Epson InterKX

HaaTa · 26 Jan 2016, 01:04

Oops, been a bit lazy this past week. Oh well, I've been busy this weekend

Here's something that I usually don't acquire...Topre!

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Yep, lots of hardware...

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Amusingly the keypad and keyboard cap sense pcbs are slightly different designs for whatever reason. Probably one of them came out of an earlier project.

Flickr Album

snuci · 26 Jan 2016, 01:16

That looks awesome! Great pics HaaTa. I am very excited to see the internals.

Are there other Topre keyboards with easily replaceable domes like this? It's too bad the Realforce keyboards aren't like this. THAT is quality engineering. Does anyone happen to know what the weight of these switches are?

HaaTa · 26 Jan 2016, 01:25

Basically all Topre cap sense keyboards have domes like this. At least all the ones I've dismantled anyways.

Pretty sure it's uniform 45g for all the switches (my preferred Topre weighting

).

snuci · 26 Jan 2016, 01:35

HaaTa wrote: Basically all Topre cap sense keyboards have domes like this. At least all the ones I've dismantled anyways.

But aren't the all usually in once sheet like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3HhDMS-nNE are they not? I haven't taken any apart so I don't know. This keyboard looks like the rubber domes come out in small groups of five or four or smaller. Easier to customize the weights or replace small sections.

It's similar to Key Tronic. Their early foam and foil key switches were also mounted in groups of five or less. Later on, they were all mounted on one sheet.

EDIT: I saw the pics of the main keyboard so it made up of two bigger sections but it still looks quite modular. I is well engineered.

002 · 26 Jan 2016, 02:42

It's a little inconsistent. Sometimes they use strips for the F-row and even sometimes for the lighter keys on a variable board it will be strips as opposed to the full sheet seen in that 91U disassembly video which is also a variable board.

I think it was probably just Topre didn't bother making a mould for the domes on the Epson numpad and decided to just re-use strips. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I cracked my Epson board open and found the dome sheet totally different to HaaTa's example.

snuci · 26 Jan 2016, 02:48

002 wrote: I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I cracked my Epson board open and found the dome sheet totally different to HaaTa's example.

Got 10 minutes and a screw driver?

pcaro · 26 Jan 2016, 11:04

Thanks to the photo gallery. Now I don't need open my new Epson InterKX only for curiosity...

cookie · 27 Jan 2016, 13:55

rare beauty

sth · 28 Jan 2016, 14:11

:O another semi-60%ish topre (besides the magcard machine)! nice.

livingspeedbump · 31 Jan 2016, 05:14

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Very nice pics.

livingspeedbump · 31 Jan 2016, 05:17

snuci wrote:
HaaTa wrote: Basically all Topre cap sense keyboards have domes like this. At least all the ones I've dismantled anyways.
But aren't the all usually in once sheet like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3HhDMS-nNE are they not? I haven't taken any apart so I don't know. This keyboard looks like the rubber domes come out in small groups of five or four or smaller. Easier to customize the weights or replace small sections.

It's similar to Key Tronic. Their early foam and foil key switches were also mounted in groups of five or less. Later on, they were all mounted on one sheet.

EDIT: I saw the pics of the main keyboard so it made up of two bigger sections but it still looks quite modular. I is well engineered.

The Realforces and HHKB have multiple sheets. Here is a comparison of them side by side

snuci · 05 Feb 2016, 16:10

I also acquired one of these and that area in the top left seemed empty so I cut a thick transparent sheet and added a key label sheet so it looks like it was always there. Haata, pcaro, 002, if you want the file, I can send it to you.

: Epson InterKX (Business Full)with key template; Epson Topre InterKX.jpg (285.86 KiB) Viewed 3946 times

pcaro · 05 Feb 2016, 20:10

snuci wrote:I also acquired one of these and that area in the top left seemed empty so I cut a thick transparent sheet and added a key label sheet so it looks like it was always there. Haata, pcaro, 002, if you want the file, I can send it to you.

Epson Topre InterKX.jpg

Yes. It looks very well. I am interested in the file, thanks.