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Single Topre Switches

Posted: 11 Aug 2014, 13:37
by neverlast74
Team,
Probably an easy question for you keyboard aficionados - I am looking for a someone who sells one single 45g Topre switch. Anyone knows an online shop - I was not able to find one.... :oops:

Posted: 11 Aug 2014, 13:54
by Muirium
For good reason. They aren't discrete switches like Cherry MX. The only singular Topre switches you see are nonfunctional toys, like keychains.

Posted: 11 Aug 2014, 13:57
by chzel
Topre switches are not really an item.
It is a combination of the PCB (the circuit board), the spring, the rubber dome, the switch top and finally the slider.
The pcb is one piece for the whole KBD and the rubber domes are mostly one piece.
So it not a switch that you could buy per se.
AFAIK, Topre did some promotional keychains that had acrylic instead of a pcb.
Those are as close as you would get to a single switch.

edit: Damn ninjas everywhere...

Posted: 11 Aug 2014, 15:08
by neverlast74
Thanks for your quick reply.... not sure if I like this "good" reason :)
I understand ... my misbelieve was coming from MrInterface and a Youtube video where he presented these parts as single entities .... not one membrane that he cut into pieces... :)'
OK I guess I have to participate in try before buy send through Europe activities... unless I find a member in Vienna who lets me drop by and let me test his Topre :)

Posted: 11 Aug 2014, 16:09
by Muirium
Generally a good idea for retailers not to sell things that don't work! So it's good from that perspective.

Topre and IBM's buckling spring are both switch types that feel excellent, yet we can't build customs from them because they don't work separately. Meanwhile, this NMB here has clicky switches I like better than MX, too, but I just don't know a good source for them.