Realforce options in Japan?

[tubby]

Long time lurker, first time posting :wave:
Having a tiny glimmer of hope on getting someone in Japan to get me a keyboard, thought there's no better place to ask than GH Is there such a thing as an all 45g Realforce 87U? Or even better, a 87UBY? Google result on the latter is a negative, but thought I'd ask in case they have a different model code for it *crossing fingers*
Thanks in advance

[jaynoon]

Pretty sure the closest you get to an all 45g Realforce is an HHKB, which is 45 across the board.

I think Topre only does all 55 and all 30. Read through the Topre thread in the Pictures forum if you want to see some exotic Topres seldom seen outside of Japan & Korea.

[keyboardlover]

The Topre wiki would be better.

Nice name drop.

[tubby]

Pretty sure the closest you get to an all 45g Realforce is an HHKB, which is 45 across the board.

I think Topre only does all 55 and all 30. Read through the Topre thread in the Pictures forum if you want to see some exotic Topres seldom seen outside of Japan & Korea.

I am not too keen on HHKB layout so I have that placed in the bottom of my list.

I know of the Realforce G series that have all 45g, but searches only leads me to JIS layouts
But thanks for the input, jaynoon =)

The Topre wiki would be better.

I must've skimped when doing my homework. How could've missed the wiki *facepalm*
Thanks, Ripster =)
But it appears, there really is no such thing as a tenkeyless 45g apart from the JIS models =\
Might have to pull off some DIY with the variable force it seems

[ynih]

I have modded my 86UB to be all 45g in the main cluster of keys, pretty much all the keys left of the up,down,left,right arrow cluster.  Those I replaced with 35g that I took from my pinkies, and the Home/End, Page up/Page down, are all 40 or whatever I had left over.  

It's really not that hard, there's a wiki around here that has detailed pictures and it took me about an hour and half in total on an afternoon of a boring Sunday.  It was actually kind of fun.  The mindset you gotta be in is: **** it, it'll be over soon.

[tubby]

The spacebars on the JP layout Topres are TINY - I can handle the Filco no problem but I found the JP Topres unusable.

The Variable Weight 45/35 difference is barely noticeable by most people.  At least on my 35/45 Realforce 87U.  Maybe different on the 30/45 models.

They went all funky with the symbol placement too, but ya, the minuscule spacebar is the first thing that puts me off from them

So it seems you're not in the "most people" section as I heard you mod your A and ; keys =)
I also read that your RipOmeter™ have proven that the 2WSX9OL. row is a tad less than 45g.
I game casually and 1,2,3,ASD (a cookie for those who can guess the game) are the keys I use most. Will the difference be a nuisance if the 3 different forces are to be hit with non-pinky fingers?

I have modded my 86UB to be all 45g in the main cluster of keys, pretty much all the keys left of the up,down,left,right arrow cluster.  Those I replaced with 35g that I took from my pinkies, and the Home/End, Page up/Page down, are all 40 or whatever I had left over.  

It's really not that hard, there's a wiki around here that has detailed pictures and it took me about an hour and half in total on an afternoon of a boring Sunday.  It was actually kind of fun.  The mindset you gotta be in is: **** it, it'll be over soon.

Seems that the "most people" portion is bigger than I thought =)
I might go that route should I purchase the variable force version. Its not that I got any warranty to worry about =)
But that mindset would seemingly be hard to swallow, especially when the keyboard is not on the cheap side ^^;

[jaynoon]

Of course I've now gone back to the KBDMania thread and noticed that there do indeed look to be some all 45g models on display at their Realforce Day event, who knows if they're for sale anywhere. The highlight to me looks like an all-45g 86U, with a normal sized spacebar.

Thread's here: http://www.kbdmania.net/xe/2063890#21

[tubby]

Hey there really is a US layout all 45g Realforce! Thanks for the link, jaynoon.
And the bronze 23U is tacky yet droolworthy at the same time =)
I just wish there's a product code for the 45g 86U cos it'll make things much easier to lookup.

I notice you own a 86U. Looking from pics, unlike the 87U, it seems that its missing a numlock key. So would that mean number input can only be done from the top row?

[jaynoon]

I notice you own a 86U. Looking from pics, unlike the 87U, it seems that its missing a numlock key. So would that mean number input can only be done from the top row?

Yeah there is no virtual numpad on the 86U, and no right Windows key.

There are a couple of other more minor differences:  http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Topre+Realforce+Reference+-+all+things+topre#Realforce+86U+86UB

[rosale1galen]

Why are you interested in Japan's good? You are wasting time. You can also get a good quality keyboard in your own country.

[ynih]

Also, the 86U is supposed to be older model than the 87U...but they work the same to me.  I have the NumLock thing on my Thinkpad T43 keyboard, but I've never used it.  I'm fairly efficient with the 1-9 on the top row, if I go slow enough, but I find the 7,8,9 and 4,5,6 and 1,2,3 in a slanted position kinda awkward to use.  So I have no gripes about the 86U that I have, which is now an all 45g board for all intensive purposes.

[jaynoon]

Yeah, for my purposes I don't miss the extra U either

[tubby]

Yeah there is no virtual numpad on the 86U, and no right Windows key.

There are a couple of other more minor differences:  http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Topre+Realforce+Reference+-+all+things+topre#Realforce+86U+86UB

EK's pricing for the 86U was real good last time I checked. I could have asked a friend there to grab one for me, but thought I'd wait till EK carries the slightly flashier, LED'ed 87U. I don't suppose anyone could guess when that day would come?

So it truly have 30g switches. I was under the impression that the 30g on all Realforce was a typo.

Why are you interested in Japan's good? You are wasting time. You can also get a good quality keyboard in your own country.

Where I live, there's only Filco, SS, and Razer. I'm in Indonesia =)
A seller is bringing in a small number of 103U sometime next month, but I've always wanted a tenkeyless Realforce and thought I'd seize the opportunity of asking someone who's coming over from Japan to bring one for me

Also, the 86U is supposed to be older model than the 87U...but they work the same to me.  I have the NumLock thing on my Thinkpad T43 keyboard, but I've never used it.  I'm fairly efficient with the 1-9 on the top row, if I go slow enough, but I find the 7,8,9 and 4,5,6 and 1,2,3 in a slanted position kinda awkward to use.  So I have no gripes about the 86U that I have, which is now an all 45g board for all intensive purposes.

True that the virtual numpad can never replace an actual one, but thought its still good to have for PIN input purposes. For me, its better than having to punch keys at the top rows, cos for the life of me, I can never touch type the top number rows (fingers crossed the slanted numpad wouldn't suffer the same fate).
For intensive number inputs, which don't happen all too often, I presume I can easily pull out my other full length keyboards =)

[jaynoon]

EK used to stock the 87U, it's my understanding that's now exclusive to Korea and China. At least the indication has been in the past that we won't see the 87U back here, although you never know.