Disassembly

Disassembly of the Cherry MX Board 3.0 is extremely simple, provided you know where the screws are. There are five with a precision Phillips head, all hidden underneath the five flat surface plastic pieces at the top of the keyboard on the back. Use a thin, flat driver to pry them out and that should be that. Once done, use the same flat object to pry open the interlocking tabs holding the plastic case-panel pieces together. There are not very many of them, and they were easy enough to remove relative to most others. Once done, the top panel piece comes loose, but can not yet be removed.


You need to dislodge the LED power connector that powers the LEDs under the Cherry logo in the top panel piece, and doing so helps separate it from the rest of the keyboard. Now, dislodge the internal USB connector and lift the PCB upward to separate the cable, PCB/plate, and bottom panel piece. We see that a stainless steel plate is used internally for structural integrity, and there is a matte black PCB with plate-mounted switches that have been soldered through the two.


Solder quality is very good with no solder peaks at all, and with not very many LEDs to solder either, there are only the four solder points per switch in most places. The keyboard has a Holtek HT82K95E 8-bit USB microcontroller on the other side to control the functionality of the keyboard, on a multi-layered 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 decided to go ahead and do so anyway.