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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: captsis on Tue, 13 September 2016, 19:39:17
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I recently assembled a b.face with a HHKB layout. I plug it into my PC and nothing is detected. not even Device Manager detects anything. the only thing i soldered was the switches and leds with SIP sockets. The bootmapper client says no HID detected. these are pictures are of the completed board (FYI the R10 resistor may look desoldered but its not)
[edit] updated pictures
[edit]
Was able to get into bootloader mode. My computer now detects it as a "Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed)" in device manager.
[FINAL EDIT]
After several hours of analysis with a multimeter, i figured out that several termination resistors for usb to the atmega32a had died. Replaced the resistors and it worked! Thanks everyone for your help!
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Try a different usb port (usb2 seems to be preferred when flashing)
hold down U key when inserting usb cable
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Try a different usb port (usb2 seems to be preferred when flashing)
hold down U key when inserting usb cable
Tried. No luck :(
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Try a different usb port (usb2 seems to be preferred when flashing)
hold down U key when inserting usb cable
Tried. No luck :(
http://winkeyless.kr/how-to-check-a-pcb-is-working/
btw your soldering iron seems to be set to "incinerate", might want to clean it up first.
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It looked like you burned up a lot of the traces.
In fact, on every switch, the soldering job is sloppy enough to have caused real damage.
While the damage might look exaggerated because white PCBs get ruined more easily, that is by no means acceptable.
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Try a different usb port (usb2 seems to be preferred when flashing)
hold down U key when inserting usb cable
Tried. No luck :(
http://winkeyless.kr/how-to-check-a-pcb-is-working/
btw your soldering iron seems to be set to "incinerate", might want to clean it up first.
Yea... not much i can do with a cheap Radioshack iron. Isn't that flux(?) pretty sure it is. If i did **** it up that bad then am i screwed?
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It looked like you burned up a lot of the traces.
In fact, on every switch, the soldering job is sloppy enough to have caused real damage.
While the damage might look exaggerated because white PCBs get ruined more easily, that is by no means acceptable.
Is it ruined? or flux? and ill do my best to clean it up with what I have. Not my best work
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Try a different usb port (usb2 seems to be preferred when flashing)
hold down U key when inserting usb cable
Tried. No luck :(
http://winkeyless.kr/how-to-check-a-pcb-is-working/
btw your soldering iron seems to be set to "incinerate", might want to clean it up first.
Yea... not much i can do with a cheap Radioshack iron. Isn't that flux(?) pretty sure it is. If i did **** it up that bad then am i screwed?
Using a radioshack iron is, by no means, acceptable ever.
You will risk damaging the keyboard and, in extreme cases, melting the switches.
Use a temperature controlled iron and have it set to 650 degrees Fahrenheit. Only with that setup will you be able to solder properly.
The best you can do, I imagine, is salvage the plate, switches, and sockets.
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Try a different usb port (usb2 seems to be preferred when flashing)
hold down U key when inserting usb cable
Tried. No luck :(
http://winkeyless.kr/how-to-check-a-pcb-is-working/
btw your soldering iron seems to be set to "incinerate", might want to clean it up first.
Yea... not much i can do with a cheap Radioshack iron. Isn't that flux(?) pretty sure it is. If i did **** it up that bad then am i screwed?
Using a radioshack iron is, by no means, acceptable ever.
You will risk damaging the keyboard and, in extreme cases, melting the switches.
Use a temperature controlled iron and have it set to 650 degrees Fahrenheit. Only with that setup will you be able to solder properly.
The best you can do, I imagine, is salvage the plate, switches, and sockets.
so the board is dead?
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Try a different usb port (usb2 seems to be preferred when flashing)
hold down U key when inserting usb cable
Tried. No luck :(
http://winkeyless.kr/how-to-check-a-pcb-is-working/
btw your soldering iron seems to be set to "incinerate", might want to clean it up first.
Yea... not much i can do with a cheap Radioshack iron. Isn't that flux(?) pretty sure it is. If i did **** it up that bad then am i screwed?
Using a radioshack iron is, by no means, acceptable ever.
You will risk damaging the keyboard and, in extreme cases, melting the switches.
Use a temperature controlled iron and have it set to 650 degrees Fahrenheit. Only with that setup will you be able to solder properly.
The best you can do, I imagine, is salvage the plate, switches, and sockets.
so the board is dead?
Use the testing tools and methods that were linked. I cannot say for sure if that keyboard is dead.
However, my assumption is that the PCB has been ruined and cannot be brought back to life.
I would suggest keeping the PCB to practice soldering so that you can have cleaner jobs in the future.
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This is my 2nd DIY board. First one went fine for a friend's build. Admittedly i used a different iron
[EDIT] winkeyless contacted
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By the way, do those switches have milky bottoms?
The crystal clear bottoms for zealios will get ruined entirely if the heat on them is too hot because they will melt and cause chattering on each switch.
If that is the case, then salvaging the board will be a lot less fruitful.
Just take this as a lesson and be more careful when soldering. I imagine this was an extremely expensive mistake.
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By the way, do those switches have milky bottoms?
The crystal clear bottoms for zealios will get ruined entirely if the heat on them is too hot because they will melt and cause chattering on each switch.
If that is the case, then salvaging the board will be a lot less fruitful.
Just take this as a lesson and be more careful when soldering. I imagine this was an extremely expensive mistake.
No. Pretty sure the switches are fine though.
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By the way, do those switches have milky bottoms?
The crystal clear bottoms for zealios will get ruined entirely if the heat on them is too hot because they will melt and cause chattering on each switch.
