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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Nonuke on Wed, 30 December 2020, 12:54:37

Title: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: Nonuke on Wed, 30 December 2020, 12:54:37: Hi,

Today I received a XD87 kit and started working on it. My first build. I did test the board beforehand and all contacts were working fine. After soldering the switches I’ve found a few keys not working, and a switch that was broken. I’ve desoldered this switch, soldered it again, and now all switches are dead. The leds below the board light normally and windows recognizes it, meaning the board is “alive”.

Where do I start for trying to troubleshot the problem? I have no idea! Can someone help me?

Thanks!
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: Nonuke on Wed, 30 December 2020, 13:03:33: Here a picture of the board, if someone wants to point out where I did the butchery... :'(

(https://imgur.com/a/VCpAgSW)

https://imgur.com/a/VCpAgSW (https://imgur.com/a/VCpAgSW)

Thanks
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: CosminOance on Wed, 30 December 2020, 13:27:38: The soldering shows that you should have paid a bit more attention to tutorials. It's not surprising that some keys did not work.
What IS surprising is that no keys are working now, like you might have accidentally reset it for flashing. Depending on version, you will either have a reset button, some pins or something that allow you to put the pcb in flashing mode.

I would try re-flashing it with the default layout and see if something works. Then properly solder the switches.
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: Nonuke on Wed, 30 December 2020, 14:16:08: Sir, you just saved my day. :) I've quickly compiled and flashed a new firmware with qmk and the board is alive again. Now I will try to solder the remaining switches!

Thanks a bunch! I was on dismay!
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: yqqdrasil on Wed, 30 December 2020, 18:42:40: Go check out some videos on through hole soldering on youtube, good luck :thumb:
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: Nonuke on Wed, 30 December 2020, 19:00:44: Thanks! Just finished the soldering. All keys work! I can type! Ugly but effective. :)

Still I have some stuff to fix...

The keycap set I bought have Win/Alt/Ctrl/Fn keys that will not perfectly fit. I’ve adapted some blank keycaps and have all the functionality, but the overall composition is ugly. I’ve also problems with one of the stabilizers - not sure if mounted correctly - the Enter key feels like crap, seems almost crooked to one side. Tomorrow I will have a closer look. Just thinking about desoldering all the keyboard makes me regret not choosing the hotswap pcb. ;D

With all those issues, I am still having fun, and that’s the most important part, right?
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: CosminOance on Wed, 30 December 2020, 20:48:48: Quote from: Nonuke on Wed, 30 December 2020, 14:16:08
Sir, you just saved my day. :) I've quickly compiled and flashed a new firmware with qmk and the board is alive again. Now I will try to solder the remaining switches!

Thanks a bunch! I was on dismay!

Glad I could help.
As the quickest of tips on soldering switches:
1. hold the soldering tip on the switch pin AND touching the pad (the metal ring around the switch hole in the pcb)
2. touch the solder wire to any of the surfaces in contact with the tip, preferably the soldering iron tip.
3. after a small portion gets melted on the tip or the pad, take the wire away and WAIT for that melted solder to be "sucked" in the hole (that's when you know the solder has connected the switch pin and the pcb pad).
4. Remove the hot tip at that point.

In case your switches do not work in the future, it will probably be due to this process being done improperly and because of the vibration from usage, the ball of solder that is improperly connecting the pin to the pcb has shifted position.
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: Sup on Wed, 30 December 2020, 21:33:42: Are the top left pads burnt or does the picture just make it look like that.
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: tp4tissue on Thu, 31 December 2020, 06:41:15: temperature controlled iron..

(https://i.imgur.com/RSB9WCf.gif)
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: Nonuke on Fri, 01 January 2021, 01:44:56: Hi all,

Thanks for the tips. Keyboard is ok, soldering is a little better. Now my butchery is buried behind a case I hope no one will ever open to check. :-)
It seems that I did burn some stuff around, a ~bit too hot~ soldering iron, as a matter of fact.
I think I will tend to hotswappable from now on... But before I will add leds to my ergodox infinity...

Thanks again!
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: JotheSmurf on Mon, 04 January 2021, 18:22:59: Hi im building a XD87 and im up to the stage where I want to flash it with QMK to make my own custom layers, but I am not to sure how to put the keyboard into reset mode.
And was wondering if you can help me because obv you reset yours to put QMK on it
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: Nonuke on Mon, 04 January 2021, 18:56:52: Hi,
I used some twizzers on the top pin holes in the picture. After you have qmk firmware installed, depending on your layout, you can use some key sequence to put the board again on a DFU state.
[attachimg=1]
Title: Re: XD87 - Did I burn the board?
Post by: JotheSmurf on Mon, 04 January 2021, 20:27:13: Ah thank you for your help but I have also just figured out that I can hold space bar and B and it will put the keyboard into reset mode.