Rosewill RK-9000 broken, I'm not the only one with this problem.

[zennkai]

I'm sure a lot more Rosewill RK-9000 owners have had this issue, the stupid connector design flaw.  Yeah my connector is finally dead after multiple repairs.
now I'm looking for a way to figure out which wire goes where on the board,
- my warranty was voided before this happened.
-it's an on-board mini usb plug (the connector is messed up)
-plan on wiring a straight USB cable to the board and calling it a day.
-but the question is, how can i tell which colors go to which hole on the board?
-for the record the keyboard is a Rosewill RK-9000
-I've searched the internet for forums, mods, anything about this keyboard and can only find reviews and have nowhere else to go.

[Tempest790]

Check the Wikipedia article under "Physical Appearance" for USB.  Hopefully that will help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Physical_appearance

[1391401]

I bought one for $60 in one of the many Newegg sales and mine has never worked right.  My USB plug is OK but the PC will totally 'forget' about the keyboard being attached to it and I have to unplug/plugin the keyboard repeatedly. 

[fohat.digs]

Plugs are the bane of the electronics world.

The only really great design I have seen is the magnetic one on the power cord for a MacBook.

Some very small number of people need a detachable keyboard cord, otherwise it is a failure waiting to happen.

[1uckyNumb3r7]

So there I was trying to be a nice guy and map a few traces on my RK 9000 with my multimeter to double check on a solution for you... Then I accidentally bent one of the pins inside my mini usb connnection and ended up having to hardwire mine  )

So here is how I hardwired mine, hope it helps you out. (At your own risk, don't blame me if your equipment goes POOF!)
*Also, disregard the wire in the background. That is there because I removed the LED's a while ago*



Here is the keyboard test to show it fully functional. 

[angry gamer]

Nice soldering job, 1uckyNumb3r7. I think I'll give this a try. I've soldered mine for the third time and it finally quit about a week and a half ago.

In fact, I'm going to go do this right now.

I don't know if it was from my ****ty soldering skills or from something else, one of the LEDs fell right out of its socket the second time I opened it up but it finally crapped out...I have another one on order, heh.


EDIT: grr didn't work.

[1uckyNumb3r7]

EDIT: grr didn't work.

Is one of your LED's still removed? If so you have to jumper across them like I did in the background. IIRC they have a common +5v trace and if that trace is broken then the board wont work. Try jumpering over the LED's on that common trace and see if the board doesn't come back to life. Might be that when the LED popped loose it took the pad with it and broke that connection.

[angry gamer]

Is one of your LED's still removed? If so you have to jumper across them like I did in the background. IIRC they have a common +5v trace and if that trace is broken then the board wont work. Try jumpering over the LED's on that common trace and see if the board doesn't come back to life. Might be that when the LED popped loose it took the pad with it and broke that connection.

Well thanks, 1uckyNumb3r7! What actually piqued my curiosity was what you had soldered in the back. I knew they had a common but I wasn't sure that if one of them got disconnected if the whole board wouldn't function again. One of the pads did fall off the numlock LED and it was such that I couldn't fill it back up, the solder wouldn't stick. So I had to wire it, and it still didn't work...by then I wasn't sure if it was the USB leads, the numlock light or something else, and that's when I gave up.

Then I saw your pic and decided to try that. That didn't work, and that's when I decided that was my last try and to throw in the towel.

But then you said to look again and I looked at your pic again and realized that very path that you posted I missed. That's the very pad that fell off. the white wire in the back. I joined them and ~viola!

This job was a mess. I got this board in February and the USB port came loose in April. I was pretty pissed when it happened and when I went to fix it I didn't do a good job. Then it got disconnected again which made it messier, rosin everywhere. Also, the smallest iron I have is 25 watts, this job is better suited for a 15 watt iron. Then the numlock light literally fell out. Ugh.

Hey, I'd like to send you a few bucks for saving my board. I ordered another one last Friday, they still haven't shipped it and I'm trying to cancel it ATM. The company I ordered it from has a pretty persnickety ordering process, if the order is in the shipping stage they won't cancel it and they also charge a 20% restocking fee, even if I refuse the shipment. If that's the case, you might a to wait a bit but I'll get it to you. PM me your paypal if you have one, or we'll work something out.

[mkawa]

you guys might want to dig around mouser for the part number of the pcb mount usb port they use as well. it should be a simple matter to just replace these ports

[1uckyNumb3r7]

Angry - Glad to hear you got your board working again! Hopefully you can get the other order cancelled so you won't have duplicate boards. Don't sweat sending a few bucks, use it instead to get yourself a Hakko FX-888 and save yourself some pain when soldering!  (I'd be lost without mine, especially when I went to wire up a scratch built arcade stick for my son)

mkawa - I will check out mouser when I get a chance, thanks for the suggestion. I was thinking of replacing the usb port, but then I was going to use this boards busted condition to justify purchasing a new one

[trentva]

go rosewill!!!!

[lszomb]

Hi all,

New in this forum, just for my Rosewill RK-9000 keyboard.

I have a few years old above keyboard and I believe it is from the first batch. I do have USB port issue as it fall off due to bad soldering.

I *fixed* (as least I think) it as I re-solder the USB port back to the mainboard. However, I got a new problem:

I connect my keyboard to computer (desktop or notebook) it will work for a while about 10 to 15 keystrokes and after that stop working. I have to leave it for a while (half day) to get it work again. I guess the issue is with my soldering work. I cannot confirm that if keyboard will stop work if I key in a single character repeatably or just dead after I connect for short period time or after a certain keystrokes.

Does anyone have any idea about if I mess up the controller?

Thanks for any suggestion or comments. Have a nice one!   

[tp4tissue]

I would get some liquid eletrical tape on that.. looks dangerous..