a new mechanical keyboard build any time soon. That made them the perfect candidate to enjoy a second life inside my Ink. If you are looking for tactile switch recommendations that are a little more budget friendly and feel great to type on, I’ve tested a bunch and my favourite were the Akko Creamy Purple Pros (which has recently been superseded by the Creamy Purple U1). If you want a 'clicky' typing experience that sounds more like an old fashioned typewriter, I would go with the Gateron Melodics. When it comes to silent switches, I don't have much experience with them but TTC Silent Bluish Whites V2s are keyboard enthusiast favourites in the silent switch category.

I started researching how my Ink could be modified, wanting to know if anyone else had embarked on such a mission in the past. I found a series of YouTube videos posted by a lady trying to replace the battery in her Gen 2 Smart Typewriter. You can find Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of her adventures on YouTube.

I found a post on Reddit about a sale listing for a Smart Typewriter which seemed to feature frankenswitches. A frankenswitch is when you combine parts from two different switches to make a new switch. At first I thought all I could do was frankenswitch the stock Kaihl Box Browns with a different type of Kaihl switch. That is when I reached out to the wondrous SwitchDoctor, aka Karly. Karly is an amazing custom mechanical keyboard assembly and retro tech repair wizard located in Victoria, Australia. After a bit more research, Karly & I agreed that it was better to desolder the stock Kaihl Box Browns and solder the Gateron Baby Kangaroos in their place. I also wanted to replace the battery – if my Ink was going to have some surgery, I thought it would be a good idea to replace the stock battery at the same time (even though it wasn’t strictly necessary just yet). I packed up my Ink in a small mountain of paper along with my Baby Kangaroo switches and shipped them off to Karly.

After cracking open my Ink for the first time and getting a look at the innards, Karly presented me with two options for replacement batteries:

Option one was sourced from Amazon and would fit perfectly inside the battery compartment of my Ink. The downside was that it only had a two-pin connector, not a three pin like the stock battery. Karly said that she could switch the BMS (do not know what this means, I am consulting the Discord chat for this one) from the original stock battery to this new battery to make it work. The caveat was that it had to be done carefully to ‘avoid any dramas’.

Option two was from a niche small business in Australia. Unlike option one, it had a three wires/pins BUT it was potentially very slightly too large for the battery compartment. The orientation of the wires was also in the opposite direction to what my Ink required, and she would need to swap them, but she informed me that it was an easy task to accomplish.

I decided to take the risk and bought option two. When Karly received it, she went to work straight away. She informed me it was slightly too large to fit in the battery compartment of my Ink (as suspected), but that she could modify one wall of the compartment to make it fit if that is what I wanted. I gave her the go ahead to modify one wall of the battery compartment. She told me so could also add in some connectors which would make it easier to replace the battery in the future, and I agreed. She also offered to replace the stock stabilizers with some TX stabilizers she had on hand, and I agreed to that as well. All up, the modification work would cost me around $117 AUD. For context that is around $84 USD, $72 EUR or $63 GBP for the cost of labour & new stabilizers (this figure does not include the cost of the replacement battery, the Baby Kangaroo switches, the Osume keycaps or the return shipping costs).

This is WILDLY more affordable for me than sending it back to the US for Astrohaus to service. To even get my Ink to the US, it would cost me $200 – $300 AUD via courier, never mind the cost of repairs, replacement parts or return postage to Australia. I must admit, Astrohaus were not super helpful with this process. When I emailed their customer service to ask what kind of battery was in the Gen 3 Smart Typewriters, all I got back was that it was a ‘5200maH LI-ION polymer battery,’ and they were not sure of the specific make or model. For those who did not catch it at the top of the post, I took a picture of my Gen 3 Ink's stock battery for your reference. I want to say the response I got from Astrohaus was merely the result of a customer service person attempting to answer a technical question. But what it sounds like is a company who would rather their consumer base upgrade to the latest model rather than have a right to repair and replace parts for their existing devices. I know this is what every company engages in to maximise profits these days – planned obsolescence, subscription-based models for services like Freewrite Plus etc. It’s just kinda shitty. Which is why I am writing this post in the first place. I wanted to share my experience of this whole process in the hope that it helps others with this niche device to know that you do have options to upgrade, modify and extend the life of your Smart Typewriter.

