EXE TKL (A.87U based pcb) questions/answers

[odd]

Ok so I decided to dig this board out and try again based on the updates here. Did you have to do any additional soldering of diodes or anything? It seems no matter what i do I cannot get any key presses to register and only the top F row and bottom row are registering power. I get led lights on all F keys, caps and scr lock. I would really love some help with this. Here is ther picture of all those holes I was talking about.


imagehost

[suicidal_orange]

If you're missing a diode one switch won't work but all the rest will, so that's not your problem.  Looks like the entire controller is broken ot with that many holes - you could check for continuity between them, but chances are more than one will be ground so you'd have to watch for that.

Are there any pads near the controller chip(s) which look like they had a component on and now don't?  Seems some arrived not well attached, if the switches are controlled from a different chip that's disconnected from the one handling USB they're not going to output anytding!

[kohi]

Ok so I decided to dig this board out and try again based on the updates here. Did you have to do any additional soldering of diodes or anything? It seems no matter what i do I cannot get any key presses to register and only the top F row and bottom row are registering power. I get led lights on all F keys, caps and scr lock. I would really love some help with this. Here is ther picture of all those holes I was talking about.

Yep, you'll need to buy some through hole diodes and solder them on for all of the keys, besides the F row, scroll, and caps lock.
These are the ones I bought: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1N4148-Philips-Semiconductor-DO-35-Switching-Signal-Diode-100-pieces-Hi-Quality-/121670687923?hash=item1c54235cb3:g:vPUAAOSwstxVcjxv
They work fine, should take no more than ~30 minutes to solder them in and clip the legs. The controller should be fine, since you said that the others keys register well. If you have any other questions, lemme know!

[odd]

Ok so I decided to dig this board out and try again based on the updates here. Did you have to do any additional soldering of diodes or anything? It seems no matter what i do I cannot get any key presses to register and only the top F row and bottom row are registering power. I get led lights on all F keys, caps and scr lock. I would really love some help with this. Here is ther picture of all those holes I was talking about.

Yep, you'll need to buy some through hole diodes and solder them on for all of the keys, besides the F row, scroll, and caps lock.
These are the ones I bought: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1N4148-Philips-Semiconductor-DO-35-Switching-Signal-Diode-100-pieces-Hi-Quality-/121670687923?hash=item1c54235cb3:g:vPUAAOSwstxVcjxv
They work fine, should take no more than ~30 minutes to solder them in and clip the legs. The controller should be fine, since you said that the others keys register well. If you have any other questions, lemme know!

I need though hole? I soldered on some SMD diodes to match what was already on there and covered every area that needed them. Do you think you can take a pic of your diode work so I can try and see wtf is going on? Maybe I got the direction wrong but i don't think so as I followed the markings on the board but who knows.. Thanks both of you for all your help.

[kohi]

here's a pic of my diode work
hmm smd should work.. unless you have the polarity reversed. line should be pointed towards the cathode (-)
I only went with through hole cause it was easier for me
maybe post a pic of your pcb with the diodes so we can see what might be wrong?

sorry for the potato pic haha, never got around to cleaning the flux off the pcb.. and case is getting dirty
if you need a closer shot, lemme know

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk