deskthority

being a very nice person our fellow enthusiast guk sent me these keycaps that do actually fit the Topre mount on my HHKB. They do not sit quite as firm as orginal caps, do not snap in as firmly and the sound is more clicky and less thocky. Considering the topre keycap situation this is quite a nice discovery although I remember seeing this endeavor somewhere here before, and of course these caps are probably not less rare than topre keycaps although possibly cheaper if found.
I will just be keeping these then guk thank you! (just kidding).Now all we need is to find A LOT of these keycaps.

Oh nice, they finally arrived. And even better that they sort of work. Acquiring them shouldn't be much of a problem, NMB slider over domes aren't hard to come by at all. Thank you for testing and taking the pictures Seebart!

They look really good! I'm going to have to look into finding some nice NMB sets at some point.

guk wrote: And even better that they sort of work.

no they do fit and are usable, I typing on them now. It´s just not the ususal topre HHKB feel, a small compromise in my humble opinion although I could see hardcore HHKB fans objecting to something like this!

seebart wrote:

guk wrote: And even better that they sort of work.

no they do fit and are usable, I typing on them now. It´s just not the ususal topre HHKB feel.

I see, well now I kinda regret trashing several Apple Design Keyboards a while ago. But there are nice PBT caps out there with the same mount.
Thank you Huttala for creating this thread back then: http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/how ... t2288.html

Gotta say I've never used a HHKB before and don't know if I like torpe or this layout but those keycaps! I'm an IBM guy through and through but this keyboard looks amazing. Color me impressed. Good job!

(Some variants of) AppleDesign Keyboard caps can play this game, too, eh? Anyone got a picture or report?

Even the NovaTouch has quite a different feel with different caps. Much like MX itself. MX mounts are good at keeping the force from size mismatches off the slider and the switch mechanism. Topre mount is probably as susceptible as Alps to getting a slight bulge off a big stemmed cap that then monkeys with switch feel.

Crap, I'm pretty sure I've seen this mount type before. Hope it survived the clean up a while back. I had no clue something like this exists.

Touch_It wrote: Gotta say I've never used a HHKB before and don't know if I like torpe or this layout but those keycaps! I'm an IBM guy through and through but this keyboard looks amazing. Color me impressed. Good job!

In case you're going down the topre road, I've got one more set of those.

Very nice! I've got a very cool double-shot "CODE" key that fits my Topre keyboard: it's "green on black" and I use it as my ESC key. It comes from some old Brother typewriter I found on a flea market or something.

Found an old picture where I apparently mounted the 'Z' key with a Yen sign upside down and where the CODE key is on the topre switch tester: but it's the CODE key that I'm using daily

Sorry to intrude but was wondering if the caps off of my apple design keyboard were topre compatible and thought this would be the place to ask.




I know the one on the top isn't but the bottom appears to be, but I wanted to be sure. If so I would certainly be interested in passing them on to someone for a very fair price (whatever that is)

Thanks

edit, these are from an apple design keyboard btw.

Yes they should be compatible, although I am not sure how well they actually attach -- apparently they don't actually snap into place? I'd be a little worried if they were pushing too hard on the inner wall of the Topre slider.
These caps are actually pretty common across a whole range of brands because NMB rubber dome boards were all over the place. I think mostly they are laser or pad-printed, so therefore not really desirable for someone who has a Topre keyboard. It'd be kinda like finding wheels from a Toyota Camry that are the same stud pattern as a Rolls Royce's or something

seebart wrote: being a very nice person our fellow enthusiast guk sent me these keycaps that do actually fit the Topre mount on my HHKB. They do not sit quite as firm as orginal caps, do not snap in as firmly and the sound is more clicky and less thocky. Considering the topre keycap situation this is quite a nice discovery although I remember seeing this endeavor somewhere here before, and of course these caps are probably not less rare than topre keycaps although possibly cheaper if found.
I will just be keeping these then guk thank you! (just kidding).Now all we need is to find A LOT of these keycaps.

Very nice find. Add ME to the list please of wanters!

ShivaYash wrote:

seebart wrote: being a very nice person our fellow enthusiast guk sent me these keycaps that do actually fit the Topre mount on my HHKB. They do not sit quite as firm as orginal caps, do not snap in as firmly and the sound is more clicky and less thocky. Considering the topre keycap situation this is quite a nice discovery although I remember seeing this endeavor somewhere here before, and of course these caps are probably not less rare than topre keycaps although possibly cheaper if found.
I will just be keeping these then guk thank you! (just kidding).Now all we need is to find A LOT of these keycaps.

Very nice find. Add ME to the list please of wanters!

well like I wrote here and 002 correctly states, these NMB keycaps do not replace orginal PFU caps well as they do not sit firmly on the slider. They do fit, loosly. I could pull them off with my fingers with no real force. The real downside is the typing experience, not what Topre electrostatic capacitive should feel like. It´s more rattle with less percision since the keycap moves around more in ways it should not. All in all it's an option for Topre caps, but not a good one by any means. I doubt that these NMB caps would damage the Topre slider, then again I am no expert on Topre! My HHKB 2 still feels the same after this little excursion.