Need a little help with my first build.

[Tally810]

So I've been using mechanical keyboards for several years and just recently got into the "custom" or "enthusiast" side of it.  I've bought 3 unassembled boards in this month, 1 gon tkl for my brothers Christmas present, a 75% from a small gb, and a whitefox.  I started with my the gon tkl since it is a Christmas gift.  Last night I soldered all of the diodes.  My question is i hear people saying to short the switches to check the diodes.  How do I do this?  Also I'm not doing resistors or leds just yet but need a caps lock indicator light and there is a through hole slot for it.  Do I need a resistor for this? If so what kind and what kind of LED?  Sorry for the long text and the ****ty formatting as I am on my phone and thank you ahead of time!

[Tactile]

The PCB must be operational in order to test so you might need to flash it. While running a keyboard test program on your computer plug in the PCB & short all the switch positions with a pair of tweezers, paper clip, etc..

[Tally810]

The PCB must be operational in order to test so you might need to flash it. While running a keyboard test program on your computer plug in the PCB & short all the switch positions with a pair of tweezers, paper clip, etc..

Hey thanks for the response.  So exactly how do I flash it?  Also can you recomend a good test program.  Sorry but I'm very new to this I just jumped right in lol.

[Tactile]

The PCB must be operational in order to test so you might need to flash it. While running a keyboard test program on your computer plug in the PCB & short all the switch positions with a pair of tweezers, paper clip, etc..

Hey thanks for the response.  So exactly how do I flash it?  Also can you recomend a good test program.  Sorry but I'm very new to this I just jumped right in lol.

I don't know anything about GON keyboards. It may come already flashed. If not, you'll have to get your advice from someone else.

This program works well for testing on a Windows computer...

https://elitekeyboards.com/switchhitter.php

[Tally810]

The PCB must be operational in order to test so you might need to flash it. While running a keyboard test program on your computer plug in the PCB & short all the switch positions with a pair of tweezers, paper clip, etc..

Hey thanks for the response.  So exactly how do I flash it?  Also can you recomend a good test program.  Sorry but I'm very new to this I just jumped right in lol.

I don't know anything about GON keyboards. It may come already flashed. If not, you'll have to get your advice from someone else.

This program works well for testing on a Windows computer...

https://elitekeyboards.com/switchhitter.php

OK thanks again for the help.  So just poke each of the two holes on each switch and what exactly am I looking for?

[pabile]

this is my first custom build: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=69740.0
i say you read the "Check your PCB" part to test your pcb and installed diodes. hasu have his PCBs pre-programmed, which may be the case with yours.

[Tally810]

this is my first custom build: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=69740.0
i say you read the "Check your PCB" part to test your pcb and installed diodes. hasu have his PCBs pre-programmed, which may be the case with yours.

OK thanks!

[Tactile]

OK thanks again for the help.  So just poke each of the two holes on each switch and what exactly am I looking for?

Each switch position should do something. What it does doesn't matter because what it does can be changed in the programming. If you short the position for the "Q" key and the "M" lights up, that's fine. That switch position works and that's all we care about. If your board has a FN key, that one probably won't do anything by itself. I've never bothered checking that one and just go on faith that if all the others work, I'm OK. If you want to test it you'll need to short it and also short some other key that the FN affects. That all depends on the programming and once again we're in an area where I don't know anything about a GON keyboard.

[Tally810]

OK thanks again for the help.  So just poke each of the two holes on each switch and what exactly am I looking for?

Each switch position should do something. What it does doesn't matter because what it does can be changed in the programming. If you short the position for the "Q" key and the "M" lights up, that's fine. That switch position works and that's all we care about. If your board has a FN key, that one probably won't do anything by itself. I've never bothered checking that one and just go on faith that if all the others work, I'm OK. If you want to test it you'll need to short it and also short some other key that the FN affects. That all depends on the programming and once again we're in an area where I don't know anything about a GON keyboard.

OK perfect I believe I have a good idea of what to do now.  Thank you for the help!

[Tally810]

OK thanks again for the help.  So just poke each of the two holes on each switch and what exactly am I looking for?

Each switch position should do something. What it does doesn't matter because what it does can be changed in the programming. If you short the position for the "Q" key and the "M" lights up, that's fine. That switch position works and that's all we care about. If your board has a FN key, that one probably won't do anything by itself. I've never bothered checking that one and just go on faith that if all the others work, I'm OK. If you want to test it you'll need to short it and also short some other key that the FN affects. That all depends on the programming and once again we're in an area where I don't know anything about a GON keyboard.

I did as you said and every key works!  Thanks for the help!

[Tally810]

It's alliivveee

[Tactile]

It's alliivveee

High Five!

What switches will you use?

[Tally810]

Well I have several.  I have some cherry mx blacks, gat greens, gat reds, cherry clears, and zealios 62g r4.  This is my brother Christmas present from me and it's for office work so I think I'm gonna put the blacks on it.  Then probably gonna put the zeals on my whitefox and I bought some gat browns to go on the 75 percent that's on the way.