I was in a photo shooting mood yesterday.
Reimagine of the “Designs in time, future and past.” video in Ryan’s YT channel:
Work and fun together:
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For those who have done this already, I have a Norbaforce with a PFU Limited R2 in it. I finally bought some custom keycaps (MT3).
I’m hoping for advice on the best Deskeys setup to use. I see they now offer their own gaskets and housings. Are these any good? Should I use my stock silencing rings or move to their offering?
PFU R2 is pre-silenced, so it uses purple sliders which have 0.5mm thick rings (the equivalent to Des #5), so you can keep them.
The housings are ok, but you already have 80-something functional Topre housings, so why waste more money?
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Their 2u housings (hopefully pre-drilled) are still TBD. Their 1u and 2u sliders are fine; spacebar stabs have been corrected. If you build right now you’ll need to drill the current 2u housings on your R2, source new ones to drill, or permanently modify whatever keycap you plan on mounting on the Topre-MX conversion.
Like windfall says you can stay with the stock silencing rings your board comes with or the Des #5 or any of their other thicknesses–the rings have been proven products. It’s just the 2u housings–you can drill them yourself or wait for Deskeys’ version.
For plate gaskets though, I recommend the 1u Aliexpress gaskets that come in several different materials. These will make the housings fit snugly within the plate. I don’t have experience with dome gaskets so I can’t speak to those.
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Thank you both for the advice! Got my keycaps today, ordered my DES sliders to cover my keyboards. I didn’t want to unnecessarily buy more DES parts, just wondered if people with more experience thought they provided improvement over stock, or just replication.
Anybody know any hard travel cases that the Norbaforce II fits into?
I tried cannon keys’ case. It barely fit by deforming the case a bit. Hoping to find something better. Too big of a case is not a problem - got a lot of foam left over from the cannon keys case.
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let me know if you find something. I just tried and I can fit it in my TX-large bag with only 1 foam ring around the top/bottom edges. It’s tight, but it works. But I haven’t seen a large TX bag in stock in years.
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More than I wanted to spend, but this aluminum case works. Had to cut away a little extra pluck foam on the sides. I’m sure most of y’all can cut more neatly than I.
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My VHS arrived the other day. Got it from /mm.
In the bits bag, I found the following, which seems a bit confusing. I’m installing an RF R2 TKL into it. Can someone specify which washers I should use and how? it is between the plate and the case or is it above the plate? also, one washer is smaller than the others. Lastly, is there a USB-C breakout for it? the Mark I video didn’t help much.
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Washers go above keyboard’s plate, thus plate is secured between case and washers.
There is no USB-C breakout for Mark II model. There is only mini USB.
4 of the big-head bolts go with the washers to secure the keyboard inside the case.
2 small round bolts go on the breakout pcb.
The small flat bolts go on the backplate.
Note: you might have more bolts than needed, that is normal and intentional.
Thanks. I still don’t understand why one of the washers is smaller than the rest. Also, you are saying to use 4 washers, but I’ve seen a comment from Ryan, in response to someone asking for R2 instructions, that they should only use 2x washers and only on the front tabs. 
Hmmm, these are good observations.
I have two norbaforces, one with R1 and one with R2. I used all washers on both. I didn’t know or notice that R2 model needs only 2 washers. I say give it a try and see what works. If two washers are enough then great. If you end up using all four, that’s also ok.
I don’t have an open Mark II for a photo but IIRC I only put washers on the bottom. The side mounting points/screws should be enough. The washers just help extend the head of the screw to hold onto the plate more firmly. Hope someone can come in with visuals if you need that but I only recall needing two washers somewhere near the bottom.
see how he uses washers on the screws toward the bottom of case. not really needed on the sides.
Hey guys. Sorry for not being able to answer this earlier, but I just use two washers on the front/lower tabs of the switch plate when fastening them in the housing—and only on an R2 keyboard. This is because the placement of those lower tabs isn’t entirely consistent across Realforces and the washers allow us to capture a wider range of placements to cover all possible scenarios. But if you’re able to capture the plate with just the screws on your particular board, then don’t sweat it; the washers are optional and there only if you need them. The two side cutouts on the plate are very consistently placed across all Realforces, so you really don’t need the washers there.
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I got it assembled, but then I looked at the whole thing and noticed some gaps, so I guess there’s enough tolerance in there that you actually have to finetune the plate position until it sits correctly in there.
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