Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for yet another entry in the Modding My series where we will be taking a look at Part 2 of Project K9. In the first part, we went ever a rather detailed introduction of Gigabyte's flagship opto-mechanical gaming keyboard and all of its unique features including hot swap-able optical switches and the addition of nine additional key caps and switches.
Today in the second part of this project, as promised, we will be tackling the often overlooked foundation of what makes a sound keyboard. And I mean that in the literal sense, as the foundations we will be tackling are the case construction and key stabilizers. But before we can do that, we will first need to take apart the keyboard and break it down to its three essential layers, the top switches, middle plate and PCB and the lower chassis layer.
In order to remove the topmost layer, the switches and the key caps, all you need is a simple switch and key cap puller tool. Although Aorus were kind enough to include a two-in-one key cap and switch remover plastic tool, I would strongly recommend against using it to remove the key caps.
Instead, the tool that I would recommend is a wire key cap puller. Not only are these wire key cap pullers more flexible, they are also generally much longer in length providing a better lever action to allow pulling off the key caps more effortlessly. I have read complaints about Flaretech switches having rather soft stems in the past and breaking off when users tried to remove the key caps with the provided tool. As such, the wire key cap remover is a much safer option as it provides a lot more give to the force applied on the stem. Moreover, the smooth will also be less likely to scratch off the black paint on the key caps in the event you are planning on using the same key caps.
Speaking of key caps, the Aorus K9 uses laser engraved ABS key caps, just like almost every other gaming keyboard in the market today. This still remains to be a sore point for me about this keyboard as the provided additional PBT key caps more than demonstrate Gigabyte's awareness of higher quality key caps yet they probably opted to not include it for cost reasons. Here we can see just how much of a dip in quality that takes with incredibly thin sidewalls on all four sides of the key caps. As a result, the keyboards makes a really high pitched typing sound especially when typing quickly. This is an issue I look forward to resolving by getting a full set of PBT key caps for the K9.
With the key caps removed, we are greeted by the plate mounted Flaretech Red switches below it. Appearance wise, there are not many mechanical switches which resemble the Flaretech look with its black upper housing and clear stem. The closest comparison would be non-RGB Cherry MX Clears but, those have a milky clear stem as opposed to the fully translucent one on the Flaretech optical switches. As a results of the opaque upper housing, the Flaretech switches have a very unique RGB lighting effect which has minimal diffusion and very clear legend illuminations. Certainly not the best option if you are intending to install Pudding key caps on it but, certainly a good choice if you are planning on using a shine through solid color key caps like white or black.
In order to remove the optical switches, simply use the switch puller tool provided with the K9. Again a metal switch puller would be preferential simply but, the plastic one would work just as fine too.
With the switch out, we get the first look at the inner workings of the keyboard itself. Up north, we have the SMD (surface mounted diode) RBG LED. In the middle, there is a circular opening which allows the spring housing to pass through. Finally down south, we have the contact points which relay the information between each physical key actuation to a digital signal. Everything looked clean and very much in order and the best part was, Gigabyte did not choose to skimp out on by providing a fully black PCB. Two thumbs up there.
Once I was confident with the amount of force required to pull off the key caps safely, I went on to work on the remaining 103 keys on the keyboard leaving the longer ones like the shift, enter and space bar for the last.
And through it all, I am happy to report that not a single stem was damaged in the entire process. I will admit, this was probably one of the most tense parts of the disassembly of the keyboard hearing as to how there were several well documented accounts of the Flaretech's stems just snapping clean off.
Key caps out and put aside safely, it was time to separate the aluminum top plate from the PCB and chassis below it. The Aorus K9 follow the traditional three layer layout with the metal plate on top, PCB in the middle and chassis down below. Knowing that, I set aside two separate containers for the tiny black screws which held everything together and there sure was a lot of them.
Because the optical switches on the K9 are hot swap-able and plate mounted, simply removing the plate keeps all of switches mounted on the plate with the PCB and the plate separating neatly. No fuss, no mess. At this point, it is worth mentioning the thick aluminum plate used on the K9. This thing makes up at least 70% of the weight of the keyboard and is an absolute unit! There is no flex, bending or warping on it whatsoever. This is a big step up from what other smaller companies would claim by saying they use a metal top plate but, is in fact, just a thin sheet of flimsy metal.
