This Apple Fell Far From the Tree

If you are in the Apple ecosystem, Apple Touch ID can make your life easier. Unlocking your devices and paying for purchases securely all becomes as simple as a finger tap. But, as is generally the case with Apple, to use Touch ID, you have to use Apple hardware, and nothing but Apple hardware.

Jeff Geerling uses more than his fair share of Apple products, but he is not overly impressed by their keyboards. So he recently picked up a much better mechanical keyboard. However, this keyboard was not made by Apple, so it was time to say goodbye to Touch ID. Or was it? Rather than live like a caveman and manually type passwords, Geerling decided to do some hacking.

It has been known for a while now that Touch ID can be removed from a keyboard equipped with it and used separately. So, in his usual style, Geerling broke the process down to make it easy enough for just about anyone to do.

The first step is disassembling an Apple keyboard. Apple is not exactly concerned about repairability, so keep in mind that this keyboard may never go back together again — or if it does, it’s never going to look the same. This took a bit of heat to loosen the gobs of adhesive that keep the backing on before it could be pried off.

With access to the internals, some more screws had to be removed to locate the relevant hardware. With some effort, Geerling demonstrated how to remove the logic board, the Touch ID sensor, the Lightning connector port, and the ribbon cables that connected everything.

The components were then reassembled in a 3D-printed case. This hack leaves you with a little box that handles Touch ID functions, and nothing else. Oh, and a dead keyboard as well. As such, it might not be the ideal solution, but since Apple doesn’t sell Touch ID separately, it may be your best option if you want to upgrade your keyboard and stay in the ecosystem.