Topre PBT Spacebars

[ne0phyte]

oh almost forgot... there's a catch...

to speed the prototyping phase I have to provide BSP with a topre keyboard............ I'll fight to have it back of course, but still someone has to sacrifice a beloved topre to the altar of PBT spacebar

Do they need a whole keyboard or just the space bar mount? Maybe someone (Mr Interface? 002?) has a broken Topre board that they would be willing to give.
Worst case: Add a type heaven or used topre board to the total cost and let the community fund the board.

[matt3o]

worst case scenario I'll give them my Leopold...

I guess a not working keyboard would be fine as well, I think they will only check if it mechanically works. Anyway we will think about it when and if we will place the final order.

[Hypersphere]

@Hypersphere, would you mind linking http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/top ... ml#p198600 in your first post?

Done!

[matt3o]

Most voted colors so far:

blue
red
light blue
light green
medium gray
purple
orange
pink

they are all very close! keep voting

[ne0phyte]

No love for green?

[matt3o]

yes green is right after, as I said, they are all very close. The only color without love is brown

[matt3o]

Okay guys, this is incredible. We are already at 21% in less than 24h!

I believe there's hope for this to become a reality! Spread the word!

Color preference so far:

Code: Select all

    [Sky Blue/Light Blue]
    [Red]
    [Medium gray]
    [Mint/Light Green]
    [Purple]
    [Orange]
    [Pink]
    [Blue]
    [Yellow]
    [Green]
    [Lavender]
    [Beige]
    [Magenta]

They are all very close up to Green. Nothing is set to stone yet.

[Muirium]

Of course, that was the easy 20%. But it's a great start in a day! This is looking definitely doable. Especially with MK behind it. Great work!

[002]

Do they need a whole keyboard or just the space bar mount? Maybe someone (Mr Interface? 002?) has a broken Topre board that they would be willing to give.
Worst case: Add a type heaven or used topre board to the total cost and let the community fund the board.

But Topre boards don't break! Actually I'm kidding, I've seen some in pretty bad shape on Yahoo Auctions.
I have donated once to this cause already (in the form of a space bar) and would happily do it again, but the thing is, it would likely be the Deskthority Realforce Tour board. As it's already in Europe, it could potentially reach matt3o faster anyway, but it would mean no more tours until I could get a replacement for it or matt3o retrieves it.

[matt3o]

thanks 002

ideally the group buy should cover the additional board. if you can have the realforce to reach me I can surely use that, it would be just a loan, as soon as they are done I'll ask to have it back (but it may take few months)

[Daniel Beardsmore]

I was calling them white and black and people went all "but it's noooot black and it's not puuuure white".

There I thought it was just me who believed that Topre keyboards are charcoal grey and not black.

[Muirium]

Give a pedant a bone, and he'll tell you it's cartilage.

[matt3o]

I'll make so 002 will get as many free spacebars as possible

[002]

Rock on
Thanks for organising this, matt3o. I can't wait to see how they look. Hopefully there's enough interest.

[Khers]

Worst case scenario; everyone has to buy the quintuple amount they signed up for

[matt3o]

I showed these preliminary results to some companies and they were overwhelmed. One offered to pay the advance for the tooling right away... I'm pretty thrilled, honestly I didn't think this could work, but it seems we have really a chance here.

Keep participating!

[Juice]

Fantastic, now get them to produce full sets aswell

[Muirium]

What would we do different, for the rest of the set? Topre's are already PBT, besides the spacebar.

Different fonts? Different colours? Different… drumroll… profile!??! Uh, Matt, I remember you saying something about PBT SA a while back…

[Juice]

Well, it would be nice with different colors schemes. The mx crowd is kinda spoiled for choice, can't say the same when it comes to topre caps. I do understand why but one can dream.

[Khers]

I don't get why Topre ended production of colourful replacement caps. There must be a market for them! Especially given that it's so darn difficult to read the legends on Topres black (sorry, dark grey) keycaps. Given that widebasket is currently charging $150 a set on ebay, there seems to be a hole in the market for someone to fill.

[Juice]

They should start selling Novatouch like stems, that would open up a new world of possibilities. Sure you would still have to make special spacebars due to the stabilizer spacing. Are there any other compatability issues using mx keycaps on Realforce boards?

Sorry for thread derail.

[vinzbe]

Related to that, wouldn't it be more interesting for some people to order 2 "Topre to MX Slider v2.0beta"?

Edit: The spacing between 2 switches is probably not the same so forget it.

[matt3o]

Are there any other compatability issues using mx keycaps on Realforce boards?

you need the housing for each stabilized key, it easier (cheaper) to have just the spacebar in PBT with topre stem.

Quick update:

we are at 27% of the total. Long way to go, keep rolling!

Preferred colors so far:

Code: Select all

    [Medium gray]
    [Sky Blue/Light Blue]
    [Red]
    [Purple]
    [Mint/Light Green]
    [Pink]
    [Orange]
    [Blue]
    [Green]
    [Lavender]
    [Yellow]
    [Beige]
    [Brown]
    [Magenta]

[matt3o]

quick update.

we are at 33%

color preference

Code: Select all

    [Medium gray]
    [Sky Blue/Light Blue]
    [Red]
    [Purple]    [Mint/Light Green]    [Blue]
    [Pink]    [Orange]
    [Green]
    [Lavender]
    [Beige]
    [Yellow]
    [Brown]
    [Magenta]

[cookie]

33% I have faith that we can do it!

The color preferences are promising
Pink is definately my favorite!

[Ascaii]

PINK AND ORANGE MASTERRACE

Seriously, I want them.

[cookie]

I'd be in for a set of pinks for sure!

[Khers]

I agree, vote pink!

[Muirium]

I may have been the first vote pink got, a few minutes after Matteo posted the poll! (But it's a fractional vote. I never said I would order it…)

[atlas3686]

Nice to see this is on track, medium gray for the win

Isn't colour matching the coloured spacebars going to be tough, I mean will the medium gray work with 10th AE gray and will the pink match the pink realforce set?