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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: bavman on Thu, 01 March 2012, 15:10:39

Title: Open cherry switch on a plate mounted board?
Post by: bavman on Thu, 01 March 2012, 15:10:39: I want to mod my cmstorm /w red to browns. I have all the stuff i need but I dont want to go through the whole process of desoldering and soldering every single switch for the reasons that it takes forever and I dont exactly trust myself with that.
I watched lister's video here about removing the tops of plate mounted switches but I've had no luck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HysRQnJiupQ

I placed my screwdriver in 1 of the 4 notches on the side and pressed outwards with another little screwdriver to help open it but it doesnt work. Im pretty sure I'm doing it right because when I open the switches on a PCB mounted board it works perfectly...im guessing cause theyre no plate to get in the way.

Is there a special tool I can get that does this? Or am i doing something wrong?
Title: Open cherry switch on a plate mounted board?
Post by: bavman on Thu, 01 March 2012, 15:23:26: so desoldering them off is probably the best idea for me then?

will switches from a PCB board work? I think those extra 2 prongs they have are for resistors or something...can I just pull them off and not use them?
Title: Open cherry switch on a plate mounted board?
Post by: bavman on Thu, 01 March 2012, 20:13:40: Success!!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]42380[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]42381[/ATTACH]

I ended up just desoldering the switches off then swapping spring and stem from the brown PCB board
Title: Open cherry switch on a plate mounted board?
Post by: Quarzac on Thu, 01 March 2012, 20:22:13: Looks good! Nice R3 set!
Title: Open cherry switch on a plate mounted board?
Post by: bavman on Thu, 01 March 2012, 20:54:33: Thanks :)

Does it count as a limited board if I put those red switches in my filco now?
Title: Open cherry switch on a plate mounted board?
Post by: zirb on Fri, 02 March 2012, 03:13:50: Quote from: bavman;532700
Thanks :)

Does it count as a limited board if I put those red switches in my filco now?

I would call it fimited, since it's kind of fake.

Awesome job, btw! Have you de-/soldered something before or was this your first time? :)
Title: Open cherry switch on a plate mounted board?
Post by: bavman on Fri, 02 March 2012, 10:58:15: First time doing keyboard stuff...actually anything, ive never really soldered stuff before...i freaked out because my up arrow wouldnt work when i put it back together. So i opened it up and saw that I forgot to solder that switch lol. This is pretty easy stuff though since the joints your soldering are fairly large and compared to most electronics and dont require a super steady hand or a large amount of experience/skill
But now all is good and it works perfectly.
Title: Open cherry switch on a plate mounted board?
Post by: ryan92084 on Fri, 02 March 2012, 14:03:55: About how long did it take? Just asking for future reference as i may be switching to clear/ergo clear when that switch GB ships out.
Title: Open cherry switch on a plate mounted board?
Post by: bavman on Fri, 02 March 2012, 14:17:55: about 2-3 hours. desoldering/soldering is fast, but in my case i had to pop open switches to swap their stems, thats why it took me a long time.
Title: Open cherry switch on a plate mounted board?
Post by: ryan92084 on Fri, 02 March 2012, 14:51:50: That isn't bad at all hopefully my soldering skills haven't gone too rusty.
Title: Open cherry switch on a plate mounted board?
Post by: Roguemaster8 on Fri, 02 March 2012, 20:21:56: Nice job, I was going to wait until Quickfire Rapid with browns shipped to NA, but I'm afraid just how branded it will be.