Disassembly

Given the removable switches and the samples in the box, I wanted to take them apart to show you how the BOX switches got their name. Seen above are the components that make up the BOX Red and BOX White switches, with the spring differing in Hook's constant (for the resistance to travel) and the housing in addition to the stem. Being linear, the BOX Red is simpler in design, with the plastic stem touching the green plastic nib jutting out of the housing. The BOX White, on the other hand, has an extension on the other side that makes contact with the metal click bar on the other side of the housing for the tactile and clicky feedback. The green nib in turn pushes the metal contacts together inside the plastic box, which is why these switches are called "BOX" (not because of the boxy walls around the stem). This allows for increased dust and spill resistance, uniform contact over a longer period of time for the metal leaf actuation, and decoupling of actuation with switch feedback for a more pronounced tactile/clicky response and smoother linear switches.


Disassembly of the TKO Tournament keyboard is one of the easiest I have ever done, mostly owing to the metal frame and smaller form factor. You just have to remove certain specific keycaps from the keyboard to access the countersunk Phillips head screws keeping the keyboard pieces together. Once all eight screws are removed, the top piece simply lifts off the bottom, and there are no internal USB cables to worry about either. The bottom plastic panel is made out of ABS plastic and has a long white plastic diffuser along its edges to help with the edge lighting the TKO supports.


The PCB was made specifically for the Kinesis Gaming TKO, as indicated by the name and logo aboard, and finalized late last year. Despite the switches being hot-swappable, several components are still soldered to the PCB itself, including that relatively huge capacitor and the switch sockets and RGB LEDs. The metal frame adds structural integrity to the keyboard and supports the switches themselves. Solder quality is exceptional here, including for the Type-C port on the corner.


Powering the keyboard is an Atmel AT32UC3B0256 low-power 32-bit AVR RISC-based USB microcontroller. While an older driver, it is still capable, with 256 KB of flash memory and 32 KB SRAM. Kinesis used this very MCU with their previous generation of keyboards to good effect, including the Freestyle Edge, and have added a 4 MB dedicated flash memory module to store all the pre-programmed functions as well as, well, you will see what else on the next page. There are also two Sonix SLED1735 RGB LED drivers for all the backlighting and edge lighting here. as well as a second Atmel ATSAMD20 ARM Cortex-M0+ processor with 256 KB flash and 32 KB SRAM to further add to the hardware capabilities of the TKO. As is the norm these days, the PCB has multiple layers.

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.