Disassembly

Given the Kailh BOX Hush is the primary focus of this article, don't blame me for having even more photos of the same. This time, we take one apart to examine the components themselves. The top cover doesn't seem that unique until you view it from the side, where we see the cutout to accommodate the plastic diffuser, which Kailh calls the light pillar, and the underside with two sets of rubberized dampers the stem/slider goes between. These are different from the usual silent switches, which go with a smaller centrally placed plastic damper that reduces upstroke and downstroke noise. Kailh, with the BOX Hush, has gone with discrete, larger sound-dampening surfaces. The stem is not lubed, but that is typical with BOX switches. The light pillar, if you will, is also larger than average and intended to go with north-facing LEDs. The steel spring is shorter than average and adopts the typical normal coiled distribution. It is on the stiffer side of average, especially considering the length.


We now get to the base housing that directly contributes to the BOX naming. A typical mechanical switch has the stem travel down and touch one side of a copper leaf, which is in turn pushed towards the other side. This metal contact then triggers the actuation of the keystroke on the PCB, and off it goes to your computer to be reflected as an action. With the BOX series, Kailh added an intermediate plastic nib, the Active Block, that is lubed well, too. The plastic of the stem thus only touches this green plastic nib here, which in turn pushes the moving metal plate onto the stationary metal plate for actuation. Thus, the metal contacts remain isolated and covered, which is how these switches got the IP56 dust and spill resistance rating. With the BOX Hush, we see an even larger rubber pad at the bottom that aims to reduce downstroke noise.


Disassembling the keyboard is simple enough, especially if it ships the way it did with no installed keycaps. Regardless, there are a total of seven Phillips head screws underneath some specific keycaps that hold the plate and PCB installed in the case, and this is also where see how soft the case is relative to others, as the screw literally churning some plastic out. Even with the screws removed, the plate is snugly in place, and you need to pry it out using a thin, flat object between accessible holes (space bar, screw holes, etc). It will eventually rise until you have enough room to remove the internal cable going from the 2900 mAh battery to the PCB itself. The battery appears to consist of two combined 1450 mAh units and takes up a good chunk of space in an otherwise empty case—no foam sheet to be found here. This leaves the PCB for closer examination, which has the switch sockets soldered onto it and the plate held in place via more screws I am not bothering to remove.


Indeed, there is little reason to do so considering everything of importance is on this side of the green PCB anyway. Solder quality is very good, so this is likely machine assembled. As expected, the Kailh BOX keyboard uses Kailh 3-pin hotswap switch sockets. The purple central pin, if you will, of each BOX Hush switch also makes a showing for some contrast against the green and white. Powering the keyboard in both USB and Bluetooth modes is a YiChip YC31 32-bit RISC core USB microcontroller and integrated Bluetooth 5.0 transceiver. It has up to 1 MB of integrated flash memory, 64 KB SRAM, and 8 KB ROM. There is a second controller on board for the 2.4 GHz mode, but it could also be handling Bluetooth 5.0 since the Beken BK3632 is capable of both. There are no dedicated hardware LED drivers, so expect the LED customization to be with simpler preset effects only. As is the norm these days, the PCB has multiple layers.

Before we move on, be advised that disassembly may void the warranty and TechPowerUp is not liable for any damages incurred if you decide to go ahead and do so anyway.