Disassembly

Given Mistel provided a spare key with the retail package, it is only fair that it gets the disassembly treatment as well. This is my first time handling a Cherry ML switch on its own, and taking it apart shows a lot of commonalities between it and newer switches. There is a stem and a switch top, which is different from the now-popular Cherry MX design, a spring, and a base piece that houses the tactile feedback mechanism as well. We can see the use of gold cross point contacts, and a subtle plastic extension the stem slides through when actuated.


Given the Mistel MD650L Barocco is a split keyboard, it is only fair that each piece of the keyboard gets disassembled separately to see what makes these tick. Beginning with the left piece, there are four hex head screws on the back that are easily removed, which then makes dislodging the top piece of the metal case possible. With the split nature of the keyboard, this piece is quite thin and has an exposed side as well. We can see that the case is made out of thick metal too, and there are five more screws now visible on the front. These are Phillips head screws and removing them, we can remove the case entirely off the PCB and the rest of the keyboard. No internal USB cables to worry about here since the connectors are soldered to the PCB and then placed through cutouts in the case.


The PCB itself is a matte black in color and finish, and the switches are soldered in place directly instead of through a steel plate given the thick metal case provides enough structural integrity and this helps with the lower profile of the keyboard. There is zero flex as it is, which is helped by the smaller form factor and split keyboard, so this is a positive in my books. Solder quality is excellent with everything likely machine assembled to keep things tidy, especially on this fairly unique PCB layout. We can see clearly how the connectors jut out slightly, so be careful when taking this piece off and placing it back on the case. The two ports are on one side, alongside some capacitors strewn across the I/O and controller sections. Powering the left piece is a Holtek HT32F1654 32-bit Arm® Cortex®-M3 microcontroller running at a frequency up to 72 MHz with a flash accelerator with up to 64 KB of onboard flash memory and 16 KB of SRAM. A note on the PCB tells us this design was finalized very close to when it was first shown off as a demo product at Computex in June 2018.


The right side of the keyboard is larger, but otherwise identical as far as disassembly goes. Four screws are again on the back for the top panel piece underneath of which are the four LEDs in the bottom-right corner that act as indicator LEDs for the keyboard. There are five more screws accessible on the front, which in turn helps separate the plate/PCB from the bottom-panel piece. The PCB is very similar to the one on the left side, with another Holtek HT32F1654 MCU, and there is also a dedicated Macroblock MBIA043GP LED driver to help drive the indicator LEDs (and more, if you are enterprising enough). As per usual, all the components are soldered on to a multi-layer PCB.

Before we move on, be advised that disassembly will void the warranty and that TechPowerUp is not liable for any damages incurred if you decided to go ahead and do so anyway.