Disassembly

Disassembly is one of the simplest I have had to date, especially as I was apprehensive given the split keyboard design and plastic case. As it turns out, each half is just held together by Phillips head screws on the bottom. Now, I was told that this sample is not brand new since it had been repacked after Zergotech used it for their own testing. As such, I am willing to ignore the "signs of love" here, including some dust inside, as well as some screw holes that were no longer threaded well. Either way, note that there is one hidden screw per keyboard half under a rubber pad, following which you can easily lift the top off the bottom. Zergotech put a foam piece in between, removal of which confirms the ABS plastic used for the case.


The PCB here is an interesting design as well, and definitely custom to the Zergotech Freedom based on the shape and obvious logo on the bottom corner. It is a white matte, and the switches are soldered through a steel plate between the top plastic case and the PCB. There are a couple of interesting tidbits here too, including a reset button the company says is purposely hidden from user access since it does more than the soft reset you may be thinking of. Powering the keyboard is an Atmel AT90USB1286 8-bit RISC architecture microcontroller with 128 KB flash memory, 8 KB SRAM, and 4 KB EEPROM. We can also see the internal USB connectors, one from the PC and the other passing on the signal and power to the right half.


Speaking of which, we have the same set of eight screws holding the right half together and more foam on the bottom case panel. There is a complimentary PCB which is mirrored in design, and solder quality is very good for all components here, including the switches themselves. 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.