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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Albatross on Thu, 08 February 2018, 20:35:58

Title: Whitefox - R CTRL key not working as intended - Help?
Post by: Albatross on Thu, 08 February 2018, 20:35:58

Hello all,

So, I purchased a Whitefox Aria off of eBay for pretty cheap. When I received it and plugged it in, I noticed that the R CTRL switch had issues, and the keyboard was not working as intended. I know I could easily return this board, but I'd like to keep because even if I can't get the CTRL switch to work, I can simply disable it within the firmware, and for the price I paid I'd be okay with that. I'm not so great with electronics or circuitry, so I'm hoping that perhaps one of you guys may be able to help me out. Here's an imgur album of the PCB: https://imgur.com/a/ODGK8 (and I know that this solder job is terribly poor). Here's what I know and/or have done:

• When I plug in the keyboard and immediately after I press any key other than R CTRL, R CTRL actuates and is held down until I press R CTRL with another keyboard. If I press R CTRL as the first key on the whitefox., nothing happens. The keyboard then functions normally with the exception of the R CTRL key after I've "cancelled it". THE R CTRL key does nothing.
• The first thing I tried was removing the original switch in case it was faulty, but the switch itself is not the problem. I also tried removing the switches LED and tried to touch up nearby joints to see if that would help, but it didn't.
• The second thing I tried was to flash some other key onto the R CTRL key to see if the same thing happens. I flashed the 1 key to R CTRL, and sure enough, it caused the same problem as before, only this time with 1 instead of R CTRL. I then flashed nothing onto the R CTRL key, and the board works as intended in this state.
• I then tried using isopropyl alcohol to clean up flux. That also did not resolve the issue.

If you have any suggestions on how to resolve this problem, please let me know! Thanks!