Random Teardown

[@AaronAndrewHunt]

A little more work would have shown how excellent this design is. That metal slab across the key contacts is made to last forever. It protects the contacts so dust will *never* get into these keys. The key contact board is single sided and 2mm thick. the whole structure has more mounting posts than necessary. Those points alone are enough to make this a "pro" unit; the keys are tiny and don't feel great, but the design is in fact much more robust than most keyboards on the market. Under every key there is a hollow plastic support column (as can be seen under the button board on the left) which means there is no stress on the PCB no matter how hard these keys are pressed. The keys are basically never going to fail electronically. There is one glaring weakness in this design though: the mini-USB jack, which is SMD. With a lot of plugging and unplugging, that is *guaranteed* to fail at some point, and fixing that by hand is not easy (often impossible).

[@pixelflow]

Thanks for the teardown! That STM32F1xx seems to be the bread and butter of usb midi devices. I came across it in the Behringer X-touch and the Novation Launchpad series too!

[@Hlpus1nall]

At 10:34 I wish you'd shown or could you explain how you got the key section back in? Thanks

[@seandipaul8257]

Like do spare parts not exist for this?

[@Hlpus1nall]

You take the cable out at 2:28. Mine has a glued metal piece over the cable that yours doesn't have. The cable doesn't seem to want to slip out of it. How can I get the cable out? Can I pry the metal thing from it's glue? Thanks for any tips.

[@AaronAndrewHunt]

The cable can be easily pulled out of its socket on the small board with the buttons. Just be sure to note the orientation so you plug it back in correctly.

[@lukaczsteiner8178]

broo, why did you skip the important part?

[@cajitamusical1470]

good video! Can you show me how to solder a sustain pedal directly to the board? greetings

[@michaelsawczak7653]

Awesome video man. Thanks for uploading

[@chinesemusic8019]

DOn't use a screwdriver to break apart the back snaps . It may scratch the plastic. Use the nylon pick tool f(looks like a guitar pick with a beveled edge) from a iphone/mac toolkit and slide through the back. The snaps will easily release.

[@leeselectronicwidgets]

The resistors are zero ohm which are used as jumpers as it's a single sided PCB

[@lectrikdog]

perhaps with external power and a custom midi adapter this could control a volca or an uno - need info

[@dodomixofficiel6421]

Thank you how can you help to find the board

[@lunadud]

why do you break everything.

[@Canaanite]

got mine a month ago. this is defently a good buy im so happy.

[@davusito]

thanks!!! your a genious!

[@gilbertnavarez3247]

Nice

[@OVXX666]

*do not open* "nothing really interesting on the back"

[@Ferkle871]

Listen,I know its been 4 years but I recently bought one with a broken USB port. You seem like someone who actually knows what their doing so if you could get back to me and we talk on social media I could really use some help fixing it.

[@ericlo_]

mine just broke too lmaoo

[@mpoerot8013]

ok, so what's the chance to add full octave keys from another unit? oh okay, you can't play it that's why you tore it down. point taken.