A Thread on Topre Modding

Alright I will, but I’m going to ask around to see if anyone else is having problems. It seems to be from my perspective that the stabs don’t go all the way up in comparison to the regular topre stabs that do.

hi, any further updates on this?

it seems like it was all in my head? i dissembles my stabs and board and now everything seems to be fine. just weird but at least it’s working now.

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got it. one last thing is the too large slider cracking the stems - how is your space bar? any sign of cracking?

no sign of cracking from what I can tell

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this is how I modded my 87u for HiPro housing and keycaps

  1. the infamous left Ctrl - it is well known that the plate has to be widen in 1 corner to rotate the housing 90 degrees for the correct stem orientation. Next is to desolder the LED off the PCB but I’m too lazy / don’t have the tool to do that. So a simple solution is to cut a chunk off a corner of the housing to clear the LED. And it works to perfection

  1. Similarly to the LCtrl LED, the Numlock LED also requires cutting a corner of the HiPro housing, which I gladly obliged!

And the final result is very satisfying, I get to retain both LED functionalities AND HiPro housing for less wobble!

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I have two Realforce R1 projects in the pipeline, the first one is for my 87UW. In general cleaning, adding silencing rings, put an MX slider on ESC position for artisan keycap support. Another thing I want to take care of is the bending of the plate and the case.

I think the plate is easy to fix, will it fix then the case automatically? Also I think I need in the middle of the case also kind of feet or support. Anyone see a similar situation? Maybe because I am typing as strong as I am with pure muscle power?

For the second project I have to decide if I want to go full MX and make a standard bottom row, and put my 87UB internals in a PC XFR case. So that finally I can spend amounts of money on GMK sets. Drilling holes would be no problem for me, but the question like asked 1000 times already is: is it so bad then, wobble, etc.? Or newer available sliders better? Sorry for asking these questions again.

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hehe. The top half of one of my cases bows like yours because one of the clips is broken. If you’re planning to join the next XRF group buy I’d personally leave the plastic case alone. Even if you could bend it straighter with heat, I don’t know if the plastic can stand up to a lot of manipulation.

you can go full MX right now with Deskeys and or Novatouch parts, but Deskeys has issues with their spacebar and 2u sliders–I’d wait a few more months to see if Deskeys reworks the spacebar adapters. You can use parts from a Novatouch but you’d still be left with a 6u spacebar unless you cut into the 87u’s plate to move the spacebar stab housings to a 6.25u configuration. That tbh sounds like a massive pain in the - but P R E F E R E N C E

it’s not bad, but it’s not stock Topre, is all I can say. EC stems and caps have a charm and just work well together whereas I always feel and hear the difference with MX-on-Topre.

Niz 45g domes in hhkb type s.
They are lighter than the stock 45g domes, without losing the thock.

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Interesting choice of using Niz domes, didn’t know they would be compatible

I am curious about Niz domes. Tell us more how they are different from stock 45g!

I went with this mod because with the stock domes, after a day, I get pain in the fingers.
With these, even if they are rated at 45g, they are lighter compared with the stock ones and also the tactility is a little less.
Regarding the installation, I cut them so that only the North and South sides sit on the outside of the housing. If you have patience and steady hands, you could probably cut them to similar shape as the stock ones.
The spring also doesn’t sit fully in the dome (I believe that the dome height is lower vs stock) . I would say that about one coil is outside. This doesn’t affect the functionality or the sound at all.

This is how the dome sheet looked like before cutting it. I think that the ones that they currently have on their site would be easier to fit.


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Started to refresh my 87UW 55g keyboard, first of all the plate. There were some rusty spots, not that much, but a bigger one which I could see between the caps, so sanding (which was fast with a rotary sander), cleaning, and varnish. Currently drying.

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Sorry for the necromancy here, but do we know what the various lubes do to BKE domes if anything? Unreal’s guide seems to have us lube generously multiple times and I’m not sure if that’s going to be the best move.

I have a hunch they’re made from silicone.

I would think regular rubber would breakdown faster and also would be susceptible to some lubricants.

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Personally I don’t think domes really need to be lubed at all. I’ve never felt that they’ve needed them whether it was OG, BKE, BKE redux, etc.

Afaik, domes don’t break down due to most lubes used in keyboards and if they did, we would have probably known about it by now :thinking:

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Fair! I’ll test it out unlubed first. I saw that discord photo back in march 21 claiming that silicone lubes tend to warp OG domes and didn’t know if it was kind of a time bomb.

Thanks for the advice too @Extra_Fox

I have not yet had a chance to try a topre keyboard yet, but recently saw the EC87 project from Cipulot and was looking for the parts necessary to build one if I have the PCB made. It looks like I can get most everything from NIZ keyboards (housings, sliders, domes). I could not find any of the coils / spring pieces that are not springs. Does anyone know if these are available anywhere?

imo the most economical way to get all the parts is to get a realforce second hand from japan off mercari/yahoo auctions. You can get everything from harvesting the boards except the mx sliders which you can get from deskeys.
@PenguinMoe

Thanks for the tip - I was not aware of mercari and will have to watch. I guess I was looking for the coils as components because it seems wasteful to me to buy a complete board when I am not planning to use the case or PCB. The whole save our planet and all of that.

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