Never had one lesson Hi bit of a different teardown Today we've got this new model Casio CTX 700 keyboard. It's a hundred and seventy-nine US Dollars and somebody asked me to take a look at this and how they're actually doing this for the price because apparently for this sort of price, it is an absolute killer because it has full velocity. a full 61-key velocity piano keyboard on it now I've actually done a Yamaha PSR ad I think it was quite a few years back and I'll link the one in down below and at the end as well and that was a a keyboard with our velocity control keys well sort of from the 1980s and it was really interesting how they implemented that. So I thought this might make an interesting teardown.

so let's have a look at it and know. I can't play to save my life I have not the least bit musical but I am interested obviously not in the process in the stuff like that. That's okay. Casio has some whiz-bang technology that goes into this that makes it you know sound like hundreds, 600 different instruments and all sorts of stuff and which is really you know, amazing I'm sure they're doing a good job at that, but I'm really more interested in how they do the velocity keys because if you look at the PSR 80 that Yamaha from the 1980s I think it was limited to like groups of keys and it was only like three level velocity or something like that.

whereas this one seems to be across as many cases she can press at once and all individual based. and also it seems to be like not just a fixed level, it seems to be like a pure velocity level. I'll just demonstrate that here. and yes, I am feeding this signal directly into my camera so that's how it's so good.

And here go: Mike Okay, I'll just and the harder I hit that the more it sounds like a piano. It's there. like truly velocity. or at least you know I'm not sure how close it is to an actual you know, an actual piano.

so I won't pretend to know all the functionality on this thing, but it's got like up to see. It's got 600 times, hundred and ninety five rhythms, 160 song, Bank and all sorts of stuff. and yeah, it's very impressive I'm sure once again, especially for the price. and it's got two larger speakers on here I Don't know if they're just single cone like full range art ones, but they are quite large as you'd expect.

and on the back here we've got a pedal interface and audio in not sure why um did you I don't know once again I don't know anything about this music stuff DC jack and headphone / line level output that I was able to fit into my camera. Apart from that, just a USB on here and it's got MIDI interface and whatnot. however that works. Yeah its power from 6 double-a batteries which is are very impressive.

The original Yamaha from the 80s had like C batteries. Wasn't it Real pain in the ass? Anyway, 9.5 volt, 1 amp jack or 6 double-a batteries might have to measure the power consumption of that. As for the rest of it, well these moldings down here might give us a clue as to how it's sort of. The velocity keys work as all this stuff, all this stuff along here obviously has something or a lot to do with the the velocity keys.

Oh I think I can see the board? Yeah, I can see the PCB so it's not completely sealed on the bottom there. Anyway, it's tearing apart. I Find it interesting that these come in blocks like that. There's three of them along there.

so I open that up first, see what's what under there? Aha. Right away we see the same technique used in the Yamaha keyboard from the 80s and that like they've got this felt in there and that are the backs of the keys. just you know it's stock. It gives them a just a nicer feel when they come back.

Or maybe you know, no sound. Sort of deadens the sound or the response when you when you push the key in like that and then it you know comes back. It just gives it a little bit of give. So there's absolutely nothing different about those three sections there.

So why they've got those three individual plastic things? Well, there could be several reasons. One, they didn't want to make one single moulding that thin that long, perhaps. But why do they have this at all? Why doesn't this just come over as one big molding? Well I That's got to have something to do with the assembly of this thing. It's got to be assembled in a certain way and maybe they like put the felt in here as a step so they need access down there to put the felt.

Perhaps and it's just got to be some sort of aid to assembly. I Would think all right, this could get a bit tricky wearing like Flynn in like Flynn Leland Single sided. Still got the single sided board for the cost reduction. nice and they're just let's have a look.

Oh, this is fantastic. If it wasn't for this modern PCB here, this would be straight out of the 1980s. As I said single sided PCB for cost reduction Here, it is still as cheap as PCBs are. These days, it is still cheaper to actually manufacture a single sided board.