Thankfully, Karly was more helpful than Astrohaus customer support. Without her research and expert advice, I would have wasted a lot of money buying incompatible replacement batteries. If you live in Australia, I can’t recommend Karly’s services enough. If you live outside of Australia and are interested in getting your Smart Typewriter modified in a similar fashion, I would highly encourage you to seek out your nearest mechanical keyboard expert or someone who specialises in repairing and restoring older tech or gaming devices. They are the folk who will most likely be able to help you out if this sort of tinkering is beyond your own expertise.

To top it all off, Karly is a content creator and was the first to suggest filming my Ink’s surgical procedure to help spread community awareness about how to safely replace the battery. Considering how long this post has become, I will create a separate, much shorter post showcasing Karly's video when the editing is complete and the video is ready to post.

Some final notes from Karly regarding these modifications for the keyboard aficionados and mod enthusiasts:

When the battery is replaced again, the battery will require a JST PH2.0 (3 pins) connector. The connector Karly used in this particular modification can be found here.

A TX Plate Mount Stabilizer Kit was used in place of the original stabilizers for these modifications. However, you need to use the stock wire for the spacebar as it’s a non-standard size. Karly has speculated the spacebar wire for the Gen 3 Smart Typewriter may be a 6u in size.

THIS IS IT!!! I have, in fact, fully pimped my ride. The difference in typing experience is one I had to feel and hear for myself to believe. The typing experience now is so much more solid and consistent, it's like typing on a completely different machine. My Ink has achieved its final form. New battery. New switches. New stabilizers. New keycaps. Sailfish firmware upgrade installed. If I were to have further modifications made to my Ink, it would be to change the switches again as a matter of preference or to replace the battery when the time comes.

There is just one question that remains.

What’s next?

Astrohaus released the third generation of the Smart Typewriter in 2022. A fourth generation of the Smart Typewriter is surely not too far away now we over are halfway through the Year of Our Lord 2026. The prototype for what was originally known as ‘The Hemingwrite’ (later renamed to the Smart Typewriter as this was not a licensed collaboration with the Hemingway Estate at the time) was launched on Kickstarter by Astrohaus in late 2014. The second generation of the Smart Typewriter was launched in 2018. And then came the third generation in 2022, showing a four-year product cycle between generations. In the last four years, Astrohaus seemed to focus on launching new products like the Alpha & Wordrunner as well as rebuilding the firmware from the ground up with Sailfish. The Smart Typewriter has seen several special editions released during this time. The Hemingway (now an official licensed collaboration with the Hemingway Estate) special edition has been consistently available, but other limited special editions include a ‘Sea’ themed blue version, an all-white version, a yellow ‘Lemon’ & a green ‘Mint’ edition as well as my beloved all black ‘Ink’. The current limited special edition is the blazing red ‘Valentine’.

So ... What could POSSIBLY make me part with more money to ‘upgrade’ to a fourth generation of the Smart Typewriter? If any Astrohaus employee has swallowed the bitter pill of my feedback and made it this far down my post – listen up.

A Gen 4 keyboard should be hot-swappable: As Astrohaus learned with Wordrunner, keyboard enthusiasts (like myself) value customisation over anything else. Please, for the LOVE OF GOD make a Gen 4 Smart Typewriter with a hot-swappable keyboard. For those who don’t know what that is, a hot-swappable keyboard means that you can manually yank out the stock switches that the device comes with and easily replace them with compatible switches of your choice. That way it is possible and super easy for users to change switches and customise their typing experience as many times as required until they find their ideal switch. This is especially handy for people who enjoy writing in shared or public spaces and may need to use silent switches in their Smart Typewriter. This is standard in the mechanical keyboard world and it would be vaguely embarrassing and out of touch for Astrohaus to continue to release Smart Typewriters with soldered switches.

