First time Builder

[lasernasaur]

I'm so excited! i will be building my minivan once i get all the parts! Hopefully by Tuesday! This will also be my first build. I am very new to the community. Any tips and advice is greatly appreciated! I do have some background in miniature and microminiature electronics repair and have access to all soldering related equipment.

Thank you for your time

V/R
lasernasaur

[suicidal_orange]

Welcome to geekhack

Most keyboards are pretty simple when it comes to the soldering and the minivan is one of them - the only thing you need to solder are the switches which are nice big through hole parts.  There's a newbie friendly video here dealing specifically with soldering switches if you need a refresher or if you've only soldered tiny SMD parts.

The other fun part will be choosing your layout and layers, luckily you use ANSI so don't have to worry about mislabeled keys.  The layout is very much personal choice and with a small board you'll probably tweak it for a while before getting comfortable.  You've probably seen the programming guide for Van keyboards which is very thorough so not much to say there either.

Good luck with the build!

[watchy0ubac]

If you've got some soldering experience it should be fairly easy for you to build the board. Soldering the switches is pretty easy, just make sure not to underdo the solder. I had purchased a Redscarf numpad from another user a while ago and the solder joints were poorly done with so little solder on each of them that they were falling apart! I had to completely redo all the solder just to get its basic functions back. Just have fun with it and take your time, as long as you don't apply too much heat to the board you should be fine, in the end building is a big part of the fun.

[smurkcity12]

As someone who is also soon to be a first time builder, I'd love to see any pics of things you had questions/issues with. I know there's a million videos out there already but I'm sure each new builder has a different experience so I'd love to hear more about yours!

[lasernasaur]

As someone who is also soon to be a first time builder, I'd love to see any pics of things you had questions/issues with. I know there's a million videos out there already but I'm sure each new builder has a different experience so I'd love to hear more about yours!

will definitely let you know when i start building. im just waiting for the switches and the stabilizers now. the only thing im having a hard time with is looking for the led color i want. I am currently trying to hunt down some cyan 1.8mm LEDs, but it seems like i can only find regular colors like purple blue red green pink...nothing in between.

[lasernasaur]

Welcome to geekhack

Most keyboards are pretty simple when it comes to the soldering and the minivan is one of them - the only thing you need to solder are the switches which are nice big through hole parts.  There's a newbie friendly video here dealing specifically with soldering switches if you need a refresher or if you've only soldered tiny SMD parts.

The other fun part will be choosing your layout and layers, luckily you use ANSI so don't have to worry about mislabeled keys.  The layout is very much personal choice and with a small board you'll probably tweak it for a while before getting comfortable.  You've probably seen the programming guide for Van keyboards which is very thorough so not much to say there either.

Good luck with the build!

Thank you for the info!

[lasernasaur]

If you've got some soldering experience it should be fairly easy for you to build the board. Soldering the switches is pretty easy, just make sure not to underdo the solder. I had purchased a Redscarf numpad from another user a while ago and the solder joints were poorly done with so little solder on each of them that they were falling apart! I had to completely redo all the solder just to get its basic functions back. Just have fun with it and take your time, as long as you don't apply too much heat to the board you should be fine, in the end building is a big part of the fun.

When i first started in the class i was put it, i quickly learned that i was heavy handed and had to constantly wick off a lot of the solder. but i got the hang of it. I'm pretty excited to finally use that skill for my own benefits rather than constantly repairing other peoples stuff.