Disassembly

The GAMDIAS HERMES E3 is one of the simplest keyboards to take apart, which is always a good thing, at least for me. This is a plate/PCB and case-type assemble, so the case is just the bread around the actual meat of the keyboard. Only five Phillips head screws have to be removed, all of which can be accessed by removing specific keycaps as seen above. A precision Phillips screwdriver comes in handy here, and you then lift the plate/PCB off the case. I recommend lifting from the bottom and pulling away at that angle lest the Type-C port gets caught in the cutout we now see in the ABS plastic case.


GAMDIAS is using a dark blue PCB with pretty good soldering throughout, including on the aforementioned Type-C port. There are residual signs of actual soldering done everywhere, which does not look very neat, and the same PCB also seems to be used by a few other companies, so it is not exclusive to GAMDIAS. Powering the keyboard is a HFD2201KBA USB microcontroller, which I can find no useful documentation for online, but it has been used successfully in budget keyboards before. This may limit some of the customization possible with the HERMES E3, so let's investigate whether that is the case on the next page. All the components, including the switches, LEDs, and capacitors, are soldered to a multi-layered PCB.

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.