With the plate and switches removed, it was time to move on to removing yet another batch of screws to separate the PCB from the chassis. Like I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of screws. I forgot to measure the height difference between the plate and PCB screws but, just to be on the safe side, I made sure to put them in different containers. Just like the PCB, the K9 also uses black anodized screws throughout the keyboard even on the inside. It's little details like this which point to Gigabyte's experience and expertise in making enthusiast PC components over the past several decades.
Now that all the screws were removed, I was able to separate the PCB from the chassis. Unfortunately, I could not completely separate the two as the main USB connector had been glued to the PCB connector. This a bit of a let down but, fortunately, I was able to maneuver the braided cable to pass through the inside of the case and provide sufficient give between the PCB and chassis.
With the PCB separated and lifted away, my heart sunk as I observed the number of holes that had to be filled in the chassis. The chassis itself is made of black ABS plastic which is not particularly thick. Thus it flexes very easily and also contributes greatly to the hollow sound that you get from typing on this keyboard. The checkerboard lines that you see throughout the case are there to add more rigidity to the plastic chassis without having to use thicker materials. Did it work? Not particularly, as the chassis still flexed and wobbled with minimum force applied. Something I did not see in my SK621 which use a much thicker plastic chassis.
After a considerable amount of time and a lot of cutting, I managed to get the foam filled into almost every crevice of the keyboard's chassis. Leaving only a small amount of space for the cable to tuck into when the PCB is remounted on the chassis.
I had some concerns that the foam would be too thick for this chassis. As such, I had tried several test fits along the way to make sure I was not compressing on any important key components. When it came time to mount the PCB back, it all fit together just fine.
Before I proceeded to mount the plate back onto the main body, it was time for the next crucial step of this entire project, lubricating the stabilizers. Just like the SK621, I will be using Super Lube's dielectric grease. Most other PTFE silicon lubricants should do the job just fine and I would suggest using one which fits your budget.
The Aorus K9 uses clip on Cherry style stabilizers for all of its wider keys and I am happy to report that there is no semblance of loose fittings on any of the eight stabilizers on the entire keyboard. This alone cuts out an entire step of correcting the fit of the stabilizers onto the plate. Not only that, it reaffirms my earlier statement praising Gigabyte in making a high quality plate with excellent tolerances.
In all fairness, the stabilizer on the K9 really did not sound too bad. The high pitched tone is attributed to the thin key caps and hollow chassis. There certainly is a small amount of rattle in the keyboard. But for the most part things sound pretty good. The only part where it is lacking is feel where the stabilized keys feel significantly rougher and heavier than the other otherwise incredibly smooth keys.
Clip on stabilizers are plate mounted and are best removed from behind the plate hence, keeping the plate separate from the PCB until this process was complete. I made a quick inspection of the stabilizer components and made sure the stabilizer wire itself was properly aligned. Misaligned stabilizer wires often cause residual rattle even when lubricated so, it was important to identify that before the lubricating process itself.
With the aid of a syringe, I was able to evenly lubricate the short stems of the wires on both sides. You want to be careful to not over lubricate the stabilizers as the viscosity of the grease will prevent the keys from rebounding. To get a feel of how much grease you will need to use, simply start with a single stabilizer and constantly test it and compare it with a stock one until you find the ideal level of smoothness and dampening to your liking.
After a bit of trial and error, I finally found the sweet spot for the stabilizer lubrication. Compared to the stock non-lubricated Enter key (as seen in the video above), the lubricated Shift key sounds and feels much better.
At this point, I had the option to then proceed with the oft-debated band aid mod and stabilizer clipping. Ultimately, I decided against doing those mods as the stabilizers were already at a point where I was happy with their typing feel and sound. I am certain silencing the stabilizers further would have been of interest to some enthusiast but, for the end user in this case, that would be far less of a concern.
Having formulated the right amount of lubrication to apply, I set out to work on the seven remaining stabilizers. Making sure to test them each time I was done and comparing them with the initially lubricated stabilizers to ensure that they all felt uniform across the board.
I also found that breaking in the stabilizers a little by rapidly pressing on it was important to set in the applied grease. Any inconsistencies was touched with a paintbrush with some grease on it. After I was satisfied with the results on all eight of the stabilizers, it was time to put everything back together.
So there we have it; switch, plate, PCB and chassis all back together in one place. The only thing left to do was to replace some of the switches and get the new set of key caps fitted. Unfortunately at the time of writing, the key caps that I ordered have yet to arrive. All of that will be covered in Part 3 of Project K9 as we put the finishing touches to this keyboard. In the meantime, if you have any questions do not hesitate to leave them in the comments section below. Until the next time, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!
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