Keyboard of Smiting
Giving the HHKB some oompf!
People give me strange looks when I start ranting about keyboards. In my profession, I spend quite a large amount of my time on a keyboard. Why not make it the best damn keyboard out there?
I’ve long been a fan of Cherry MX keys. The clickty clackity sound they made as I went about my business was just great! My coworkers thought otherwise.
Then I stumbled across the Topre. My eyes were opened to quality keyboards. While I still retain my love for the MX keys, these high quality rubber domes were incredible!
The Teardown
My Keyboard of choice was the HHKB PRO2 Type-S. The Type-S means that there are small plastic silencers attached to each key. A few modders have shown how to make a DIY PRO2 Type-S, and it’s really quite similar; and will save you about $200US if you buy from EliteKeyboards.
Luckily I came in possession of my HHKB through different means.
Still the HHKB was rated at a 45g keypress, which is quite fine for most, but I prefer the 55g force as it makes me feel like my keyboard has become a craft tool, or something that you could find in the control room of a cold war nuclear sub.
So I happened to have a Realforce 87U 55g lying around. Time to switch the domes!
As you can probably tell, the 87U has more keys than the HHKB so after the procedure the 87U will have some of its 55g domes intact.
Opening the 87U’s case is ridiculously simple, almost as if it was meant to do that…
The next step is separating the board from the base. Simply detach the connector from the port on the base and unscrew the power clip. I had a bit of trouble with the power as the screw was quite tightly wound.
After detaching the base from the board, turn it over to expose the screws. Simply unscrew each of these and this will detach the keys from the board.
Be careful when finally removing the board from the keys as the domes have a good chance of falling off, this is bad as they keep springs in and are very tedious to rearrange.
It should end up like this.
These are the domes we want inside the HHKB.
Now to disassemble the HHKB. It’s not as easy as the 87U, but it is still relatively simple.
There are three screws along the top edge that attach the base to the cover, just unscrew these and open the HHKB.
Be careful when opening the case as the wires that connect the board to the controller are short and you risk pulling the terminals.
Be extra careful disconnecting the cables from the port, its very easy to warp some of the terminals. I found it was best slowly easing it out from the left side then the right side interchangeably.
After you’re done, unscrew all those screws that are conveniently circled for you. I recommend to go slowly when doing anything like this. It’s very easy for the screwdriver to slip and end up scratching part of the board, or worse some of the components.
If you want to be prepared unlike me, I would get some board clips so the board doesn’t touch the surface of your workspace. I improvised. It should end up looking like this.
Just for demonstration, this is what is underneath the domes.
Do not transfer the domes over by putting the domes on the board like this picture would seem to indicate.
It would be very tedious as the domes don’t actually stick to the board and will be moved by the slightest gust of air moving through the room.
If you did it like this picture would indicate, you would have to move the spring first then painstakingly place each dome on top of every spring with the precision and patience of surgeon.
Save yourself some time and do it the right way. Place the keys upside down and drop the domes inside each key followed by the spring.
However, before you do that, if you have some mech lube this is where you should apply it. Right in the corners where the moving bits slide up and down (im getting lazy).
Now that is done, transfer the domes!
Great! It’s a simple matter of reassembling the board and you’re good to go!
Here is the finished board.
Hope you guys enjoyed! Have a great day!