That's why you'll still find them in high-volume consumer products. you know TVs Things like this, Microwave, ovens, washing machines and you know, also like white goods and all sorts of. you know it's stuff like that so it's all. I Love it! We've just got our arm 18 dips here on a single sided board, a bunch of electrodes and the connectors.

the LCD panels mounted directly on the back of that we have absolutely fantastic. Do they have a ribbon cable for that? I Don't know we might have to flip it out but Wow and look old-school wiring straight under links. Look at that, some one of the umple at Casio and Palapa Factory is um, you know? handsaw are they? Yeah, no, they've put but put two links in there and then soldered the wire between the individual links. Look at that.

Wow Nice and old-school ribbon cable just going off down to the keyboard down here. This is terrific and check this out. All the magic happens in one big Casio custom. ASIC Unbelievable.

like I'm doubting that this is an FPGA I'm have to look at the smaller chips, whether or not there's like an external A-squared prom or something like that, but everything's in there I'll have to take it out and look at the doubles and the other side as well cuz like you know, where's all the memory and everything else but Casio have the clout to you know, do their own custom Asics for something like this I Don't know if this is a new one specifically for this keyboard because they haven't talked down any other my Casio keyboards. but yeah there's nothing in it. but this is how they get the cost down. This is a hundred and seventy five dollar retail or whatever.

that's the street price. re US retail keyboard and for something of the size and complexity, it's just yeah. and they gonna save every cent they can. And it's obviously cheaper to have someone hand solder these ribbons on there like that.

Sure, it's very quick and easy. They might even have maybe a, you know, a bit of a jig for it or something like that than it is to, you know, piss money away on a connector. I Don't that and you'll notice the attention to detail. look.

foam. They put a foam strip all the way along that and the only reason you do that is if you want to have an acoustically sealed chamber all the way down in here. few speakers I Mean you know it's not. It's not the world's best speaker design, but you know you don't want it leaking out and you know, might sound a bit bit messy or insert audiophile wank word here, so you know, but there are real.

You know there's real that goes into the acoustics of boxes and stuff like that, but obviously that's what they're doing. Maybe that's what they're doing here with the foam as well, but why they didn't do it on? they did on these and not on these I Don't know. Anyway, it's interesting, but the foam is mainly just at the back there, so maybe that was like a big port. I Don't see any up the top or anything like that.

Hmm, you can see that the keys are manufactured in what two, four, six, seven, plus them. whatever you call those keys up there I Told you I know nothing about these and they've done those in one moulding so they just duplicate that across the multiple keys like that so we can whip that out and should start to get in like Flynn Anyway, down on the input stuff. Here's some mum. LM Forty five, Sixty five low noise Op amps down in there.

A couple of little common-mode chokes got some silastic down in there. Somebody had a little bit of fun I Thought they had a gilded the Lily up here with a double sided PCB But no, that one's only single sided. That's just for the volume pot on the front, but that's nice. I Guess they needed the setback on that so they couldn't do it on the main.

PCB And for the pair amplifier down in there, they've got it for our Ta eight, double to seven and you can tell it's a power amplifier because the middle pins like that join together. Nice big fat pins. Oh yeah, they've actually be power pins. And also of course, our extracting that.

You know, we're not talking about super power here, but they'd be extracting the heat out of the dye as well. That's their job, that's why they're thick. Ah, there's your memory on the back. As expected, we've got our working memory and our flush memory, of course, Was there a header on the top? I Don't know.

There's lots of you know, production test points down in there. Maybe they program it through here. What's this over here? I Don't know. It looks like they got a cap on each one of the input pins here from the various some you know going.

is that like EMC Something like that. And there's our driver down in there. No surprises just for finding one bigger, full range driver. You know, no separate tweeter on that thing.

There's no need. so why is soldered directly on as we're seen on the other. It's none of this crimp connector rubbish that just cost extra production time extra cent or whatever. So they're shaving the cost.

