Realforce Dome Swap vs. Slider Swap

[neunelfer]

I currently have a couple Realforce boards that I am looking to combine into silenced + 55g.

The way I see it, I have 3 options:

• Pop out purple sliders from silenced board, pop into 55g board
• Leave purple sliders intact, swap 55g domes into variable board
• Swap plate assembly from silenced board onto 55g PCB

Option 3 would be the easiest and would prevent me from having to a.) break off the tips of the purple sliders and b.) mess around with the domes/springs.. not sure how I feel about having a mismatched plate and PCB. Coincidentally, the two boards I have actually have the same exact manufacturing date (80606 - which I believe means June 6th, 2018). One is actually Leopold/Realforce branded and the other is Topre/Realforce.

Edit: I realized that the plate and PCB dates do not match - both PCBs are from the same lot but the plates are not - I assume the plate date is more representative of the actual build date. In this case, the only distinguishing factor if I were to proceed with option 3 would be that the part number marked on the plate (SE170S1C vs. SE18T0C) would not match the part number on the label of the back of the case.

Can anyone provide any insight on this?

[Hyde]

lol my answer might not be what you're looking for but this from personal experience.

4. Get 3rd party silencing rings and just use regular black slider.  Purple slider wobble too much and stock silencing rings don't silence that much either.

So either use silence x or deskey rings (personally I like silence x more, other people might tell you deskey rings).

But if you really really need to pick a choice out the 3, 3 is easiest probably given if mounting points are the same.  However you just said one is from Leopold and one is from Realforce so chances are it will not match.

Next easiest choice is 2. dome swap.  Dome swap in my opinion is much easier than popping sliders off.  You just have to do it upside down and find some stuff to prop off the edges so the switches are not depressed when you're working on it.

Let me know if you have any questions.

P.S:  I'm basing this from my mods with Type Heaven, Realforce 104UW, and Realforce R2.  Have tried hypersphere, silence x, deskey rings #2, #3, #4, #5 and keyclack v2.

[Riverman]

Aren't the Leopold versions identical to the Realforce keyboards?  I was under the impression that the Leopold versions were made in Japan by Topre, and just differed by color and weight.

I silenced a Type Heaven and an RGB using Silence-X rings, and I didn't think either one was nearly as quiet as either of the two factory silenced Realforce keyboards I've had.  I didn't mind that, though, since I thought the factory silenced ones were too quiet, and were almost a little too refined.  I've since sold the RGB with Silence-X rings, and both of the silenced Realforces, and now I have another RGB that I'm going to silence with Deskeys #3 RGB rings sometime this week.  I'm really curious to see how it compares to the Type Heaven with Silence-X rings.

[neunelfer]

Thanks for the input guys. Yes, the Leopold vs. Topre branded keyboards are identical, so swapping plate assemblies would not be an issue.

I managed to get a hold of Silence X rings and installed them on a few keys to test out the difference between those and the purple sliders and I fully agree with your assessment Riverman.

I haven't noticed any additional wobble/instability on the factory silenced board vs. my factory 55g board.. if anything they seem slightly less wobbly.

I think for the time being I'm going to proceed with the Silence X rings and keep the purple board as-is. Might take it to work and swap it out for the HHKB I'm currently using there.

[Hyde]

LOL really?  I guess I'm probably the only person that's dissatisfied with purple slider.  I have Realforce R2 55g silent (fully stock), and I really didn't like it since it sounded high pitched (as oppose to topre thock) and also less stable compare to my modded Realforce 104UW.

So unless I'm crazy or maybe they changed something in the R2, but otherwise I definitely like the black slider much better.

But again like I said I seem to be the only one that share this opinion so maybe go with your plan for now don't mind me haha.

[neunelfer]

Hmm.. might be a difference between R1 and R2. Mine are both 87us and feel identical.