[Interest Check] Silencing Rings for Topre RF or HHKB

[Hypersphere]

So, this is what I should get for my Novatouch?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/90-Silencing-Ri ... 2077993908

Yes.

[Muirium]

Interesting: that lower price might well put individual orders under the customs threshold. So long as Hyper doesn't rush them over EMS-style.

Perhaps if you adjust your foreign shipping rate to closer what it actually cost to send to me (and anyone else in Europe from round 1) we could quite legitimately avoid customs fees? They ignore things under a certain value.

[Hypersphere]

@Mu: Mrs. Hypersphere is handling the eBay stuff. As I understand it, she can print out shipping labels for domestic shipping. However, for overseas shipments, she sends the goods to an eBay office in the US that serves as a shipping center for overseas. They set the overseas rates, and we have no control over it. At least, we were able to cut prices by 20% for Round 2. I hope that this has been helpful despite the issues with overseas shipping and customs fees.

[Muirium]

Well, our proxy avoids Ebay as well!

If memory serves, bubblemailers from the US to Europe are under $10 to ship. Something like $7-8 I think.

[RexS]

Glad to see these back so soon! With the price reduction I couldn't resist picking up a 107-pack for a chattering Type Heaven. I may even try them on a 104u if the back-order ever ships, but I don't have a problem today with my uniform 45g Realforce 104ub. It is clear I must blend all the things into a silenced 104ub-dk to know for sure.

[TheNacho]

Interesting: that lower price might well put individual orders under the customs threshold. So long as Hyper doesn't rush them over EMS-style.

Perhaps if you adjust your foreign shipping rate to closer what it actually cost to send to me (and anyone else in Europe from round 1) we could quite legitimately avoid customs fees? They ignore things under a certain value.

That value would be 22€ in Germany, so I guess we would need to look for another country.

[Muirium]

I was overoptimistic. The value in Britain is even less! I remember when it was 3x as much, some years ago. (It was late…)

[flabbergast]

In my short UK experience (cca 5 shipments), being mailed by USPS instead of the fancy EMS and being this close to the limit (£15) has a good chance of slipping under the radar. However *if* it does get hit, the fees + VAT will increase the price by 50% (for a HHKB set); and given that the shipping on ebay is another 50% of the price, we're realistically looking at double the prices Hypersphere set (and the extra $40 goes to random corporations whose job is to complicate our lives...).

[barkweed]

At least, we were able to cut prices by 20% for Round 2.

Yes, that was nice! Impatient as I can be, I placed an order despite Ebay's exorbitant shipping rates + up-front VAT charge.

[Spikebolt]

Shipping + Taxes is almost as much as the product itself :/ Seems like a very big investment (around 85 dollars) for something that I'm not sure I'd like.

[scottc]

Shipping + taxes + processing fees in Ireland would likely cost me more than the rings themselves, making this a hard sell for me.

[Muirium]

Here's an idea: if everyone's patient — like *end of January* patient — I could proxy them myself when I visit my brother again. My bags will already be pretty busy with Unicomp caps, but these rings are good and small so there should be no problem.

Shipping bubblemailers out from here across Europe costs 5 bucks.

Fun fact: bringing stuff into Edinburgh in personal luggage via plane is totally legit. There is *no* customs area at Edinburgh Airport. We're too small. All our taxes are belong to London…

[Spikebolt]

I already have a couple of springs coming from you in January and I certainly don't mind waiting. That would decrease my costs in more than 30$, making it much more reasonable. If you're up for the extra effort I would join in

[Muirium]

Springs? Oh, you mean Unicomp stuff! Yeah, everyone in the Unicomp GB has a good excuse. I can do it easy enough. Just not soon!

[Spikebolt]

Should I order now or wait until you are in the States?

[bocahgundul]

i want to buy the 69 one for my hhkb but damnnn the shipping kills it for me 74 dollar damnn

[XMIT]

Count me in! I bet these will work better than dental bands on my Novatouch. I got another Novatouch just to try these out.

[Muirium]

I refuse to use any NovaTouch without a full set of these guys now! It's actually quite a premium board once fitted out and given a nice set of caps.

Should I order now or wait until you are in the States?

I guess I need to run my own interest check. I can definitely get them into Europe much cheaper than either eBay or a mail proxy. But you guys will have to be very patient. I'm not due back until the end of January 2016!

