geekhack
geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: fathom on Tue, 14 October 2014, 01:28:38
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Hello All, this is my first post!
I have owned a Das Keyboard 4 with blue switches for about 6 months. I recently changed jobs into a smaller work environment which would not allow such racket, so I tried my hand at modding it with clear switches. After disassembling, desoldering, and soldering the new switches, I am unable to get a handful of keys to work. As far as I can tell, the solder job on these keys are identical to the functioning keys.
Does anyone have any tips on troubleshooting such an issue? I only know the basics of soldering/electronics. I've tried soldering/resoldering some of the keys to no avail.
The keys in particular are ASDF, JKL;, and Esc, 1, Tab, Q. As you can see they are clustered together, so I was thinking this may mean something.
Any help is really appreciated, thanks!
EDIT: The keyboard has plate-mounted switches
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Please check this thread: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=42824.0. It is an abundance of knowledge.
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Please check this thread: http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=42824.0. It is an abundance of knowledge.
Thank you for the link. A lot of good information there. Looks like I need to pick up a multimeter to pinpoint the exact problem and go from there.
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I've narrowed down the issue. It appears my soldering was not at fault. Instead, it looks like I was a bit too careless when removing the PCBs from the casing. I made a small tear in the flat flex cable that connects the main PCB to the Media controls PCB. Only 3 of the connections were severed.
Unfortunately, these are a pain to fix, so my options are to get a replacement cable from Das, attempt to solder small gauge wires to fix the few severed connections, or trash it :(
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I would suggest repairing first if you have the tools for it. If not, I would say get a replacement.
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For anyone wondering, I was unable to get a replacement part from Das or fix it myself. I sent it off to theChemist for repairs, now everything works great! Here is his thread, http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=59526.0 (http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=59526.0)