Page 3 - A Closer Look - Disassembly and Internals
Like the Epomaker P75, the MS68 is extremely easy to take apart. With the included hex key or your own hex screwdriver, you can remove a total of five screws from the bottom. Once you do so, the top and bottom separate, revealing the inner contents. From this angle, there are multiple things to note. First, all the switches sit on top of a flex-cut polycarbonate plate. The whole keyboard deck sits in valleys all around the keyboard. Black foam pieces exist in these valleys to cushion and reduce any resonance, but this also explains why there was so much flexing when pressed. The deck sits in place as the top and bottom aluminum enclosures clamp down on these edges. These foam gaskets should reduce vibrations and any unwanted movement transferring to the rest of the shell.
In between the plate and the PCB, there are several layers of sound dampening material, including a thicker sandwich foam, a thin plastic layer, followed by another thin layer of switch foam. These deal with multiple problems including stabilizing the stabilizers and reducing unwanted noise. They also provide a softer feel in each keystroke when bottoming out.
Lifting the Epomaker P75 keyboard deck off its indentation, there are two other components connected to the keyboard. First is a smaller daughterboard that connects to the USB port and mode selector switch at the back. Next is a large 3000mAh battery. This plugs into a socket on the keyboard PCB. Speaking of which, you can see all the hot-swap sockets on the back of the keyboard PCB. I am not entirely sure who the manufacturer of these is, as it has a branding of "Omsen" on each one.
In addition to the battery and connection board, there is a porous sound absorption foam and a dense EVA case foam underneath the printed circuit board. In total, we have five added layers to the keyboard deck and the PCB, which is quite impressive to see how much they have sandwiched into this enclosure. The other thing to note is just how sturdy the metal shell is, as there is no bending or torquing the two pieces.
The Epomaker Sea Salt Silent switches are in a neat combination of colors, matching a sandy yellow stem with a blue base and a clear upper housing. After you open the switch, there are a few things to take note of. The top clear shell is polycarbonate, while the bottom blue material is nylon. In between, we have a yellow polyoxymethylene, or POM, plastic stem. The stem does have an MX design with a box around it to provide a bit more stability for the keys. Epomaker says this switch should be compatible with MX structure keycaps. It might be strange to see a combination of plastics used here, but there are benefits for each different type. For example, polycarbonate is strong and hard, which should keep the switch housing durable to multiple swaps. POM is beneficial to use, as it has a high resistance to abrasion and strength while maintaining a low coefficient of friction, resulting in an overall smooth travel. Altogether, we should have a consistently quiet output when bottoming out. The metal spring inside is 15mm long. There is minimal stem movement from side-to-side or forward-and-back, which is good to see. Otherwise, everything inside is factory lubricated to keep movement smooth for longer.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. A Closer Look - Disassembly and Internals
4. Conclusion
