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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: G_I_B_B_O_N on Sun, 27 May 2018, 17:01:30

Title: Atreus solder damage - Help!
Post by: G_I_B_B_O_N on Sun, 27 May 2018, 17:01:30

I'll preface this by saying I'm new to electronics and soldering. So I just finished building my Atreus. Everything was going well, and I noticed the Ctrl key was leaning sideways in the plate, so I decided to desolder the switch and shift it into proper position. This proved to be a bit difficult and I think i accidentally damaged my PCB a bit.

[attach=1]

I have a multimeter and tried to do some tests for continuity on the board and diodes. It's difficult from just the bottom view to tell what to test. I tested a lot of the switches while depressed as well as the small holes in the PCB next to them, trying to find a pattern. I found one specific area that's not continuous. In the example pic, Green circles are continuous and the Red one isn't. Anyone have an idea what's wrong without me doing further desoldering, and any suggestions for fixing it?

[attach=2]

Title: Re: Atreus solder damage - Help!
Post by: xondat on Sun, 27 May 2018, 17:12:02

What switches are you using?

Title: Re: Atreus solder damage - Help!
Post by: suicidal_orange on Sun, 27 May 2018, 17:15:51

Sounds like one of the holes in the red circle isn't connected to the one in the green circle next to it, the bottom one looks like it's been hotter but you've drawn over the crucial part so can't be sure.  If you're lucky you can just drag a bit of solder over to bridge the gap and it will work.

Title: Re: Atreus solder damage - Help!
Post by: G_I_B_B_O_N on Sun, 27 May 2018, 18:02:03

Sorry about the picture, hopefully this one clears things up:

[attach=1]


So I used my multimeter to test the holes  with their corresponding switch pin. All of them have continuity except for the top one in the red circle. Should reconnecting them fix things up? If so, should I just solder across to connect them, or run a small bit of wire from the hole to the pin?

BTW I'm using matias quiet click switches. Thanks for the help!

Title: Re: Atreus solder damage - Help!
Post by: suicidal_orange on Sun, 27 May 2018, 18:38:39

No worries, it looks more like the bottom one now but the multimeter doesn't lie.

It just has to connect so if you think you can solder a piece of wire in there without soldering your tweezers to the board go for it, personally I wouldn't bother as it's so close.

Nice choice of switches, they should be too light but I love quiet clicks :thumb:

Title: Re: Atreus solder damage - Help!
Post by: G_I_B_B_O_N on Mon, 28 May 2018, 13:53:04

Just finished soldering the hold to the corresponding switch pin. Worked perfect. Thanks!