Problem: GH60 Satan boards and Zealios

[tofgerl]

Problem: Got some new GH60 Satan boards in to put Zealios on. tested the first board with no keys, and it registered fine. "Typed" a few letters with a pair of tweezers. Bingo.
Put the zealios in the correct places, soldered them on.
Tested again, and suddenly the board doesn't register at all. No USB device, no signal.

My other keyboards work, I've changed cables...

What's the next thing to try?

Mod Edit: This was split from the Simple Questions, Simple Answers thread.

[tofgerl]

Problem: Got some new GH60 Satan boards in to put Zealios on. tested the first board with no keys, and it registered fine. "Typed" a few letters with a pair of tweezers. Bingo.
Put the zealios in the correct places, soldered them on.
Tested again, and suddenly the board doesn't register at all. No USB device, no signal.

My other keyboards work, I've changed cables...

What's the next thing to try?

Apparently this keyboard only works on weekends. Works fine now. Tried everything yesterday, today it's sitting there like a good dog and doing everything I wanted it to.

Do keyboard controllers have moods...?

Edit: Aaaaand re-dead. Zombieboard!

[stoic-lemon]

Problem: Got some new GH60 Satan boards in to put Zealios on. tested the first board with no keys, and it registered fine. "Typed" a few letters with a pair of tweezers. Bingo.
Put the zealios in the correct places, soldered them on.
Tested again, and suddenly the board doesn't register at all. No USB device, no signal.

My other keyboards work, I've changed cables...

What's the next thing to try?

Apparently this keyboard only works on weekends. Works fine now. Tried everything yesterday, today it's sitting there like a good dog and doing everything I wanted it to.

Do keyboard controllers have moods...?

Edit: Aaaaand re-dead. Zombieboard!

I am far from an expert, but that suggests a dodgy connection somewhere. Perhaps the USB header? Is it a case at the moment?

Also this isn't a simple question now 

[tofgerl]

I am far from an expert, but that suggests a dodgy connection somewhere. Perhaps the USB header? Is it a case at the moment?

Also this isn't a simple question now 

It is put in a case, as I don't like leaving it just on the desk surface, but it is not fastened to the case, and I've tried connecting it without the case as well. It's an alu case. I might try a plastic case, but I can't see how that would help.

I do agree with the dodgy connections, but I have no idea how to check. I have a multimeter, but I've only ever used it to check if a is connected to b. I have no idea which parts of the board should be connected to what...

I'm gonna take some pictures of the connectors and put them on imgur.

[tofgerl]

http://imgur.com/a/RP8Zd
In the top picture you will see another keyboard that I put together the exact same way with the same switches just a couple of hours later, proving that I can actually make one.
I don't really know what to focus on, so ask for more angles if anyone needs it, or wants me to struggle with an old camera.

Oh, and I'm still uploading. I'm on a bad connection until the ISP upgrades whatever they need to upgrade.

[odd]

I'm on my 2nd PCB that has had the 7th col just die on me. I think thees are just extremely cheap boards

[stoic-lemon]

That's really odd. guess you would put one probe of the multimeter one one of the USB pads, and the other on the corresponding pad on the connector itself. I was going to suggest it might be a driver issue, but since the board works sporadically, that can't be the problem I suppose.

[tofgerl]

This is the first board I have had problems with. I've got six Satan boards total, of which this was the fourth. I'm typing on the fifth, and the sixth is still in the plastic wrapping.

Of course it could be a connection issue, but I have no idea if it's even fixable, and I'm 99% sure it's not fixable BY me.

I think it might have happened during the installation of the switches, since I use PCB mounted switches and the board bends really easily. Right now I'm just thinking "desolder the expensive Zealio switches and put them on the last board". It's not like the board was super expensive, and since I have other keyboards laying around, I don't really feel like I need to fix it either.

[KHAANNN]

I was once testing a custom PS/2 - USB converter I built, I tested it with an 60% PCB that wasn't compatible with the PS/2 wiring, also my custom converter was incorrect too, so I jolted both the laptop I was testing with, and the PCB

Laptop recovered fast, the PCB stopped working, I tested it with multiple systems, it wasn't working

But after a while, the PCB started working again

So my point is, you might have jolted something, whether it's a static jolt or an unintentional short circuit or something, and you might have been lucky enough that it recovered

Grounding is a common practice for pc builders, yet for keyboard building, I don't think it's too common, but same risks still apply

[tofgerl]

Perfectly possible... I wonder how I unjolt it. Time?

[KHAANNN]

Perfectly possible... I wonder how I unjolt it. Time?

Time + Luck I guess, not all keyboard pcbs turn back from the death

It's why I fancy the Phantom PCB, worst case scenario, you would replace the Teensy with a new one

[tofgerl]

Yeah, desoldering these 61 zealios is not on my bucketlist...

[Moistgun]

Given that the pcb is soooo clean, is there any chance you went at it with 99% alcohol and a toothbrush?

If you did, you could have knocked something loose at the controller.

[tofgerl]

Nope, it's just legitimately clean. All I've done is soldered 61 switches to it.

Still no connection by the way. Just that one time on monday.

[Moistgun]

Nope, it's just legitimately clean. All I've done is soldered 61 switches to it.

Still no connection by the way. Just that one time on monday.

And youve tested it on another computer I assume?
Sorry if I missed this above 


Its not that uncommon to have Satan's failing.  the threads are a mix of ineptitude with programming, but the other half are legitimate DOAs

[tofgerl]

Sure, different computers and operating systems.

Now I've desoldered all the switches, I'll just throw it away. Still no connections.

[KHAANNN]

Good riddance

That USB connector type is cancer anyway, it would break with the smallest force and ruin your day in the future

[tofgerl]

And here I am switching keyboard several times a day with the same cable... Hmm..

[Data]

The problems with Mini-USB are highly anecdotal.  I understand the PC industry in general has moved away from it, but if it was truly awful all these keyboard companies would have abandoned it a long time ago.  You think Leopold, Ducky, WASD, etc who care about making a quality product would ignore something as critical as the connector port?  What about all the Korean customs that we worship?

Not saying there aren't better ports we could be using but the Mini-USB does the job just fine, thank you.

[KHAANNN]

The problems with Mini-USB are highly anecdotal.  I understand the PC industry in general has moved away from it, but if it was truly awful all these keyboard companies would have abandoned it a long time ago.  You think Leopold, Ducky, WASD, etc who care about making a quality product would ignore something as critical as the connector port?  What about all the Korean customs that we worship?

Not saying there aren't better ports we could be using but the Mini-USB does the job just fine, thank you.

It's not the mini-usb, but the surface mount connector he shared here: http://imgur.com/a/RP8Zd

Thanks for the speech tho :)

I personally love mini-usb too, wouldn't want to get a new set of custom cables