Realforce RGB/R2 Questions

[tseng]

I'm looking at replacing my recently sold HHKB2 with a Realforce board, and while I've seen a lot of reviews on the Silenced LE Realforce R2; I haven't found a whole lot on the basic Realforce R2. I've found a few on the Realforce RGB, but most of those reviews don't seem to go further than the LEDs or the fact that Topre now offers a "gaming" keyboard and how "awesome" that is. (Not that it isn't, but I would think that any Realforce would do the job just as well.)

Mostly, I'm curious about these things:

- Are Ctrl/Caps Lock switchable in the regular R2 boards? The official site is pretty vague in this regard. They advertise "Software" for the RGB, the silenced 45g LE, and the R2A/R2TKA. The software notes that only the LED and APC features only work on certain boards, but it doesn't specifically mention whether the boards advertised without the "Software" tag allow swapping Caps/Ctrl mapping. They also don't note that they include swappable Caps/Ctrl keys. (Though I would assume they probably don't, as it's specifically noted they do for the LE and the R2A/R2TKA)

- About the Realforce RGB "cross mount" stems... are these the same as the more common aftermarket adapters I've seen for mounting MX keycaps on Topre boards? Or do these ones not suffer from the problems I've read about (sticking keys, etc) with the aftermarket adapters? Also, can the LEDs be set to never come on? (The only reason I'd be potentially interested in the RGB is because there's no doubt the Realforce software supports that board, and more keycap options.)

- Will the red Control key from the HHKB colored Esc/Control set fit on a Realforce without any issues with mismatched profile, etc?

- Also, is it possible at all to source the swappable Ctrl/Caps keycaps separately? (If someone has them and doesn't use them, feel free to PM if you'd like to sell them to me!)

- Very few places seem to stock the R2A/R2TKA, I've only been able to find one on eBay from a japanese seller charging around $400. Are there any other places to source these boards? Or should I wait to see if they're introduced on the US Fujitsu Store/Amazon site for a lower price? Also, how long does it usually take for a "new" board to appear in the US stores versus Japan?

[rxc92]

I can’t answer everything but I can answer most of this. Regular Realforce boards don’t use DIP switches so you’d have to use Autohotkey or a similar software to change it. It’s switchable, but needs a bit of effort.

Not sure about the cross mount, I don’t know many people with the RGB.

If it’s for the bottom row, it is impossible to fit it. The R2 has changed its bottom row to the Cherry standard 1.25u for all keys, and the HHKB uses a 1.5u Ctrl. However if you’re talking about the Caps Lock position, those are the same and are compatible.

Mechmarket/classifieds

There are tons of the limited edition (silenced+APC) on Amazon, but since the non-China market is just Japanese extras, I doubt they’d have many non-silenced APC ones (only basic and limited edition). You could proxy one from amazon Japan, and it might even be cheaper than buying from the US.

Realforce hasn’t really sold keyboards directly to the US before the RGB (always through vendors like EK), so your guess is as good as mine. Note that the R2 has been out for an entire year yet there still are very few selections.

[Riverman]

The stems on the RGB don't suffer from the problems that aftermarket ones do.  They work great with no binding or sticking.  It is possible to keep the LEDs off, although when the keyboard loses power, it starts off in a mode where each key lights up as you press it. That's easily turned off again with a simple key combination.