Quick Ergodox soldering question

[persuasionlaser]

I ordered the ergodox electronics kit off falbatech, and the capacitors are round. That's fine, but it's really difficult to solder them on when they keep rolling around. Can the ends get threaded through the holes right adjacent to the small squares? I've already messed up some joints and will have to purchase some wick if not.
http://imgur.com/redbk9T
This should show what I mean.

A bit more research leads me to think that you can... but if someone could confirm that's all I need

[dorkvader]

They are diodes, not capacitors. They allow the keyboard to detect all keypresses and combinations, which gives it NKRO.

In the picture is a through-hole diode. The ergodox can use either that or a surface mount one.

You can put diodes in the switches. Make sure that the black line on the diode is closest to the square pad. This is true for both hands. The left side is "reversed", but all the diodes, no matter what side, the square pad and the line are closest.

If you are not wanting to open all the switches and put diodes in them (it's a pain, I've done it) I recommend soldering them "in front" of the switch. It's easiest to do it on the "back" side of the PCB (so the teensy and stuff are on the other side. If you do this (very important) then you must clip the diode legs very short and solder them from the proper side, otherwise you will have a problem with your plate not fitting (in the case of a thick plate like the massdrop kits have.)

I have a picture of this on my GH36, uploading now.

oh and if you post a pic of the work you have already done, I will look it over for any inaccuracies.

edit: as I thought the falbatech plate is steel or aluminium. In either case you don't have to worry so much about diode fitment like you do on a pmma plate.

So here's the picture. Notice how the component and solder are on the same side:


and the top: everything is cut flush so nothing sticks up to interfere with the switches and stabilizers

You can see the stabilizers. Switches go on this side.

In your case you can put the diodes on either side but I recommend putting them on the opposite side as the switches. If they are under the mounting plate and you need to fix one it is a lot harder.

[persuasionlaser]

Thanks for the quick reply, puts me at ease.

I bunged up a couple of the joints still so I'll have to wait for the wick to arrive before I can finish the board :/

[dorkvader]

Thanks for the quick reply, puts me at ease.

I bunged up a couple of the joints still so I'll have to wait for the wick to arrive before I can finish the board :/

You can sometimes desolder it without wick. You can heat up each side and slowly work the diode out of the PCB. Up to you if you want to try (too much heat and it can damage the PCB). I've made a few of these and one I had to take apart had some really bad solder on it. I had to add a ton of heat to the PCB and it was fine. These are very high quality PCBs that are very forgiving of mistakes and very easy to repair, so it'll be fine almost for sure.

oh forgot to mention, those diodes are a little different, but the one side that's black is the side that should be closest to the square pad. There's some printing on it but it doesn't matter. black side square pad.

[strict]

Those are the diodes and they were designed to get bent and inserted into the through holes. Here is a picture that should help give you an idea of how it should look