Diodes need to be soldered for switches in the first batch, just got my 60% from the post office a moment ago.
Is it actually the diodes that need to be soldered on or is it the resistors for the LEDs? It was my understanding that the SMD diodes would be soldered on, but since the required resistors can be different for the different LEDs (color can change the resistor needed), those were not going to be factory soldered. I thought I remember a note about that once. I did not realize the LED resistors were going to be SMD, that was not clear. I was kind of expecting through hole resistors.
If the diodes are soldered that is much better because then the board is just switches away from working (without backlighting). You only need to solder the resistors if you are doing backlighting (which a lot of people want to do with these). It is much more of a pain to have to do SMD work for lots of switches. Haha, glad I didn't buy a full sized.
my understanding is more or less the same as yours.
just that i assumed that the resistors are soldered on as well.
another thing i assumed (so much assuming here! LOL!) is that the resistor presoldered is suitable for the higher brightness leds (3.0-3.2v), those lower brightness led, eg, red, orange, yellow, etc...will appear dimmer and if u want uniform brightness, that's when u need to mod out the resistor to suit the led.
and yes initially i assumed it to be hole resistors type, and then i got confused seeing that all smd parts are factory presoldered...haha!
now we need sprit to clear it up for us >.<