Author Topic: Issue with Pok3r RGB. LED's randomly turn on.  (Read 1243 times)

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Offline jelland

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Issue with Pok3r RGB. LED's randomly turn on.
« on: Mon, 27 July 2020, 06:44:10 »
Hey everyone, I created an account just to make this post and hopefully receive some help. I have an RGB Pok3r which is about 4 years old at this point. It's served me extremely well so far.
Recently, it's been having this issue where a few keys in the second last row randomly turn on and light up blue. They are always the same keys; LShift, x, c, v, b, n, and m.
I always keep the backlight off (it's kind of distracting for me), so it's very noticeable when this occurs. To fix it, I have to turn the backlight on (Pn + 5), then turn it back off (Pn + 4). Once off, it usually turns back on within a few minutes. I find myself doing this process several times a day, and it's becoming very irritating now.
In the past, I have opened up the board to insert a layer of microfibre cloth between the PCB and the metal case to try and dampen the sound while typing. So I thought that due to the microfibre material touching the PCB, it might be bridging some connections or something and causing this issue. I took apart the board again and connected it while it was out of the case, and the issue persisted. I even separated the two boards (this keeb has 2 pcb's sandwiched together, one for the backlight, and one on which the switches are mounted), and powered the backlight PCB, and the blue LED's lit up again.
I've reset the layers several times using the instructions on the manual, but the lights are still there. Those keys are definitely not programmed by me to be switched on.
I am not discounting the possibility that I accidentally knocked off a small PCB component while opening it up in the past.

What can this be?
« Last Edit: Mon, 27 July 2020, 06:59:54 by jelland »

Offline suicidal_orange

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Re: Issue with Pok3r RGB. LED's randomly turn on.
« Reply #1 on: Mon, 27 July 2020, 06:51:29 »
Do they come on at normal brightness or brighter/dimmer than if turned on manually?

Sounds like the easiest way ti stop it would be to add a switch between the two PCBs so when you don't want them on they have no power, but this doesn't explain the strange behavior and isn't really a fix.
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Offline jelland

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Re: Issue with Pok3r RGB. LED's randomly turn on.
« Reply #2 on: Mon, 27 July 2020, 06:57:33 »
Do they come on at normal brightness or brighter/dimmer than if turned on manually?

Sounds like the easiest way ti stop it would be to add a switch between the two PCBs so when you don't want them on they have no power, but this doesn't explain the strange behavior and isn't really a fix.

They very dim, but still noticeable. I'll edit the post to add photos of the PCB.

Offline suicidal_orange

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Re: Issue with Pok3r RGB. LED's randomly turn on.
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 27 July 2020, 10:55:04 »
A quick look on mobile suggests there used to be something on C42 (below the USB port) as it looks like there are dents in the solder.  C usually means capacitor and it looks to be USB related so don't think it's the problem, but maybe.

Dim LEDs suggest a short to a strobing row/column in the switch matrix, but can't be that as it happens with the boards detached...  Will have a proper look later.
120/100g linear Zealio R1  
GMK Hyperfuse
'Split everything' perfection  
MX Clear
SA Hack'd by Geeks     
EasyAVR mod

Offline jelland

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Re: Issue with Pok3r RGB. LED's randomly turn on.
« Reply #4 on: Mon, 27 July 2020, 19:41:13 »
A quick look on mobile suggests there used to be something on C42 (below the USB port) as it looks like there are dents in the solder.  C usually means capacitor and it looks to be USB related so don't think it's the problem, but maybe.

Dim LEDs suggest a short to a strobing row/column in the switch matrix, but can't be that as it happens with the boards detached...  Will have a proper look later.

I initially though the same too. However, I have no knowledge when it comes to smd's, or even pcb's in general. I can't find a single photo online of the underside of the backlight board to compare mine with. I'll play around with the firmware versions to see if that makes a difference. Also something odd, the keyboard just stopped registering keystroked while I was typing this out, and I had to re-plug it to get it to work again. Maybe it's on its way out?