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. As mentioned before, this Pro version differs from the standard Gateron Yellow (Milky Yellow) in having a pre-lubed stem 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.


Epomaker is using a three-piece plastic case construction and I don't recommend taking apart the keyboard simply out of curiosity. It is held together via interlocking plastic tabs and push-pins that require the use of a thin, flat object to carefully pry them apart. This allows for the top, middle, and bottom pieces to separate enough to allow closer examination of the individual injection-molded ABS plastic pieces. There is also a thick foam sheet placed between the PCB and the bottom case panel to minimize reverberations from keystrokes and this sheet has cutouts to fit snugly around the injection mold points in addition to allowing room for the two internal cables coming out of two separate Li-ion battery pouches here heading to the PCB itself. Epomaker is using an impressively high total battery capacity of 10,000 mAh on the EP75 to make for a long battery life when using the keyboard wirelessly. The case also contains the magnet assembly that helps keep the 2.4 GHz dongle in place when not in use.


The keyboard uses a white PCB with genuine Kailh hot-swap switch sockets. Solder quality is quite good throughout and notice all the side-facing LEDs on the periphery to help with the side-lighting as these LEDs will shine through and get diffused by the middle plastic piece we saw before. The various hardware controllers aren't easily identifiable—looks to be an NXP wireless transceiver and at least a single USB microcontroller—but we do see that all the components, including the switch sockets, SMD RGB LEDs, and capacitors are soldered to a multi-layered PCB. There is another foam sheet between the steel plate and the PCB to further dampen keystrokes.

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.