Disassembly

Given the hot-swappable nature of the switches, it only made sense to take one of the Glorious Fox switches apart. This 3-pin mechanical switch employs the Cherry MX stem design, so we have the usual construction with the top, a crosspoint stem/slider, spring, and housing that has the metal leaf for the actuation mechanism. The switch does come pre-lubed on the sides of the stem and bottom of the spring. It's done well enough not to necessitate re-lubing in my opinion, at least for the typical customer looking at the pre-built GMMK 2. This is clearly a linear switch with no bumps or protrusions along the path of the stem as it meets the metal contacts to initiate switch actuation. Note the short spring, which is indicative of a higher Hook's constant for a force-travel curve equivalent to most full-size switches.


Disassembly of the GMMK 2 Compact TKL keyboard is quite simple given the typical aluminium frame assembly. Simply remove some specific keycaps as seen above to access eleven Phillips head screws. But I will mention that these screws are on the cheap side; some of the screw heads started to strip as I took them off. Once all screws are removed, the top section can be lifted up far enough to get to the internal USB cable connecting a daughter PCB on the case to the primary PCB connected to the frame by default in this configuration. Remove the tape before the connector cable to fully separate these two pieces.


A thick foam sheet fills the gap between the otherwise empty case and PCB, which will reduce switch reverberations impacting the frame. The foam is also thicker than pretty much any other such implementation I have seen, effectively making it a support pad and gateway to the world of gasket-mount or silicone-padded keyboards. Removing it also reveals the source of the heavier mass on this smaller form factor keyboard, as Glorious installed two steel plates to keep the GMMK 2 grounded in more ways than one. There's also the placebo effect of the keyboard coming off as more premium than it is when held.


The PCB is white and completely separable from the frame by removing all the keycaps, switches, and four other screws under more pieces of insulating tape on this side. Separating the plate from the PCB also provides access for replacing the stabilizers, or at least re-lubing them. There are Glorious-branded hot-swap sockets, which is a nice pull from the OEM—I suspect Kailh. Solder quality is otherwise exceptional, and the PCB is definitely machine-assembled. Outside of that random Vision chipset and a 512 KB Bright Moon flash memory module, I wasn't able to identify any of the used microcontrollers. All I can tell you is that the GMMK 2 supports QMK and VIA, so it's an open-source compatible hardware configuration. All the components, including the switch sockets, SMD RGB 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.