But it is legit, and I shouldn't have any trouble slipping any practical number of them into my luggage. So it's definitely an option.

[flabbergast]

Oh Muirium, our saviour! Yes, I'm definitely fine with waiting until 2016. I would be in for a HHKB set.

[Muirium]

Cool. I've PMed Hyper about it. We could run the GB any time he or you guys like. The final shipping is what will have to wait until next year.

I'm thinking of letting people order as many rings as they like, instead of specifying kits. Something I learned from the Unicomp GB was how much bulkier sub-packaging can make complex orders! I'd like to put everything streamlined in my luggage, when count them out individually when shipping back at home.


Edit: Sounds like he's cool with teaming up. I'll post an IC for this so we can get a handle on how big it will be.

[Hypersphere]

Cool. I've PMed Hyper about it. We could run the GB any time he or you guys like. The final shipping is what will have to wait until next year.

I'm thinking of letting people order as many rings as they like, instead of specifying kits. Something I learned from the Unicomp GB was how much bulkier sub-packaging can make complex orders! I'd like to put everything streamlined in my luggage, when count them out individually when shipping back at home.


Edit: Sounds like he's cool with teaming up. I'll post an IC for this so we can get a handle on how big it will be.

Thanks for stepping up, Mu! This looks like a good solution for folks in Europe and the UK.

[Khers]

Cool. I've PMed Hyper about it. We could run the GB any time he or you guys like. The final shipping is what will have to wait until next year.

I'm thinking of letting people order as many rings as they like, instead of specifying kits. Something I learned from the Unicomp GB was how much bulkier sub-packaging can make complex orders! I'd like to put everything streamlined in my luggage, when count them out individually when shipping back at home.


Edit: Sounds like he's cool with teaming up. I'll post an IC for this so we can get a handle on how big it will be.

Thanks for stepping up, Mu! This looks like a good solution for folks in Europe and the UK.

I'm in for sure!

[fully]

Oh, I can wait. Also, if the GB does not happen right away, I might even want two hhkb sets. (I foresee a black hhkb with blanks in the future). Thanks to Mu and Hyper!

[Hypersphere]

NOTICE:

Do not install a Silencing Ring on the Left Control key of a RF87U keyboard.

The Left Control Key of the Topre Realforce 87U (RF 87U) is designed differently from other keys on the RF87U. This is due in part in order to accommodate an LED. An image of the L Ctrl (from Muirium) is shown below:

RF87U_LCTRL.JPG (612.59 KiB) Viewed 6327 times

In addition to the other peculiarities of this key, the base of the slider is too small to keep a Silencing Ring properly seated, which can impede the return stroke of the slider. Therefore, a Silencing Ring should not be installed on the Left Control key of the RF87U.

The Left Control is the only key on the RF87U with this limitation. There is no problem with Silencing Rings on other keys with LEDs (e.g., the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys). There is also no problem with Silencing Rings on wide keys with or without stabilizers (e.g., Backspace, Tab, Backslash, Caps Lock, Enter, Left Shift, Right Shift, the wide keys adjacent to the Spacebar, Spacebar, or Right Control).

Silencing Rings work fine on all keys in other Topre-switch keyboards, such as the HHKB Pro 2, RF104U, Leopold FC660C, and the CM Novatouch.

[koalapear]

Just got my rings installed on my HHKB today and lubed things up while I was in there. Very pleased with the result!


Quick little typing comparison with Matias Clicky switches:

[Hypersphere]

Like the Stendhal color scheme, and it sounds great as well.

[Shinryuu]

I've visited ebay link for several times because it's really tempting to try these things out but I don't really know should I pull the trigger yet because shipment is kill and I have to pay taxes as well; or would it be just better for me to wait for some updates instead?

EDIT1. I'm also willing to gather a small Finnish group to cut the shipment and tax stuff out. But I can also wait for till the next year just fine.

[chedda7]

Nice video koalapear! I always love comparison videos and that HHKB is SILENT!

On a side note - what ALPS keyboard is that?

[Redmaus]

The monarch?

[koalapear]

Redmaus is correct! It's my custom ALPs build called the Monarch.

Shameless groupbuy interest check plug:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=74852.0