After Hours

Cracking Open the Wolf King Warrior Controller

By // September 25, 2008, 3:40 AM PST

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  • Wolf King Warrior

    In this Gallery, we will crack open the Wolf King Warrior, which is a specially-designed game controller for FPS and other games. This is what it looks like connected to a computer as shown by the lit power LED. Cracking Open Tools Required:

    • #0 Phillips Screwdriver
    • #1 Phillips Screwdriver
    • Small Flat Screwdriver or pen knife for prying

  • Box Cover

    A nice, shiny box with a cool graphic.

  • Box Back

    Here's a listing of the Wolf King's Feature[s]. 10 million keystrokes: would anyone like to try that out?

  • Pizza Box

    Is this a pizza box? No wait, there's a controller in there.

    You don't see this type of box very often when food isn't directly involved.

  • Closer View

    Here's a closer view of the Wolf King in its plastic seat. Looks pretty cool.

  • Out of the Box

    Under the Wolf King was the very brief manual. No surprises in there.

  • Closer View

    Just the Wolf King, no extras.

    It looks like they've crammed a lot of keyboard buttons into a close reach. I also see a few buttons on the periphery and a power light. I can't wait to fire this thing up and see how it works.

  • Back Side

    Here's a shot of the back. There are four visible screws (which we'll take out soon). Also, there are two flip-out keyboard feet, some nonskid pads, and a couple labels. What do those say?

  • Labels

    The left one contains basic info on the device as well as a warning against improper use.

    The right one contains the model number and serial number with barcodes.

  • Keyboard Leg

    Just for fun, a picture of one of the keyboard legs extended. Nothing new to see here.

    Okay, enough goofing around. Let's get to the good stuff.

  • Sneaky, Sneaky...

    After removing the four visible screws a few slides back, the bottom still wouldn't come off. Sure enough, there are four more screws hidden under the four round nonskid pads.

  • Case Screws

    Here's a closeup of the four smaller screws that were visible as well as the four larger ones that were hidden under the pads.

  • Opened

    Now that we've got it open, we see a large metal plate, a circuit board, and the backside of the buttons that were near the edge. Also visible is the backside of the power LED.

  • A Closer Look

    Here's a closer look at the inside after the back plate was removed.

  • Circuit Board - Back

    Here's a closer look at the back of the circuit board. Nothing really to see here except some printed wire.

  • Side Buttons

    Off to the side are those periphery buttons and the power LED we saw earlier. Also visible is a case-ground cable screwed into the metal backplate.

  • Metal Backplate

    Here's the metal backplate removed. Nothing fancy.

  • Under the Plate

    Under the metal plate is a three-layer plastic sheet with printed wire over top the rubber keys.

  • Keypad Workings

    Here's the three-layer plastic sheet side-by-side with the rubber key contacts. The Plastic sheet has wire printing on the outer two layers with a plain layer in between. The plain layer has holes cut in where the keys make contact to signal a keypress.

    Also here is the metal bar that was across the circuit board. In addition to helping hold it in place, the metal bar has a rubberized strip on it that presses the leads on the plastic sheet to the circuit board.

  • Keypad Workings Closeup

    Here's a closeup of the rubber buttons and the plastic sheet. You can see the thinner plastic around the contacts where the center sheet is cut-out.

  • Backside of the Keys

    After removing the plastic sheet and the rubber contact sheet, you can see the back side of the keys. We can see the circuit board with the metal bar removed as well as some gray clips and two more screws. We'll have to take those out.

  • Closeup of the Back of the Keys

    Here's a closer view of the back of the keys. The keys are held in by a pair of clips.

  • Closeup of the Circuit Board

    Now, with the metal bar removed, the contacts are easily visible on the circuit board.

  • Front of Circuit Board

    There were two clips holding the circuit board in place. Separating those allows the circuit board to be turned over. Nothing at all special here, really. Several resistors and several capacitors dot the surface along with what appear to be diodes in the slots marked L1 and L2.

    The larger component in the center is probably the USB oscillator, which facilitates transmission to the computer.

  • Number Dials 1

    Here are some number dials printed on the front panel. The picture is a little fuzzy, but the numbers are 2 (out of 0-9), not quite 2 (out of 0-3), 1 (out of 1-12), and 06 (out of 05-10). I'm not sure what the first two mean, but I would guess the second two mean January 06, the manufacture date.

  • More Number Dials

    More number dials, underneath the circuit board this time, DT-AV005-851 (the last three in a range of 0-9). Also here is a letter "A" (from the range A-L). These markings don't correspond to anything on the box or the labels, but they must have something to do with lot numbers or part numbers of the main body piece.

  • Back Plate Code 1

    This code DT-AV006-001 followed by an A is printed on the back plate. I'm almost certain of its origin as a production code or part number because of it similarity to the code on the previous slide.

  • Back Plate Code 2

    More codes stamped into the back plate. The DK-2388U is the model number of the device, but I'm not sure what the 1L stands for. The other codes, 06, 1, 2, 2 are the same as the codes on the inside of the front panel. This time, the arrow is pointing directly at the 2. Maybe there is an error in the stamping process that misaligned the one on the back panel.

  • Bezel

    Removing those two screws from the outer edge and popping the gray clips releases the bezel. Here's a shot of the bezel and its screws along with a couple of keys removed.

  • Bezel 2

    Another shot of the full bezel.

  • Fully Disassembled

    Here's all of the pieces, fully disassembled.

    Cracking Open time: 24 minutes. Reassembly time: 10 minutes.

Related Topics:

After Hours Innovation Hardware Tech & Work

Wolf King Warrior

In this Gallery, we will crack open the Wolf King Warrior, which is a specially-designed game controller for FPS and other games. This is what it looks like connected to a computer as shown by the lit power LED. Cracking Open Tools Required:
  • #0 Phillips Screwdriver
  • #1 Phillips Screwdriver
  • Small Flat Screwdriver or pen knife for prying

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