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Eyelet Repair

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pathfinder:
Hi, I was doing some desoldering on a keyboard (didn't go so great) and ended up damaging several of my plated through holes.
I wanted to repair the eyelets. Does anyone know a standard dimension for eyelets I am looking for to do this repair?

I think I also need a swage and one other tool to insert them into the board after drilling out the remaining damaged eyelets. I have access to a machine shop so I can make those components if there is a way for me to get dimensions based off of standard eyelet size for cherry style switches.

I measured the diameter of some eyelets on my board (ducky). they are about 1.4mm (55mill) inner diameter and 2.4mm (94.5 mill) outer diameter.
I also found a hole on the board without and inserted eyelet, it has about a 1.9mm diameter.

Thanks.

_rubik:
Before you go drilling holes in your board, could you post photos of the damage?

Also, what do you mean by "plated through holes" and "eyelets". Are you referring to the pads?

pathfinder:
Hi,

Unfortunately my phone is also broken at the moment so no photos.
By plated through hole I just mean where the pins for each switch go through the PCB to be soldered.

I didn't do a proper job desoldering, when I removed a few of the switches the inner part of the pad / plated through came apart and was damaged.
I did a test using a wire to connect pads for a given switch and a switch hitter found several of the pads do not send signals.

I wanted to know if anyone knew dimensions for eyelets (the pieces of copper placed in the holes for the switches) so I could replace them.

Thanks

nevin:
they are not physical eyelets per se. they are plated as the traces are etched after the bare board is drilled.

you can probably add jumper wires to the underside of the pcb to make the fixes.

most switches you can jumper to the connecting row or column to get them working again.
- figuring out how the pcb's rows and columns are wired is usually pretty straight forward. though some production (store bought) keyboards can make some really strange choices for how their rows & columns are wired.
- if you don't have one, get a multimeter that has a continuity check. it will beep or make a noise if the two probes can make a connection. then you can poke around and figure out how it's wired, and plan where to add your jumpers to get it working again (to fix the broken traces)

circled in the picture below, you can see a couple jumpers i have on my old viterbi (well used, abused & LOVED)
- i used the clipped legs off of diodes or resistors, but any small wire will work as well.


and if the pad pulled the whole way off, you'll solder a jumper from the swtich leg to the next pad that the trace is supposed to connect to (usually a diode or the next switch, depends on if it's the row leg or the column leg of the switch that's missing a trace)

what keyboard are we talking about?

pathfinder:

--- Quote from: nevin on Fri, 17 September 2021, 05:36:49 ---they are not physical eyelets per se. they are plated as the traces are etched after the bare board is drilled.

you can probably add jumper wires to the underside of the pcb to make the fixes.

most switches you can jumper to the connecting row or column to get them working again.
- figuring out how the pcb's rows and columns are wired is usually pretty straight forward. though some production (store bought) keyboards can make some really strange choices for how their rows & columns are wired.
- if you don't have one, get a multimeter that has a continuity check. it will beep or make a noise if the two probes can make a connection. then you can poke around and figure out how it's wired, and plan where to add your jumpers to get it working again (to fix the broken traces)

circled in the picture below, you can see a couple jumpers i have on my old viterbi (well used, abused & LOVED)
- i used the clipped legs off of diodes or resistors, but any small wire will work as well.
(Attachment Link)

and if the pad pulled the whole way off, you'll solder a jumper from the swtich leg to the next pad that the trace is supposed to connect to (usually a diode or the next switch, depends on if it's the row leg or the column leg of the switch that's missing a trace)

what keyboard are we talking about?

--- End quote ---

I have heard about this method of jumpering broken pads, thanks a lot for the photos they will help a lot. I will take a look at the PCB traces, do I need to remove some of the solder mask to do this jumpering?
The keyboard is a Ducky Shine 7.

thanks again

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