What’s a Topre fan’s favorite MX switch?

Luna · 23 Mar 2018, 03:43

Thanks Zslane!

Well, I ordered an 87 RGB straight from Nize. And I found a 75 Bluetooth RGB on Ali.
Not a fan of RGB but I do like a white to warm white glow under the caps.
Ordered me a sheet of 45g for the 75 and 55g for the 87 as well as some extra springs.
Not sure I will use those though, I imagine it will feel too heavy? Or scratchy in a way?
A 55g Topre and a Leopold (50g I think, certainly heavier than a 45g Topre) both feel very nice to me and I don't need heavier than the 55g Topre.

I'll have too look into that keycap dampening.

EDIT: I wonder if you use those springs on your Topres or Leopolds (if you have those) or your Realforce RGB as well?

EDIT: Had a problem ordering from Nizes website as I order from Belgium, a country about the size of the White House's backyard without states. Emaild support and not only did they take care of my order, I got a reply each time in about a minute or so. These guys are on top of it I can tell you! Can't wait to receive their products.

EDIT: The waterforce is somehow water resistant of course but it has a more modern low profile case with floating keys. Meh, I love oldschool so I went for their regular model.

zslane · 23 Mar 2018, 18:02

Replacing the domes on a Plum is a real pain--as bad if not worse than on a Novatouch--because the dome sheet sticks to the PCB and the plate at the same time, and so it is quite challenging to separate the plate from the dome sheet without the springs shooting out everywhere. However, I can understand your desire to swap it out. A 35g Plum is just not my cup of tea; it feels linear rather than tactile, which is why I only use 45g Plums. I have a 55g dome sheet I could try, but I haven't bothered with it.

The springs should work on any Topre-style board. They all look identical to me.

Luna · 23 Mar 2018, 18:18

I checked a video on changing the sheet. I'm sure I can manage that, just need to be careful not losing the springs indeed. In any case, the way too light stock sheets won't be my cup of tea.

I wonder how different the Plum domes will feel from Topres. And how the springgs will change the feeling. Probably the springs won't be for me but the only way to find out is trying of course.

I really, really love typing on the 55g Realforcce and the Leopold. The 23u 45g numpad feels a bit less though. Still a nice Topre but too soft, a bit spungy if you ask me.

And the Zilents ... still like them a lot, they make for a nice change. Zeal sure knows what they are doing with their switches, I can't say anything bad about all three of them but I do like the Zilents better than the Zealios. Smoother still and a nice soft bottoming out.

Laser · 23 Mar 2018, 18:31

You could even swap the domes (and springs) with those from your Novatouch, I have a Plum doctored like that. It still feels a little different - I suspect it's because of the from-factory-installed silencing rings.

Luna · 23 Mar 2018, 18:59

And Reduxes. Too many options.

wobbled · 23 Mar 2018, 19:04

I've tried genuine topre 45g domes in a Noppoo 108 and it still didn't feel like genuine topre. This was using KBDfans silence x rings too - not the thicker ones they give you by default when you buy an electrostatic capacitive board.
The best thing to use with these boards are BKE redux domes. I had heavies installed in my plum before I sacrificed it for its parts, it was a fab board. Much nicer than 55g realforce.

Also if you're replacing a dome sheet, like zslane said, it is a pain in the ass. You're better off completely removing the springs and dome sheet, then drop the dome sheet in to the plate that has all the switch housiungs, and then drop the springs in to the dome sheet and then the pcb on top of the springs (working backwards) makes it a lot easier, however more time consuming to assemble.

Luna · 23 Mar 2018, 19:11

Yep, that’s how it was done in the video as well.
I’ll have a testboard with Redux and silencers so I can try before I do the work.
Do the saparate Redux domes fit as nicely in a Plum as in a Realforce?

wobbled · 23 Mar 2018, 19:13

Luna wrote: Yep, that’s how it was done in the video as well.
I’ll have a testboard with Redux and silencers so I can try before I do the work.
Do the saparate Redux domes fit as nicely in a Plum as in a Realforce?

They fit the same yeh, the plum housings are identical to genuine topre housings

Luna · 23 Mar 2018, 19:14

Nice, thanks!

Luna · 28 Mar 2018, 06:31

zslane wrote: - There is no need to silence the Plum. It comes from the factory with silencing rings already installed. However, SA keycaps have a tendency to thwack against the plate, especially the stabilized keys, so I stick small strips of felt on the plate along the sides of the stabilized switch housings to dampen the impact.

So you just use the felt on the sabilized caps, for the other switches the Mt3 /dev/tty or SA Honeywell caps woudn't thwack against the plate?
Do you stick them around the whole contour of the switch or just two sides?
Where can I find some good adhesive felt and how thick should it be?

Luna · 28 Mar 2018, 16:39

Does anyone know of a nice PBT doubleshot shine-through MX keycap set in light colors?
They were on Massdrop a few weeks ago but sadly the drop ended.

Would be to use on the Plum 75 RGB BT.

Blaise170 · 28 Mar 2018, 16:46

Luna wrote: Does anyone know of a nice PBT doubleshot shine-through MX keycap set in light colors?
They were on Massdrop a few weeks ago but sadly the drop ended.

Would be to use on the Plum 75 RGB BT.

