Looking for answer to some questions

[noSatellite]

So, I was shopping on r/mm the other day, and I came across this for USD $33.00:



The seller said it had a steel plate, Gateron clear switches (some of which suffer from “wobble”) and a Satan PCB (which does not work.

I figured the $33.00 would be worth the plate alone, and I can use the PCB to hone my soldering technique.

So, my questions are:

1. What is switch wobble, and what might               the cause be?

2. This PCB is very likely unredeemable (no loss) - but, is there any way I can go about determining what is wrong with it? Not in an attempt to rescue or repair it, but because I would like to understand how to do it for future reference.

Thanks in advance for your time, and any input - it is much appreciated.

[suicidal_orange]

Switch wobble just means that the keycaps move sideways more than normal if you push them.  Nothing you can do about this and doesn't make them not work, some people are annoyed by it others not so much.

As to the PCB there are various ways someone could write it off.  If you're lucky it just has some lifted pads so some (possibly lots) keys don't work, if so you could solder jumpers and fix it.  They could have snapped the USB port off, less likely but still might be fixable.  It could be water damaged, that's probably fatal.  Someone could have experimented with the fuses in the controller chip and bricked it...  First look for physical damage, if you can't see a reason to write it off plug it in and see what happens - if windows(?) notices it the controller and USB port must be generally OK and it might be salvegable.

Be warned gateron clears are rediculously light switches!

[Leslieann]

While $33 seems a deal, if you are willing to order from China, you can buy the whole thing new for not much more than that or what you can buy a pcb for.

In other words, it's a gamble.
If you can fix the pcb, you come out ahead, if you cannot fix it, you will do little more than get some free switches, some of which will probably not be of much use once you desolder them.

[noSatellite]

Switch wobble just means that the keycaps move sideways more than normal if you push them.  Nothing you can do about this and doesn't make them not work, some people are annoyed by it others not so much.

As to the PCB there are various ways someone could write it off.  If you're lucky it just has some lifted pads so some (possibly lots) keys don't work, if so you could solder jumpers and fix it.  They could have snapped the USB port off, less likely but still might be fixable.  It could be water damaged, that's probably fatal.  Someone could have experimented with the fuses in the controller chip and bricked it...  First look for physical damage, if you can't see a reason to write it off plug it in and see what happens - if windows(?) notices it the controller and USB port must be generally OK and it might be salvegable.

Be warned gateron clears are rediculously light switches!

Thanks for the info - I appreciate it.