What are the advantages of hand soldering? And... alligator clips?

[dante]

Can anyone give me the advantages of hand soldering projects as opposed to using a PCB?  Even though the open source community continues to advance with friendlier programming and CAD tools there is still a number of folks using hand soldering method.  Is it because of street cred, budget, or a sense of minimalism?  (Or a combination of these?)

Also instead of hand soldering has anyone run into miniature alligator clips to use instead of soldering?  Are there any other techniques that can be used to completely eliminate soldered connections?

[joey]

Can anyone give me the advantages of hand soldering projects as opposed to using a PCB?  Even though the open source community continues to advance with friendlier programming and CAD tools there is still a number of folks using hand soldering method.  Is it because of street cred, budget, or a sense of minimalism?  (Or a combination of these?)

Also instead of hand soldering has anyone run into miniature alligator clips to use instead of soldering?  Are there any other techniques that can be used to completely eliminate soldered connections?

Designing/manufacturing a PCB takes more time/money than just hand wiring. Especially if you want to make a one-off or a quick and dirty prototype.

I'm not sure if the alligator clips would give a good enough connection. Plus you'd nee something like 4*number_of_switches of alligator clips.

[dante]

Yeah screw this.  I just watched this video:

Pure insanity!

[Tactile]

My first HW is still in process. I started it just because I was curious but I've found it to be a lot of fun.

[dante]

If you don't care about 6KRO/NKRO can you skip the diodes and stick with 2KRO?

[vvp]

If you don't care about 6KRO/NKRO can you skip the diodes and stick with 2KRO?

How do you press Ctr-Alt-Del with 2KRO?

[joey]

If you don't care about 6KRO/NKRO can you skip the diodes and stick with 2KRO?

Diodes don't directly change 6kro/nkro, diodes affect ghosting.

[Tactile]

If you don't care about 6KRO/NKRO can you skip the diodes and stick with 2KRO?

How do you press Ctr-Alt-Del with 2KRO?

If that didn't work you'd not be able to do it with a Model M. Hint: the modifiers don't count.

http://www.keyboardco.com/blog/index.php/2016/03/what-is-nkro-our-guide-to-rollover-anti-ghosting-and-choosing-the-right-keyboard/

[vvp]

Well that is 2kro at the protocol level. Modifier may not count there. But notice that dante proposed to leave out the diodes in the key scanning matrix. Diodes in the matrix do not make difference between modifier keys and non-modifier keys. Quite a bit of the diodes must stay there. The minimum diode count would be there if you would put all the modifier keys into a separate matrix and populate it fully with diodes. All the non-modifer keys may stay in an isolated matrix without diodes then to get an 2kro where modifiers do not count ... till the time somebody decides that he whould like to place e.g. Ctrl key instead of CapsLock.

[tufty]

Also instead of hand soldering has anyone run into miniature alligator clips to use instead of soldering?  Are there any other techniques that can be used to completely eliminate soldered connections?

Assuming they existed, and could handle vibration, and conect without shorting out, how would you attach miniature alligator clips to your wires?  Sub-miniature alligator clips?

As a home builder, you have 3 choices, pretty much. 

make or buy a PCB, solder switches on (by hand).
"Freeform", solder connections and diodes (by hand‚
"Freeform", wire wrap.

Wire wrapping needs a special (but cheaply made) tool and special wire, but it's dead good and arguably easier than soldering.  You'll still need to solder some bits, though, the diodes for example.

[AMongoose]

Also instead of hand soldering has anyone run into miniature alligator clips to use instead of soldering?  Are there any other techniques that can be used to completely eliminate soldered connections?

Assuming they existed, and could handle vibration, and conect without shorting out, how would you attach miniature alligator clips to your wires?  Sub-miniature alligator clips?

As a home builder, you have 3 choices, pretty much. 

make or buy a PCB, solder switches on (by hand).
"Freeform", solder connections and diodes (by hand‚
"Freeform", wire wrap.

Wire wrapping needs a special (but cheaply made) tool and special wire, but it's dead good and arguably easier than soldering.  You'll still need to solder some bits, though, the diodes for example.

Never seen anyone recommending wire wrapping the switches before, besides being easier are there any benefits/tradeofs?

[vvp]

I would say learn to solder. It will give you reliable connections. Get a good iron which has temperature control, a leaded solder and some flux ... and you will find soldering easy. It is a skill you can learn in an hour at worst. Provided you have a good iron. You need something where you can control temperature.
If you plan to solder SMD parts get a hot air gun too. You need to control temperature of the air and the speed of its flow. Get a membrane based (not a fan based) hot air.

[tufty]

besides being easier are there any benefits/tradeofs?

It's easier to undo if you get it wrong, for starters.  Wire wrapping is at least as reliable as soldering, and much more stable in cases where there's a lot of thermal expansion and contraction expected - that's not terribly relevant to keyboards, though.  It's a neat technique to learn.

But, like I said, you still need to solder anyway - components with round leads can be wrapped but will need post-soldering, for example.