It’s a Rii Mini Keyboard i4, and my concern is that it’s a microphone. I just noticed the hole and think I’m probably wrong in what it is considering how big a deal it would be if it was a mic that isn’t advertised.

What could this hole be for or what is it? Thanks in advance, hope this doesn’t violate any rules.

  • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netEnglish
    407·
    1 month ago

    Well, you’re in luck, as I happen to own this exact model, which has the same hole.

    Taking it apart is quite easy, just 6 screws and some plastic tabs hold it together.

    Here’s the components on the underside of the board beneath the hole (these components face the rear backplate)

    And if I pry the case apart a bit, I can’t see any components directly beneath the hole, it’s just bare PCB.

    As far as I can tell, no microphone is present. The hole is likely a product of the injection molding process for the outer case.

    One thing to note about this device though; while the ergonomics are great and its been reliable, I notice that my left hand wrapping around the case can sorta block the mouse pad signal to the dongle (about 6 feet away), so I need to hold it in a way that the transmitter isn’t blocked by my hand to move the mouse curser smoothly.

    • Cris_Citrus (he/him <3)@piefed.zipEnglish
      181·
      1 month ago

      Youre a motherfuckin real one for pulling yours out and doing a teardown to ease their anxiety

      That is such a kind effort to go to for some random person on the internet, thanks for being here ❤️

      • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netEnglish
        72·
        1 month ago

        I happened to have it and a small enough screwdriver nearby, so figured why not (and I was honestly curious if there was a microphone a myself, that hole was a bit sus, especially after seeing the GN video about LG TVs spying with their mics).

      • Whostosay@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
        15·
        1 month ago

        Dude for real, I literally had my shit sprawled out, taken apart and turned to my gf and showed her the post and said “that looks familiar”

        The goat.

    • Whostosay@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      31·
      1 month ago

      I did too, and I couldn’t see any sort of reset or anything, and I tried to identify the nearby chips online but couldn’t. Injection molding would make sense. Thanks!

      I’m curious, is that your first time noticing the hole?

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      27·
      1 month ago

      Thank you for going above and beyond in answering this question :)

      Love to see it

    • ch00f@lemmy.worldEnglish
      25·
      1 month ago

      Injection mold tooling is expensive ($40k+) and PCB iteration is cheap. Its especially hard to add holes to existing plastic parts as that requires adding material to the tool (as opposed to cutting material away). It’s possible a past prototype or future version had/will have a microphone. Or they just wanted to keep their options open.

      • Skanky@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        1 month ago

        I do a of lot of sourcing for plastic injection mold tooling. $40k is a pretty high price for this one, but if you are getting out made in the US, then it’s not completely unreasonable. Sourcing it from China would be considerably less than half that price.

        Assuming they’re buying extremely large quantities (likely over 10k), I’d guess that this part (top and bottom shells) cost about $3 to $5 for both, not including shipping costs.

        • ch00f@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          1 month ago

          Good to know! I’m an electrical engineer, and $40k was always the generic number we got tossed from the MEs. Not sure if it was for domestic or multi-part molds.

          For reference, I’d wager single quantities PCB prototypes at around $100 each and maybe $5 at scale.

    • Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      8·
      1 month ago

      I’d love to see a community that does breakdowns of all sorts of electronic goods like this. It can be really informative and entertaining.

    • subversive_dev@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      1 month ago

      I also have this exact same device and I also noticed annoying mouse jitter. I tentatively diagnosed it as the dongle itself getting overheated (that PC gets pretty hot and putting on a fan on it seemed to help). I definitely want to try your suggestion now

  • Artwork@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    1 month ago

    Wonderful day!

    Indeed, the manual does not describe it:
    - http://www.riitek.com/upload/i4.pdf

    It seems more like a hard “reset” button located at the front for unknown reason…

    The single teardown I found that exposes the PCB front of this device is the following, but the website has the full sizes of the images locked behind authorization:
    - https://www.mydigit.cn/thread-220779-1-1.html

    From the first glance at other teardowns found, it seems like the device is relatively easy to disassemble to check it manually. For example:

    Disassemble the RII i4 wireless keyboard by removing the six screws from the bottom case.
    Be sure to remove the battery before prying apart the top and bottom case as this can damage the battery connector.

    Source: https://jasco.website/projects/step/about.html

    Update

    Oh! I’d been writing the comment, and once published, 3 more appeared!
    Thank you, @ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net, for the information! Please do consider publishing it at more searchable blog/forum/resource, too!

    • ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.netEnglish
      14·
      1 month ago

      Please do consider publishing it at more searchable blog/forum/resource, too!

      I have no where else to post it to besides here, I’m afraid. But if anyone else wants to post those pictures elsewhere, feel free :)

  • wattanao@fedia.io
    3·
    1 month ago

    I’ve looked through all of the keyboards on Riitek, I don’t see any mention of this dot on any page or in any manual, but it consistently shows up on these mini keyboards with a dongle, so my guess is something to do with the wireless connection, but I’m not sure what. Another possibility is a screw hole, since there’s only so much real estate on these tiny things, but that seems less likely.

    • Whostosay@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      Not a screw hole, and the more I think about it, unlikely it’s injection molding artificact due to the amount of other holes they could have used. Maybe right.