They're obviously they've got this wall up here. that's part of the acoustics. they're kind of trying to create, like maybe a chamber in here and have it sort of come out the side. I mean I'm sure they've done their testing.

it's not. You know, it's not going to set the world alight for a hundred and seventy five bucks. and that's just a regular paper cone. Nothing special, but you know it does the job for an internal keyboard speaker.

And I'm sure they've you know, done at least a little bit of acoustics here to make it at least not sound completely crap part number for those playing along at home. Well, I Really am starting to like the you know, sectionalized construction of this thing with the molding there. That's the you know. the speaker just wraps around like they're the keys.

Obviously like screw on top like this. We'll be able to take those out no worries. And all the center console like that. You can work on that separately.

can test that separately. bring these together. simple them in different parts of the production line. Then you know, bring them together.

There's there'd be a person or two doing like final assembly mhm, one more than the person or two. I don't know the volumes on this. It's got to be large. Anyway, it's very nice.

Alright, will this be the big reveal? That's nope cuz there's some this has got a up. Well hello individual. Oh okay, no okay, no look at that. It's not what I thought that was one molding.

it's not. It comes to part is to separate moldings. Looks like the keys have to come out like that and then flip up. Aha now we're in like Flynn Okay, so I don't see any like multi-level stuff.

This is obviously the part that's pushing down here because this we actually saw on the bottom. so that's just like a stop. That's just the you know the thing that allows the the range of the key to go like that. Yeah, I know by the way, I'm not sure how long you know these in here would last.

You know by going being being being being being I'm sure there for you know there might be a finite life to that, but there's not a lot of range of that movement there. Sure, they've chosen their type of plastic correctly. d-56 say hey, that just looks like it's Abs I Don't know those numbers mean something. f56 Oh they a Oh Are they do they go as D Do they go in a specific location? I Don't think so.

I think they're all identical mouldings? Yep, 28 2 and this one over here is 28 2 as well. Oh, we've got some gunk down in here. Check it out. There you go.

That's just like some silicon grease. something like that make it smooth as silk. Oh this is interesting. The Black Keys though come in a bigger molding like that sweet and they've got exactly the same on the bottom there so that contacts this somehow.

Oh Secret sauce time. So this is interesting. This board starts here and goes all the way with LBJ I Think it goes all the way to the end so that that makes sense because you don't want to have like oh how long is this thing like a meter long or something 900 millimeters. You don't want to board that big going through your pick in place.

Well actually that's uh, that's is that refloat. No yeah I think it's refloat. it's not wave. Sold it anyway.

Um yeah. so they split it in you don't want one big long board? That's why they've got the two ribbon cables. one here and one over here. But curiously, they do join.

and if we have a look down in here, these keys we'll take a look at. But look, this is obviously a single sided board and on the top side here, they're using carbon. They just lay down another layer of carbon to actually get in there. Now, this is not going to be a short.

These are actually going to have some resistance. so let's measure that here. we go. Forty Seven.

Ohms, Forty-four It's not exactly controlled I have done a video on these. what all these carbon tracks are about. Might have to link that in if I remember. But there you go.

Yeah, they're not sure maybe they're doing. they are carbon resistors for a reason perhaps. but I think the most likely explanation there is that nip, don't have a reason that I think that would be. my best guess is that they're not actually using them as resistance.

they're just using them as jumpers there. The board was obviously cheaper with these, because look, you know you got all the traces running under there. It's just you know what you do on a on a double sided layout because if they wanted to resist us, they've already got to put down these little what are they? our diodes? D There you go. They've already got to put down these diodes and solder those on reflow.

So why not do resistors as well? But the problem with that is is that you know you have trouble running all your traces that you need. It's just a load PCB layout thing under your resistors. You could probably use some mel freh you know, some longer milf resistors in there perhaps and achieve the same result. but it's pretty narrow in there anyway.

Mmm. they've decided to do that instead of a double-sided board. Interesting and this other black stuff here. it just looks like masking eye.

We're gonna have to remove this to see. oh doesn't go all the way with LBJ Look at that. Wow Okay now for the big reveal. What's under these keys here are they are capacitive type things.

