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Modular Kailh mechanical keyswitches on the way

by Mark Tyson on 30 June 2016, 12:31

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qac34o

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Chinese manufacturer Kaihua makes the popular budget Kailh mechanical keyswitches for computer keyboards. Being in the shadow of industry dominator Cherry, and perhaps even Razer, Kaihua has invested in a new initiative which could perhaps provide it with some limelight. According to a recent report on Tom's Hardware Kaihua has designed some modular mechanical keyswitches and has at least one product design win which will come kitted out with a set of these switches.

The scope of the modularity on offer from the new Kailh mechanical keyswitches means that users can not only change the keycaps, they can change the mechanism on a per-key basis too. So you can buy a keyboard decked out with red-type switches and change the WASD cluster to browns, for example. Kailh will be offering modular red, blue and brown-type switches initially. A diagram and overview of the blue shaft modular switches is shown below (click to zoom in).

As noted by Tom's it would be a rather laborious, and probably costly, exercise to swap all your keys between one type and another so this modularity is probably intended for adjusting the feel of just certain banks and clusters of keys.

So far just one mechanical keyboard is known to employ the new modular Kailh keyswitches, the G Master Mk1 from B.Friend. This looks like a decent gaming keyboard (for about £60) with monochrome backlighting, fast polling, anti-ghosting, and a long braided USB connector cable. However I can't find any reference to modular keys on the product info page (Google translate the text but not the promo graphics on the page, of course).

Would such modular key functionality appeal to HEXUS readers?



HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

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Nice idea to try out a switch before you commit to a full board but I don't imagine it'll be that popular. Can't really see people have Red WASD and Browns everywhere else.
While I think its a nice concept, I'm not sure how much I would like having different switches for different keys, it would feel strange to type on if some keys required more force than others I think. Can totally understand the reasons behind it though, just not sure it would be for me personally.
Honestly for me, the only technology I'm interested in is the ones that offer the analogue type feedback reported on a few months ago. Until this technology hits the mainstream, I wont be paying much interest in anything else.
jag272
While I think its a nice concept, I'm not sure how much I would like having different switches for different keys, it would feel strange to type on if some keys required more force than others I think. Can totally understand the reasons behind it though, just not sure it would be for me personally.

One or two keys already do require more force than others (space bar for example) - but the idea could have merit if symbol & control keys felt different to alpha keys. In particular, I dislike the # key on UK layouts being too easy to press instead of (or with) the Enter key; making the # key stiffer would be one way of helping!
This is interesting. Maybe switching out some of the switches will help with my hand occasionally drifting off the WASD keys.