geekhack

geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Naweo on Fri, 27 May 2016, 18:41:26

Title: Will a keyboard work if you remove LED?
Post by: Naweo on Fri, 27 May 2016, 18:41:26

I guess yes, but will a keyboard work without LED?

I have a keycool 84 I wanna remove LEDS on to make soldering in future easier, but I am curious if it will actually work after... I guess yes, but I wanna be sure as I need to cut some LEDS otherwise.

Sorry if this is a silly question ^^

Title: Re: Will a keyboard work if you remove LED?
Post by: Sifo on Fri, 27 May 2016, 19:35:01

It will still work if you desolder all the LEDs as long as you don't somehow manage to damage the circuit. Even if the LED traces are damaged though the keyboard itself should function fine..

Title: Re: Will a keyboard work if you remove LED?
Post by: Naweo on Fri, 27 May 2016, 20:12:54

Quote from: Sifo on Fri, 27 May 2016, 19:35:01

It will still work if you desolder all the LEDs as long as you don't somehow manage to damage the circuit. Even if the LED traces are damaged though the keyboard itself should function fine..

Hey! Thank you!

Is there a specific reason I must desolder ALL leds, like does it matter that some solder is left in the solder pad slots even if I removed the LEDs? (Bulb + pins)

I will remove them all, including caps lock etc and test.

Title: Re: Will a keyboard work if you remove LED?
Post by: E3E on Fri, 27 May 2016, 21:40:14

You can remove any number of leds and the board would still work fine. Shouldn't be an issue you if there's still some solder on the pads. If there was solder IN the vias, you'd likely not be able to remove the LEDs.

You'd likely pull off the pad + via if you tried to pull an LED that wasn't fully desoldered.