Realforce weight layout

[etatoby]

Hello

I'm shopping for a mechanical keyboard and after a long search I've settled on a Realforce. I'd rather buy the silent version, but seeing as they seem to be sold out everywhere, I'll just grab a 104UB. If it's too loud I can always do the foam sheet mod. They probably don't even sell a silent 104U anyways.

I was wondering about the key weight distribution. I'm all for ergonomics, but most sources show something like this. Which doesn't look right.

• Why would they put low-weight springs below the right hand's ring finger, but not below the left hand's? Are the Japanese stronger on the left hand's ring finger? Do they use it for some weird Zen practice?
• Why would they revert back to standard weight for the side keys? I mean the leftmost column, from tilde down to ctrl, and the rightmost one, from backspace down to ctrl. Do people not use their little fingers for them?

Can anybody who owns a variable weight Realforce comment on this? Would you recommend for or against the variable weight models?

[daerid]

Personally, I always thought it was a 45/40/35 distribution, with ring finger buttons weighing in at 40g, but I haven't found any official documentation to support this.

[khaangaaroo]

The Realforces that I've taken apart were more like this:



Although there was some variation. Like 30g being used instead of 35g, but you wouldn't be able to tell under normal typing. I think that diagram above is pretty accurate for all the Realforces I've modified: a 86u, two 87u's, and a 108udk

DISCLAIMER: I didn't use any measuring tools to figure out the weighting. I just took the keyboard apart and had all the domes out in front of me to compare how they felt relative to one another.

ANOTHER EDIT: I also wanted to add that I really liked the variable weighting except two things: it sucks for gaming (WASD different weights) and, like you said, the modifiers are the standard 45g weight. Both of those things were enough to make me go uniform.

[tribade]

I know Kangaroo put in most of the work with his post, and I don't know whether posting to Ripster stuff is P.C. or not, but he did some good work on the RealForce if you'd like to take a look!  http://imgur.com/a/eI8Il#0

[002]

Early Realforce keyboards such as the 101, 106 and 86 used to only have two weights (excluding Esc). I am not sure if later 86U models had the three weight levels but it's possible.
The first Realforce (LA0100 106) was 45g and 30g. I did measurements on the Realforce 104U which is currently making its way around Europe and these were the results:

[rowdy]

Do the variables weights actually help with typing?

My typing style is fairly chaotic, although I can touch type I usually don't as it is usually programming, which is as much symbols as straight alphanumerics.

[002]

I would suggest a uniform board for you then. I use a variable at work but mostly I am "talking" (typing) to people so it's fine.
It seems that 55g uniform is the craze here at the moment but I much prefer the 45g uniform boards. 55g is a little too jarring and longer typing sessions were taking their toll on me.

[rowdy]

That's a shame, as I can't get a uniform board here anywhere near as cheap as the variable.

[002]

Yes I know that feel
PCCG told me via email in April that they were getting different Topre boards in early June.

[rowdy]

Yes I know that feel
PCCG told me via email in April that they were getting different Topre boards in early June.

Interesting ... I wonder if it is the FC660C ...