Author Topic: ergodox, soldered diodes on front...  (Read 1508 times)

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Offline gcb

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ergodox, soldered diodes on front...
« on: Sun, 31 August 2014, 22:51:23 »
just finished soldering the damned smd diodes for the left hand, and then soldered the other components.

while assembling the case i noticed that the acrylic plate squeezes the diodes. so i went back to check the instructions and sure enough, right before the ton of useless images of the empty board, step 2 solder diodes on the back. the distraction images did their job...

i also noticed that it doesnt impact much the fit. i mean the pins of the switches still goes all the way thru the board. just the plastic pins does not fully secure, but there is a plate...

i have a few options.

1 leave as is (here i need your help. anyone already used diodes in front?)

2 desolder extra components and make it right hand (sigh, i will probably damage something. also my thru holes ended up perfect while the smd job sucks)

3 buy a hot air tool and redo smds correctly. :)

i really want to go with option 1...

Offline gcb

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Re: ergodox, soldered diodes on front...
« Reply #1 on: Sun, 31 August 2014, 23:21:10 »
screw it im going with #3

driving to frys tomorrow at 8am


Offline dorkvader

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Re: ergodox, soldered diodes on front...
« Reply #2 on: Sun, 31 August 2014, 23:48:21 »
Depending on the solder you used #2 might be really easy or really hard. In the ergodox I built. desodlering it would be really easy. In one I fixed for another GHer, it was really hard.

My option would be to go with #4

#4 is "do nothing" and just use it without the useless bottom plate.

I would say flip the entire design and use it with a LH controller and MCP on the RH, but you'd still have to desolder it and flip it over: not an easy task.
« Last Edit: Sun, 31 August 2014, 23:49:52 by dorkvader »

Offline Larken

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Re: ergodox, soldered diodes on front...
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 01 September 2014, 01:17:02 »
I'd done my first ergodox with smd diodes in the front and experienced no issues with the plate. The only problem would be that you wouldn't be able to fix cold joints later (or know that you have those until you fire it up and test the keys), or remove the 'bad' smd diodes later.

That however, is a minor issue. I had a few diodes that weren't soldered properly, and instead of desoldering everything, I simply soldered new ones on the bottom side (only for the keys that doesn't work), while leaving the original ones on. Still using the same board after a year with no issues.
| Ergodox #1 | Ergodox #2 |


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Offline tbc

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Re: ergodox, soldered diodes on front...
« Reply #4 on: Mon, 01 September 2014, 03:44:40 »
I'd done my first ergodox with smd diodes in the front and experienced no issues with the plate. The only problem would be that you wouldn't be able to fix cold joints later (or know that you have those until you fire it up and test the keys), or remove the 'bad' smd diodes later.

That however, is a minor issue. I had a few diodes that weren't soldered properly, and instead of desoldering everything, I simply soldered new ones on the bottom side (only for the keys that doesn't work), while leaving the original ones on. Still using the same board after a year with no issues.

^ +1 for tip.  never thought of that lol.
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Offline gcb

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Re: ergodox, soldered diodes on front...
« Reply #5 on: Mon, 01 September 2014, 12:59:33 »
hum... using it as a right hand AND inverting the design... wouldn't i need the logic chip and socket to be mounted on the back side of the plate? otherwise it wouldn't fit also...

i think i will just ditch the useless plate... i was already planning on doing that anyway. was using it mostly because i lacked any better spacer to use :)

Offline dorkvader

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Re: ergodox, soldered diodes on front...
« Reply #6 on: Mon, 01 September 2014, 13:24:13 »
hum... using it as a right hand AND inverting the design... wouldn't i need the logic chip and socket to be mounted on the back side of the plate? otherwise it wouldn't fit also...

i think i will just ditch the useless plate... i was already planning on doing that anyway. was using it mostly because i lacked any better spacer to use :)
No you just mount them to the front and flip them over. Flipping the teensy is easy, flipping the MCP23018 is harder.