There are times in every person's life when they must try something new... Something the uninitiated would say is craziness. Things that make them say, "Why?" I fear those souls will never know the great beyond that lies past rubber domes. I also fear they may have far better things to do with their time than me.
Our journey begins on a Saturday night at 7:00 P.M.
Our hero just arrived home after a relaxing Saturday spent with his long time girlfriend. She was kind to him, allowed his strangeness to show through, but she had no idea the depths of depravity he would reach that night after he departed her abode. The night began with our hero pulling out his trusty MK Disco TKL keyboard with KBT browns.
The keyboard was a trusty companion. It followed him to work and came home with him in the evenings. Together they chopped code to make lives easier and sent exasperated emails to coworkers. Things were great, but Ty spotted something. Something purple. Something 67G. Something… something beautiful. Something he wanted. Zealios. And his keyboard was just the one to receive them.
With all of his tools and anticipation finally brimming to the top, our young hero began his journey. One that would take him to dark places. Places that would test what it was to be a fool.
Taking his trusty keyboard out for one final time while it touted its original KBT browns, he warmed up his solder station.
7:30 P.M.Our hero, jubilant with the thought of his old friend coming out better, more tactile, and perfected, began to remove the caps from the board, but not just any keycaps. A set of side-printed Ducky thick PBT keycaps. Each keycap removed, he noted the thickness of it, astonished at the feel they provided.
Finally, they were removed.
8:04 P.M.Our hero had at this point removed the case of the keyboard. He was careful to note the screw at the back of the board that required the unimaginable voiding of warranties. Accepting this lofty price, he plunged the dark magnetic screwdriver through the sticker directly into the PH2 socket that awaited.
He then carefully used a spudger tool to unclip the top plastic casing from its corresponding plastic base. 4 clips on the front edge, 4 clips on the back edge he counted, evenly spaced, and increasingly difficult to unlatch the further from the center the spudger tool traversed.
8:23 P.M.Upon doing this, he unscrewed two final screws, which were located at the top of the place near the function row, securing the plate and PCB to the case
Thinking he had cracked the riddle of the plastic case, he was greeted by a trap meticulously laid out by his friend’s original creator. A thin cable that attached the mini-USB jack to the PCB. Refusing to fall victim to a petty slip up, he again solicited the help of his ever more useful spudger to push the connector out of the socket.
He had finally done it. He had stumbled into the sprawling inner workings of his sidekick. A sprawling utopia of pristine solder joints, red circuitry, and other electrical components. He had never before questioned the existence of his loyal companion, but seeing his inner complexities led to a newfound appreciation.
Now, the work began. If only our hero new the treachery that awaited him. Long hours, blood, and heartstopping moments.
8:46 P.M.A sizzle, a pop, and roar of anger. These demonic 4-legged creatures. Their heads composed of various lights - Red, Green, Blue - at varying brightness to create a full spectrum of color. Their beauty only there to mask the true horrors their legs provided. Tiny solder joints. Impossible to suction for a first time journeyer on a PCB. Forced to physically break the joints once most of their constraining substances had been removed. Fearsome battles ensued for hours. Our hero grew discouraged.
10:48 P.M.Blood. Our hero suffered his first injury. A cut to his finger by the very demons he battled with earlier. Upon cleaning his wounds, he returned diligently to his station only to learn his solder sucker had weakened to a degree that is seldom pulled molten solder from the joint.
A wave of invention rushed over our hero, and he ran to his medicine cabinet to enlist the help of Aquaphor. Aquaphor, always there to sooth the pain left by thin needles depositing ink under skin to form permanent tattoos, was able to work its healing magic again. This time to the ailing solder sucker. Using a Qtip to coat the inner tube of the solder sucker with Aquaphor, our hero was pleased to see his tool pulling more powerfully than ever before.
3:08 A.M.Our hero nearly completely worn down by learning how to desolder components was slowing down, but could not help to look at what remained of his old friend sprawled out on his table.
5:28 A.M.Our hero was defeated for the night and was forced to retire to his chambers.
10:30 A.M. the following dayOur hero returned to work on his task at hand. During his breakfast he thought of a way to lighten his burden. If he couldn’t pull solder from the LED sockets easily because there wasn’t enough solder, why not add more solder. Unintuitive? Yes. But effective. With the greatest ease he began to pull solder from the once troublesome joints. He smiled. He just may have the key needed to defeat those beautiful 4-legged devils.
2:08 P.MSlow was his progress, but great was his tenacity. He continued, and finally just one remaining switch.
Upon removing it, he equipped his allies new gear. A glorious purple sea with waves of tactility crashing all around. It was time to secure the new switches with fresh solder. The demons were banished from returning to the board for the trouble they caused.
2:48 P.M.He had finally done it. Fresh solder had been applied to the rear PCB. Shiny joints with shape of volcanoes, once molten all the same.
3:03 P.M.Upon being awoken and passing the first test with its new switches, the loyal accomplice to our hero had its caps and case returned.
The journey was complete for our hero. Long. Difficult. But he learned that Zealios are always worth the effort.
This was my first time ever working on a keyboard (or a PCB for that matter). The desoldering took me probably about 14 hours total because I had no idea what I was doing for a while. The soldering itself was a quick simple process that took me about 15 - 30 minutes (didn't keep close track of it).
First and foremost, I must say this experience taught me one thing. I hate desoldering. But more so, desoldering through hole LEDs is a cruel form of torture. I will be giving away the ones I have from the MK Disco because I can't stand to look at them right now, and I have no intention on putting them on anything ever again.
If you enjoyed this, feel free to let me know, and I'll do something similar when I build my Zeal60 based keyboard that I ordered from Zeal. If not, I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself. Have a great day, and feel free to ask any questions!