If that is the case, then salvaging the board will be a lot less fruitful.
Just take this as a lesson and be more careful when soldering. I imagine this was an extremely expensive mistake.
No. Pretty sure the switches are fine though.
With the crystal clear bottoms, the switches would always look fine, however, they would not perform fine.
The "melting" that occurs isn't easily seen and just because it looks fine doesn't mean it is.
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By the way, do those switches have milky bottoms?
The crystal clear bottoms for zealios will get ruined entirely if the heat on them is too hot because they will melt and cause chattering on each switch.
If that is the case, then salvaging the board will be a lot less fruitful.
Just take this as a lesson and be more careful when soldering. I imagine this was an extremely expensive mistake.
No. Pretty sure the switches are fine though.
With the crystal clear bottoms, the switches would always look fine, however, they would not perform fine.
The "melting" that occurs isn't easily seen and just because it looks fine doesn't mean it is.
When I have the time I will jump the pins and test with a different PC in a few hours. Hopefully not all is lost
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On different pc now. It shows up as "Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed)"?
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Eh, I've seen worse soldering jobs. Could mostly be burnt flux. Try getting some pure isopropyl (not from the drug store) and a toothbrush and scrub that board clean. Burnt flux can cause erratic problems. You also won't be able to get too far without a multimeter for testing (or do you have one and I missed it?)
Ps radio trash irons can work ok. You don't have as much of a margin for error, which makes them bad choices for beginners. But I could solder a board with one without problems. I'd rather not though.
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here is what the keyboard looks after cleaning. will perform more test tomorrow. (link is an imgur album)
(https://imgur.com/a/uTTTx)
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Yeah, definitely seen worse. I'd be worried about shorts with all that extra solder. Do you have a multimeter?
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Yeah, definitely seen worse. I'd be worried about shorts with all that extra solder. Do you have a multimeter?
I do. but i dont really know how to use it.
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Either set it to diode or one of the small resistor values. You are just checking to see that stuff that isn't supposed to be connected isn't (no beep, or infinite resistance) and seeing that stuff that should be connected is (beep or close to zero resistance). I'd check the pins of the USB port to the microcontroller (these will often have a resistor along the path, so know that they might not read zero) and then make sure that led leads aren't bridged, and open switches aren't bridged. I would also follow traces on the board as best I could since you don't have a schematic to work from. It's very tedious work... but there are often no quick fixes when hardware isn't working correctly.
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BUMP The board is definitely not dead.I was able to get into bootloader mode but is still unrecognized by PC. Capslock flashes indefinitely.
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Set your multimeter to continuity mode and test the traces from the usb port ground, vcc, tx, and rx pins and see if they all connect to the mc. If they don't than that's the first place to start troubleshooting those traces.
If that's all good, try making sure that all the surrounding components for the MC are working. i.e. the clock, and surrounding resistors/caps and whatever else is on that board. The keyboard matrix itself won't stop the MC from connecting and showing on your computer, so we can troubleshoot that later on. As you say, the keyboard is now showing up on the computer, which I think means that it should be fine and recoverable.
The next step would be to try reflash it using the guide from winkeyless, and definitely jump those pins with the paper clip as that will put it in debugging mode
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I built so many keyboards with a crappy iron, you don't need an amazing iron to build keyboards and if people say you do, they've not built many keyboards :D or electronics. I had several hundred hours in a soldering iron that cost me £3. It was crap and way too hot for desoldering, but for soldering it was fine.
You can send me the PCB if you like and i'll let you know definitively if it's broken or if it's not broken, and I can probably most likely fix it. No cost just pay shipping both ways. All the crap looks like flux to me, but the soldering does also look crap :D I'd desolder it, probe the board, test the controller, flash it (either isp or with bootloader), rebuild it and test it. and i'm 95% certain I'd be able to send back a working keyboard.
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I built so many keyboards with a crappy iron, you don't need an amazing iron to build keyboards and if people say you do, they've not built many keyboards :D or electronics. I had several hundred hours in a soldering iron that cost me £3. It was crap and way too hot for desoldering, but for soldering it was fine.
You can send me the PCB if you like and i'll let you know definitively if it's broken or if it's not broken, and I can probably most likely fix it. No cost just pay shipping both ways. All the crap looks like flux to me, but the soldering does also look crap :D I'd desolder it, probe the board, test the controller, flash it (either isp or with bootloader), rebuild it and test it. and i'm 95% certain I'd be able to send back a working keyboard.
I just figured it out! After several hours of analysis with a multimeter, i figured out that several series termination resistors for usb to the atmega32a had died. Replaced the resistors and it worked! I didn't screw it up!
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Good job. There's something about doing your first electronics project where something goes wrong, and then fixing it. Building stuff is easy when everything works. Troubleshooting and fixing issues is where you really earn your nerd cred.
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I built so many keyboards with a crappy iron, you don't need an amazing iron to build keyboards and if people say you do, they've not built many keyboards :D or electronics. I had several hundred hours in a soldering iron that cost me £3. It was crap and way too hot for desoldering, but for soldering it was fine.
You can send me the PCB if you like and i'll let you know definitively if it's broken or if it's not broken, and I can probably most likely fix it. No cost just pay shipping both ways. All the crap looks like flux to me, but the soldering does also look crap :D I'd desolder it, probe the board, test the controller, flash it (either isp or with bootloader), rebuild it and test it. and i'm 95% certain I'd be able to send back a working keyboard.
I stand with margo on this one, you don't need the perfect equipment to do a good job
Great to see that it worked!