1st off, im not sure if this is the right section for this so if its net let me know please. i spent the last few weeks in KMAC2 adventure land. sadly i only documented the process to this point in instagram. thanks to my gf for that one. otherwise there would of been no documentation of any type.
back story, saw some videos here and there on common filco mods and wanted to try some out on my own. the one i did was the ergo clear mod on a filco 104. it has ducky side printed PBT keycaps. it was surprisingly hard to get the solder off the board... i dont know if it was old or maybe i didnt put enough rosin to wick away the solder properly but it was a long and frustrating experience. good 7 hours gone. the process included desoldering the browns that where on the board original... opening the clear switches and replacing the springs with the ones from the brown switches. lubing and re-soldering everything back together. and of course hoping it would all work in the end.
after the succes of the 1st mod i decided to jump right into a custom build. the filco is all fine and good (way better then a rubber dome) but still always felt a bit cheap and flimsy to me.
So day1, the packaged arrived and it look like it was packed in some kind of msi gaming motherboard box... it was heavy as hell and of course the misses didnt open the door so i had to wait an extra day to pick it up at the post. but i got it.
next one is of t he box open, just the parts i got. 3 bags of screws not sure what all of them are for... but one package seemed to have the ones for the housing and the screws for the plate. winkless tabs the housing the plate and the pcb.
having a quick look around the pcb i noticed 2 things, 1st bummer was the fact that i wanted a 87 key and i was sent an 86 key pcb... and 2nd bummer was the fact that during the shipping process the usb port got mangled. i tried to bend it back into shape but i ended up just making it worse. at this point i gave up and decided to replace the thing.
and of course in order to replace anything i needed some parts... thankfully i had this lovely broken rosewill just sitting around collecting dust. so i opened it up and got it ready to salvage. initially i was going to harvest the switches and the usb connector... but i found use for some of the diodes aswell.
all naked.
i setup to do the deeds... done dirt cheap.
took a little bit of time... but this time it was MUCH faster then the filco. in some ways, dare i say, the rosewill i feel like was built better then the filco... mind the usb issue. that was some intense bullcrap. so yea desoldered everything i was going to salvage from that board. if anyone is interested in the scraps let me know. i have the pcb the case and the plate.
the only hickup i had is when my hand slipped and i destroyed one of the components on the board. i did some digging around and a bunch of members on here gave me feedback which was spot on (you all know who you are. kudos.)... cant find the thread now though... it vanished. at any rate, what i found is that it was an inductor spot... then after more digging it turns out it was really a zero ohm resistor. Thankfully since the board wasnt damaged and all the lanes where fine i just bridged the pads with solder plugged it in and shorted the switch connections to check to see if it work... and it did! thanks internet for teaching me new things!
*update*
So i got to soldering, the bridge, and this is the result of that. looks ghetto but hell, it works like a charm. here's a close up. of the damage after i cleaned it and tried to identify the damaged bit.
and then the bridged ghetto blob.
the keycaps that i got for the board. dolch style from zeal.
test fitting the plate. take one, didn't go so hot. i ended up redoing this because i wanted to lube and sticker the switches.
i still need a 100 sheet of white stickers. hint hint if anyone has send me a pm.
and a little something of a sneak peak. a friend of mine kindly decided to print this for me.
gonna cast it in opaque white and translucent green.
