I'm starting to do this now. Should be a picture heavy thread.
I've been wanting to have a blue or green (Cherry MX or similar) switched mechanical keyboard for a while. Since a couple of the brown switches on my keyboard have started going bad, I thought it would be a good time to do this.
Does anybody have a recommendation for webcam capture software. I've got what came with my digital microscope, but it is very sub-standard and doesn't capture video well.
The scope's hardware is basically a webcam with good glass on it. So anything that works with a webcam should be fine if it is decent. I'd like to capture some of the soldering/desoldering video.
Keyboard is re-keyed. Nice and clicky. No signs of double letters that are unintentional.
I returned the polling rate to the maximum. Feels REALLY nice. Especially for someone who was trained on an IBM Selectric typewriter.
I'll try and get the photos reduced in size for posting and the videos uploaded to Youtube tomorrow.
I do have to say that using the microscope has increased my soldering skill a fair amount as well. I was using the desoldering wick incorrectly because I couldn't see that it was getting saturated.
I'm actually using Gateron KS-9 RGB switches. They are roughly the same as Cherry green switches. I got the RGB ones so they would pass through the LED's light from the motherboard up to the key-caps.
Actual starting photo
My soldering station, solder, solder wick, solder sucker, screwdriver, etc..
Key-caps off, and most of the screws removed. Notice the little blue block? That is a couple of supermagnets that are plastic coated. They are a great place for keeping your screws so they don't get lost. Also, on the upper right, the cover to the left of the roller has to be pulled off, as there is a hidden screw there. There are no screws on the underside of the case.
Keyboard case open. A little dust, but no obvious spill damage. There are 4 ribbon cables and a few others that need to be detached. The ribbons just pull out and push back in. No flip up portions on the connectors that need to be removed.
The sub-board on the right with 2 ribbon cables can just be lifted off. The ones on the left have 2 wire cable connectors than need to be pulled out, and one single wire one has to be unscrewed. The far left one has 6 screws. 5 black ones that are on top, and one silver one in the base of a pocket.
Ok, the bottom of the keyboard case has been removed along with the right sub-board (which is essentially part of the bottom of the case). Better view of the left side sub-boards.
Sub-board removed. You can see the 2 pin-block connectors that it plugs into. The pocket for the silver screw is right nest to the left most pin block.
Now all the sub-boards are removed, and we can get to desoldering the switches.
I have a digital microscope, so I figured it would be nice to show how to actually desolder and solder the switches.
I think we can only have one Youtube link per reply, so here we go.
This is using a desoldering wick. I used to have some trouble with them. But under the microscope, I could see that the wick was getting saturated much faster than I used to think it did.
This is with one row desoldered, removed and one new switch put in so I could make sure I was doing it right.
Edit: I've got to wait a while. It tries to auto-merge the next reply, but won't allow the Youtube link. So I've got to wait.
This is using a pneumatic solder sucker. I'm actually faster and better using this one.
This is how I had to set up the microscope, because its base is too shallow to fit the board under it. The light base is aluminum, so I used a magnet on a steel portion of the vise, then another magnet on the other side to hold the base steady. The vacuum base for the vise would occasionally lose vacuum and fall over. It didn't have far to go, so no major problems. Also, apparently my laptop I was using with it figured out I had an open mic and started using it. So the last two video I post will have some sound in them.
And the main block of switches all removed. Some new ones added in.
All of the main block replaced. I'm still going to replace more, but I wanted to wait until I had a better idea of how many I had left.
And all of the switches that are going to be replaced have been replaced.
After this, I re-assembled and put the key-caps back on and tested it. Nice, very nice feel to the keys, but they are a bit loud for my wife. No sign of any functional problems.
This one had a little bit of stuck on solder keeping it from popping out easily. Most of them I was able to lift off without having to flip and push from the back.
You can not appreciate how tricky that is unless you have soldered something that small like a phone switch...Great job. I have a Weller similar to that but even with a big magnify glass.,I can't see well enough.
Once I got up to speed, this is me doing a whole row of switches with a solder sucker. I add some 60/40 solder first to lower the melting point and to improve solder flow.
You can not appreciate how tricky that is unless you have soldered something that small like a phone switch...Great job. I have a Weller similar to that but even with a big magnify glass.,I can't see well enough.
Now I'm trying to figure out what I should do with the old switches. I've tossed the bad ones and the one where one leg got pulled off. Still have 80+ nominally good switches.
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