Left Win fixed with pics - CM QuickFire Rapid

[georger]

Hi guys,
I own a CM QuickFire Rapid with MX Black switches. After 14 months of use (2 past the warranty), the left Win key (which I use A LOT) began missing some keystrokes; then it simply stopped working altogether. Terrible! I just LOVE this keyboard, because it has an ABNT2 layout (I live in Brazil) and is tenkeyless. Also the keyboard is no longer sold here. Since it was really costly, I couldn't bear to just toss it in the trash bin. There had to be a way to fix it.

Inspired by this thread and this blog post, I put together a cheap soldering kit (30 W iron w/ stand and sponge, 60/40 solder, solder sucker, desoldering wick), saw a bunch of YouTube videos, and practiced a bit with old resistors on a copper prototyping PCB. Then I disassembled the keyboard, and redid all solder joints for the left Win key.

Result? It didn't work The solder just wouldn't bond to the leftmost solder pad (see pic). So I cut one wire from a surplus CAT5-e patch cable, stripped and tinned both ends, and soldered it to the appropriate contacts. I crossed my fingers and tested again... It WORKED! The solder joints are ugly, I stripped the wire too much (it should also be shorter), I didn't use (nor bought) a multimeter - but it is working now.

I'm sure I could (should) have done a better job at it, but the key is working. Did any of you people do this kind of repair with a jumper wire before? Is there anything I should be aware of?

[Tactile]

Looks sound to me. Congrats! 

The next time you have trouble getting solder to bond, try using solder flux. The flux must be the correct type (non-corrosive) for electronic circuits, but it shouldn't be too hard to find.

There's nothing wrong with the extra wire and, in some cases, doing a repair like that can make future work easier.

I also have a QFR - hope I don't have any problems with it. I will admit, however, that if one or both of the Windows keys stopped working I probably wouldn't fix it, anyway. 

[georger]

Looks sound to me. Congrats! 

The next time you have trouble getting solder to bond, try using solder flux. The flux must be the correct type (non-corrosive) for electronic circuits, but it shouldn't be too hard to find.

There's nothing wrong with the extra wire and, in some cases, doing a repair like that can make future work easier.

I also have a QFR - hope I don't have any problems with it. I will admit, however, that if one or both of the Windows keys stopped working I probably wouldn't fix it, anyway. 

Thanks for the tip about using solder flux. When I bought my QFR I also bought one for my brother, and when I called him to talk about how I fixed mine he told me his one's left Win key had also stopped working (CM, improve QA). I'll definitely have solder flux or paste around when I get to try and fix his keyboard.

The left Win key is a must for me. I prefer to use keyboard shortcuts rather than the mouse whenever possible, and Windows has plenty of those (e.g. Win+E/R/M/L). While I do not have a problem with using a membrane keyboard, I do have a problem with not having the left Win key.