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geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: Gid on Mon, 10 February 2014, 02:33:01

Title: Solder-Swapping Two Keys (Hardware Swap)
Post by: Gid on Mon, 10 February 2014, 02:33:01

I'm looking for help.

The gist:  I want to hardware swap my keyboard's function key with the pause/break key and have prepared a diagram that attempts to convey my plan for doing so.  If anyone knowledgeable in this field could confirm the viability of my plan and steer me in the right direction with some advice, I would be very appreciative.  Either way, thanks for stopping by.

Here's a picture of the inside of  my keyboard (https://www.google.com/search?q=TG3+BL82&tbm=isch), illustrating the two keys I want to swap:

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/Bucketeer/Computery%20Stuff/518581D330E930D930EB_zps4d441a74.jpg)

I know very little about electronics but did manage to poke around with a continuity tester.  While I wasn't able to wrap my head around everything, I did gain enough of an understanding to conjure up the following plan:

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y17/Bucketeer/Computery%20Stuff/52D5753B_zpsc7b009af.gif)

... Take the hot nodes out of series.  Patch up the series.  Patch the hot nodes to the opposite series... Would this work?

If so, what kind of wiring should I use?  And would it be best to do all of this patching to existing solder points, as opposed to exposing the on-board circuitry and soldering to that?

If this seems doable, I hope to document the process for others.

[attachmini=1]
[attachmini=2]

Title: Re: Solder-Swapping Two Keys (Hardware Swap)
Post by: Gid on Sat, 15 February 2014, 11:40:39

All right, this is my first thread, and it hasn't gotten any replies.  Did I do something wrong?

I want to try this but would like some confirmation before cutting any traces.

Title: Re: Solder-Swapping Two Keys (Hardware Swap)
Post by: MOZ on Sat, 15 February 2014, 15:31:17

Remember for the columns you'll have to do the swap at the diodes and for the rows, it'll be the switches.

Title: Re: Solder-Swapping Two Keys (Hardware Swap)
Post by: jacobolus on Sun, 16 February 2014, 05:14:19

Yeah, you need to figure out which column and which row each switch is on, and then make sure you swap both. From your pictured PCB, it looks like maybe there’s some stuff going on on the other side of the board? If so, you’ll probably have to trace out exactly what it’s doing. [Or maybe as MOZ suggested you can get away with doing the swap via the diodes.]