Look, they've got to like like whole mouldings in that like to contact. they'd be contacts. and so let's lift skirt up here because these things look like they're that they're anchored down to the board. I Don't really? Uh, we're gonna have to pop it out.

Oh yeah, yeah, we can pop it. There you go. No workers? Yeah, yeah, she'll be right. Well I Am surprised they're just your regular membrane keypad contacts on there, done with our carbon instead of a gold-plated PCB contact.

They're just your regular carbon contact pads. Two of them. It's like what I expected. Something a bit more advanced than that than just contact based.

Obviously mean like this. Two of them. and they're separate for a reason. Obviously one makes contact before the other does, so that's got to be just too slow angle.

So when you press the key down like that, this bottom one connects first right. It just hits on the bottom there because they're They're not angled or anything like that. That's what I said before I was looking for any sort of like stepped based thing there that we saw in the Yamaha keyboard. You have to check the teardown out of that.

I had like three layers if memory serves me correctly. and yeah, so it pushes on that first hole first and then the next hole. So using a combination of those and the timing I guess between them is how they can determine the velocity. so that's incredibly simplistic.

That's not what I was expecting I was hoping for some, you know, wing wiz being a capacitive you know, like distance sensor or or something like that. cuz I don't think they're doing that. You couldn't do that like over the long cables and everything. it just doesn't work out.

they're they're simply a contact based system. Well, I'm gobsmacked, but they obviously make it work. but I guess you'd have to have an expert playing this and so I'm not one of them. And to determine how good the velocity feature is in this thing, but at least it has the velocity feature.

but yet they're just using two layers there and probably almost certainly the timing between them to you know, to realize how far and how fast you're pressing the key. So wah-wah-wah So much for that. That's all there is to the teardown. Really? Sorry I Expected something more advanced, but they're getting away with it.

Simply cheaply good on Casio So this kind of makes sense Now why they've done those carbon resistors in quote marks arm up here. And because this is a single sided board. and basically if you wanted like to use your traditional like gold contact membrane pads down here, then well they wouldn't have had anything up here. for the jumpers, you couldn't put in individual jump links.

that would have cost a fortune. they would have forced them to a double sided PCB just for layout reasons. The designers decided no. it's actually cheaper to go for a single layer board and have the carbon process and then we can do the carbon down here.

We don't. We can save the cost of the gold flash on the PCB and we can do away with the individual resistors on their head, but the cost of the double-sided board. It was just cheaper to do it like this. So once you decide to go single sided board to save cost, then you go.

Well, let's put the carbon on here for the jumpers as well as the contacts. No worries. Well, someone's got to be a Rebel Blue Somebody in the design department thought I want blue keys? Dammit. It's exactly the same except they're blue I Think the reason for that though is because this has 13 keys and these ones have 12.

so it's just a way to differentiate these. They don't mix them up in production. Clever, because it's just ruin your day if you picked up a 13 way one and tried to shove it in the 12 way one like you got all the way along. You're pushing in all these little pain in the arse little things down in here, pushing them down.

Oh no I use the wrong bloody one. Ah Friday Afternoons Okay. standby current. there you go.

gotta wait for it caps to charge up. Ah. six Odd Mike Five odd Mike it's not tea Seamus Dropping Not too shabby, huh? Battery's gonna last forever on standby. Alright, let's try the operational current.

You know to use three hands here. Here We go 211 to 79 once it's powered up to 84. There you go. Oh no I turned off anyway.

couple hundred milliamps. Anyway, it's always interesting taking a look in low-cost consumer products like this to see how they're designed and engineered to get the price down. I Hope you found it interesting. So there you go I Hope you liked that.

Quick look inside this casio art CTX 700 people and apparently it's like pretty decent for the price. I don't know, Let me know. Comments down below stand to be corrected. Anyway, if you liked the video, please give it a big thumbs up.

As always, there'll be videos at the end here. I Put in that casa that Yamaha teardown here and just some other random videos. Check them out. Catch you next time.

.