A Gen 4 battery needs to be user-friendly to replace: Also – the battery. Please create a discrete compartment that is easily accessible from the outside of the device so we can replace the battery ourselves and don’t need to be experts in consumer electronics to swap it out. This is in line with the recent legislation passed in the EU that requires phone and tablet manufacturers to use batteries that are easily replaceable by the user, and that companies must continue to sell replacement batteries up to five years after the last unit of production is placed on the market. It’s enforceable as of February 2027, so it makes sense for the future generations of any Astrohaus Freewrite device to feature a battery that is easy to replace by the user, and that Astrohaus continue to sell replacement batteries for these devices. Now – it’s entirely possible these new laws don’t apply to the kind of devices Astrohaus produce. But it would be a huge dick move and a middle finger to consumers if they don’t change their approach to batteries. Competing products like the BYOK and ZeroWriter Ink are designed with easy to replace batteries and the end user in mind. If they don’t change their approach to batteries and the repair & replace movement in general, Astrohaus risk getting left behind in the niche field that they once used to lead & dominate.

A Gen 4 should feature an upgraded or updated e-ink screen: Upgrading the e-ink screen would also be a compelling reason to purchase a Gen 4 Smart Typewriter. With the launch of competing devices like the ZeroWriter Ink, ZeroWriter Fold & newcomer Auteur, it makes sense for Astrohaus to upgrade the screen of their Smart Typewriter to reflect any advancements, improvements or changes in e-ink technology. I say this with the confidence of someone who has no idea if there have been any advancements in e-ink technology recently, but upgrading the hardware on the next generation of a product is one way to make an argument for purchasing a Gen 4 Smart Typewriter.

A Gen 4 would ideally feature an amber backlight: It is a truth universally acknowledged that amber lighting is easier on the eyes than blue light. This is more of a 'nice to have' change, but Gen 3 Freewrites have a more cold or blue backlight. I've been enjoying using the amber backlight on my BYOK, so it would be great to see that in a Gen 4 Smart Typwriter.

A Gen 4 could feature exclusive custom switches: For more left field things that would genuinely impress me – collaborate with a switch company like Gateron or Kaihl to create a bespoke Freewrite switch. There could potentially be a range of switches – one that replicates the typing experience on a typewriter from the early to mid-20^(th) century. Or they could design a switch that mimics the mechanical keyboard typing experience of the 80’s & 90’s etc. Astrohaus could then make these switches stock options with the next generation of Smart Typewriters that consumers can select during the purchase process.  They could also potentially sell them exclusively on the Freewrite website, as they would be cherry MX style and backwards compatible with older Smart Typewriter models.

A Gen 4 would ideally have spare set of keycaps offered at a discounted rate with every new unit purchased: This is a 'nice to have', but worth mentioning. This isn't so much about keycaps wearing out. Any mechanical keyboard enthusiast knows we will be buried with our treasure trove of tiny pieces of plastic. It's more about the fact that many of the keycaps on a Smart Typewriter are custom shapes and sizes unique to Astrohaus. That way, if a keycap gets lost or damaged you have a spare set that is matched to your unit - by this I mean that if you buy a special edition, you get a spare set of keycaps that match the keycaps for that special edition. That means black-on-black keycaps for something like the Ink, pale yellow for the Lemon, pale green for the Mint, pale blue for the Sea etc etc.

Overhaul & update the firmware for Gen 2 Smart Typewriters: And if they really wanted to impress me (and why would they?) – release an equivalent version of Sailfish that is compatible with Gen 2 devices. I’m not sure if this is possible as I am not a code or technical person. Sailfish is already being pitched as an act of company goodwill by providing it for free to Gen 3 owners, but older devices are still in circulation in the second-hand market, and they deserve some love too. Does this make sense from a business perspective? Definitely not. Will it generate some much-needed goodwill towards Astrohaus, given all the criticism they have received over the last couple of years for their high prices and relatively poor customer service? Maybe. It’s entirely possible the Gen 2 hardware can’t support firmware like that found in Sailfish, but I still think Gen 2 devices deserve a firmware upgrade so they can experience the best possible performance when using their Smart Typewriters.

