deskthority

K-Type Pre-launch

It's finally happening!

The K-Type is the project that has taken up most of my time in the last 2 years. I've had a lot of help from the keyboard community (especially DT) through my various keyboarding endeavors and to me the K-Type is a way to help grow the mechanical keyboarding community. Like the rest of the keyboards that Input Club designs, everything is opensource so that other community members can do their own modifications to any part of the project without having to spend copious amounts of time reverse engineering their keyboard in an effort to make it their own.



I've been working on trying to get good RGB backlighting on keyboards since October 2014. Everything from the LEDs themselves, switches with proper lensed light-pipes, LED controllers that don't flicker, smooth animations, API for animations as well as truly making a programmable RGB keyboard. Oh, and worry not, the K-Type was designed to look good even with the LEDs off

Example of KLL Rainbow.
https://github.com/kiibohd/kll/blob/mas ... st.kll#L82

My favourite aspect of this keyboard is definitely the new custom switches. It was designed using all the data I've collected so far from my force curve gauge, attempting to wrangle with the limitations of a Cherry MX-style switch. Even the spring selection (and customization ) has taken me months of work.
Once we're ready to announce the details, I'll be preparing a long post about how (and why) I designed this switch. Oh, and it'll definitely have force curves!

Anyways, thanks DT and the keyboard community. You're a big reason why I'm designing keyboards and keyboard switches.

Looks great. If the layout is fully programmable, I'm up for it!
I mean I don't care for the RGB stuff, but if you have developped some perfect switch up to your tastes, I really want to give it a try.

i understand why Massdrop, and i applaud their effort in helping to make this keyboard a reality say what you will about them and i have on manny occasion in regards to us Eu clackers and in my case the 32 or 33% extra i would have to pay living in The bloody Netherlands..hahahaha. (customs crap really s....cks)
But i don't see anyone else do what they do so kudos to you massdrop..How about starting a Massdrop EU.
We the Dutch have a so many tax loopholes for companies (not for regular joe shmuck me) that it would fit Massdrop without even blinking hahaha..

Good luck with the drop, look forward to reading your next post on this awesome keyboard..
Like Tesla not everyone can afford to get one.But reading about it and appreciating the engineering research is a must,
at least it's for me..

Live Long And Prosper.

no ISO support ?

also, there's nothing on the switches anywhere I looked.

Yeah, ISO support is a big stretch when doing manufacturing... sorry...

Hopefully should be able to release info on the switches soon.

damn. will the switches be available for purchase separately ?

I see no reason why there couldn't be ISO support on the PCB, like so many others PCBs have.
Then the only thing holding it back would be the top plate and the cost of assembly. There would also be 3 / 4 LEDs that differ, but because it is a fully programmable LED matrix, those could be configured in firmware.

Why not offer an ISO kit as an option to DIY-ers? That would not incur any cost of assembly and with swappable switches there would be no soldering required.

Basically, we had to make a trade-off on the pcb in order to support hotswap and RGB at the same time. You can't overlap these components like you can soldered switches and through-hole LEDs (LEDs also need to be in the proper position or the keycap won't light up correctly).

Firmware wise you are correct, it's easy to support.

Yea I have high hopes for those switches. I will be very disappointed if I find out those are just Kailh with different case and springs...

No offence towards them, they're on par with Greetechs IMO, but their QC is even worse than Cherry's. Cherries are consistent within the batch (of course each batch is slightly different), while clones can vary quite a lot within one package.

This can be improved when using fancy springs (like Zeal PC does with Gaterons), but very difficult to completely eliminate. I for example cherry-pick matching switches and springs for the keyboards I build for FalbaTech's customers (very little, on request only, for people who really seek awesome stuff and agree with my tastes). By matching switches, even from different batches it's possible to make a very consistent feeling and sounding keyboard, but it's a lot of work and I quite honestly doubt any machine or automate can do that.

Really glad to see this finally launch! RGB is not my thing, but I've already started recommending it to people I know who want RGB.