That's not a mechanical keyboard

Really tempted now to join the GMK Rudy group buy. Ends tomorrow. Buy once, cry once.

But damn, keycaps that costs almost 3 times my keyboard is still hard to swallow.

Springs are cheap. Just give it a go.
MYR 0.17 | switch spring gold plating spring 35g 45g 60g 62g 67g 80g 150g Custom Cherry MX Gold-Plated Cherry MX compatible
https://a.aliexpress.com/qgYuxLCG

Well I don't have a copper but I do have a kailh speed bronze from a tester. Yes the springs are shorter but the 'normal' springs fit in there just fine.



This post has been edited by niakulah: Jan 2 2020, 10:58 PM

Weekend project. I hope I can finish it by tomorrow night!

It's a lot of work! I actually started Friday night. Towards the end got very slow. I even killed one switch. Turns out my more than 10 year old sucker was leaking, that's why I was suddenly not desoldering properly...

So I got a new sucker today and moving on.

Taking a break from all that desoldering and switch lubing and doing the mat. I've done the holes nicely but it's a real PITA to get the USB connector in. I'm wondering if I should make an extra cut for the cable (red line).



Edit: I went ahead and did it. Worked out well.


This post has been edited by niakulah: Jan 4 2020, 10:26 PM

So much work primarily so that I could get to this stage. In the end I was so tired I couldn't even paste them on straight!

Well the good news is, all the keys with stabs now sound great! Consistent no matter where you bang it (esp Spacebar), and a nice muffled thock. Trying hard to sound positive here although I'm feeling the sads.

Coz the bad news is...I have 2 columns(8 keys) not working....

I was playing with a jumper cable most of last night, seeing what I can bridge/short to make it work. I've found what I need to short on working keys to register the key presses and that method does not work on the non-working columns, so it's not the switches failed to actuate (1 random key wasn't working because of this, swapped out the housing of a cherry grey and it worked).

So from my reading this morning, I'm thinking of trying 2 things when I get home later:

1. Short/bridge all 'column' pins in the same column together.
2. Short the "top" of the column to its pin on the controller.

Any sifus have any other suggestions?

And for a backup plan, would any of you be able to provide repair services? How much estimated for a fix like this?

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm still hoping to fix it myself. I picked up a multimeter on the way home yesterday and after troubleshooting I am feeling positive.

Turns out my keeb is not a 'simple' matrix like those hand wired boards, but rather a series of matrices, much like a register if you know how those work.

So I basically have a single 2x4 matrix that is not working. All of the A(I named it arbitrarily) pins are supposed to be connected to each other top and bottom and to the side. 10 of these links are open and I need to bridge them.

All of the B pins go to diodes, which then go to a controller. Only 1 of them is open. I think. I couldn't find it using the multimeter and couldn't trace it by eye either; too much flux on the board from my repeated soldering/desoldering.

I tried to do all the bridging last night but failed. I only had solder and single core cables. Not ideal when some pins need up to 3 cables soldered to it. Try to attach a second cable and the first comes loose....I've ordered some stranded cables but it'll take about a week.

In the meantime, I'm stuck on an old membrane keyboard for now.

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150g is a bit extreme, but if I was using a speed switch I might do the same. Well maybe not 150, maybe 100g. 80-100g is my sweet spot for spacebars in order not to accidentally actuate it. Since speed switches actuate sooner, I might consider 150. Would probably put o-rings as well to reduce total travel.

I have no idea about lubing clickies. I use my keeb in an office and have never considered clickies.

Interesting. Have you ever had a PCB crack because of no standoffs? Since you want it to be portable, would you carry a board with no standoffs in a hard case?

Grrrr...I am sooo close to fixing my keyboard. I can't find where the 'top' of the column connects to the controller. I did find which pin it goes to. Holding a cable to the pin by hand and I can get all the broken keys working again.

I don't think it's possible to directly solder onto such a fine chip pin? Anyone done that before?

Ok so I found this. Will try to go buy flux tomorrow and see if it works. If not....well I think I need to think about either buying a new keyboard or maybe a case and PCB kit. I can harvest all the other parts. I've been typing on membranes at work way too much for my health.

Keeb, if you survive this operation, daddy will promise to love you till you die.

If not, sorry but daddy will have to harvest your organs.

IINM stab size is determined by keycap size. And you also want to know if it is plate mounted or PCB mounted.

My first love is no more. But 75% of her lives on.

My faulty IKBC? Almost managed to fix it. The last bridge I had to make was to the MCU. Couldn't get the wire to stick properly to the tiny pin. Eventually let the magic smoke out.

Bought the cheap plastic case+PCB+plate 75% kit plus a set of Cherry screw in stabs from KPRepublic. Reused the switches and keycaps.

Coming from a full size, I really miss my numpad at times. Will eventually make myself a Cospad, but I think I've spent enough for now...need time to recover.

Need advice from the sifus, 1 of my stabilizers making noise and is driving me mad. The stab wire is hitting the plate.

This is a picture of one of my good stabs. Notice that you can see the stab wire (red circle)


This is the picture of the 'bad' stab. The stab wire is fully hidden beneath the plate. So when the switch pushes the keycap (and stab) up, the wire hits the plate.


Short of desoldering everything and taking a dremel/file to the plate, is there anything I can do to fix this? Any suggestions/ideas appreciated.

Was staring at the photos I posted and had an epiphany. The wire is not fully clipped in!

Anyway, I desoldered the switches just below it and pushed it in using a plastic scribe. Fixed!

I'm sure I did clip it in properly before I screwed it in to the PCB. Did I get a bad stab? Does this happen often? Or did it somehow pop out without me realizing before I screwed it in?

Oh and my sincere apologies to the submarines that have this thread watched. I'll try not to post here like it's my blog.

This post has been edited by niakulah: Jan 29 2020, 09:59 PM