Hacking the Coolermaster Novatouch TKL (Topre board with Cherry MX keycaps)

[norbauer]

I just got my Novatouch via Taobao in China and wanted to report some quick observations. I'll use this thread to document my further investigations as they progress.

• The spacebar stabilizer stems are in ever so slightly different locations, so this means that the plates aren't interchangeable with Realforce TKL boards.
• The Novatouch plates themselves are also slightly narrower than Realforce plates, meaning that you can't use a Novatouch plate in an alternate (typically aluminum) after-market housing designed for a Realforce.

I currently have a hacked Realforce where I have swapped in 30g domes on the alphanumeric keys from a Japanese board, and it lives in a Korean aluminum housing. I was hoping to be able to combine plates, parts, stems in such a way that would allow me to have exactly this same set up but with cherry MX key caps. Alas, this won't work for the above enumerated reasons.

My current plan now is to buy a second Japanese keyboard with 30g domes to swap into the domes on the Novatouch. Having looked under the hood of the Novatouch, I'm fairly confident this can be done without trouble.

The hard part is going to be getting this in a nice aluminum housing. My plan is to design my own to fit this new Novatouch board, though I'm new to such a project (though I do have machining experience). Anyone with CAD or aluminum housing experience who would be interested in helping me off to a running start, please let me know. :)

[deci]

If that's the setup you want, can't you just harvest the stems from the Novatouch and stick them in your custom Realforce?

The Ripster review confirmed that they fit didn't it?

[norbauer]

If that's the setup you want, can't you just harvest the stems from the Novatouch and stick them in your custom Realforce?

The Ripster review confirmed that they fit didn't it?

The stems are totally interchangeable. The issue is the plates. The holes for the stems on the spacebar (and perhaps in other places) are simply in the wrong places.

Also, the keys appear to be slightly differently placed. If I take the top of my realforce case and try to place it on the Novatouch wits its case top off, it's clear that the key alignment is slightly off and that you thus couldn't use a case top with the same hole cuts.

[deci]

If that's the setup you want, can't you just harvest the stems from the Novatouch and stick them in your custom Realforce?

The Ripster review confirmed that they fit didn't it?

The stems are totally interchangeable. The issue is the plates. The holes for the stems on the spacebar (and perhaps in other places) are simply in the wrong places.

Also, the keys appear to be slightly differently placed. If I take the top of my realforce case and try to place it on the Novatouch wits its case top off, it's clear that the key alignment is slightly off and that you thus couldn't use a case top with the same hole cuts.

Yeah the Realforce and HHKB use different spacebar stabilizer spacing than other keyboards.
The Novatouch uses the normal spacing that most Cherry MX keyboards use.

So basically you should be able to swap all the purple inserts and the stabilizers... but you just won't have a spacebar that fits.

So basically this creates a market for a special spacebar for keyap kits just for this swap...

[norbauer]

If that's the setup you want, can't you just harvest the stems from the Novatouch and stick them in your custom Realforce?

The Ripster review confirmed that they fit didn't it?

The stems are totally interchangeable. The issue is the plates. The holes for the stems on the spacebar (and perhaps in other places) are simply in the wrong places.

Also, the keys appear to be slightly differently placed. If I take the top of my realforce case and try to place it on the Novatouch wits its case top off, it's clear that the key alignment is slightly off and that you thus couldn't use a case top with the same hole cuts.

Yeah the Realforce and HHKB use different spacebar stabilizer spacing than other keyboards.
The Novatouch uses the normal spacing that most Cherry MX keyboards use.

So basically you should be able to swap all the purple inserts and the stabilizers... but you just won't have a spacebar that fits.

So basically this creates a market for a special spacebar for keyap kits just for this swap...

People have investigated getting custom keycaps made with Topre stem tooling and it has always turned out to be crazy expensive (injection molding requires milling very elaborate dies out of a very hard metal), so I don't think getting custom spacebars is likely to occur.

It would seem the best bet for Topre boards using MX keycaps in Alu housings is simply to build an Alu case to fit the Novatouch PCBs. I'd love to talk to anyone here on GeekHack who has had experience designing custom aluminum keyboard housings for machining.

[deci]

Hmm the spacebar stabilizer spacing doesn't fit tkl case made for a realforce but what about a tkl case made for
a quick fire or other cherry mx boards?

[norbauer]

Hmm the spacebar stabilizer spacing doesn't fit tkl case made for a realforce but what about a tkl case made for
a quick fire or other cherry mx boards?

I thought about that. I have a Vortex case that I'll try next.

[dantan]

I just got my Novatouch via Taobao in China and wanted to report some quick observations. I'll use this thread to document my further investigations as they progress.

• The spacebar stabilizer stems are in ever so slightly different locations, so this means that the plates aren't interchangeable with Realforce TKL boards.
• The Novatouch plates themselves are also slightly narrower than Realforce plates, meaning that you can't use a Novatouch plate in an alternate (typically aluminum) after-market housing designed for a Realforce.

I currently have a hacked Realforce where I have swapped in 30g domes on the alphanumeric keys from a Japanese board, and it lives in a Korean aluminum housing. I was hoping to be able to combine plates, parts, stems in such a way that would allow me to have exactly this same set up but with cherry MX key caps. Alas, this won't work for the above enumerated reasons.

My current plan now is to buy a second Japanese keyboard with 30g domes to swap into the domes on the Novatouch. Having looked under the hood of the Novatouch, I'm fairly confident this can be done without trouble.

The hard part is going to be getting this in a nice aluminum housing. My plan is to design my own to fit this new Novatouch board, though I'm new to such a project (though I do have machining experience). Anyone with CAD or aluminum housing experience who would be interested in helping me off to a running start, please let me know.

Novatouch is barely out, and already geekhackers want to hack it. Really amazing.

[jameslr]

I want to reverse engineer the firmware for some key location modding.

[norbauer]

I want to reverse engineer the firmware for some key location modding.

I'm afraid you take me well beyond my area of expertise there, but I would love to see a report of someone trying this.