Disassembly

There are no hot-swappable switches present, and thus the disassembly section begins and ends with the keyboard itself. Doing so is relatively simple given the single piece plastic case used that has the plate/PCB section screwed in six places as seen above. You can access these Phillips head screws by removing certain specific keycaps, where a precision screwdriver then comes in handy. At this point you can lift up the plate/PCB piece off the case enough to gain access to, and dislodge, an internal ribbon cable going from a daughter PCB in the case to the primary PCB itself.


The case itself is made of injection molded ABS plastic in black and this view also confirms the design is not just a wrap glued to the plastic as with the M84 Coral Sea. There's not much to see here, given the case is mostly empty but this is an opportune time for users to fill up the space with sound-absorbing foam if they were so inclined. Of note is the small magnet used to secure the USB dongle in place and the daughter PCB that goes to the 1850 mAh battery for power, when using the 2.4 GHz connection. I wish XVX had gone with a larger battery, as has become the norm with many such wireless keyboards recently. The primary PCB is also green and has the switches soldered in place, preventing further disassembly and easier access to the stabilizers from this side.


Solder quality overall is quite good and XVX is re-using the PCB across multiple keyboards all named M61. Powering the keyboard is an HFD2201KBA 64-bit USB microcontroller, about which I couldn't find much useful information online, but it's predecessor has been used in the past—including on the XVX M84—and thus this newer chip should do the job just fine. Wireless connectivity comes from the Beken BK2425 low-power, high performance 2.4 GHz transceiver. There are no dedicated LED drivers, so the USB microcontroller does double duty by also being the lighting controller. 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.