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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: jpoland2003 on Mon, 15 December 2014, 08:27:31

Title: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: jpoland2003 on Mon, 15 December 2014, 08:27:31

I got a rosewill Rk-9000RE from Newegg that arrived dead.  I'm in India so return is not really feasible. When I plug it in, all three LEDs (caps, num, scroll) light up and stay lite.  Keypresses are not being registered.  I took it apart and I don't see any physical defects.  The PCB reads "Nashville" and seems to be v4.0.  So, I guess this came from some second teir oem? The controller is a NFKB-Daughter ESD Rev2.0 which seems to be standard from my google searches.

Any ideas?

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: Grendel on Mon, 15 December 2014, 13:37:21

Looks like the board is waiting for USB enumeration (all LED's on.) My guess would be that there's a bad solder joint in one of the USB data lines (something along the lines seen here (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=58319.0)), or a bad cable. Carefully re-soldering the joints around the USB signals or trying a different cable may fix it. It also could be a bad controller board (less likely IMHO tho), a Black Petal (http://deskthority.net/f-o-r-s-a-l-e-f58/qfr-and-filco-105-controllers-t6193.html) would fix that.

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: Melvang on Mon, 15 December 2014, 14:30:34

Are you using it in USB or PS/2 mode?  If you are using it as PS/2, keep in mind that it is not Plug and Play.  You may have to restart and or turn completely off and turn back on with the keyboard plugged in for it to register.

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: jpoland2003 on Tue, 16 December 2014, 08:45:16

I am connecting with the micro-usb not the PS2.
I don't know anything about soldering or have the tools on hand.
Here are a couple shots of the back of spots that look suspect to me but might be nothing:
The usb connections look okay to me.  There is some "mess."
(http://postimg.org/image/ajidw1gb1/)

(http://postimg.org/image/p17lip379/)
That's under the "windows" key looks messy to me but might be nothing
(http://postimg.org/image/5kst2csvl/)
That's under the "enter" key. That seems like a problem.  It looks like solder is just missing.

In case the pictures don't show:
http://postimg.org/image/ajidw1gb1 (http://postimg.org/image/ajidw1gb1) : usb
http://postimg.org/image/p17lip379 (http://postimg.org/image/p17lip379) : "windows"
http://postimg.org/image/5kst2csvl (http://postimg.org/image/5kst2csvl) : "enter"

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: berserkfan on Tue, 16 December 2014, 11:56:53

Quote from: jpoland2003 on Tue, 16 December 2014, 08:45:16

I am connecting with the micro-usb not the PS2.
I don't know anything about soldering or have the tools on hand.
Here are a couple shots of the back of spots that look suspect to me but might be nothing:
The usb connections look okay to me.  There is some "mess."

Show Image

(http://postimg.org/image/ajidw1gb1/)

Show Image

(http://postimg.org/image/p17lip379/)

That's under the "windows" key looks messy to me but might be nothing

Show Image

(http://postimg.org/image/5kst2csvl/)

That's under the "enter" key. That seems like a problem.  It looks like solder is just missing.

In case the pictures don't show:
http://postimg.org/image/ajidw1gb1 (http://postimg.org/image/ajidw1gb1) : usb
http://postimg.org/image/p17lip379 (http://postimg.org/image/p17lip379) : "windows"
http://postimg.org/image/5kst2csvl (http://postimg.org/image/5kst2csvl) : "enter"

Wow, the soldering is bad!

The USB connector is shorted out. See the two solder joints merged into one? That means 2 USB signals are crossing over. You need to buy a solder sucker, desolder, and resolder them into two discrete solder joints.

The windows, I'm not sure. Some of these keys do come with big solder pads. Probably no issue.

The enter key, don't worry. You notice there are two enter keys marked out? That's for ISO. The unused pad is sometimes covered with solder anyway, but not covering it with solder/ half covering will have no effect. 

You only have to worry about the USB connector's solder joint. It's a big pain to fix because these are so small, so get on your Indian facebook account or whatever, fire off a help request for local people who know soldering. I would not want a newbie like you working this solder joint.

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: Grendel on Tue, 16 December 2014, 13:02:37

Quote from: berserkfan on Tue, 16 December 2014, 11:56:53

The USB connector is shorted out. See the two solder joints merged into one? That means 2 USB signals are crossing over.

This is on purpose -- the two pins connected are GND and ID, the latter is supposed to be grounded w/in a device.

Don't worry about the soldering quality of the switches for now. Did you try a different USB cable ? Could you take a picture like the 1st one but slightly more to the left ? (only one data line connection to the controller is visible in this one.) The soldering actually doesn't look that bad, so the probability of the problem being on the controller PCB is rising. May help if you could take pictures of the controller PCB top and bottom.

