Looking for help with my Abel X

[jamesl1989]

Hello, sorry for this being my first post here.

I recently bought my absolute favorite keyboard BNIB from an awesome reddit user, everything worked perfectly but after soldering I realized my enter key was sticking due to overlubing. I couldnt manage to get it to stop sticking, so I made the dumb decision to desolder the entire board so I could get at it.

Long story short I tore part of the pad where the enter/return switch usually goes. Now enter, backspace, and print screen do not register, as well as the LED cluster, and bottom led.

The great people in the Matrix Labs discord have been helping me and recommended a switch bridge. As shown in the picture this is the only bridge that makes the switches start to register again, unfortunately they are registering the left of the key pressed. I can post more info and pictures if needed, as well as post somewhere else if this isnt the proper place for this kind of topic. I appreciate any and all help 

[suicidal_orange]

You're not the first and you wont be the last - welcome to geekhack, lets get your board working!

You can see that the rows are connected across the bottom of the diodes which are connected to the left pins of the switches, so connecting to the next column will get the next key as you've found.

On the other side of the PCB you will see traces connecting the right pins for the columns, and I suspect an extra trace from the damaged pad heading up to connect the column back to the chip - I would try and do it blind but maybe there's a surprise to be found so please take a pic of both sides of the PCB in the same size and and angle I'll have a look

[jamesl1989]

Thank you so much for the reply, here is the front side of the board.

[suicidal_orange]

Slightly bigger than the first but close enough

Interesting - I've added the orange trace as seen on the other side and it doesn't hit the switches in the red squares but it looks like it does hit the ones you named, assuming a normal keymap.  Surprisingly the only switch on the trace that works is \| which is the worst of many stupid design decisions I've seen on commercial PCBs - why is half of the most important pad in a stab hole?!  Whatever, we'll just assume everything is broken and test it.  I'm assuming you removed the green bridge that made the keys register wrong, if it was ever soldered...



First confirm the cyan pin is connected to the controller chip by touching a wire between cyan and the green pin of the the known working switch next to it - it should type enter. 

Next touch the wire between any of the dead key's orange pins and cyan - this should type the dead key.  If it doesn't touch the red end of the diode to cyan and that should.  If the diode works but the switch pin doesn't you need to solder a tiny bridge between orange and red to reconnect the diode.  Repeat for all three dead switches.

If you've soldered any bridges you can now test those keys - they might work.  If you didn't solder any bridges or the keys still don't work you need to reconnect the orange trace by soldering bridges to cyan.  Connect one of the magentas to cyan and connect the other magentas together to avoid damaging cyan.

I don't see an LED cluster that could be not working, feel free to mark it and I'll have a look.

[jamesl1989]

Yes sorry I should have said the LED cluster comes as a separate pcb that screws in and sits to the top right of the arrow keys.

Edit: deleted pic

[suicidal_orange]

You've now  put magenta boxes round ANSI and ISO enter and the \| key which you can't see with an ISO enter, as well as what I believe to be print screen (I've spent too long on an 1800!)  I'm going to assume the pic I've just added to the previous post () is still accurate and \| isn't registering because your computer is also set to some kind of ISO layout, though it may just be broken as it's so poorly designed.

[jamesl1989]

Thank you so much, I see what youve posted, let me get to work and see what happens. 

[jamesl1989]

Sorry for the late response. A big thanks to suicidal_orange, the matrixlabs discord, and anyone who dealt with me after I messed this guy up. My friend did all the bridging recommended and got the board back in working order.

So the culprit seemed to be the trace torn at the backslash key. I realize now how utterly confusing some of my pictures were, anyways here is my friend holding the finished work. All keys are in working order, unfortunately we havent been able to diagnose what is wrong with the LEDs 

[suicidal_orange]

Trace scraping required thanks to the bad design - as you've now seen it's not something you want to do but at least there was a section with nothing near it. Glad to hear it's working again

As for the LEDs I see what I assume are the mounting screws but no block of connector pins so I guess they use a ribbon cable to one of the white blocks?  Ribbon cables are easily damaged so that's my guess.  If they're straight you can probably find a replacement on ebay, you just need to make sure the pitch is correct (the width of one trace plus the gap to the next)

[jamesl1989]

Could not have done it without you man, my friend is a bemani/arcade game hyper-nerd so hes way more knowledgeable than me when it comes to electronics/soldering but was fresh to learning the ins and outs of keyboards, I hesitate to say its been fun, but any day you learn is a good one.

The LED cluster and "bottom" led connect with JST cables, hopefully this is a better picture. The cluster connects to the front on its pcb and the back between the mounts you see, and the bottom led connects to the daughter board and the opening where all the bridging now is. I tried some of the "extra" openings but didnt see any change.

[jamesl1989]

Sorry to bump this again. But here is a video of me hitting the back of the jst connector to the "chip". when I do this on the top PCB for the LED cluster all of the LEDs will light up, but as in the video, for the "front" indicator LED only two or three come on.

https://youtube.com/shorts/2qrAXhiN4bI?feature=share

hope this helps diagnose it somewhat.

[suicidal_orange]

Sadly LEDs are not standard, I don't know what the chip you're poking is or what's on the other end of the JST but it looks like you're supplying power from the JST to pins which are turned off on the chip which makes the LEDs come on - you should be careful as shorting voltage to a ground pin could fry the chip.

[jamesl1989]

Oh, definitely dont need that. Here are some pictures that could help. Im assuming from what ive read online these are called Chip on Board LEDs? The "chip" on the cluster pcb seems to be an 'awinic aw9523b'



Also when soldering this happened and I was curious if this could have broken the trace or is it just superficial?


Let me know if I can provide more info that may help, thanks again for taking the time.

[suicidal_orange]

That stray blob of solder could be shorting the trace to the big ground plane - try and remove it with your finger nail, if it's not the problem it will pop off but if it wont that's the problem you'll need to "desolder" it and then the LEDs should work.