In the time since I first began drafting this post, there have been a couple of significant developments. Chief among them is the newest product launch from Astrohaus - which was, drumroll please ... a notebook. A disc bound notebook. Which is fine for some, but I'm left handed and products like this are the bane of my existence. My preferred notebooks feature traditional binding in a leather cover (like Paper Republic) OR are the perforated leaf kind that you can tear off the top of the notepad.

It is also worth noting that as more reviews of the BYOK have come out, Freewrite devotee Michael Jecks has stated that he considers the BYOK better value for money than a Freewrite Traveler.

The ZeroWriter Fold has also had a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, with over 800 backers and finishing just shy of raising $250k USD. I backed this project despite my wobbly start with my ZeroWriter Ink (future posts about my Ink to come to r/zerowriter and r/writerdeck) as Adam and his team are super dedicated to providing incredible customer service and support. As for what I ordered? I ordered my ZeroWriter Fold in the Limited Retro Edition (transparent purple mold injection housing for my elder millennial soul) with some sweet Sunset Choc tactile switches and the standard white PBT keycaps. Adam is also using a third party pledge management tool called Backerkit so people can finalise the details of their orders as close as possible to their shipping date. This is ideal for me, as I have been waiting for the silent version of the Sunset Choc tactile switches to come out for some time. If the silent version of these switches (called 'Sunrise') are available through Adam's partnership with his friend Darryl over at lowprokb in Canada by the time my Fold is ready to ship, I will definitely be modifying my order for my Fold to ship with the Sunrise switches pre-installed.

I have also noticed an uptick in posts here on Reddit about poor communication and customer service around the Wordrunner Kickstarter from Astrohaus. It's crazy to me that a relatively new, small company like ZeroWriter manages to run a far better and smoother Kickstarter campaign than a more established company like Astrohaus.

I have now had the opportunity to use Backerkit to modify my ZeroWriter Fold order, and it was super easy to add a leather carry case to my order and see my shipping costs to Australia. There was also a timeline estimate for delivery, which for me is February 2027. Adam has also made it super clear that no charge will be made to anyone's credit cards until their unit to ready to ship, which is really reassuring. Absolutely huge props and congratulations to Adam and the ZeroWriter team for how they have handled the ZeroWriter Fold Kickstarter campaign - even when things have taken longer than expected they have been super clear with communication and everything has worked pretty seamlessly for me.

I have to say, if you are considering buying an Astrohaus product I can only recommend the Smart Typewriter (especially if there is a Limited Edition version that appeals to you). Even then, a new competitor called Auteur that features an e-ink screen and a similar design is due to launch soon on Crowd Supply. If you want a portable device, I would recommend either the ZeroWriter Fold for the e-ink crowd, or the BYOK for those who prefer an LCD screen, the option of integrated writing software and a customisable typing experience.

If I had a message for Astrohaus, it would be that you have a huge opportunity as a brand right now. Listen to your user base. Implement suggested changes to new models as much as practically possible. Show your consumer base you stand behind your products and are actually concerned about a user's after-sales experience. Consider offering one free repair & battery replacement for every Astrohaus device, regardless of model, generation or how you bought it. SOMETHING. Your reputation is terrible amongst some users, and other more agile companies with more affordable products and better customer service are coming for your niche. We don't want another meaningless collaboration. We want genuine change that focuses on providing a quality product with high touch customer service. Otherwise consumers will take their money elsewhere.

Phew – that’s a wrap! It’s suffice to say I absolutely love typing on my Ink these days. If you’ve lasted through all 4k+ words of this post – congratulations and thank you for reading! I hope this helps anyone who is looking to modify their Smart Typewriters in the future. Look out for a separate post with a video from Karly showing the whole battery replacement procedure, plus a typing test!