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: berserkfan on Tue, 16 December 2014, 13:22:54

Quote from: Grendel on Tue, 16 December 2014, 13:02:37

Quote from: berserkfan on Tue, 16 December 2014, 11:56:53

The USB connector is shorted out. See the two solder joints merged into one? That means 2 USB signals are crossing over.

This is on purpose -- the two pins connected are GND and ID, the latter is supposed to be grounded w/in a device.

Don't worry about the soldering quality of the switches for now. Did you try a different USB cable ? Could you take a picture like the 1st one but slightly more to the left ? (only one data line connection to the controller is visible in this one.) The soldering actually doesn't look that bad, so the probability of the problem being on the controller PCB is rising. May help if you could take pictures of the controller PCB top and bottom.

Grendel

I once had a non working Rosewill WITHOUT the GND and ID soldered together. I thought it was normal for all the USB connector solder joints to be discrete so I never investigated further and later passed the Rosewill to someone else. But could my non working Rosewill have been fixed by me shorting GND and ID then?

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: Grendel on Tue, 16 December 2014, 14:30:56

Quote from: berserkfan on Tue, 16 December 2014, 13:22:54

Grendel

I once had a non working Rosewill WITHOUT the GND and ID soldered together. I thought it was normal for all the USB connector solder joints to be discrete so I never investigated further and later passed the Rosewill to someone else. But could my non working Rosewill have been fixed by me shorting GND and ID then?

Yes, if the GND pin was the one not soldered correctly.

Edit: just checked the specs -- ID is supposed to be connected host side to GND -- if you have an OTG cable. Device side it's supposed to be open. Doesn't matter in this case tho since the cables used are A-miniB (std A doesn't have the ID signal.) Above's statement is still valid, if the GND pin isn't connected to the solder pad (but the ID pin is), the board will not work. The OP's board is stuck w/ all LED's lit, this means the controller gets power (5V and GND are connected) and is either waiting for the USB enumeration or has some other problem -- a break in either the D- or D+ lines could cause this.

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: jpoland2003 on Wed, 17 December 2014, 23:58:26

I tried a different keyboard on the same usb cable.  It worked.

Here is a shot of the stuff to the left of the usb connection.

http://postimg.org/image/u76m7lnrx/3549661a/ (http://postimg.org/image/u76m7lnrx/3549661a/)

Thanks for the help.

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: Grendel on Thu, 18 December 2014, 04:19:45

I can't see anything obviously wrong w/ this part, it's possible that the problem is located on the controller PCB. For reference, the top PCB is the underside of a RK-9K controller:

(http://s8.postimg.org/41x9ywpw1/MG_1266.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/41x9ywpw1/)

D- and D+ are coming in on pin 5 and 6 of the top row (counted from the right), check the soldering of the pins and of these components: D102, D103, R113, R114, R106, R107, C104, C105, R104, and C103. On the Holtech chip check pins 3 and 4 of the right row, counted from the top. IF the PC doesn't see anything at all on the USB port w/ the board plugged in (no "USB device has a problem" message), pay close attention to R114, R104, and C103 (R104 is supposed to connect D- to +3.3V, telling the USB host that a device is connected.)

If all fails I would suggest to get a replacement controller (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46700.0) (Black Petal.)

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: jpoland2003 on Fri, 19 December 2014, 12:40:48

I think the controller looks fine.  I don't see an obviously bad connections:

Underside
http://postimg.org/image/hi9vugovf/ (http://postimg.org/image/hi9vugovf/)

Face
http://postimg.org/image/6hkxocivz/120edbc9/ (http://postimg.org/image/6hkxocivz/120edbc9/)

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: Grendel on Fri, 19 December 2014, 14:00:06

I agree, nothing obvious seems to be wrong :( It's very likely that the controller chip went belly-up. Normally I would offer to send you one of the controller PCB's I have laying around here, but from the looks of it the smallest package to India costs about $25 shipping. For $10 more you can get a replacement controller from bpiphany (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46700.0), well worth it IMHO.

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: jpoland2003 on Sat, 10 January 2015, 03:24:27

Hate to bump a dead thread but I got the Black Pearl controller and it still behaves the same.  The LEDs light up and stay on while the computer doesn't register a keyboard or any key input.  I guess if nobody has any other ideas, this is just a write off at this point.

Title: Re: Rosewill RK9000RE unresponsive all LEDs lite
Post by: Grendel on Sun, 11 January 2015, 03:37:29

Does the Petal come pre-programmed ? (I always hook mine up to an ISP before even dropping it in..) If it is, the problem has to be w/ the USB data lines -- either w/ the cable, connector or joints. You can double check by bringing a magnet close to the reed contact to do a reset and start the bootloader. It should show up as a new device and the computer should try to find a driver for it. If this is happening, you need to load some firmware (this one (https://corecon.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/corecon/CoReCon/bin/BlackPetal.hex) will do for a test) using FLIP (http://www.atmel.com/tools/flip.aspx).