Input Club K-Type
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| Features | RGB backlighting, side-lighting, detachable foot |
|---|---|
| Layouts | 87-key ANSI tenkeyless |
| Keyswitches | Halo Clear, Halo True, Kailh Red, Kailh Blue, Kailh Speed Gold, Kailh Speed Silver, Kailh Speed Copper |
| Switch mount | Socketed and plate mounted, Cherry-MX-compatible |
| Stabiliser | Cherry |
| Keycaps | PBT, backlit, OEM Profile |
| Interface | detachable USB Type C (USB-A 2.0 compatible at host end) |
| Rollover | NKRO |
| Weight | 964 g |
| Introduced | November 2017 |
| Price | $200 (Massdrop) |
| Website | input.club/k-type/ |
The K-Type is a premium enthusiast tenkeyless keyboard from Input Club.
Construction
The case is a floating-keys design with top and bottom milled from solid aluminium which has been anodised silver. There is an acrylic LED stripe around the perimeter for side-lighting. Because the milled top is the mounting plate, the keyboard is available only in US-ANSI layout.
The switches can be pulled with the included switch tool and exchanged for other Cherry MX-compatible switches. There are however no holes in the circuit board for the plastic prongs of PCB-mount switches: switches for plate-mounting have to be used or the prongs snipped off. Below each switch footprint is a special hot-swapping socket, developed together with Kailh, which is supposed to provide a better electrical connection than Holtite sockets.[1]
The keys are thin OEM-profile doubleshot PBT and POM from Tai-Hao, with the POM being translucent allowing light through for RGB backlighting.[1] The RGB LEDs are surface-mounted on the circuit board below the switches, which means that switches need to have transparent housings to allow the light to shine up the keys. The default Kailh switches are variants made with transparent housings with lenses designed for wider backlighting.
Connectivity
The rear side has two reversible USB Type-C sockets. Either one could be connected to the host. Only the USB 2.0 subset is being used by USB's keyboard protocol that it is therefore compatible with a type-A sockets at the host end with the appropriate cable.
The unused Type C port is intended to allow daisy-chaining the keyboard with another "Infinity" device, such as the left half of an Infinity ErgoDox.
The Kiibohd firmware supports N-key rollover on both MS Windows, Linux and macOS. The layout is supposed to be programmable through Input Club's Configurator.
Availability
The first keyboards arrived in customers hands in early November 2017 after a group order ("drop") from Massdrop which started in May 2017.
The keyboard had been produced and put to market in conjunction with Massdrop which apparently co-owns some of the intellectual property. A "space grey" version of the keyboard has been released by Massdrop themselves as the Massdrop CTRL. It uses the QMK firmware instead of Haata's Kiibohd.[2]
Reception
The first run ("drop") from Massdrop have rattly Cherry-style stabilisers, despite supposed requests "for months" from Input Club to change them.[3] Plate-mounted Cherry-style stabiliser assembly can be detached from the top once the switch it straddles has been pulled out. Input Club has posted an instruction video on how to do it.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Keychatter.com: REVIEW: Input Club x Massdrop K-Type. Dated 2017-05-11. Retrieved 2017-11-02. Note: Review of production sample, not final product
- ↑ Tom's Hardware—Massdrop's 'CTRL' Keyboard Looks Just Like Input Club's 'K-Type'. Written by Seth Colander. Dated 2018-05-23. Retrieved 2019-06-04
- ↑ Geekhack.org: K-Type feedback. Forum post dated 2017-11-02. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
