Disassembly

Disassembly of the Cougar PURI TKL keyboard begins with the removal of the screws on top, which we saw previously. A flat head driver comes in handy here, and once the screws are removed, it is the same story as with just about every two-piece plastic case construction. There are several interlocking plastic tabs holding the two pieces together which need to be pried apart carefully using a thin, flat object. Once done, the top case piece can simply be lifted up and away, and there is enough give to lift up the middle piece to see where the internal cable is. This goes from an internal USB connector on the PCB to a daughter PCB housed in the bottom case piece that has the mini-USB connector on it. Carefully pry the cable off the PCB and you should be able to separate the two pieces.


The keyboard has an internal steel plate for structural integrity that is approximately 1.4 mm thick, and the switches are soldered into the PCB through the plate. The PCB itself is black in color and has a lacquer finish. A marking on the PCB reveals the design was finalized early 2017, and the name suggests this may be platform shared by other manufacturers from a common OEM. Powering the keyboard is a VISION VS11K15A microcontroller, of which there is not much information available online, but some time online revealed it is being used by many other backlit keyboards to good effect. There is not a whole lot going on in terms of pre-configured or customizable functionality, so the controller should be plenty fine given there are no complaints otherwise. All the components are soldered well, presumably by an assembly machine, on to 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 decided to go ahead and do so anyway.