Soldering Work on Mechanical Keyboards

[Dreamre]

Hello everyone!

I'm thinking of swapping the caps lock and scroll lock LEDs on my Filco MJ2 and I was wondering what wattage solder iron should I be using? I just purchased a 40w - would that be too hot? Or if I am quick enough, will that be fine?

Thanks!

[Photekq]

Hello everyone!

I'm thinking of swapping the caps lock and scroll lock LEDs on my Filco MJ2 and I was wondering what wattage solder iron should I be using? I just purchased a 40w - would that be too hot? Or if I am quick enough, will that be fine?

Thanks!

Well I use a 25w and find it's adequate. I'm sure a 40w would be fine though - soldering irons are meant for soldering and I doubt they'd produce one that's too hot.

[tp4tissue]

25 watt is more than enough.

hotter is not better.. 

Hotter is only needed with "BIG" capacitors. and there are none of those on a keyboard.

[mich]

Hot means fast and this is a good thing, within reasonable limits. 40W is fine, just don't touch the PCB for more than few seconds at a time because unregulated 40W irons get hot enough that it's possible to soften and move small PCB traces by accident if you keep pushing on them for too long.

If you have problem removing old lead-free solder it helps to put a small drop of fresh solder on it, instead of heating it for hours like crazy.

[Hyde]

Hello everyone!

I'm thinking of swapping the caps lock and scroll lock LEDs on my Filco MJ2 and I was wondering what wattage solder iron should I be using? I just purchased a 40w - would that be too hot? Or if I am quick enough, will that be fine?

Thanks!

Cool I'm thinking to do the same too.  My Filco MX Red came with red LED and I want to swap it to blue ones.  What you doing with yours? 

[Dreamre]

Thanks for all of your replies! Much appreciated and really helpful!

@Hyde, I'm planning on swapping out my blue LEDs (from a MX Blue) to either white or purple! For the LED sizes, are they 3mm? I just want to make sure because I bought 70 of them (assorted colours) off of eBay for $5.

[TheProfosist]

Just be sure to mind the voltage of the leds especially when you planning to use a lower voltage led where a higher one was used that resistor thats there probably isnt big enough.

[Dreamre]

Okay, I am hoping mine should be fine, I purchased the LEDs that are around 3.2-3.4v.

Thanks for the input!

[Hyde]

Yeah they're 3mm (T1) size and if I remember correctly blue/white/purple are all in the similar higher than normal voltage range.  Don't mark my word on it but if I'm not mistaken then you should be fine 


EDIT:  Damn I should've bought mine from ebay too, mine costed me more and has way less stuff.

[Dreamre]

Yeah they're 3mm (T1) size and if I remember correctly blue/white/purple are all in the similar higher than normal voltage range.  Don't mark my word on it but if I'm not mistaken then you should be fine 


EDIT:  Damn I should've bought mine from ebay too, mine costed me more and has way less stuff.

Alright thanks! Well, it's coming from China, so time = money too right? I'm waiting for a custom external usb mod and cable from Paranoid, so I still have to wait for that. Thinking of swapping everything all at once!

Honestly, I'd also purchase it locally if I wanted to change it right away. I'm sure you didn't pay THAT much more though.

[kaiserreich]

Be extra careful with LED desoldering.
They are a pain in the behind if you are doing this for the first time.

[Hyde]

Be extra careful with LED desoldering.
They are a pain in the behind if you are doing this for the first time.

Mmmmmm I should find my old telephone cord PCB network card to use it as test dummy first