You can find a bunch of aliexpress or taobao. I just ordered a non-standard set for my Gamdias for $27.

Luna · 28 Mar 2018, 17:13

Thanks! They had even nicer ones than those on Massdrop.

Blaise170 · 28 Mar 2018, 17:36

Just got a backlit PBT set of Korean keycaps... Definitely hard to find anywhere else.

zslane · 28 Mar 2018, 19:43

Luna wrote:
zslane wrote: - There is no need to silence the Plum. It comes from the factory with silencing rings already installed. However, SA keycaps have a tendency to thwack against the plate, especially the stabilized keys, so I stick small strips of felt on the plate along the sides of the stabilized switch housings to dampen the impact.
So you just use the felt on the sabilized caps, for the other switches the Mt3 /dev/tty or SA Honeywell caps woudn't thwack against the plate?
Do you stick them around the whole contour of the switch or just two sides?
Where can I find some good adhesive felt and how thick should it be?

I only add the tiny felt strips to the stabilized keys, and only on the left and right sides of each, nestled under the bottom bend of each stabilizer arm. The strips are about 3mm wide and a little longer than a keycap's side length, to make sure the bottom of the caps never hit the plate. I don't do this to every switch because that would take forever and I really only want to silence the stabilized keys, which I tend to hit harder for some reason (especially Backspace and Return).

I buy sheets of felt with adhesive backing from Amazon. They come in packs of 10 sheets, which is way more than I need for this purpose, but I have other crafty uses for it, so I don't mind having the extra material.

Luna · 28 Mar 2018, 20:33

zslane wrote: I only add the tiny felt strips to the stabilized keys, and only on the left and right sides of each, nestled under the bottom bend of each stabilizer arm. The strips are about 3mm wide and a little longer than a keycap's side length, to make sure the bottom of the caps never hit the plate. I don't do this to every switch because that would take forever and I really only want to silence the stabilized keys, which I tend to hit harder for some reason (especially Backspace and Return).

I buy sheets of felt with adhesive backing from Amazon. They come in packs of 10 sheets, which is way more than I need for this purpose, but I have other crafty uses for it, so I don't mind having the extra material.

Thanks, will do that as well.

Luna · 28 Mar 2018, 20:34

Blaise170 wrote: Just got a backlit PBT set of Korean keycaps... Definitely hard to find anywhere else.

I found these and didn't even know these colors existed in shine through.

: caps.jpg (83.35 KiB) Viewed 5805 times

Should look good on my wireless Plum.

Blaise170 · 28 Mar 2018, 20:40

Yeah I saw that set too. Amazingly, the font doesn't have that atrocious gamer-esque theme that it seems like every keyboard from China has. This one:

Luna · 28 Mar 2018, 20:52

Yeah, luckily.
They probably won’t be the greatest caps ever for $25 but I like the color, they’re PBT and I wanted shine-through for the wireless Plum. Will be used mostly in front of the big screen or with an iPad when I’m sitting in the couch.

Laser · 28 Mar 2018, 21:29

Aren't the default, stock keycaps made from thick PBT and shine-through? (I don't know, just asking)

Luna · 28 Mar 2018, 22:19

PBT, white-beige with light gray mods but not shine-through.

Laser · 28 Mar 2018, 23:13

Aha, pity then

Luna · 31 Mar 2018, 00:29

Got the Plum 87 in. I see it comes with dampers installed. Is anybody else throwing this out and using them with no dampers or other dampers?

wobbled · 31 Mar 2018, 00:31

Luna wrote: Got the Plum 87 in. I see it comes with dampers installed. Is anybody else throwing this out and using them with no dampers or other dampers?

Yep, I switch to BKE domes and KBD Fans Silence X

zslane · 31 Mar 2018, 02:25

Not me. The stock rings and 45g dome sheet is adequate for my needs. It'll never be (as good as) a Topre, no matter how you try to pimp out its innards, so I don't see the point in going to all the effort.

wobbled · 31 Mar 2018, 02:28

zslane wrote: Not me. The stock rings and 45g dome sheet is adequate for my needs. It'll never be (as good as) a Topre, no matter how you try to pimp out its innards, so I don't see the point in going to all the effort.

Unless you swapped out all the housings and sliders for genuine topre ones, then it'd be practically identical.

Luna · 31 Mar 2018, 06:10

I don't think original Topre sliders and housings are available separately, no?
I'm not planning to butcher a Topre to upgrade a pLum.

But in any case the 35g that it comes standard with is way too soft and I haven't opened it yet but I think the rings are pretty thick as travel is rather short.

zslane · 31 Mar 2018, 17:50

These Chinese rings are a bit thinner than Hypersphere rings. I bought lots of them from Aliexpress and KBDFans and I use them in all my Reaforce RGB and NovaTouch boards.

Luna · 31 Mar 2018, 22:24

Thanks! Worth to try them out as well then.

wobbled · 31 Mar 2018, 22:26

Luna wrote: I don't think original Topre sliders and housings are available separately, no?
I'm not planning to butcher a Topre to upgrade a pLum.

But in any case the 35g that it comes standard with is way too soft and I haven't opened it yet but I think the rings are pretty thick as travel is rather short.

There's a guy selling his on ebay right now after he gutted his novatouch for the mx sliders.