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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Questengine on Wed, 08 June 2016, 21:01:38
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My first mech board, woohoo right? Yeah, I'm very happy. But it's kind of broken, I think my soldering is weird and I wonder if anyone can compare mine with a good photo of a correct ergodox and tell me exactly what's wrong.
Mini review here:https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=82376.0 but basically, the trrs jack on the right hand side is flaky...If I hold the cable and plug just right, it works fine, but in just the normal process of typing, it can be "unlodged" and the board will go into some diagnostic flashing mode. I can post a video if that's helpful to anyone, but I'm pretty sure its just a bad solder. When the cord/plug is positioned just right, it works, otherwise it fails. Specifically you have to put some tension on the plug, push it to one side, to make it fit tighter (or what I'm guessing, to gently twist the trrs jack soldered onto the pcb)
So if you have an ergodox and you can examine the bottom of it for me, you might be able to confirm my suspicions about what's broken. Notice in the pic below the yellow and blue arrows. The blue arrow is on the left hand side of the ergodox and points to a hole near the trrs jack that is clearly not soldered. Then the yellow arrow is on the right hand side (the broken side) pointing to the corresponding position on the pcb, if you consider that you're looking at them backwards and upside down, but it IS soldered! Does this solder point need to be removed? I got this ergodox fully assembled so I never had to do the trrs jacks myself and I don't know if they should be identical or not? I'm hoping that by putting the board under tension, I'm disconnecting this superflous solder joint and allowing the board to work correctly.
[attachimg=1]
I know I can just try it and see, but if someone would like to offer "Yeah, that's probably your problem" or "no, don't do that, you'll really screw it up", it would make me feel better. Thanks for all your help!
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The orange one isn't connected to anything so it's not a problem.
Are you sure the cable is good? They are known for being fragile... Swap the ends and see if you need to put pressure on the other side.
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I've used two cables. Both sides of each. So I've got to believe its the jack. Should I just touch up the solder points ? Is that what you do for problems like this ?
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If you don't have a soldapult,
just blow at it while hot
be careful not to get your lips too close to the iron..
No jerky motions.. practice a few runs before you turn on the heat..
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All Fixed! Turns out I didn't have to remove that extra one, just retouch the others, and apparently that did it because my keyboard is perfectly happy now.
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just blow at it while hot
be careful not to get your lips too close to the iron..
No jerky motions.. practice a few runs before you turn on the heat..
Foreplay 101