DIY Topre?

[___q]

You only need to solve one problem: find a source to purchase Topre domes, springs, and sliders.

That's why an already-assembled topre keyboard will be handy for! You know, to salvage

Nice! I didn't realize there were so many folks ready to burn money salvage parts from Topre boards!
(I am aware of Crick-Cracks, KRAYMACKs, etc etc)

The Type Heaven comes in at a little under $1.50 a switch, that's not so bad.  As long as you're okay with only 45g.

Maybe there's something cheaper that you could get from amazon.jp with a proxy, I'm not sure.

[Icte]

Hm there is no guide on the interwebz that explains how the PCB actually works? Classified maybe?

Making PCBs to detect capacitance in this way is very easy -- you just put some copper on the board and measure the capacitance of it, physics takes care of the rest.  See the "Basic Capacitive Touch Review" part of this document: http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/AppNotes/00001334B.pdf

The actual mechanical design and fabrication of a switch (the housing/dome/plunger/pcb/pins/what-have-you) under the space constraints while keeping the feel of topre switches would be exceedingly hard, though.

Right, but if you "copy" the design of exisitng Topre PCB's (with adjustments of course to the amount of switches to be used etc.) and use existing Topre switches, wouldn't the main problem be actually to make the PCB function properly?

THanks for the guide btw, I'll look more into it!

[daerid]

Remember that if you're also going to go with a layout that doesn't fit in any of the existing Topre board cases then you'll need a custom top case to hold the plunger assemblies.