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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Jixr on Thu, 22 May 2014, 21:07:56

Title: fix lifted LED trace hole?
Post by: Jixr on Thu, 22 May 2014, 21:07:56
Hey guys, I accidently burnt the trace for the LED on the Esc key on my PokerX

is there anything I can do to try and fix it?

if so great, if not no biggie.

Thanks
Title: Re: fix lifted LED trace hole?
Post by: Melvang on Thu, 22 May 2014, 21:11:09
Take one of the clipped leads from another LED, bridge the gap from the LED pin to the trace.  Before you solder though you need to scuff the trace to actually expose the copper. 

Or you can run a piece of hookup wire from that pin to the next pad on that trace.  I have done both methods for either switch traces or LED's
Title: Re: fix lifted LED trace hole?
Post by: Defect on Thu, 22 May 2014, 21:18:48
Take one of the clipped leads from another LED, bridge the gap from the LED pin to the trace.  Before you solder though you need to scuff the trace to actually expose the copper. 

Or you can run a piece of hookup wire from that pin to the next pad on that trace.  I have done both methods for either switch traces or LED's

Hmm, got me curious about the hookup wire method.  Could you elaborate on that more?  If a cathode lead is lifted, you would wire cathode to cathode of the neighbor switch?  Is there danger in having an exposed wire near so many other solder joints?  Or would you strip a very small coated wire?
Title: Re: fix lifted LED trace hole?
Post by: Melvang on Thu, 22 May 2014, 21:28:07
Take one of the clipped leads from another LED, bridge the gap from the LED pin to the trace.  Before you solder though you need to scuff the trace to actually expose the copper. 

Or you can run a piece of hookup wire from that pin to the next pad on that trace.  I have done both methods for either switch traces or LED's

Hmm, got me curious about the hookup wire method.  Could you elaborate on that more?  If a cathode lead is lifted, you would wire cathode to cathode of the neighbor switch?  Is there danger in having an exposed wire near so many other solder joints?  Or would you strip a very small coated wire?

I know it is a bad potato pic but here (http://i.imgur.com/6ksf6BW.jpg) is a pic from when I rotated the Esc key on my Das to put an LED in it for my skull cap in my profile pic.  When I drilled the hole for the pin on the right side of the pic it went through another trace.  So I had to finish breaking it.  I then soldered a wire to the pin and then to the next solder pad down the line.  The longer straight wire was to complete the circuit for that particular trace.
Title: Re: fix lifted LED trace hole?
Post by: Jixr on Thu, 22 May 2014, 21:44:10
Yeah. The poker uses double sided pcb and there is no exposed trace to jump to. It's no biggie, it's a pcb I got used and it's pretty beat up from multiple soldering jobs.