Old Topre Realforce: Where to Buy?

[morpheus]

I want to try some old Topre Realforce Boards, where can I find them? Are they only available in Japan?

[tp4tissue]

Why would you want OLD rubber domes..

You realize rubber has a shelf life which counts FROM the date it's manufactured, NOT the date it starts to be used...

All rubber new or used will begin to denature and harden.

[tp4tissue]

So, in essence, there is no such thing as a Broken IN topre... only a Broken DOWN topre...

[mauri]

but but it reads topre on the side surely thats worth 100$

[insilica]

So, in essence, there is no such thing as a Broken IN topre... only a Broken DOWN topre...

... I was so expecting you to say ERGO DOX 

I don't blame you BTW. I wish I had waited for round 3 before getting my FC660C. Skint now so will have to save for round 4.

But as said Topre switches tend to get heavier over time as the rubber ages. I think there was an experiment done not too long ago... by Ripster in the name of keyboard science.

[noisyturtle]

What's the lifespan of a Topre?

[jwaz]

I want to try some old Topre Realforce Boards, where can I find them? Are they only available in Japan?

103U and 86U show up on eBay fairly often, you'll have to be a little patient.


You can always try yahoo.jp and amazon.jp but they require proxies AFAIK

[take]

What's the lifespan of a Topre?

they recently upgraded their specs to 50 million.

[rowdy]

What's the lifespan of a Topre?

they recently upgraded their specs to 50 million.

But would that apply only to new boards?

Or have they assessed the longevity of old boards and found them resilient?

[jwaz]

What's the lifespan of a Topre?

they recently upgraded their specs to 50 million.

But would that apply only to new boards?

Or have they assessed the longevity of old boards and found them resilient?

It isn't like anything really changed. It sounds to me like a reassessment to better compete with Cherry.

[rowdy]

Hooray - my HHKB should last even longer now

[morpheus]

What's the lifespan of a Topre?

they recently upgraded their specs to 50 million.

Theoretically, if you were an average typist, how long would this be in years?

[DrinkTea]

Suppose you type 75 words per minute constantly for 8 hours per day. I think an average word in English is about 5.3 characters. And further, let's assume that the most frequently pressed key gets hit about 1/5th of the time.
So the most common key gets pressed 75*5.3*60*8/5 = 38160 time per day. Taking 50,000,000 divided by this gives a little over 1310 days, or just under 3.6 years.
So, if your job consisted of pressing a key 75 times per minute for 8 hours straight per day, every day of the year, you'd wear that key out in about 3.6 years.

I just checked and the letter 'e', being most common in English is about 12.7% of all letters typed.

Also, at this rate, you'd be writing a 100,000 word novel in just under 2.8 days of work.

Anyway, for all practical purposes a long long time.

[rowdy]

An interesting analysis.  I wondered about this, but couldn't be bothered doing the calculations.

Thank you for that

[Photoelectric]

Wouldn't the effects of surrounding air (humidity, temperature, smoke) also affect the rubber independently of actuation, as mentioned here already?  So it wouldn't really be 50mil actuations, but a potentially shorter time period.  A combination of physical stress and deterioration of the rubber dome material in general.

[rowdy]

The same might be said for MX - under ideal conditions 50 million, but in extreme humidity or dust it would almost certainly be less.

Plus variations in switch manufacture would cause some switches to fail before others, up to the point where a keyboard would cost more to replace switches than to replace the entire keyboard.

[Danule]

In it I have seen normal issue rubber dome keyboards used heavily on a daily bassis last longer than 5 years.  So I assume something to the level of a topre would last longer than that given the higher quality parts and the capacitive nature of the switches.

[002]

How old? Does it have to be a Realforce because the oldest Realforce you're gonna get will be 12 years. Some Topre OEM boards are much older. I have two Sony NEWS boards from the late 80s for example
They still work fine. Let me know if you need help buying from Japan. Not sure if you want an older board just because they're cheaper or if you wanna do some experiments.

[davkol]

It's rated for actuations, guys. It doesn't mean the feel will remain the same all the time.

[czarek]

What's the lifespan of a Topre?

they recently upgraded their specs to 50 million.

50 million before they start to fail registering keystrokes. The feel changes to more linear much quicker. My 2 year old HHKB is mostly OK but some keys that are pressed and hold a lot (FN, Control, Meta, Alt) are noticeably lighter and almost linear.