Disassembly

The iKBC Table E412 keyboard adopts a two-piece plastic case design, which means having to deal with interlocking plastic tabs, unfortunately. In addition, as seen above, there are eight hidden screws underneath the various rubber pads on the back and the certification label itself. A precision Phillips head screwdriver comes in handy here, as does a flat object to pry apart the two plastic case pieces.


The bottom piece is made out of ABS plastic and has a cutout the USB Type-C port fits into, as well as several other spacings and extensions for the screws and keyboard feet. The PCB is still connected to the top panel piece via a ribbon cable attached to a daughter PCB on the top plastic case (also ABS plastic). This daughter PCB connects the volume scroll wheel to the rest of the keyboard, and alongside are the keycaps for the various buttons next to the volume wheel. There is also a lot of insulation on this piece to ensure no electrical shorting on the PCB itself.


The primary PCB is also red and shaped differently to accommodate the different design of the keyboard here. Many of the components, including the switches and associated LEDs, appear to be hand soldered, and the solder quality is fairly good with small peaks. The Type-C port is located around a cutout of the PCB, which helps accommodate the inset connection on the assembled case, and there are capacitors strewn around here as well as the primary controllers. There is also a hardware reset button in the top left and close to the ribbon connector from before, which is a fail-safe in case a soft reset is not an option if the keyboard is locked down. More on that on the next page.


Powering the keyboard is a Holtek HT50F52 USB microcontroller, which we saw put to good use in backlit mechanical keyboards from Cooler Master, Ducky, and others in the recent past. There is also a Winbond W25Q32JV 8 MB flash memory module to store all the pre-programmed functions, and a Sonix SLED1735 LED driver that is more than capable of running the various LEDs onboard. 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.