Author Topic: [Help] After soldering, some keys are dead.. Can it be fixed?  (Read 1037 times)

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Offline OopsItsNull

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Hey all. I'm pretty new and seem to have made some mistakes on my first build - maybe left the iron on a little too long? A handful of keys aren't working and I would really appreciate any help you can offer in getting it working properly.

I finally got to soldering today but unfortunately just about every other key on one row isn't registering...
Keys:
A  D  G  J  L  '  Enter

Here's an album to show VIA's Key Tester results and the PCB (Hiney h87a) in a section of the affected area:
https://imgur.com/a/fDMVf2p
(Scratches shown are from prodding with tweezers and multimeter, first two circled keys were desoldered)

I tried shorting the soldered pads but it wouldn't register.. desoldered two of the switches and tried again. Ground pads seem to all be grounded but the others do not appear to be working.
I wasn't sure what to do so I tried shorting to other ground pads as well as checking voltages between the pads when the key is pressed (or is shorted)..
Good: ~600mV
Bad: 12~15mV

I appreciate any suggestions or assistance you can offer in helping salvage this project!

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: [Help] After soldering, some keys are dead.. Can it be fixed?
« Reply #1 on: Mon, 13 July 2020, 21:25:38 »
look at the trace routes those keys may have in common, test that they're connected end to end.

Offline OopsItsNull

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Re: [Help] After soldering, some keys are dead.. Can it be fixed?
« Reply #2 on: Mon, 13 July 2020, 23:24:33 »
look at the trace routes those keys may have in common, test that they're connected end to end.


Hey, thank you for the reply!

From the back of the PCB (since most of the keys are still soldered), I followed the routes for the row to test for continuity as suggested... crudely sketching along the way.
There doesn't appear to be anything that seems particularly off to me. I've also never troubleshot a PCB before, but very route I can see seems to be in tact - pads to diodes, diodes to diodes, as well as the little resistors(?) below.

Offline OopsItsNull

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Re: [Help] After soldering, some keys are dead.. Can it be fixed?
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 13 July 2020, 23:47:08 »
Ah! Apparently one of the (screw-in Zeal) stabilizers were the cause! Must have been making contact despite the tape.
Thank you again~!


Offline OopsItsNull

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Re: [Help] After soldering, some keys are dead.. Can it be fixed?
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 14 July 2020, 00:26:44 »
I'll definitely keep that in mind and be careful going forward.