Disassembly

Given the hot-swappable nature of the switches, it only made sense that I take one of the Gateron Pro Yellow switches apart. This is a 3-pin mechanical switch employing the Cherry MX stem design, so we have the usual construction with the top, crosspoint stem/slider, spring, and housing that also has the metal leaf for the actuation mechanism. What makes this Pro version differ from the standard Gateron Yellow (Milky Yellow) is that the stem comes pre-lubed out of the factory, and tolerances for all the moving parts is supposedly tighter. The metal contacts are also supposedly thinly plated with gold, but clearly not to where it makes a difference visually. I did feel the lube slightly on my fingers, and this minimal lube application is the way to go with linear switches.


Disassembly of the keyboard begins with pulling off the aluminium knob and then using a thin, flat object to carefully pry apart interlocking plastic tabs securing the two-piece case together. The low profile keycaps over the mode switches would also likely come loose at this time, so store them carefully lest you lose them. With the top case panel removed, you have access to the 15 Phillips-head screws that will require removing several keycaps as seen above. A precision screwdriver will be handy here, and now you can lift off the steel plate/PCB section off the bottom case panel enough to access and dislodge the internal cable connecting the two.


This cable leads to a 3000 mAh battery in the bottom case panel, and it is used to power the keyboard in the two wireless modes. A larger battery would have been nice to see, but admittedly this is still well within reason if the keyboard has been programmed with battery saving measures. There is a thick poron foam sheet between the PCB and the plastic case to absorb typing sounds and dampen keystrokes, and another of the same between the plate and the PCB to enhance this effect. Examining the keyboard shows the use of TTC hot-swap sockets with generally good solder quality, except for the occasional abundance of flux. The keyboard is powered off hardware drivers/transceivers I unfortunately wasn't able to easily identify, although all the components are clearly soldered to a multi-layer PCB, as is the norm today.

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.