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.

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[–] 403 points 1 week ago* (23 children)

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.

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  • [–] 181 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    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 ❤️

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  • [–] 70 points 1 week 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).

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  • [–] [S] 31 points 1 week ago* (4 children)

    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?

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  • [–] 25 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    I suspect the case is also used for another model that does have a microphone.

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  • [–] 25 points 1 week ago* (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week 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.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week 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

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