Author Topic: Eyelet Repair  (Read 3524 times)

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Offline pathfinder

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Eyelet Repair
« on: Thu, 16 September 2021, 16:54:44 »
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.
« Last Edit: Thu, 16 September 2021, 16:58:01 by pathfinder »

Offline _rubik

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Re: Eyelet Repair
« Reply #1 on: Thu, 16 September 2021, 19:47:13 »
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?
ai03 Meridian ¤ Mech 27 ¤ E8.5 ¤ Brutal60 ¤ SSK White Label ¤ HHKB Pro JP ¤ vAEK68 Alps Blues ¤ RF87u

Offline pathfinder

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Re: Eyelet Repair
« Reply #2 on: Fri, 17 September 2021, 03:06:07 »
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
« Last Edit: Fri, 17 September 2021, 03:09:13 by pathfinder »

Offline nevin

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Re: Eyelet Repair
« Reply #3 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.
276200-0

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?
« Last Edit: Fri, 17 September 2021, 05:54:07 by nevin »
Keeb.io Viterbi, Apple m0110, Apple m0120, Apple m0110a, Apple 658-4081, Apple M1242, Apple AEK II, MK96, GH60/Pure, Cherry g84-4100, Adesso AKP-220B, Magicforce 68

Offline pathfinder

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Re: Eyelet Repair
« Reply #4 on: Sat, 18 September 2021, 15:15:25 »
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?

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

Offline pathfinder

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Re: Eyelet Repair
« Reply #5 on: Sat, 18 September 2021, 15:16:27 »
also i just realized, what on earth kind of form factor is that?

Offline _rubik

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Re: Eyelet Repair
« Reply #6 on: Sat, 18 September 2021, 17:05:49 »
also i just realized, what on earth kind of form factor is that?

The Viterbi is a split ortho 70% board
ai03 Meridian ¤ Mech 27 ¤ E8.5 ¤ Brutal60 ¤ SSK White Label ¤ HHKB Pro JP ¤ vAEK68 Alps Blues ¤ RF87u

Offline nevin

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Re: Eyelet Repair
« Reply #7 on: Sun, 19 September 2021, 10:37:34 »
No, you don't have to scrape traces to make a place to solder to.

You jump from the switch leg to the place the trace should have taken the connection to (the diode, or the next switch leg in the row)

Look at the pic I posed. you can see a couple spots where I ran a jumper from the switch leg to the top of the diode. Replacing the broken trace on the pcb. (Ignore the jumper (mess) at the bottom center, that was just a repair when I changed the bottom row layout).
...So you jump the broken trace and go from switch leg to the next pad in the circuit.

If you have smd diodes (tiny black boxes) instead of the orange/glass ones in my pic you can do the same thing IF that's the trace that's broken. You would need to add a little bit of solder to the end of the smd diode, then add in your jumper wire.

But you need to figure out what traces are broken on YOUR board.

And do not use lead free solder. It is soo much harder to work with. Takes a lot more heat to melt, etc. not fun... (regular leaded solder won't hurt you.   .....as long as you don't eat it)
Keeb.io Viterbi, Apple m0110, Apple m0120, Apple m0110a, Apple 658-4081, Apple M1242, Apple AEK II, MK96, GH60/Pure, Cherry g84-4100, Adesso AKP-220B, Magicforce 68

Offline nevin

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Re: Eyelet Repair
« Reply #8 on: Mon, 20 September 2021, 10:05:42 »
this is a pic of the board and the layout i use. (i spread them a lot farther apart than what's in the picture when in use)
276302-0
276304-1
Keeb.io Viterbi, Apple m0110, Apple m0120, Apple m0110a, Apple 658-4081, Apple M1242, Apple AEK II, MK96, GH60/Pure, Cherry g84-4100, Adesso AKP-220B, Magicforce 68

Offline pathfinder

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Re: Eyelet Repair
« Reply #9 on: Fri, 31 December 2021, 18:35:21 »
No, you don't have to scrape traces to make a place to solder to.

You jump from the switch leg to the place the trace should have taken the connection to (the diode, or the next switch leg in the row)

Look at the pic I posed. you can see a couple spots where I ran a jumper from the switch leg to the top of the diode. Replacing the broken trace on the pcb. (Ignore the jumper (mess) at the bottom center, that was just a repair when I changed the bottom row layout).
...So you jump the broken trace and go from switch leg to the next pad in the circuit.

If you have smd diodes (tiny black boxes) instead of the orange/glass ones in my pic you can do the same thing IF that's the trace that's broken. You would need to add a little bit of solder to the end of the smd diode, then add in your jumper wire.

But you need to figure out what traces are broken on YOUR board.

And do not use lead free solder. It is soo much harder to work with. Takes a lot more heat to melt, etc. not fun... (regular leaded solder won't hurt you.   .....as long as you don't eat it)

Hey, I got real busy with school the past few months but finally repaired the board over christmas break. Thanks for your suggestion for doing the jumper method, it seems like it worked well even if it's not the prettiest. some of the broken pads I could see the traces, other could not so I just guessed around using a wire to find what triggered the correct pads.

Offline nevin

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Re: Eyelet Repair
« Reply #10 on: Sun, 02 January 2022, 07:46:52 »
Great. Glad you got it fixed.
Keeb.io Viterbi, Apple m0110, Apple m0120, Apple m0110a, Apple 658-4081, Apple M1242, Apple AEK II, MK96, GH60/Pure, Cherry g84-4100, Adesso AKP-220B, Magicforce 68