Disassembly

Disassembly of the Aukey KM-G4 is a piece of cake, with 14 PH #3 Phillips head screws holding the ABS plastic bottom panel and the rest of the keyboard together. There are a couple that are between some switches, but the rest are all around the periphery of the keyboard from the front. There is also the internal USB connector to dislodge, but once done, we get a good look at the meat of the keyboard itself.


Aukey is using a blue-colored PCB here, for those who care about this. Solder quality was fairly good overall, even in places where there are four solder points in close proximity, but they are cut off neatly, evenly, and spaced away from each other to where I am not worried about internal build quality. There are a few tantalum capacitors as per usual, some of which are located near the internal USB header on the PCB.


This is where the KM-G4 differs greatly from the KM-G3, having software support that enables some profiles and macros to be stored onboard. Powering the keyboard is what appears to be an ARM Cortex M3 32-bit MCU with a Sunmoon SM16136 LED display driver and a dedicated flash storage module, all on a multi-layer PCB.

Before we take a look at the driver, be advised that disassembly will void the warranty and that TechPowerUp is not liable for any damages incurred if you decide to go ahead and do so anyway.