Disassembly

The Varmilo EC Iris V2 switches are soldered in place and I do not have a spare unit available for closer examination and disassembly this time round, so we begin with the keyboard disassembly itself. The Minilo Eucalyptus employs a two-piece case construction, and this means using a thin flat object to pry apart interlocking plastic tabs keeping the top case panel in place. Be careful doing so lest you break the tabs or scratch the case. While I was doing this, I also inadvertently turned on Bluetooth and the keyboard went into pairing mode while additionally turning on LEDs on the bottom right corner that light up the Varmilo logo in the top case panel! This was unexpected but cool nonetheless, and further disassembly requires the removal of several specific keycaps to gain access to just three Phillips head screws.


At this point you can lift off the plate/PCB piece off the bottom case panel enough to dislodge an internal cable going from the battery embedded in the case to the PCB itself. Here we also see a relatively thick foam sheet between the PCB and the case to help dampen typing sounds and eliminate reverberations from downstrokes. I also appreciated that Varmilo is using a 3400 mAh battery here, which is on the larger side of average for small form factor keyboards such as the Minilo series and should make for a long battery life in Bluetooth mode.


The PCB is blue in color and, on this dual mode version, has the switches soldered in place. The wired-only and the triple mode versions will have hot-swappable switch sockets that will also enable easier removal of the plate and access to the stabilizer bars for re-lubing if needed. All three versions have silicone pads between the plate and PCB at various places, and this further helps dampen keystrokes. The Type-C port is also integrated on the PCB itself, and the solder quality is exceptional here to where this is definitely machine assembled. Disassembly also shows the internal model name for this unit to be the Varmilo VXB67 v2.0. I was not able to find anything useful on the hardware drivers, although I will note that there is not a whole lot of extra pre-programmed functionality, so it's not like the keyboard needs something powerful, either. Presumably, one is the USB microcontroller and the other potentially a hardware LED driver to help power the various white LEDs aboard here, and these are the same ones used on the other Varmilo and Shurikey Gear keyboards covered here thus far. The third one on the blue daughter PCB is a Texas Instruments CC2541 2.4 GHz Bluetooth 5.0 LE transceiver meaning this keyboard is technically capable of 2.4 GHz connectivity too and no doubt we will see the same SoC used on the triple mode version coming later this year. All the components, including the switches, 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.