Disassembly

Disassembly of the 1stplayer LANG MK8 keyboard is on the simpler side of things, with an all-plastic construction for the case meaning you have to pry the two pieces apart using a thin, flat object. There are several interlocking plastic tabs, none very deep either, so chances of breaking any are low. That said, you will likely leave signs of the disassembly behind, especially in the soft plastic pried apart, so only do this as a last resort. Once done, all three major pieces are loose, with the top panel completely removable and an internal USB cable keeping the bottom panel connected.


With the cable dislodged, we can see the daughter PCB in the bottom ABS plastic panel; it houses the Type C port for the detachable cable. The PCB has a matte blue finish, and solder quality is fairly good. We also see the 13 keys that get the CIY socket for easy switch replacement, and the other 74 that do not.


The PCB has most of the switches soldered through a steel plate for structural integrity. Powering the keyboard is an Nuvoton NUC121SC ARM Cortex-M0 32-bit USB 2.0 microcontroller with up to 32 KB of onboard flash memory, 8 KB of SRAM, and 4 KB ROM. It also works as an RGB LED hardware driver, although the hardware is generally dated compared to what we see in many other keyboards. So don't expect a lot of customization options here, and presumably pricing incorporates all these cost savings. As is the norm these days, the PCB itself has multiple layers.

Before we move on, be advised that disassembly may void the warranty and that TechPowerUp is not liable for any damages incurred if you decide to go ahead and do so anyway.